Started back our Term in full this past fortnight. At least that was the plan. All the topics were on the lesson load.

The youngest two and Genevieve were quite motivated to tackle everything on their lesson plan.  The older two boys were motivated in certain areas. By the end of the fortnight though I can see my weak areas, which wasn’t really a surprise. I had intended to do alot more of the learning as a group, but that really won’t work with the different stages they are all at. On Friday we spent time choosing individual books to be read, many as supporting books, though for some of the older children their main as well.

 

Reading

Siena continued to make exciting progress with her goal of Learning to Read! She finished the Faith and Freedom P book, re-read it a few times. Writing down all chapter numbers on a list and crossing off as she went. Hugely goal orientated, fascinating. She is not keen to begin F & F 1, I assume it looks too intimidating. For now she is reading all of our ‘Biscuit’ books.

Sebastian joined Siena in discovering the Faith and Freedom Readers and enjoyed reading F&F V3.

Ignatius is on a Rangers Apprentice binge, reading late into the night, and every spare moment, and moments that aren’t spare 😉

Saxon has finally found a series he loves and devours!! He finished the Harry Potter book and is devouring the Inheritance Cycle. This has dominated all of his daylight hours.

 

Maths

Genevieve spent at least an hour daily working on her Maths. She is a little behind in where she/we would like her to be but now as she tackles it, it’s easier going than it was when younger. So heartening.

Siena, Saxon and Ignatius achieved a little Maths.

Sebastian daily completed his Maths lessons and is only a few away from completing Grade 6!

 

Faith

Began Confirmation Prep with Siena, using Inos Biffi’s Illustrated Catechism to delve into the Apostles Creed and just what she will be promising too.

Sebastian read a few chapters of  Stories to Learn By a collection of ‘virtue’ stories.

 

Dictation

Genevieve undertook to do her Dictation daily. Seeing a huge improvement in skill and confidence.

Sebastian was also diligent in undertaking his Dictation daily.

 

Spelling

Started a revision of the Spelling cards with the younger boys and Siena.  Taking them back to the Spelling Level in which they get 98% of words correct. For the boys this means back to Level 2, Siena whipped through Level 1 words with ease.  So I’ll shortly go back to regular lessons with her soon as she is on Level 2 anyhow.

 

Writing 

The four oldest children worked on Poems for a competition. Theme is Bushfires. It has been emotional for some but they did well.  Lots of editing and discussion and re-editing going on.

 

Geography

Huge focus on mapping, world geography for the younger boys and Genevieve and Australian as well as world for Siena. Hours have gone into this endeavour and it’s amazing the knowledge they have already gained.

The children are using Geography online games to name all the countries of various continents, and have now moved onto the flags of the countries and Siena is placing some of the city names of Australia.

 

History

Focusing on the ‘Technology age’, late Modern Times, so roughly the 1870s onwards.

World History – had a big ‘Overview’ session with all of the children. Pulling out various text books and non-fiction, doing a quick review of the Industrial Revolution and moving on to Communication during the late 19th Century. I really do enjoy these sorts of connections and the children seemed reasonably engaged.

Australian History – Read with the three youngest, a few chapters of the Singing Wire, about the Overland Telegraph in Australia. A huge and incredible undertaking to string wire from South Australia to Darwin in essentially unexplored country in 18 months!

 

Science

Sebastian began his Astronomy book, reading about the Planets.