Again, the kids have spent alot of time playing outside, making up games, reading and playing with lego. It has been a bit of a struggle for me this week, with a 2.5 year old who refused to sleep and a teething 5 month old. I do have to say it has been a welcome break though, and the good thing about homeschooling is that we can break when we need, work through "school holidays" if need be, and generally take things at our own pace. I do like to see the kids use their imaginations, and this has really been the case this week.
We officially moved Kaliah to a Saturday swimming class, so her and Zak both have swimming on Saturdays now, while the other three remain on Mondays.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Week 5 (Mon 28/02 - Sun 06/03)
We have taken things, book wise, quite slowly this week. The kids have spent a great deal of time reading, constructing with lego and playing outside this week.
We have also concentrated on cleaning the house (which, of course, is a never ending task!)
Khaemon started some handwriting this week with Writing Matters K, pages 4 - 7, Downstroke letters and patterns, which he traces really well!
We touched on some Science this week with Zak and Kaliah, but I really think that's something I may need to re-evaluate and look for something that, at this stage, is less technical and more every day science.
We did our usual shopping and packing away routine on Wednesday, which was slightly challenging for the kids, as we had quite a few new and uncommon things in our shop this week (we are trying new things) so there were lots of questions about where certain things went (and what they were too, like ricotta cheese!)
Zak helped me make chick pea enchiladas this week, which was fun and definitely something we will do again.
Swimming lessons are still going well, although we are seriously considering moving Kaliah to a different class (same level) just because she needs to be challenged. Zak works hard, putting a great deal of effort into improving his strokes and styles.
At Riv Kids this week, the kids painted, made clay sculptures and also made things with scrap cardboard boxes and rolls, egg cartons and other bits and pieces.
We have also concentrated on cleaning the house (which, of course, is a never ending task!)
Khaemon started some handwriting this week with Writing Matters K, pages 4 - 7, Downstroke letters and patterns, which he traces really well!
We touched on some Science this week with Zak and Kaliah, but I really think that's something I may need to re-evaluate and look for something that, at this stage, is less technical and more every day science.
We did our usual shopping and packing away routine on Wednesday, which was slightly challenging for the kids, as we had quite a few new and uncommon things in our shop this week (we are trying new things) so there were lots of questions about where certain things went (and what they were too, like ricotta cheese!)
Zak helped me make chick pea enchiladas this week, which was fun and definitely something we will do again.
Swimming lessons are still going well, although we are seriously considering moving Kaliah to a different class (same level) just because she needs to be challenged. Zak works hard, putting a great deal of effort into improving his strokes and styles.
At Riv Kids this week, the kids painted, made clay sculptures and also made things with scrap cardboard boxes and rolls, egg cartons and other bits and pieces.
Week 4 (Mon 21/02 - Sun 27/02)
Zakari
Writing Matters 3
page 36 - No joins, b, p and s
page 37 - No joins, g, j and y
page 38 - No joins, Capital letters
page 39 - No joins, letters that don't join to 'e'
Zak's handwriting is improving, although I'm not too concerned with cursive writing as such, because his printed handwriting is quite neat and he prefers to print anyway.
Maths Plus 4 Stage 2
page 101 - Grams
Zak has no problems converting gram measurements to the equivalent kilogram and gram measurements
page 102 - 4-digit addition
Zak competently completed the exercises on this page, and even solved the final 4 problems mentally!
page 103 - Number relationships
When a number sentence displays an addition or subtraction problem, Zak can complete the missing number, regardless of its place in the sentence, quite easily. He does, however, encounter some difficulty when the sentence is a multiplication or division problem, but I am noticing that it is more often than not a concentration issue rather than one of not understanding.
He has no difficulty in devising multiple number sentences that all have the same given answer, although when it comes to deciding whether two are the same where the answer is not shown, he appears to struggle, but again, when questioned (or asked what the answer of each problem is individually), he gives the correct answer, so I think it is a lapse in concentration rather than lack of understanding.
The same can be said of questions that ask whether two number sentences are equal, or whether one is larger or smaller than the other. He tends to confuse the greater than symbol (>) and the less than symbol (<), which is easy enough to do. Out of 9 problems, he only got 4 correct. I suggested to him that he work out each problem and write the answer above, and that would help him determine if the problems were greater than, less than or equal to each other.
Kaliah
Writing Matters 2
page 12 - L
page 13 - X
page 14 - Z
page 15 - Dowstroke letters - starting points
page 16 - Assessment of downstroke letters
page 17 - Anticlockwise letters
Kaliah tends to rush her writing, even when I tell her to concentrate and take her time. She has a little bit of trouble understanding what a verb is, and has difficulty in following written and verbal instructions. I was disappointed in her effort with pages 12 and 13, and had her write these pages out again as practice, but her writing did not seem to improve.
She needs to concentrate more; when asked to separate a list of words into groups of head-and-body letters, body-and-tail letters, and letters with head, body and tail, she had difficulty understanding what was actually required, meaning we had to sit and discuss each word and what kind of letter each letter was in every word (which is very time consuming!)
______
Library
This week, we paid a visit to our local library, where Zak, Kaliah and Khaemon all became members. They enjoyed looking through all of the books and choosing which ones to borrow (of course, we were there for quite some time!)
Zak chose to borrow books from the Young Adult section of the library, which I encourage him to do, since he loves to read!
In future, I may have to look at what kinds of books Kaliah borrows, as I feel she needs to be challenged a bit and definitely needs to move on from the easy reading, Kindergarten type of books.
Khaemon was very proud of his selection (even though he just looks at pictures at this stage!) but he tends to make up his own story as he goes along!
Swimming
All of them are progressing quite well in swimming.
Zak needs to learn about stamina - swimming a lap of 25 metres with one breath is all well and good if that's all you need to do, but even in a lesson, there are many more laps to come after that, so he needs to learn to breathe when he needs to and to pace himself properly (which will come).
Kaliah needs to realise that swimming isn't all about fun and games. She is told the same thing every week about her kicking, that she needs to kick from the hips not the knees! She tends to have the same problem following directions here too. I don't think that one on one lessons are quite doing it for her, and the extra child that has been in her class lately isn't challenging her in the way we were hoping.
Khaemon is doing well, considering he is the only one in his class. I think he is really lapping up al the attention and trying really hard to do his best with learning freestyle.
Veygas was really stubborn this week, and spent alot of his lesson sitting on the side of the pool because he just refused to do anything in the water.
Saffryn is starting to splash alot more and seems to enjoy being in the water. She is constantly on the move, with a strong froggy kick. She usually tires herself out and falls asleep straight after her lesson!
Shopping
As usual, the kids all helped with grocery shopping and packing away when we got home. They are all learning the essentials of our weekly shop, and now ask me if we need this or that each week (which is good, cause sometimes I forget!) They also know the importance of putting away frozen and cold foods first!
Riv Kids
We actually made it to Riv Kids this week. It was good for the kids to catch up with their home schooled friends and I think they really benefited from the socialisation. The kids had use of the tennis courts , complete withe tennis racquets and balls (supplied by other families, as we don't usually play tennis!) They also had fun on the play equipment and Zak and a few of the other older boys constructed a marble run inside.
Writing Matters 3
page 36 - No joins, b, p and s
page 37 - No joins, g, j and y
page 38 - No joins, Capital letters
page 39 - No joins, letters that don't join to 'e'
Zak's handwriting is improving, although I'm not too concerned with cursive writing as such, because his printed handwriting is quite neat and he prefers to print anyway.
Maths Plus 4 Stage 2
page 101 - Grams
Zak has no problems converting gram measurements to the equivalent kilogram and gram measurements
page 102 - 4-digit addition
Zak competently completed the exercises on this page, and even solved the final 4 problems mentally!
page 103 - Number relationships
When a number sentence displays an addition or subtraction problem, Zak can complete the missing number, regardless of its place in the sentence, quite easily. He does, however, encounter some difficulty when the sentence is a multiplication or division problem, but I am noticing that it is more often than not a concentration issue rather than one of not understanding.
He has no difficulty in devising multiple number sentences that all have the same given answer, although when it comes to deciding whether two are the same where the answer is not shown, he appears to struggle, but again, when questioned (or asked what the answer of each problem is individually), he gives the correct answer, so I think it is a lapse in concentration rather than lack of understanding.
The same can be said of questions that ask whether two number sentences are equal, or whether one is larger or smaller than the other. He tends to confuse the greater than symbol (>) and the less than symbol (<), which is easy enough to do. Out of 9 problems, he only got 4 correct. I suggested to him that he work out each problem and write the answer above, and that would help him determine if the problems were greater than, less than or equal to each other.
Kaliah
Writing Matters 2
page 12 - L
page 13 - X
page 14 - Z
page 15 - Dowstroke letters - starting points
page 16 - Assessment of downstroke letters
page 17 - Anticlockwise letters
Kaliah tends to rush her writing, even when I tell her to concentrate and take her time. She has a little bit of trouble understanding what a verb is, and has difficulty in following written and verbal instructions. I was disappointed in her effort with pages 12 and 13, and had her write these pages out again as practice, but her writing did not seem to improve.
She needs to concentrate more; when asked to separate a list of words into groups of head-and-body letters, body-and-tail letters, and letters with head, body and tail, she had difficulty understanding what was actually required, meaning we had to sit and discuss each word and what kind of letter each letter was in every word (which is very time consuming!)
