Home School meme.

Thanks so much Vicky, for tagging me for the home school meme.

One Homeschool Book You've Enjoyed.  


My favourite would have to be Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum.  This book would have to be the one that helped me the most when I first started home school. I would say this is the book that gave me the confidence that I could educate my children myself. 


One Resource You Wouldn't Be Without. 


I think the internet would have to be the one. I keep in touch with other home school families and have loads of bookmarks with resources. 


One Resource You Wish You'd Never Bought. 


Not really sure if I can think of one. I cannot think of anything we have bought and not used. There have been programs that I have bought and thought I won't get this again simply because the program hasn't been suited to my children's way of learning. 


One Resource You Liked Last Year. 


I loved the Tutor System. I will be using it again next year for Christopher I think. 


One Resource You'll Be Using Next Year. 


The Tutor System and The Phonetic Zoo. The Phonetic Zoo is a spelling program. Right from the start of home schooling, I have really struggled with how to teach the children how to spell. In May this year, I did a search for something new and came across The Phonetic Zoo. I bought it and we started it straight away. It is by far the best spelling program we have had. Tom and Amelia both said they hated this program but the results were fantastic. They really learnt words and remembered them. 


One Resource You'd Like To Buy. 


An I Pad or Android Tablet. 


One Resource You Wish Existed. 


I don't think there is any resource that I have wanted and haven't been able to find. I do wish though there were more home school families that lived close by. I really like the idea of doing activities with other home school families. 


One Homeschooling Catalogue You Enjoy Reading.  


I don't have any home school catalogues. 


One Homeschool Site You Visit Regularly. 


All the home school blogs that are in my reader. 


I am not going to tag any other bloggers since this meme has been going around a bit. If you want to do the meme and haven't been tagged, let me know in the comment box and I am happy to tag you for it. 

Thankful Thursday.

Yet another Thursday that I need to remember the things that are good in our life.

-1-

All the children and Steve ended up getting the gastro that was going through the house. I am the only one that hasn't got it and I am very thankful for that.

-2-

I am thankful for the doctors that look after Tom and that we have the technology to get him well quickly.

-3-

I am thankful for all the people that read about Tom and prayed for us.

-4-

I am thankful that we just have one day and one week left of term 2. Next week will be a bit of a quieter week and I will start planning for term 3.

-5-

I am thankful for the new spelling program that we have for Tom and Amelia. I have always struggled with the best way to teach them spelling and it was certainly their weakest subject. The new program I have seems to really work for them. The program I am using is called The Phonetic Zoo.

Therese.

Big weekend.

We spent the weekend in Pikina for a Catholic home school camp. It was lots of fun. On Friday, I left here just before lunch time with the children. Steve had somethings to do at home so he didn't come till Saturday at lunch time.

It was a great weekend. We all had a ball. We went to Magnetic hill and Appila Springs. Saturday we spent time just hanging around together in the morning. In the afternoon, Steve and I took 7 children off to Peterborough for a drive and then to the park in Orroroo. Today we had mass, clean up and then drove home.


------------------------------------

10 years today.

Today is Amelia's 10th birthday. We bought her a basket ball ring and pink netball. Amelia is doing netball this year for the first time. She is playing for Magpies. She really loves going to practice so I am sure she will love playing the games too.

Happy Birthday Amelia. I hope you had a great day. We love you very much.

-----------------------------------

Happy Mothers Day.

To all the mothers out there that follow my blog. I hope you all have a blessed mothers day. I had a great day and got lots of great presents. I really love being a mother and feel very blessed to have all the children I have.

--------------------------------------

Oh and in other news, Steve also fixed my computer before he joined us at the camp. Now both our computers are running smoothly.

Therese.

First day back.

Today was our first day of term two. We got of to a bit of a rough start but I was happy that the children got everything done that I planned for the day.

We are revamping Tom and Amelia's spelling program. They did a progress test and I was a bit disappointed with their results. I have always wondered how to teach spelling and struggled with the program I have written for them both. It is one of the hardest areas of their curriculum for me. I am getting a new program from IEW called The phonetic zoo. From the reading I have done about it, this program has much more success in teaching children spelling and retaining the information. What I find with the spelling we do at the moment is both Tom and Amelia do well in the test I give at the end of the week, but they are not retaining the information long term. That is the main goal so I need to do a revamp. I am glad I have found a program that I can try for this.

