01 02 03 Seven Little Australians Living and Learning: This Week in Learning: July 31st, 2015 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

This Week in Learning: July 31st, 2015

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We began Term 3 strongly and have continued to power along in the two weeks since.  Rather excited as this is the most intense and productive our learning has been all year, lots of terrific learning happening:)

Though admittedly it's been a little challenging having to compete for their attention with the new chooks as they are checked regularly in case they have yet laid an egg;) Having our adult children still home visiting has also been a slight attention stealer. 

Speech Therapy
Bass is back at weekly speech therapy, therefore speech 'homework' is on the 'must do' list again, I'm failing miserably here, which doesn't make the therapist happy, wince. Whilst big brother Einstein has been home, he has kindly taken Bass to his last two appointments and fortunately Anna Maria is available to step into Einstein's role for the next three lessons.  Weekly speech lessons have been a huge disruption to our learning this year, having assistance and therefore not interruption has already made a massive difference to our learning.

A Realisation
Jelly Bean made it clear that she is keen to be learning independently, except for Language Arts lessons with her brothers, she is happily undertaking her Faith, Science, History and Geography readings on her own. Working towards encouraging her independence in reading we selected books of larger, non-intimidating print. Already within only two weeks of consistently and frequently reading there is a marked improvement in her speed and enjoyment and she has been requesting extra books to read! Thanks to my friend M who encouraged me to expect more, as she said, "they(our children) are capable of more than we sometimes think." so true.


Faith
Maths
 Science 
Geography

History
Logic
Michelangelo is enjoying reading and pondering Critical Thinking 

Spanish
Princess is 45% fluent in Spanish!!  She has put so much effort into achieving this and has blown us away! In fact she has inspired her father and a graduated brother who are now also madly trying to compete with her.  34 hours of Duolingo is considered to be equivalent to one semester of College.

Creative Arts

Handwriting
Some of our children have lovely handwriting, for which I deserve no credit and others have atrocious handwriting, for which I feel responsible. I have longed searched for a 'magic cure' to solve 'all ills' however last week I was struck by another revelation. A 'magic' resource isn't going to fix this situation only consistent vigilance will, actually I've long suspected this but last week I owned it.

A couple of times a week I now gather together all children needing handwriting assistance and demonstrate on the blackboard, and the children practice. I circle the table, checking pencil grip, hand slope, letter starting points, neatness etc. The lesson itself isn't long, probably only a little longer than it takes to gather them all together;) but I'm feeling most hopeful it will be effective.

Dictation/Spelling
Grammar
Composition/Creative Writing

Poetry/Short Stories
Enjoying with the younger three, A Child's Book of Verse
Princess and Michelangelo are both reading poetry from Four Corners, a mix of Australian and English poems.
Michelangelo is reading the short stories of O'Henry.

Reading

Literature
Family Read Aloud: 
Mrs Piggy Wiggle - Huge hit with the younger three, hilarious, they are upset the book is finished.
All The Green Year - Reading to the older two. It's literally been years since I've read to my teens, but I am so determined to begin reading to them again. This is proving to be an interesting read to them both. 

Michelangelo Read:
Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Innocence of Fr Brown - GK Chesterton
Wisdom of Fr Brown - GK Chesterton (1/2)
History
Soldier Boy - Anthony Hill (3/4, then too sad to continue)
Gallipoli Story - Patrick Carlyon
Alexander the Great by Carole Wilkinson

Princess Read: 
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Jack and Jill - Louisa May Alcott
History
An Enemy Among Them

Jelly Bean Read:
Riding the Pony Express - Clyde Robert Bulla
Courage of Sarah Noble
Geography
Chebet and the Lost Goat (Kenya)
Antoine and the Ancient Coin (Switzerland)
Faith
The Little Boy Jesus by M Redington White
Science
If I Were An Atom - Noel Wilson
Look Out for Turtles - Melvin Berger
Dolphin - Robert A Morris

Jack Jack Read:
Emmett's Pig

Jem Read:
Where is the Green Sheep? - Mem Fox
I Went Walking - Sue Machin
"Pardon?" said the Giraffe - Colin West

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