______
Library
This week, we paid a visit to our local library, where Zak, Kaliah and Khaemon all became members. They enjoyed looking through all of the books and choosing which ones to borrow (of course, we were there for quite some time!)
Zak chose to borrow books from the Young Adult section of the library, which I encourage him to do, since he loves to read!
In future, I may have to look at what kinds of books Kaliah borrows, as I feel she needs to be challenged a bit and definitely needs to move on from the easy reading, Kindergarten type of books.
Khaemon was very proud of his selection (even though he just looks at pictures at this stage!) but he tends to make up his own story as he goes along!
Swimming
All of them are progressing quite well in swimming.
Zak needs to learn about stamina - swimming a lap of 25 metres with one breath is all well and good if that's all you need to do, but even in a lesson, there are many more laps to come after that, so he needs to learn to breathe when he needs to and to pace himself properly (which will come).
Kaliah needs to realise that swimming isn't all about fun and games. She is told the same thing every week about her kicking, that she needs to kick from the hips not the knees! She tends to have the same problem following directions here too. I don't think that one on one lessons are quite doing it for her, and the extra child that has been in her class lately isn't challenging her in the way we were hoping.
Khaemon is doing well, considering he is the only one in his class. I think he is really lapping up al the attention and trying really hard to do his best with learning freestyle.
Veygas was really stubborn this week, and spent alot of his lesson sitting on the side of the pool because he just refused to do anything in the water.
Saffryn is starting to splash alot more and seems to enjoy being in the water. She is constantly on the move, with a strong froggy kick. She usually tires herself out and falls asleep straight after her lesson!
Shopping
As usual, the kids all helped with grocery shopping and packing away when we got home. They are all learning the essentials of our weekly shop, and now ask me if we need this or that each week (which is good, cause sometimes I forget!) They also know the importance of putting away frozen and cold foods first!
Riv Kids
We actually made it to Riv Kids this week. It was good for the kids to catch up with their home schooled friends and I think they really benefited from the socialisation. The kids had use of the tennis courts , complete withe tennis racquets and balls (supplied by other families, as we don't usually play tennis!) They also had fun on the play equipment and Zak and a few of the other older boys constructed a marble run inside.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Semester 1, Week 3, Friday
Zakari
Zak worked from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, pages 96 (Coordinates), 97 (Representing data), 98 (Compensation strategy) and 99 (Division strategies). He doesn't seem to have any problems with plotting coordinates on a grid, however golf terminology is another matter! The exercise on this page asked him to map the journey of a golf ball from the tee to the hole, however the last instruction was "He then sunk his putt", so Zak plotted this on the lake as opposed to the hole! He competently draws graphs, both picture and column.
He worked well through compensation strategy, and for the most part, did well with division strategies. I find his biggest downfall is when he is getting towards the end, he tends to rush and make silly errors (eg. 19 ÷ 4 = 16 remainder 3, instead of 4 remainder 3 - because he knows that 4 x 4 = 16), but there are no major errors or lack of understanding of the concepts so far.
Zak then went on to Writing Matters 3, pages 32 - 35 (Practice and revision of horizontal joins), and has shown some improvement in his handwriting in the last couple of days.
Later in the evening, Zak finished reading George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl.
Kaliah
Kaliah worked in Targeting Maths Year 2, pages 14 (Addition patterns), 15 (Addition on a number line) and 16 (Addition to twenty). She handles addition quite well, and is beginning to see the different addition patterns for each number. She also works well using a number line for adding, and confidently solves addition problems up to 20.
Once her maths was complete, Kaliah read Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story: Buzz and the Bubble Planet, and wrote about both of them.
Khaemon
Khaemon worked on pages 18 (Make a Number Group) and 19 (Make a Number Story (2)) in My First Maths Book. He enjoyed drawing raindrops from the clouds so that each cloud had 10 raindrops.
Zak worked from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, pages 96 (Coordinates), 97 (Representing data), 98 (Compensation strategy) and 99 (Division strategies). He doesn't seem to have any problems with plotting coordinates on a grid, however golf terminology is another matter! The exercise on this page asked him to map the journey of a golf ball from the tee to the hole, however the last instruction was "He then sunk his putt", so Zak plotted this on the lake as opposed to the hole! He competently draws graphs, both picture and column.
He worked well through compensation strategy, and for the most part, did well with division strategies. I find his biggest downfall is when he is getting towards the end, he tends to rush and make silly errors (eg. 19 ÷ 4 = 16 remainder 3, instead of 4 remainder 3 - because he knows that 4 x 4 = 16), but there are no major errors or lack of understanding of the concepts so far.
Zak then went on to Writing Matters 3, pages 32 - 35 (Practice and revision of horizontal joins), and has shown some improvement in his handwriting in the last couple of days.
Later in the evening, Zak finished reading George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl.
Kaliah
Kaliah worked in Targeting Maths Year 2, pages 14 (Addition patterns), 15 (Addition on a number line) and 16 (Addition to twenty). She handles addition quite well, and is beginning to see the different addition patterns for each number. She also works well using a number line for adding, and confidently solves addition problems up to 20.
Once her maths was complete, Kaliah read Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story: Buzz and the Bubble Planet, and wrote about both of them.
Khaemon
Khaemon worked on pages 18 (Make a Number Group) and 19 (Make a Number Story (2)) in My First Maths Book. He enjoyed drawing raindrops from the clouds so that each cloud had 10 raindrops.
Semester 1, Week 3, Thursday
Zakari
Zak worked from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, pages 92 (Tessellations), 93 (Timetables), 94 (Extended multiplication) and 95 (Equivalent tenths and hundredths). He worked quickly through tessellations, and with a good understanding of the concept. He also appears to have a firm understanding of timetables, the time it takes to get from one station to another and the times between trains to a certain location. Zak struggled a little with extended multiplication, but he confessed that it was because alot of it seemed "useless", that he could work out the answers to the problems using simple multiplication. I explained that it was just trying to teach him to show all his working out because sometimes that was necessary. Because of his frustration with this concept, he got many of the problems wrong, as he was forgetting to put the '0' on the end of the second line answers.
eg.
2 7
x 3
--------
becomes (7 x 3) + (20 x 3) but the way that it is written, Zak was doing (7 x 3) + (2 x 3). However, doing the same problem by simple multiplication, he gets the correct answer. Just goes to show that each child works differently!
He worked quite well with equivalent hundredths and tenths and even converting them to their equivalent decimals too.
When Zak had finished his maths, he read Chapters 2 and 3 of George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl, writing about them once he had finished.
Kaliah
Kaliah worked on pages 10 (Tessellating shapes), 11 (Flip, slide and turn), 12 (Symmetry) and 13 (Problem solving) of Targeting Maths Year 2. While she was very close with her guesses as to how many more tiles were needed to complete various tessellating patterns, she has trouble visualising how to complete the patterns. However, she doesn't seem to have a problem creating a tessellating pattern from scratch.
We need to work more on flip, slide and turn, as again, Kaliah has trouble visualising the continuation of a pattern using these concepts. She understands symmetry to an extent - she competently draws both vertical and horizontal lines of symmetry on various objects, but has some difficulty completing a pattern using symmetry. She also tends to have trouble following directions in general. The next exercise asked her to use straight lines to make different tiles, and even gave 5 examples to show how it was meant to be done. We ended up with 2 tiles with a variety of different sized squares drawn in them and even one made up of circles! She was then asked to choose her favourite tile and repeat it using flip, slide and turn. I had asked her to keep the patterns simple, knowing that one would have to be picked for this exercise; instead, she made 6 more completely different tiles, using none of the concepts asked. The only consolation was that she used the same colour scheme throughout.
Khaemon
Again in My First Maths Book, Khaemon worked on pages 14 (Number 8), 15 (Number 9), 16 (Number 10) and 17 (Match, Write and Draw (2)). We need to work on his 8's and 9's - while he traces them well, when it comes to writing them by himself, he struggles. I am not too concerned at this stage though - he has plenty of time to learn!
--------------
Later in the afternoon, we all made peanut butter cookies (which honestly took longer than expected, but were fun nonetheless!)
Peanut Butter Cookies
2 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 cup glucose powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
250g butter
2 tablespoons peanut butter
Preheat oven to 200ºC. Cut softened butter into small cubes, beat until creamy and soft. Add glucose powder and eggs and beat well. Add peanut butter and mix well. Add flour and baking powder and mix until all ingredients are combined well. Roll mixture into small balls (about 2cm) and place, well spaced, on a greased baking tray. Press centre of each ball down with a fork. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Remove cookies from tray with a wide spatula, and place on wire rack to cool. Regrease baking tray and repeat processes until all mixture is used.
Makes about 60 cookies.
Zak worked from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, pages 92 (Tessellations), 93 (Timetables), 94 (Extended multiplication) and 95 (Equivalent tenths and hundredths). He worked quickly through tessellations, and with a good understanding of the concept. He also appears to have a firm understanding of timetables, the time it takes to get from one station to another and the times between trains to a certain location. Zak struggled a little with extended multiplication, but he confessed that it was because alot of it seemed "useless", that he could work out the answers to the problems using simple multiplication. I explained that it was just trying to teach him to show all his working out because sometimes that was necessary. Because of his frustration with this concept, he got many of the problems wrong, as he was forgetting to put the '0' on the end of the second line answers.
eg.