We are going to be doing a unit of work this term on the Saints. The children have all chosen a saint that they will study.

Tom is studying St. Matthew. Amelia is studying St. Helen and Christopher will study St. Christopher.

We will also be learning about Divine Mercy Devotion and St. Faustina.

Our time table is still the same as I posted last year except for kindergarten pickups.

Last week of term.

This week is the last week of term one. We are winding up tomorrow because it will be Brigettes last day at school too.

Today we went to Port Pirie for the Chrism Mass.

Tomorrow I have a few plans for lessons with the children that will be to wind up our term. I think we should be finished by lunch time so I will start preparing for next term on Thursday and Friday.

I am looking forward to the two week break. It is going to be good to be on holidays for holy week.

My mission statement.

Last week, I wrote about writing a mission statement. This is what I wrote for my mission.

Firstly I thought about all the roles I have in my life.

I am a provider, teacher, wife, friend and disciple.

To write my mission statement, I thought about, what do I want to achieve with all these roles?

After much prayer and going through the eBook, this is what I came up with for each role.

1) Disciple:

To pray everyday, go to mass regularly, receive the sacrament of confession regularly and to go where ever God leads me, even if I am scared of what it could lead too.

2) Teacher:

To be attentive to the childrens lessons, to help them learn, form good study habits, have a good routine and love life.

3) Provider:

To provide all the children's needs, both emotionally, physically, To keep them all as healthy as possible.

4) wife:

To love Steve. To hold nothing back from him. To be just as happy (or even happier) when our children have all moved on.

5) Friend.

To have relationships with other women. To encourage them and be encouraged by them. To be open to any challenges from them and see when God is using them to talk to me.

So many times this week, I have thought, I don't want to do xyz. Every time I have had this thought though, I have also thought about why I am doing it and what I want to gain from doing it. That is how I see the mission statement working in my life. It gives me the incentive to get up and do xyz when I don't want to.

Wordless Wednesday. At the foreshore.

Day one of A Mothers Rule of Life.

Over the weekend, I worked on my mothers rule. It hasn't really changed much from before Joseph was born. I do have Christopher at home now rather than at kindy so that is about the only thing I have changed. We did change our timetable a bit anyway when he no longer needed drop offs and pick ups from kindy.

Over all, I was very happy with the day. The school day went smoothly. I did site changes for the boys pumps and uploaded their information to carelink. I got our room cleaned out (including under the bed). Steve and I also got to evening mass tonight.

I am hoping it will continue to go as well as it did today for the rest of the week.

Some photos from our week so far.

The first plums from our plum tree. We planted this tree back in August 2007.

Christopher's new shorts. I cut out 3 pairs on Saturday and so far I have sewn 2. This was the first pair I made.

Christopher playing his memory game today.

Today, Joseph managed to get the pumpkin out of the fridge. Someone must have left the door slightly ajar. This was the mess he made. Before I had the camera, he was crawling around in it and slipping everywhere. He thought it was so much fun. I did try to get a video of him slipping in it but because he saw the camera, he was just crawling after me instead.

Here he is after his bath. I decided to bath him straight after playing in the pumpkin.

First day back.

Today we had a high temperature of 45. That is 117 Fahrenheit. It is going to continue for the rest of the week too.

Now it is 9.30 at night and temps are still in the high 30's. The sun has set so it isn't as oppressive as it was when it was up. The low tonight is 28. (82). It was a bit of a long day but we did get all the home school work finished.

We also got our printer back today so we will be starting our virtue unit tomorrow. We are starting with the virtue of consideration.

All this week I am planning on having salad rolls for tea. It is just too hot to cook anything.

Catholic resources for home school.

I n the sidebar, I have a link to That Resource Site.

It is a great resource for anyone doing Catholic home school. They are not only for religious study though, they have all kinds of resources.

Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking about how can I teach our children more about the virtues and living them daily. I know that living them as much as I can is a help to them but I wanted something concrete to teach them.

