The Sellers Family Homeschool Blog

Here is a very cute bee Rosie made today!



We also had a Five in a Row lesson about taste buds and she drew a great diagram of a tongue and labelled it with the different areas of taste.

Tomorrow we're off on a surprise outing - well, surprise for Rosie, we obviously know where we're going! We're taking her to the dinosaur museum and since dinosaurs are probably just about her most favourite thing, I think she'll find it enjoyable!

We went to the home-ed group yesterday and amongst the usual chaos managed to watch someone demonstrating a spinning wheel and carding (which turned out to be when the raw wool is combed to get all the bits out before it is spun). At the craft table Rosie (aided by Tim!) made a lovely card and tissue paper bird. Here it is!



I also got chatting with a woman who makes fleece nappies, slings etc and she's going to make a sling for me. This is going to be incredibly useful as April is the kind of baby who does like to be held a lot which isn't always practical when I'm trying to do stuff!

Finally, at home today, Rosie and I got started with our spring seasonal table. We've only put a few things on it so far - the yellow and green cloths, the spring fairy, small branches which we've decorated with pink tissue paper to look like blossom AND some flowers which we found in the garden. YES! real flowers are starting to bloom outside! Anyway, here's a pic although I must admit it's a bit crap and doesn't show off the table to it's full beauty.



That's probably all we'll put until it gets a bit nearer Easter and then there will be all the Easter decorations.

I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to use just ONE particular curriculum with Rosie - she enjoys having variety too much. As you can see from the previous post our first week of FIAR went pretty well indeed but I've now realised that although she enjoys reading and hearing the story, she gets bored with the work that goes with it. Rosie likes learning in lots of different ways - sometimes hands-on, sometimes computer work, sometimes worksheets etc.

I've decided that the best thing to do with FIAR is keep it as an occasional thing - just for a change and pretty much stick to learning in the way that we have always done in the past. We use National Curriculum based materials (from BBC Schools and Schoolsnet) for Science and History, Maths worksheets from Sacred Spiral Kids (one of the best free printable workbooks I've found), general workbooks for handwriting and French and Grade 2 spelling test words from Sacred Spiral. We also use Learning Land cd roms, Jump Ahead cd roms and Reader Rabbit cd roms. All this adds up to a pretty varied and interesting "curriculum" and one which I think she enjoys a lot more because it has so much variety in it.

On another note - we went out yesterday and spent a small fortune on her ballet outfit but she does look beautiful in it and can't wait to get back to lessons next week to show it off!

On Friday, we're off to the home-ed group. Someone is bringing in their spinning wheel and "carding" equipment so the children can have a go. I've no idea what carding is so it'll be an interesting learning experience for me too!

Oh! and finally a link! This has absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling but I have found a wonderful lady that makes AIO nappies and nappy covers etc - they are absolutely beautiful and very reasonably priced. I've just ordered a couple of covers from her - a froggy one and a duck one and I just cannot wait to see April in them - reckon she's going to look v.cute!

http://www.dippysdelights.wahmall.co.uk/shop/

We've completed our first week of Five in a Row (FIAR) volume 1 - we actually had our last lesson today as Rosie had a day off in the week as she's had a bad cold. I have to say, we've thoroughly enjoyed it!

This week, using The Story About Ping, Rosie's practiced her counting, learned the difference between fiction and non-fiction writing (and wrote her own once upon a time.. story), discussed and wrote up some interesting facts about the Yangtze River in China, learned how to draw water in art and, finally, in science did an experiment in buoyancy and wrote up the results in her notebook. All-in-all a successful and interesting week.

Next week we're doing "general" homeschool stuff - maths workbook, handwriting practice, French etc. I'm doing this because in order to fill a whole school year (30 weeks) with FIAR you have to schedule it one week on and one week off. So, next week is workbook week and then the following week we'll be back to FIAR - this time with "Lentil".

Also, this week, Rosie had her ballet class and her teacher informed us that they are putting on a performance in June called "Disney!" and she asked whether Rosie would like to take part (apparently she's going to play the part of a doll - presumably one that comes to life and dances! lol) It's pretty amazing that she's going to take part in a performance so soon after starting lessons but Natalie said that she's picking it up incredibly quickly! Anyway, we're off out next week to buy her dance uniform -(she's been in leggings and tshirt up to now) - pink leotard, pink tutu and pink ballet shoes. Rosie's going to look very cute! :)

Although there are thousands of websites with free worksheets for homeschoolers, I've dug around and found some that provide more than just worksheets and they're all free!

Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching - Maths practice books, lesson plans and posters for years 1-6.

Sacred Spiral Kids - Colouring books, maths, history, storybooks, language arts and science materials for earth spiritual and pagan homeschoolers.

The Baldwin Project - e-texts of classic books, mainly for waldorf and Charlotte Mason education.

Reading Target - teaching phonics material for grades 1-3.

Daily Grammar - 440 daily grammar lessons.

Everyday Spelling - Spelling lists for grades 1-8

Backyard Nature - nature study lessons.

Montessori Materials - Printable montessori materials for language arts, maths, science, cultural, geography, music, art and sensorial.

19th Century Schoolbooks - e-texts of 19th century schoolbooks - good for grammar, arithmetic and first readers.

The first volume of Five in a Row, together with the first couple of books (The Story About Ping and Lentil) have arrived so I've sat down and planned our first 2 weeks lessons out.

WEEK 1: The Story About Ping
GEOGRAPHY - Learn about China and the Yangtze River
ART - Drawing water
MATHS - Practice counting skills
LITERATURE - Fiction
SCIENCE - Buoyancy

WEEK 2: Lentil
HISTORY - Differences between now and 1940 (when the story was written)
ART - Medium
MATHS - Introduction to fractions
LITERATURE - Elements of a good story
SCIENCE - Human Anatomy - taste buds

We're really looking forward to starting this next week - I've had a quick private read through the books and they're really lovely stories.

Oh, and Rosie had her first ballet lesson yesterday - she thoroughly enjoyed it and spent the rest of the evening showing us the steps she had learned!