2 7
x 3
--------
becomes (7 x 3) + (20 x 3) but the way that it is written, Zak was doing (7 x 3) + (2 x 3). However, doing the same problem by simple multiplication, he gets the correct answer. Just goes to show that each child works differently!
He worked quite well with equivalent hundredths and tenths and even converting them to their equivalent decimals too.
When Zak had finished his maths, he read Chapters 2 and 3 of George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl, writing about them once he had finished.
Kaliah
Kaliah worked on pages 10 (Tessellating shapes), 11 (Flip, slide and turn), 12 (Symmetry) and 13 (Problem solving) of Targeting Maths Year 2. While she was very close with her guesses as to how many more tiles were needed to complete various tessellating patterns, she has trouble visualising how to complete the patterns. However, she doesn't seem to have a problem creating a tessellating pattern from scratch.
We need to work more on flip, slide and turn, as again, Kaliah has trouble visualising the continuation of a pattern using these concepts. She understands symmetry to an extent - she competently draws both vertical and horizontal lines of symmetry on various objects, but has some difficulty completing a pattern using symmetry. She also tends to have trouble following directions in general. The next exercise asked her to use straight lines to make different tiles, and even gave 5 examples to show how it was meant to be done. We ended up with 2 tiles with a variety of different sized squares drawn in them and even one made up of circles! She was then asked to choose her favourite tile and repeat it using flip, slide and turn. I had asked her to keep the patterns simple, knowing that one would have to be picked for this exercise; instead, she made 6 more completely different tiles, using none of the concepts asked. The only consolation was that she used the same colour scheme throughout.
Khaemon
Again in My First Maths Book, Khaemon worked on pages 14 (Number 8), 15 (Number 9), 16 (Number 10) and 17 (Match, Write and Draw (2)). We need to work on his 8's and 9's - while he traces them well, when it comes to writing them by himself, he struggles. I am not too concerned at this stage though - he has plenty of time to learn!
--------------
Later in the afternoon, we all made peanut butter cookies (which honestly took longer than expected, but were fun nonetheless!)
Peanut Butter Cookies
2 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 cup glucose powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
250g butter
2 tablespoons peanut butter
Preheat oven to 200ºC. Cut softened butter into small cubes, beat until creamy and soft. Add glucose powder and eggs and beat well. Add peanut butter and mix well. Add flour and baking powder and mix until all ingredients are combined well. Roll mixture into small balls (about 2cm) and place, well spaced, on a greased baking tray. Press centre of each ball down with a fork. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Remove cookies from tray with a wide spatula, and place on wire rack to cool. Regrease baking tray and repeat processes until all mixture is used.
Makes about 60 cookies.
Semester 1, Week 3, Wednesday
Today we went shopping (yet again!) and the older kids were quite helpful in helping to fill the trolley, and also looking after the younger ones.
At home, the kids unpacked the car and put the groceries away before having lunch.
Kaliah then read Disney's Cinderella and wrote a four page description of the story, while Zak helped me with the dishes.
The kids then helped get all the ingredients together to make a chocolate cake and watched and helped as I made it.
Sugar-free Wholemeal Chocolate Cake
1 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 cup glucose powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup dessicated coconut
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups light olive oil
Preheat oven to 170ºC. Place all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Pour mixture into a greased 20cm cake tin. Bake in oven for about an hour, or until a skewer pushed into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
At home, the kids unpacked the car and put the groceries away before having lunch.
Kaliah then read Disney's Cinderella and wrote a four page description of the story, while Zak helped me with the dishes.
The kids then helped get all the ingredients together to make a chocolate cake and watched and helped as I made it.
Sugar-free Wholemeal Chocolate Cake
1 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 cup glucose powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup dessicated coconut
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups light olive oil
Preheat oven to 170ºC. Place all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Pour mixture into a greased 20cm cake tin. Bake in oven for about an hour, or until a skewer pushed into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
Semester 1, Week 3, Tuesday
Zakari
Zak worked from Writing Matters 3, pages 29 - 31, all work on horizontal joins. He isn't too fond of cursive writing, and admittedly, his printing is much neater, but as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect ... After he completed these pages, he read Chapter 1 of George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl and the wrote about what he had read.
Kaliah
Kaliah worked from Writing Matters 2, pages 9 - 11, downstroke letters. Kaliah is starting to develop a bad habit of racing with regards to her writing - in comparison, her handwriting last year was much neater than it is now. To keep her in practice, I keep asking her to slow down and concentrate, and the paragraphs which she traced and copied today, i also got her to write out again in her practice book. She then read Tough Boris by Mem Fox and wrote a summary of what she had read.
Khaemon
We worked on pages 10 (Make a Number Group), 11 (Make a Number Story (1)), 12 (Number 6) and 13 (Number 7) from My First Maths Book. Khaemon can competently count to 5, drawing missing objects to make a required number (eg. if there are 2 flowers and the number says 5, he knows to draw 3 more flowers). We again counted and coloured various groups of objects and then Khaemon practiced writing 6's and 7's, and colouring the pictures.
Zak worked from Writing Matters 3, pages 29 - 31, all work on horizontal joins. He isn't too fond of cursive writing, and admittedly, his printing is much neater, but as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect ... After he completed these pages, he read Chapter 1 of George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl and the wrote about what he had read.
Kaliah
Kaliah worked from Writing Matters 2, pages 9 - 11, downstroke letters. Kaliah is starting to develop a bad habit of racing with regards to her writing - in comparison, her handwriting last year was much neater than it is now. To keep her in practice, I keep asking her to slow down and concentrate, and the paragraphs which she traced and copied today, i also got her to write out again in her practice book. She then read Tough Boris by Mem Fox and wrote a summary of what she had read.
Khaemon
We worked on pages 10 (Make a Number Group), 11 (Make a Number Story (1)), 12 (Number 6) and 13 (Number 7) from My First Maths Book. Khaemon can competently count to 5, drawing missing objects to make a required number (eg. if there are 2 flowers and the number says 5, he knows to draw 3 more flowers). We again counted and coloured various groups of objects and then Khaemon practiced writing 6's and 7's, and colouring the pictures.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Semester 1, Week 3, Monday
Zakari
Practice time at swimming, Zak swam 8 laps of the 25m pool. He is so determined to learn butterfly that he even attempted 2 laps without having even been taught yet!
After lunch, he completed pages 90 (3-digit subtraction with trading) and 91 (Fractions of a collection) from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2. He tends to work well with subtraction, even to the point of completing them without showing any working! He also works well in fractions, for the most part, although he makes the occasional mistake, but it's not so much that he doesn't understand it, as that he is rushing to complete his work.
Kaliah
Today, Kaliah had a companion in her swimming lesson, which hopefully will encourage her to improve. She still struggles a bit with her kicking in freestyle and backstroke, but her overall performance in the water has improved.
After lunch, she worked from Targeting Maths Year 2, pages 6 (Estimation), 7 (Problem solving), 8 (Shapes and right angles) and 9 (Sides and corners). Whilst she is quite competent at estimating the number of objects in a group, she struggles to then circle groups of 10. We need to do alot of work on problem solving. Today's exercise showed $50 notes, $20 notes, $10 notes and $5 notes and asked to show as many answers as possible for which notes would make $100. Kaliah had difficulties in working out how many of the same notes would equal 100 (even when referring back to the hundreds chart), and did not even attempt to put different notes together. However, she competently worked through shapes and right angles, and easily recognises a right angle within a shape, and had no problems working out that most shapes have the same number of sides as they do corners.
Kaliah then chose to read Our Stripy Baby by Gillian Shields, writing a one and a half page summary of the book afterwards. I like to get her to write about the books she reads so that she gains an understanding of what she has read and also to practice her handwriting and spelling. From today's effort, all of these things need to be worked on and improved.
Khaemon
Khaemon is getting alot of individual attention in swimming - the joys of being the only class member! Steph was working on his freestyle stroke and breathing, his backstroke, and his ability to dive under water to retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool.
He worked from My First Maths Book, pages 8 (Order and Colour) and 9 (Count and Colour). Khaemon is starting to associate colours with their words - I was showing him how the first object in group needed to be red, the second, blue .... and then he told me the third, fourth and fifth colours! And then he successfully coloured the three groups of objects on the page. On the next page, we counted groups of objects (eg. how many dogs, how many cats, etc) and then coloured each group in a different colour as we counted.
Veygas
Veygas was one of four in his swimming lesson today, and in true Vevo style, was as cheeky as ever. Kate has taken to putting a back bubble on him when he is sitting on the side, as he has a tendency to slide in the water and play around instead of waiting his turn. He is not too fond of floating on his back, but will usually kick when instructed. Kate worked with him alone a little at the end of the lesson, getting him ready for learning to dive.
Saffryn
She is becoming alot more confident in the water, kicking her legs and splashing her arms, even if it is mostly involuntary excited splashing at this point in time ... I am hoping that by the time she is required to be paddling and kicking that this splashing has been good practice for her! With a relief instructor today, our lesson was a bit different, and we even used arm floaties and back bubbles (which Saff wasn't too sure about). At least she is not resisting being in the water anymore.
Practice time at swimming, Zak swam 8 laps of the 25m pool. He is so determined to learn butterfly that he even attempted 2 laps without having even been taught yet!
