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!
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All in all, considering the heat, I feel we had a productive first day back in the saddle!