After lunch, he completed pages 90 (3-digit subtraction with trading) and 91 (Fractions of a collection) from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2. He tends to work well with subtraction, even to the point of completing them without showing any working! He also works well in fractions, for the most part, although he makes the occasional mistake, but it's not so much that he doesn't understand it, as that he is rushing to complete his work.
Kaliah
Today, Kaliah had a companion in her swimming lesson, which hopefully will encourage her to improve. She still struggles a bit with her kicking in freestyle and backstroke, but her overall performance in the water has improved.
After lunch, she worked from Targeting Maths Year 2, pages 6 (Estimation), 7 (Problem solving), 8 (Shapes and right angles) and 9 (Sides and corners). Whilst she is quite competent at estimating the number of objects in a group, she struggles to then circle groups of 10. We need to do alot of work on problem solving. Today's exercise showed $50 notes, $20 notes, $10 notes and $5 notes and asked to show as many answers as possible for which notes would make $100. Kaliah had difficulties in working out how many of the same notes would equal 100 (even when referring back to the hundreds chart), and did not even attempt to put different notes together. However, she competently worked through shapes and right angles, and easily recognises a right angle within a shape, and had no problems working out that most shapes have the same number of sides as they do corners.
Kaliah then chose to read Our Stripy Baby by Gillian Shields, writing a one and a half page summary of the book afterwards. I like to get her to write about the books she reads so that she gains an understanding of what she has read and also to practice her handwriting and spelling. From today's effort, all of these things need to be worked on and improved.
Khaemon
Khaemon is getting alot of individual attention in swimming - the joys of being the only class member! Steph was working on his freestyle stroke and breathing, his backstroke, and his ability to dive under water to retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool.
He worked from My First Maths Book, pages 8 (Order and Colour) and 9 (Count and Colour). Khaemon is starting to associate colours with their words - I was showing him how the first object in group needed to be red, the second, blue .... and then he told me the third, fourth and fifth colours! And then he successfully coloured the three groups of objects on the page. On the next page, we counted groups of objects (eg. how many dogs, how many cats, etc) and then coloured each group in a different colour as we counted.
Veygas
Veygas was one of four in his swimming lesson today, and in true Vevo style, was as cheeky as ever. Kate has taken to putting a back bubble on him when he is sitting on the side, as he has a tendency to slide in the water and play around instead of waiting his turn. He is not too fond of floating on his back, but will usually kick when instructed. Kate worked with him alone a little at the end of the lesson, getting him ready for learning to dive.
Saffryn
She is becoming alot more confident in the water, kicking her legs and splashing her arms, even if it is mostly involuntary excited splashing at this point in time ... I am hoping that by the time she is required to be paddling and kicking that this splashing has been good practice for her! With a relief instructor today, our lesson was a bit different, and we even used arm floaties and back bubbles (which Saff wasn't too sure about). At least she is not resisting being in the water anymore.
Semester 1, Week 2, Weekend
Zakari had his swimming lesson on Saturday, and in his new class, there are children who are really going to challenge him to improve his strokes! He is excited that he is now at a level where he will start to learn butterfly.
We spent a great deal of the weekend cleaning the house - it is amazing how much mess can be created and accumulated. I think it is good for the children to take responsibility for their belongings and their space, and by cleaning (especially their rooms!) I believe that this is what they are learning.
We spent a great deal of the weekend cleaning the house - it is amazing how much mess can be created and accumulated. I think it is good for the children to take responsibility for their belongings and their space, and by cleaning (especially their rooms!) I believe that this is what they are learning.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Semester 1, Week 2, Friday
We had a day out today. Even though it was warm, it was good to be in the air conditioned car! We met up with friends at the park and the kids had a good play. Zak seemed to take charge and look out for the little boys, while Kaliah kept on eye on the girls.
It was great to get them out, they had sensory stimulation, development of gross motor skills (especially for the little ones) and a lesson in responsibility for the older two! So when we got home, I actually gave them the afternoon off from any formal work cause they had expended so much energy at the park. They played S games instead ... Zak is really getting into The Legend of Zelda, it seems to be teaching him how to read maps (amongst other things!). Today he learned that drawing a line between two points vertically and another line between to points horizontally on a map created an intersection, which is where he found a secret entrance! Problem solving skills!! Well done!
It was great to get them out, they had sensory stimulation, development of gross motor skills (especially for the little ones) and a lesson in responsibility for the older two! So when we got home, I actually gave them the afternoon off from any formal work cause they had expended so much energy at the park. They played S games instead ... Zak is really getting into The Legend of Zelda, it seems to be teaching him how to read maps (amongst other things!). Today he learned that drawing a line between two points vertically and another line between to points horizontally on a map created an intersection, which is where he found a secret entrance! Problem solving skills!! Well done!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Semester 1, Week 2, Thursday
We started off the day by heading out to our fortnightly home birth group meeting - it was an easy one today, as it was practically just around the corner from us! It's nice to meet with like-minded people and share stories and experiences, and while not all of them home school, they are all pretty used to having my lot around! There are always plenty of kids to keepeach other occupied, and lots of babies!
The afternoon was spent on book work at home, and I'm pretty pleased with what we achieved today.
Zakari
Zak worked from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, completing pages 86 (3-digit subtraction with trading), 87 (Decimal place value), 88 (Cross sections) and 89 (Millilitres). He works really well with subtraction, once he gets started. Decimals were a little trickier, as he kept confusing ones and hundredths, but after I explained how it worked and did a couple with him, he eventually got the hang of it and completed the exercise without any further problems.
I don't think he completely understands the concept of cross sections, because some he does quite well, but others are not so clear. He told me he can see how it's meant to work in his head, but sometimes, he just can't get it out onto paper, so we may need to do some more work on this. He doesn't seem to have any issues with millilitres.
I then gave him some more handwriting to do, pages 26 - 28 in Writing Matters 3, which was working on horizontal joins in cursive writing. He does appear to struggle with joining letters after v, w and r, so it looks as though we need to work on that some more.
Later in the afternoon, he played The Legend of Zelda on the DSi, which I think is teaching him some creative problem solving skills and lateral thinking.
Kaliah
I gave Kaliah some work to do from Writing Matters 2, pages 5 - 8, which was revision of lower-case and upper-case letters. Although I have been getting the kids to write a journal every night to keep them practicing their handwriting, Kaliah isn't writing as neatly as she could be - I think she tends to rush, regardless of how many times I tell her to slow down, think and write carefully.
I then got her to complete Unit 1 in Targeting Mental Maths Year 2, and we came across a few small problems. Firstly, she needs to pay attention to numbers in general, and like her writing, she sometimes just needs to slow down and think. She needs to be more aware of writing her numbers properly - her 8's ended up sideways, and I had to explain to her that when she gets older, she'll learn that a sideways 8 means something totally different, that it's a symbol meaning "infinity" which means it is bigger than any number that anybody knows, and that the answers to some of her maths problems was not going to be infinity. Her 8's need to stand up!
She still struggles with grouping things, and I think overall, she just doesn't read what the question is asking. I do think that she needs to slow down in order to concentrate on the task at hand, not only with school work, but with her chores as well.
Later in the afternoon, she had a play date with our neighbour's little girl, which I think is good for both of them, as they both have brothers, so it gave them a chance to play "girly" games together for a while.
Khaemon
Khaemon is really itching to be able to do as much work as his older siblings, and proved that today by trying to write today's date in his book!
He then went on to do pages 6 (number 5) and 7 (Match, write and draw (1)) in My First Maths Book. He got a little frustrated that he couldn't write the number 5 by himself, but after sitting with him and talking him through it (we put the pencil on the page and draw a line down, then we go around, and then we take the pencil back to the top and put a little hat on it) he got the hang of it and became pleased that he could actually write 5!
He wanted my help writing the numbers 1 through 5 that corresponded with the dots (1 - 5) on the next page, but was happy to draw objects that corresponded to the numbers.
Once he had done that, Khaemon played Brain Training and Mario Party on the DSi.
I have to point out that I don't expect Khaemon to do huge amounts of work ... I let him dictate how much he wants to do. I let him stop when he has had enough.
Veygas
Vevo loves sitting with the others and "working". He had his Letterland First alphabet activity book out again and was quite content to colour in. While he doesn't sit with them for long periods of time (and quite honestly, I wouldn't expect him to - I think he does well as it is!) he wanders off, distracted by Nintendo games or the lure of playing outside, but comes back every now and again and colours in a bit more.
The afternoon was spent on book work at home, and I'm pretty pleased with what we achieved today.
Zakari
Zak worked from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, completing pages 86 (3-digit subtraction with trading), 87 (Decimal place value), 88 (Cross sections) and 89 (Millilitres). He works really well with subtraction, once he gets started. Decimals were a little trickier, as he kept confusing ones and hundredths, but after I explained how it worked and did a couple with him, he eventually got the hang of it and completed the exercise without any further problems.
I don't think he completely understands the concept of cross sections, because some he does quite well, but others are not so clear. He told me he can see how it's meant to work in his head, but sometimes, he just can't get it out onto paper, so we may need to do some more work on this. He doesn't seem to have any issues with millilitres.
I then gave him some more handwriting to do, pages 26 - 28 in Writing Matters 3, which was working on horizontal joins in cursive writing. He does appear to struggle with joining letters after v, w and r, so it looks as though we need to work on that some more.
Later in the afternoon, he played The Legend of Zelda on the DSi, which I think is teaching him some creative problem solving skills and lateral thinking.
Kaliah
I gave Kaliah some work to do from Writing Matters 2, pages 5 - 8, which was revision of lower-case and upper-case letters. Although I have been getting the kids to write a journal every night to keep them practicing their handwriting, Kaliah isn't writing as neatly as she could be - I think she tends to rush, regardless of how many times I tell her to slow down, think and write carefully.
I then got her to complete Unit 1 in Targeting Mental Maths Year 2, and we came across a few small problems. Firstly, she needs to pay attention to numbers in general, and like her writing, she sometimes just needs to slow down and think. She needs to be more aware of writing her numbers properly - her 8's ended up sideways, and I had to explain to her that when she gets older, she'll learn that a sideways 8 means something totally different, that it's a symbol meaning "infinity" which means it is bigger than any number that anybody knows, and that the answers to some of her maths problems was not going to be infinity. Her 8's need to stand up!
She still struggles with grouping things, and I think overall, she just doesn't read what the question is asking. I do think that she needs to slow down in order to concentrate on the task at hand, not only with school work, but with her chores as well.
Later in the afternoon, she had a play date with our neighbour's little girl, which I think is good for both of them, as they both have brothers, so it gave them a chance to play "girly" games together for a while.
Khaemon
Khaemon is really itching to be able to do as much work as his older siblings, and proved that today by trying to write today's date in his book!
He then went on to do pages 6 (number 5) and 7 (Match, write and draw (1)) in My First Maths Book. He got a little frustrated that he couldn't write the number 5 by himself, but after sitting with him and talking him through it (we put the pencil on the page and draw a line down, then we go around, and then we take the pencil back to the top and put a little hat on it) he got the hang of it and became pleased that he could actually write 5!
He wanted my help writing the numbers 1 through 5 that corresponded with the dots (1 - 5) on the next page, but was happy to draw objects that corresponded to the numbers.
Once he had done that, Khaemon played Brain Training and Mario Party on the DSi.
I have to point out that I don't expect Khaemon to do huge amounts of work ... I let him dictate how much he wants to do. I let him stop when he has had enough.
Veygas
Vevo loves sitting with the others and "working". He had his Letterland First alphabet activity book out again and was quite content to colour in. While he doesn't sit with them for long periods of time (and quite honestly, I wouldn't expect him to - I think he does well as it is!) he wanders off, distracted by Nintendo games or the lure of playing outside, but comes back every now and again and colours in a bit more.
Semester 1, Week 2, Wednesday
Shopping day today, and with the cooler weather, we all went. It's getting to the point where I could probably send Zak and Kaliah in by themselves and they'd be able to do our weeks' shopping!! They are really helpful around the supermarket, getting things that I can't necessarily reach down to get (not with Saffy in the carrier and attached to me anyway!) Plus they know what we usually get and ask if we need things this week - it's great!
When we got home from shopping, the kids put everything away, even being careful to note the dates on the milk and put the earliest dates first!
After lunch, they did school work.
Zakari
Today, Zak continued working from last years Writing Matters 3, just so that we can concentrate on maintaining his handwriting. He completed pages 22 - 25, all work on practicing and revising diagonal joins. He admitted to me that he doesn't like cursive writing because he can't keep it neat, and I can understand that. His printed writing is beautiful, but once he tries joining letters, his style becomes awkward. We can only hope that practice makes perfect!
Kaliah
Kaliah's maths book of choice for this year is Targeting Maths Year 2, and today, she completed pages 2 (The hundred chart), 3 (Patterns in the hundred square) and 4 - 5 (Numbers to 100). She was able to competently count by 2's, 3's and 5's up to 20, and answer questions based on theses counting patterns. She was able to look at a group of numbers and work out which ones were more than 80 and which ones were less than 50, and also correctly put all of the numbers in order from smallest to largest.
While Kaliah doesn't seem to have a problem with working out numbers that are one more than or one less than a particular number, she does appear to struggle a little bit when asked for the number before and after a given number at the same time. It took her a while to realise that they were actually three consecutive numbers.
For the most part, she also does well with ten more than and ten less than a given number, in theory, but when asked to verbalise it, or to explain how she got the (correct) answer, she fumbles - I don't know if it's because she is afraid to give the wrong answer, or that she thinks she might get into trouble because it's wrong, but she goes about then guessing answers (which are inevitably wrong!) even though she has the right answer on paper. So I think it's a confidence thing that we have to work on with her.
Khaemon
My First Maths Book is the book that Khaemon is working through at the moment. It is a large quarto sized book with pictures to colour and help reinforce the number concepts. Today, he completed pages 2 - 5 (numbers 1 - 4) by tracing each number then repeating it many times on his own. I like this because there is very little pressure on him to get it "right the first time" and he is rewarded for hard work by being able to colour in afterwards!
Veygas
Not wanting to be left out, Veygas has a Letterland First alphabet activity book which will help him with letter recognition and keep him occupied with pictures to colour.
When we got home from shopping, the kids put everything away, even being careful to note the dates on the milk and put the earliest dates first!
After lunch, they did school work.
Zakari
Today, Zak continued working from last years Writing Matters 3, just so that we can concentrate on maintaining his handwriting. He completed pages 22 - 25, all work on practicing and revising diagonal joins. He admitted to me that he doesn't like cursive writing because he can't keep it neat, and I can understand that. His printed writing is beautiful, but once he tries joining letters, his style becomes awkward. We can only hope that practice makes perfect!
Kaliah
Kaliah's maths book of choice for this year is Targeting Maths Year 2, and today, she completed pages 2 (The hundred chart), 3 (Patterns in the hundred square) and 4 - 5 (Numbers to 100). She was able to competently count by 2's, 3's and 5's up to 20, and answer questions based on theses counting patterns. She was able to look at a group of numbers and work out which ones were more than 80 and which ones were less than 50, and also correctly put all of the numbers in order from smallest to largest.
While Kaliah doesn't seem to have a problem with working out numbers that are one more than or one less than a particular number, she does appear to struggle a little bit when asked for the number before and after a given number at the same time. It took her a while to realise that they were actually three consecutive numbers.
For the most part, she also does well with ten more than and ten less than a given number, in theory, but when asked to verbalise it, or to explain how she got the (correct) answer, she fumbles - I don't know if it's because she is afraid to give the wrong answer, or that she thinks she might get into trouble because it's wrong, but she goes about then guessing answers (which are inevitably wrong!) even though she has the right answer on paper. So I think it's a confidence thing that we have to work on with her.
Khaemon
My First Maths Book is the book that Khaemon is working through at the moment. It is a large quarto sized book with pictures to colour and help reinforce the number concepts. Today, he completed pages 2 - 5 (numbers 1 - 4) by tracing each number then repeating it many times on his own. I like this because there is very little pressure on him to get it "right the first time" and he is rewarded for hard work by being able to colour in afterwards!
Veygas
Not wanting to be left out, Veygas has a Letterland First alphabet activity book which will help him with letter recognition and keep him occupied with pictures to colour.
Semester 1, Week 2, Tuesday
Zak and Kaliah continued with some self taught, self paced sign language today. Kaliah has really taken to it - she sat and read and learned the signs in alphabetical order!!
We spent the afternoon at the Nepean Educational Supplies bookstore, looking at books, and I let the kids choose their own work books this year (of course, I still had the final say, but for the most part, they seem to know what they want!) Besides, the little ones picked theirs by me offering them a choice. We also invested in some Base 10 blocks, as we discovered many maths exercises last year that couldn't be completed without them), some jumbo coloured pencils (easier for the little kids to grip too!) and other essential stationery supplies.
We spent the afternoon at the Nepean Educational Supplies bookstore, looking at books, and I let the kids choose their own work books this year (of course, I still had the final say, but for the most part, they seem to know what they want!) Besides, the little ones picked theirs by me offering them a choice. We also invested in some Base 10 blocks, as we discovered many maths exercises last year that couldn't be completed without them), some jumbo coloured pencils (easier for the little kids to grip too!) and other essential stationery supplies.
Semester 1, Week 2, Monday
Zakari
Zak did well with his swimming practice today - he swam 16 laps of the 25 metre pool! That's 400 metres!! Great effort!
After lunch, I had him complete pages 33 (Dividing VCCV and VCV words - 2) and 34 (Using VCCV and VCV words - 2) from Reading Freedom Book 4, following on from where we left off last year. While he understands the patterns of words (vowel consonant consonant vowel or vowel consonant vowel) he still struggles with the break in the syllables with VCV words. So instead of putting the break after the first vowel and before the consonant (eg sho-vel), he will put it after the consonant and before the second vowel (eg shov-el). However, he has no problems recognising nonsense words in a list.
After a discussion about sign language on the way home from swimming, I got out my Dictionary of Australasian Signs for Zak and Kaliah to look at, and they started to teach themselves some sign language.
Once Zak had completed that, he prepared his dad's meals and snacks for work. Later in the afternoon, he played Sudoku in the Brain Training game on the Nintendo DSi.
Kaliah
We found out today that Kaliah is the only one in her swimming class this term - Bronwyn told her that all the others had gone to school. So it looks like she gets "private lessons"! She has alot to work on to get her swimming up to scratch, in particular her legs.
In freestyle, she lets her legs lag under the water, so she isn't kicking on the surface. As a result, she lets her arms and upper body do all the work. So we have to concentrate on getting her legs kicking more, and correctly. In backstroke, she has a tendency to bend her knees and bring them up towards her body, rather than keeping her legs straight and kicking her feet. So these are things that she really needs to work on in order to improve.
After lunch, she read A Particular Cow by Mem Fox and then wrote about the story. I then had her read the book out loud to me, to practice her oral skills. I find that she reads out loud better if she has had the chance to read it by herself first. Kaliah actually has quite good oral reading skills, she doesn't appear to struggle with larger words, and I wonder if perhaps it is because she has had a chance to figure it out by herself beforehand, without any pressure.
Kaliah and Zak have taken an interest in sign language, and she enjoyed sitting and learning the signs from the Dictionary of Australasian Signs today. She tends to take pleasure in self taught and self paced activities.
She also got her dad's clothes bag ready for work, packing it with a towel and some changes of clothes.
Khaemon
It appears that Khaemon may also be the only one in his swim class this term - for the second week running, he has had one on one tuition! Steph is concentrating on his freestyle arms, using the kickboard to get his arms stretched out in front. He is also doing quite well at backstroke.
In the afternoon, Khaemon played Brain Training on the DSi, and even though it is beyond his years, he seems to enjoy the challenge!
Veygas
Veygas is so cheeky in his swimming lesson - his confidence in the water is unbelievable! His lesson today started off with tears (I think he has a problem with authority!) but Kate soon put a stop to that and cheeky Vevo came out again. He has never had a problem with his head being under water, and I think that the concept of paddling his arms and kicking his legs has finally kicked in!
Saffryn
Saffy's swimming lesson went well today - she is actually starting to respond to some of the games, but her "curling reflex" kicks in when I put her on her back!
Zak did well with his swimming practice today - he swam 16 laps of the 25 metre pool! That's 400 metres!! Great effort!
After lunch, I had him complete pages 33 (Dividing VCCV and VCV words - 2) and 34 (Using VCCV and VCV words - 2) from Reading Freedom Book 4, following on from where we left off last year. While he understands the patterns of words (vowel consonant consonant vowel or vowel consonant vowel) he still struggles with the break in the syllables with VCV words. So instead of putting the break after the first vowel and before the consonant (eg sho-vel), he will put it after the consonant and before the second vowel (eg shov-el). However, he has no problems recognising nonsense words in a list.
After a discussion about sign language on the way home from swimming, I got out my Dictionary of Australasian Signs for Zak and Kaliah to look at, and they started to teach themselves some sign language.
Once Zak had completed that, he prepared his dad's meals and snacks for work. Later in the afternoon, he played Sudoku in the Brain Training game on the Nintendo DSi.
Kaliah
We found out today that Kaliah is the only one in her swimming class this term - Bronwyn told her that all the others had gone to school. So it looks like she gets "private lessons"! She has alot to work on to get her swimming up to scratch, in particular her legs.
In freestyle, she lets her legs lag under the water, so she isn't kicking on the surface. As a result, she lets her arms and upper body do all the work. So we have to concentrate on getting her legs kicking more, and correctly. In backstroke, she has a tendency to bend her knees and bring them up towards her body, rather than keeping her legs straight and kicking her feet. So these are things that she really needs to work on in order to improve.
After lunch, she read A Particular Cow by Mem Fox and then wrote about the story. I then had her read the book out loud to me, to practice her oral skills. I find that she reads out loud better if she has had the chance to read it by herself first. Kaliah actually has quite good oral reading skills, she doesn't appear to struggle with larger words, and I wonder if perhaps it is because she has had a chance to figure it out by herself beforehand, without any pressure.
Kaliah and Zak have taken an interest in sign language, and she enjoyed sitting and learning the signs from the Dictionary of Australasian Signs today. She tends to take pleasure in self taught and self paced activities.
She also got her dad's clothes bag ready for work, packing it with a towel and some changes of clothes.
Khaemon
It appears that Khaemon may also be the only one in his swim class this term - for the second week running, he has had one on one tuition! Steph is concentrating on his freestyle arms, using the kickboard to get his arms stretched out in front. He is also doing quite well at backstroke.
In the afternoon, Khaemon played Brain Training on the DSi, and even though it is beyond his years, he seems to enjoy the challenge!
Veygas
Veygas is so cheeky in his swimming lesson - his confidence in the water is unbelievable! His lesson today started off with tears (I think he has a problem with authority!) but Kate soon put a stop to that and cheeky Vevo came out again. He has never had a problem with his head being under water, and I think that the concept of paddling his arms and kicking his legs has finally kicked in!
Saffryn
Saffy's swimming lesson went well today - she is actually starting to respond to some of the games, but her "curling reflex" kicks in when I put her on her back!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Semester 1, Week 1, Weekend
Zak had his swimming lesson on Saturday, still in heatwave conditions, and the break obviously did him some good. He had improved so much that his teacher promoted him to the next level, Dolphins, where he will now start learning butterfly (a stroke he has been dying to learn for some time now!). He really seems to be putting in alo of effort with his swimming now, which is great to see!
I started to look for some information, via the internet, on computer game programming, or ways in which I can start to teach this to Zak, as he has expressed an interest in programming for a while now. I was ecstatic to find a website where the author has even written a programming guide specifically designed for beginners and children! So now we just need to set aside some time every couple of days in which we can sit down and work through it together, so that his hunger for knowledge doesn't dwindle!
On Sunday, we came across a show on TV called Bad Universe. This particular episode, Death Stars, documented the violent forces that occur throughout the universe when a star dies. Zak wrote a two page report about what he had seen.
Sunday afternoon saw the end of the heatwave, so now we can try and get back into a more regular routine!
I started to look for some information, via the internet, on computer game programming, or ways in which I can start to teach this to Zak, as he has expressed an interest in programming for a while now. I was ecstatic to find a website where the author has even written a programming guide specifically designed for beginners and children! So now we just need to set aside some time every couple of days in which we can sit down and work through it together, so that his hunger for knowledge doesn't dwindle!
On Sunday, we came across a show on TV called Bad Universe. This particular episode, Death Stars, documented the violent forces that occur throughout the universe when a star dies. Zak wrote a two page report about what he had seen.
Sunday afternoon saw the end of the heatwave, so now we can try and get back into a more regular routine!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Semester 1, Week 1, Friday
Ok, this heat is getting beyond a joke!
We had planned a picnic for today, with friends, but we all decided it was best to postpone - it was just too darn hot!!!
The homeschool group, RivKids, that we started going to last year, also started back today, but again, the heat kept us at home ... four kids running around and a baby who doesn't like to be put down (especially in the heat!) .... I just couldn't see myself coping with that today.
The kids all did their chores today though - the cats were fed and watered, the table got cleaned this morning after breakfast .... for the most part though, they didn't move much today. I think all the hot days are catching up with them, cause none of them seem to have the energy to do much, and they are all complaining that it's too hot to eat, so they have basically had loads of water today and a couple of pieces of fruit.
Sometimes I feel sorry for the kids "at school", having to travel in this heat, sit in a classroom with 30 odd other hot bodied children, be forced outside at recess and lunch breaks .... when really, all they want to do is stay cool and go slow. If my kids are complaining about the heat and whinging cause they are too hot to deal with it (well, Khaemon and Veygas anyway - they get terribly frustrated when it's this hot), I can't imagine what kids at school are going through!
But today, I think they all finally learned the importance of doing as little as possible in this heat ... the less you do, the less you argue, fight, whinge etc, the cooler (well, less hot and sticky at least!) you will stay! So again, no formal learning, but a lesson in controlling emotions.
We had planned a picnic for today, with friends, but we all decided it was best to postpone - it was just too darn hot!!!
The homeschool group, RivKids, that we started going to last year, also started back today, but again, the heat kept us at home ... four kids running around and a baby who doesn't like to be put down (especially in the heat!) .... I just couldn't see myself coping with that today.
The kids all did their chores today though - the cats were fed and watered, the table got cleaned this morning after breakfast .... for the most part though, they didn't move much today. I think all the hot days are catching up with them, cause none of them seem to have the energy to do much, and they are all complaining that it's too hot to eat, so they have basically had loads of water today and a couple of pieces of fruit.
Sometimes I feel sorry for the kids "at school", having to travel in this heat, sit in a classroom with 30 odd other hot bodied children, be forced outside at recess and lunch breaks .... when really, all they want to do is stay cool and go slow. If my kids are complaining about the heat and whinging cause they are too hot to deal with it (well, Khaemon and Veygas anyway - they get terribly frustrated when it's this hot), I can't imagine what kids at school are going through!
But today, I think they all finally learned the importance of doing as little as possible in this heat ... the less you do, the less you argue, fight, whinge etc, the cooler (well, less hot and sticky at least!) you will stay! So again, no formal learning, but a lesson in controlling emotions.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Semester 1, Week 1, Thursday
Yet another hot day, and learning of a different kind for the kids today. We attended a Family Capers business networking day and the kids got to meet some new and different "families in business". I think it is good for them to know and see that they can achieve whatever they want with persistence and hard work (and not just take my word for it!)
Of course they got to play as well, which is good for their creativity and imagination, not to mention socialising with other children - learning to share and take turns and co-operate.
Not everything in life is book-learned, and nor is it meant to be!
Of course they got to play as well, which is good for their creativity and imagination, not to mention socialising with other children - learning to share and take turns and co-operate.
Not everything in life is book-learned, and nor is it meant to be!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Semester 1, Week 1, Wednesday
It was so hot today, and shopping day too. It had hit 30 degrees by 9am, and the thought of taking all of the kids shopping had completely overwhelmed me. I decided that I'd leave the three older kids at home and just take the two little ones - I already felt that I didn't have the energy to deal with them all in this heat!
And because of the heat, and everyone's lethargy, I gave the kids a break from traditional "book learning" today and just let them ... be.
When I returned from shopping, the kids all helped to take the bags of groceries inside and put everything away. I do believe that this is a valuable life skill, and definitely teaches them how the household is run, and where things go - fridge, freezer, pantry, kitchen, laundry, bathroom ...
They sat and made their lunches - it was sweltering, far too hot for any mischief! They then lounged around the floor in front of the TV, but I doubt any of them paid much attention to what was on. Later in the afternoon, when it was fractionally cooler (maybe a degree or two!), Zak, Kaliah and I went and did the dishes - me washing and the kids drying. Teamwork. Another lesson in how a household works, and moreso, how teamwork gets things done quicker!
The boys played DS for a little while, and Kaliah lied down on the tiled floor in front of the back door with coloured pencils and a piece of paper, and drew a picture of herself!
Garbage night ... the kids gathered together all of the rubbish from the kitchen, bathroom, laundry and computer desk bins, and the recycling, then made sure the bins went out to the side of the road for tomorrow morning's collection. You have to hand it to them, they'll certainly know what to do when they leave home!
So, although not an academic day, a learning one nonetheless.
And because of the heat, and everyone's lethargy, I gave the kids a break from traditional "book learning" today and just let them ... be.
When I returned from shopping, the kids all helped to take the bags of groceries inside and put everything away. I do believe that this is a valuable life skill, and definitely teaches them how the household is run, and where things go - fridge, freezer, pantry, kitchen, laundry, bathroom ...
They sat and made their lunches - it was sweltering, far too hot for any mischief! They then lounged around the floor in front of the TV, but I doubt any of them paid much attention to what was on. Later in the afternoon, when it was fractionally cooler (maybe a degree or two!), Zak, Kaliah and I went and did the dishes - me washing and the kids drying. Teamwork. Another lesson in how a household works, and moreso, how teamwork gets things done quicker!
The boys played DS for a little while, and Kaliah lied down on the tiled floor in front of the back door with coloured pencils and a piece of paper, and drew a picture of herself!
Garbage night ... the kids gathered together all of the rubbish from the kitchen, bathroom, laundry and computer desk bins, and the recycling, then made sure the bins went out to the side of the road for tomorrow morning's collection. You have to hand it to them, they'll certainly know what to do when they leave home!
So, although not an academic day, a learning one nonetheless.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Semester 1, Week 1, Tuesday
Today was another scorcher of a day (it's still currently 40 degrees as I write!) so I tried to get the kids to do some work earlier this morning, before the heat really set in. Unfortunately we didn't get alot done before they were distracted by the heat and I didn't have the heart to make them sit there and work, knowing that they wouldn't really absorb what they were learning.
Zakari
More maths today from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, pages 83 (Division), 84 (Angles) and 85 (Millimetres). He learned about the division symbol (you know, the one that looks like a closed bracket with a line across the top?) and how you divide the number on the right side of the bracket by the number on the left side of the bracket and write the answer above the line. I also elaborated on the importance of learning this way, because it comes in handy down the track when you're doing long division. I also told him that if he wasn't sure if the answer was right, then all he had to do to double check was to multiply the answer by the divisor and see if that came out the same as the original number.
There were a few simple errors on this page, mainly things he hadn't double checked, but one or two of them, he had actually second guessed himself and crossed out the correct answer in favour of the incorrect one. Most of these were where the division problems had remainders.
Zak worked quite well through the angles exercises, he has a competent understanding of right angles, and larger / smaller than right angles.
In the millimetres exercise, he is very capable of using a ruler and reading the correct measurement from it.. He also estimates length quite close to the correct length, and translate centimetres to millimetres with no problems.
As the heat had well and truly set in by the time he had finished the maths, I decided that that was it for the day and Zak spent some free time constructing with lego and watching some television.
Later in the afternoon, he prepared his dad's snacks for work.
Kaliah
Kaliah chose to read Night Noises by Mem Fox today and wrote a two page recall of the story. Her spelling was much improved from yesterday - she only had two mis-spelled words today. The main things that I feel we need to work on with Kaliah is her punctuation (she often forgets full stops, so thought and sentences run into each other) and her handwriting letter formation. I understand it's hot, so I am giving her a little bit of leeway for the time being.
Kaliah also had some TV time time today - it really was too hot to do anything - even play outside!
Khaemon
I gave Khaemon a choice today whether he wanted to do any work or not. He chose to work (perhaps cause the others were!) but it was short lived! He traced and copied a few letters of the alphabet in Literacy for Littlies Part A - Early Stage 1, a book which he had completed in about a month last year! But the heat got the better of him and he ended up watching TV and then playing various DS games with Veygas (they sometimes like to connect and it's hard to keep up with what game they are playing sometimes!) He finished the day by flicking through some Disney and Dr Seuss books (we have an extensive library of both!), moreso for the pictures at this stage!
Veygas
Veygas spent about 5 minutes today being artistic with coloured pencils on 4 pieces of paper, before the heat got the better of him. He watched some TV, which he tired of fairly quickly, and then played DS with Khaemon. He spent most of the day hot, tired and whingy, but who can blame the poor child?
------
Tomorrow is our weekly shopping day, so I am looking at making up a worksheet tonight for Zak and Kaliah for them to find the answers for in the supermarket tomorrow. I think I am most looking forward to the air conditioning!
Zakari
More maths today from Maths Plus 4 Stage 2, pages 83 (Division), 84 (Angles) and 85 (Millimetres). He learned about the division symbol (you know, the one that looks like a closed bracket with a line across the top?) and how you divide the number on the right side of the bracket by the number on the left side of the bracket and write the answer above the line. I also elaborated on the importance of learning this way, because it comes in handy down the track when you're doing long division. I also told him that if he wasn't sure if the answer was right, then all he had to do to double check was to multiply the answer by the divisor and see if that came out the same as the original number.
There were a few simple errors on this page, mainly things he hadn't double checked, but one or two of them, he had actually second guessed himself and crossed out the correct answer in favour of the incorrect one. Most of these were where the division problems had remainders.
Zak worked quite well through the angles exercises, he has a competent understanding of right angles, and larger / smaller than right angles.
In the millimetres exercise, he is very capable of using a ruler and reading the correct measurement from it.. He also estimates length quite close to the correct length, and translate centimetres to millimetres with no problems.
As the heat had well and truly set in by the time he had finished the maths, I decided that that was it for the day and Zak spent some free time constructing with lego and watching some television.
Later in the afternoon, he prepared his dad's snacks for work.
Kaliah
Kaliah chose to read Night Noises by Mem Fox today and wrote a two page recall of the story. Her spelling was much improved from yesterday - she only had two mis-spelled words today. The main things that I feel we need to work on with Kaliah is her punctuation (she often forgets full stops, so thought and sentences run into each other) and her handwriting letter formation. I understand it's hot, so I am giving her a little bit of leeway for the time being.
Kaliah also had some TV time time today - it really was too hot to do anything - even play outside!
Khaemon
I gave Khaemon a choice today whether he wanted to do any work or not. He chose to work (perhaps cause the others were!) but it was short lived! He traced and copied a few letters of the alphabet in Literacy for Littlies Part A - Early Stage 1, a book which he had completed in about a month last year! But the heat got the better of him and he ended up watching TV and then playing various DS games with Veygas (they sometimes like to connect and it's hard to keep up with what game they are playing sometimes!) He finished the day by flicking through some Disney and Dr Seuss books (we have an extensive library of both!), moreso for the pictures at this stage!
Veygas
Veygas spent about 5 minutes today being artistic with coloured pencils on 4 pieces of paper, before the heat got the better of him. He watched some TV, which he tired of fairly quickly, and then played DS with Khaemon. He spent most of the day hot, tired and whingy, but who can blame the poor child?
------
Tomorrow is our weekly shopping day, so I am looking at making up a worksheet tonight for Zak and Kaliah for them to find the answers for in the supermarket tomorrow. I think I am most looking forward to the air conditioning!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Semester 1, Week 1, Monday
So it has been about a year since I wrote in this blog and so much has happened!
We welcomed another new member into our family and we successfully completed our first year of home schooling! And while this blog was meant to keep a record of our progress throughout the year, it kind of got pushed to the side.
So what better time to start than now, seeing as school has resumed for 2011, and I have a third child starting "school" too!
Today we started back at swimming lessons. This is our weekly Monday morning regime, with school work done in the afternoon after lunch.
Zakari - 10 years old - Year 5
Monday morning is Zak's practice swimming time (his lesson is on Saturday). This morning, he complained that he didn't want to swim (Hello?? In this heat, who wouldn't??). Being 10, we like him to practice the different strokes, just a couple of 25m laps each of breast stroke, freestyle and backstroke, and then he gets some free time while the others are still in their lessons. We constantly tell him that he won't progress further if he doesn't practice, and to be honest, he is quite good, when he puts his mind to it and puts in the effort!
This afternoon, Zak did maths, from the Maths Plus 4 Stage 2 book, simply because we didn't complete it last year. He worked on pages 80 (Patterns), 81 (More Likely, Less Likely) and 82 (Mixed Addition). He asked me what translate, rotate and reflect meant, as this was the first exercise of the afternoon, so after an explanation, he confidently completed the exercises related to this with no problem. He also competently completed the next two pages without any assistance or errors!
He worked quickly through the mixed addition, where he had to use the answers to solve a hidden code, which took me a good while to work out! He also seems to work things out mentally with ease.
He then helped me with some dishes by drying as I washed, then prepared his dad's bag for work, by filling water bottles, making sandwiches and putting chips, vegetables and bread into containers for his dad's snacks later on tonight.
The rest of the afternoon was left for free time, where he watched some television, and then made chess pieces out of lego, representative of "Super Mario" characters. He has started to teach Khaemon how to play chess!
Kaliah - almost 7 years old - Year 2
Kaliah did quite well in her swimming lesson this morning, learning skills in breast stroke, backstroke and three-arm breathing (where they do three freestyle strokes and take a breath), and also, diving to the bottom of the pool to retrieve various objects.
I had hoped to be a little more organised with having books this year, as she completed all of the books we had last year, but this has just snuck up on me, so we'll be going "school book shopping" later in the week!
So today, I had Kaliah pick a book, read it and then write about it. She chose Koala Lou by Mem Fox and wrote a two page synopsis of the book. Unfortunately, she had been distracted and Khaemon had tried to trace what she had written, making it illegible, and then we discovered that she had actually written upside down in her book, so I got her to sit quietly, away from everyone else and carefully re write her story. Then on the next page, I wrote a list of words that had been spelled incorrectly and got her to write these as many times as they would fit across the page, to help her with spelling.
Then Kaliah prepared her dad's clothes bag for work, making sure he had a clean towel and enough changes of clothes for the week, just in case something happened and he got held over.
The rest of the afternoon was free time, and she watched some television and helped look after her little sister.
Khaemon - almost 5 years old - Kindergarten
Khaemon was the only one in his group at swimming this morning, which was good, as he also had a new teacher, so they got to have some valuable one on one time! Steph had him learning freestyle and backstroke techniques, as well as some basic swimming with the kickboard and the pool noodle. She also worked on teaching him to dive into the pool from the edge.
Although we worked from preschool literacy and maths books last year, I have decided to go slowly with Khaemon, academically, and ease him into a "schooling" routine. So we didn't do anything formally today, but as stated above, he did trace Kaliah's work, so he is learning about the formation of letters. He also talked about what sounds certain letters make, as he tends to do this quite alot!
Then this afternoon, he played Mario Party and Mario Kart on the Nintendo DSi, and "Mario chess" with Zak.
Veygas - 2 1/2 years old - Pre-school
Veygas had his first lesson in Penguins at swimming today, and with a new teacher (the first teacher change he has had in 18 months!) There was only one other child in his class today, which again was good, as he gets used to the new level and teacher! He has no fear of the water and actually exhibits alot of the basic swimming skills, as well as some not so basic ones! He paddled and kicked around the pool with a pool noodle, floated on his back, first with a kickboard then with a pool noodle, and constantly kept diving into the pool from the side and swimming back without assistance (even when Kate wasn't ready for him!)
After lunch, he played Super Mario Bros on the DS (and for someone so young, he has impressive hand eye co-ordination and a good understanding of the game!) and then watched some television.
Saffryn - 4 months old - not yet schooling, but learning nonetheless!
Saffy had her very first swimming lesson this morning, in the mums and bub's (or Infant Aquatics) group of course! It was only 6 months ago that I made it out of the water from Vevo's lessons and now I'm back in again! Saffy did quite well, even with being under water. Admittedly, there are some things she isn't capable of doing, like sitting on the edge (or sitting full stop for that matter!) or crawling down the mat, but I do think it's important that she gains an awareness of the water from a young age so that she isn't scared to learn later on.
Her swim must have really tired her out though, as she fell asleep almost as soon as I had her dressed, and she spontaneously fell asleep twice more at home!
------
All in all, considering the heat, I feel we had a productive first day back in the saddle!
We welcomed another new member into our family and we successfully completed our first year of home schooling! And while this blog was meant to keep a record of our progress throughout the year, it kind of got pushed to the side.
So what better time to start than now, seeing as school has resumed for 2011, and I have a third child starting "school" too!
Today we started back at swimming lessons. This is our weekly Monday morning regime, with school work done in the afternoon after lunch.
Zakari - 10 years old - Year 5
Monday morning is Zak's practice swimming time (his lesson is on Saturday). This morning, he complained that he didn't want to swim (Hello?? In this heat, who wouldn't??). Being 10, we like him to practice the different strokes, just a couple of 25m laps each of breast stroke, freestyle and backstroke, and then he gets some free time while the others are still in their lessons. We constantly tell him that he won't progress further if he doesn't practice, and to be honest, he is quite good, when he puts his mind to it and puts in the effort!
This afternoon, Zak did maths, from the Maths Plus 4 Stage 2 book, simply because we didn't complete it last year. He worked on pages 80 (Patterns), 81 (More Likely, Less Likely) and 82 (Mixed Addition). He asked me what translate, rotate and reflect meant, as this was the first exercise of the afternoon, so after an explanation, he confidently completed the exercises related to this with no problem. He also competently completed the next two pages without any assistance or errors!
He worked quickly through the mixed addition, where he had to use the answers to solve a hidden code, which took me a good while to work out! He also seems to work things out mentally with ease.
He then helped me with some dishes by drying as I washed, then prepared his dad's bag for work, by filling water bottles, making sandwiches and putting chips, vegetables and bread into containers for his dad's snacks later on tonight.
The rest of the afternoon was left for free time, where he watched some television, and then made chess pieces out of lego, representative of "Super Mario" characters. He has started to teach Khaemon how to play chess!
Kaliah - almost 7 years old - Year 2
Kaliah did quite well in her swimming lesson this morning, learning skills in breast stroke, backstroke and three-arm breathing (where they do three freestyle strokes and take a breath), and also, diving to the bottom of the pool to retrieve various objects.
I had hoped to be a little more organised with having books this year, as she completed all of the books we had last year, but this has just snuck up on me, so we'll be going "school book shopping" later in the week!
So today, I had Kaliah pick a book, read it and then write about it. She chose Koala Lou by Mem Fox and wrote a two page synopsis of the book. Unfortunately, she had been distracted and Khaemon had tried to trace what she had written, making it illegible, and then we discovered that she had actually written upside down in her book, so I got her to sit quietly, away from everyone else and carefully re write her story. Then on the next page, I wrote a list of words that had been spelled incorrectly and got her to write these as many times as they would fit across the page, to help her with spelling.
Then Kaliah prepared her dad's clothes bag for work, making sure he had a clean towel and enough changes of clothes for the week, just in case something happened and he got held over.
The rest of the afternoon was free time, and she watched some television and helped look after her little sister.
Khaemon - almost 5 years old - Kindergarten
Khaemon was the only one in his group at swimming this morning, which was good, as he also had a new teacher, so they got to have some valuable one on one time! Steph had him learning freestyle and backstroke techniques, as well as some basic swimming with the kickboard and the pool noodle. She also worked on teaching him to dive into the pool from the edge.
Although we worked from preschool literacy and maths books last year, I have decided to go slowly with Khaemon, academically, and ease him into a "schooling" routine. So we didn't do anything formally today, but as stated above, he did trace Kaliah's work, so he is learning about the formation of letters. He also talked about what sounds certain letters make, as he tends to do this quite alot!
Then this afternoon, he played Mario Party and Mario Kart on the Nintendo DSi, and "Mario chess" with Zak.
Veygas - 2 1/2 years old - Pre-school
Veygas had his first lesson in Penguins at swimming today, and with a new teacher (the first teacher change he has had in 18 months!) There was only one other child in his class today, which again was good, as he gets used to the new level and teacher! He has no fear of the water and actually exhibits alot of the basic swimming skills, as well as some not so basic ones! He paddled and kicked around the pool with a pool noodle, floated on his back, first with a kickboard then with a pool noodle, and constantly kept diving into the pool from the side and swimming back without assistance (even when Kate wasn't ready for him!)
After lunch, he played Super Mario Bros on the DS (and for someone so young, he has impressive hand eye co-ordination and a good understanding of the game!) and then watched some television.
Saffryn - 4 months old - not yet schooling, but learning nonetheless!
Saffy had her very first swimming lesson this morning, in the mums and bub's (or Infant Aquatics) group of course! It was only 6 months ago that I made it out of the water from Vevo's lessons and now I'm back in again! Saffy did quite well, even with being under water. Admittedly, there are some things she isn't capable of doing, like sitting on the edge (or sitting full stop for that matter!) or crawling down the mat, but I do think it's important that she gains an awareness of the water from a young age so that she isn't scared to learn later on.
Her swim must have really tired her out though, as she fell asleep almost as soon as I had her dressed, and she spontaneously fell asleep twice more at home!
------
All in all, considering the heat, I feel we had a productive first day back in the saddle!
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