This morning I got up early because I knew it was going to be very hot and one of the first things I did was google teaching Catholic virtues resource.

The top link was That Resource Site. and I thought, why didn't I think of there first?

They have some great work sheets that I have looked at. At the moment, our brother printer, is in being fixed but as soon as we get it back, I will be printing off all the resources to teach the children about virtues.

Trip to Adelaide.

On Tuesday we all went off to Adelaide to put Sam on the plane for summer camp at Campion college. He is still there and is enjoying it.

While we were there, I took Christopher to the Women's and Children's hospital for his pre pump appointment. I think the thought of having a pump is starting to overwhelm him a bit and he is getting frightened of it. I think going to the hospital really sunk the reality of getting it. He is definitely nervous and I did expect that but I know that the pump is the best way to treat his diabetes. He is less likely to have complications later in life if we keep his blood glucose in range now and we can do that much more easily with the pump.

Steve also took Tom, Amelia and Christopher to Dinosaurs alive while we were there. Here are a few photos that the children took.



Tomorrow it will be 10 days left till we start school for the 2011 year. I will be busy over the next few days getting the childrens program ready for the year.

This year Tom is in year 6, Amelia year 4 and Christopher in Reception. I am looking forward to a productive year.

Our Week.

Last week was our last week of formal home school for the year. We will still be doing some maths and reading but our main focus will be on advent and preparing for Christmas.



For advent, we are having an advent wreath. I was a bit late ordering the candles for it so we havn't made it yet but I am hoping they will arrive this week and between now and then we will do the prayers each day without the wreath.



We are also making a Jesse Tree. I have downloaded the symbols from Our Sunday Visitor. There are all kinds of links for advent activities for everyone to do with their family at Catholic mom.

My other goal for Advent is to take Tom, Amelia and Christopher to mass each day.

What are your plans for advent?

Last week of school.

This week is week 10 of term three. We will have two weeks holidays and then our final term for the year starting in October.

I have a lot to get done. Next term, Christopher will be doing full time home school. He has been at kindy for 5 terms now. Usually, children here go for 4 terms but the staff at his kindy offered me an extra term to help with his speech delay. It has been good for him to have this extra term. His speech has improved a lot.

I have started to organise our new timetable. I am hoping that not going out for kindy pick up's in the middle of the day will make the days a bit easier and we will get more home schooling done.

Steve is going to build some cupboards and a bookshelf in the family room/home school room during the holidays so I will also be organising all our home school resources and other things that will be stored in there.

My camera that was dropped a couple of weeks ago is not working at all now. I had Steve video our children at their kids club service and it is all fuzzy. It will probably be okay for photos only but at the moment, we cannot even get that to work. Maybe I will try charging the battery and see if that makes a difference.

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!

I have missed blogging so much but my family has to take priority. I am hoping we are organised enough now that I will be able to blog regularly.

So it is over two weeks since I last blogged. I looked back through photos to update you all.

Two weekends ago, we went to Bill and Linda's for Daniels 16th birthday. Here is Daniel with his cake that tasted just as good as it looks.


While we were there, we meet Mr and Mrs Adept. It is great to put a face to a name.

On the way home, the rain started and we saw this over on the horizon.

Joseph is going really well. He commando crawls around the floor all the time now. I cannot put him down and come back and find him in the same position.

I have a DVD of the Priests. I got this when I was pregnant with Joseph and listened to it a lot. I have started to listen to it more because I have found it is very soothing for him. He likes to listen to it and be in my sling. I am sure it remind's him of being in the womb.

My favourite song from the DVD is Benedictus. Here it is for your enjoyment.


Oh and here is a photo of him that we recently took. This was just after his bath. He loves crawling around in his birthday suit.



Home school is going really well too now. I have had to have a good look at our program because I was feeling so burnt out by all that was going on with having a baby and lesson plans to do. I asked some good friends to pray for us because I was feeling so overwhelmed by it all and everything has seemed to fall into place since. I have changed our schedule around a bit and bought some new curriculum aids that have made teaching a bit easier. I think it will only get better now. Joseph is becoming more and more independent of me and doesn't need to be held all the time now.

Tom and Amelia. Week 3 links.

Go here for Amelia's journal writing.

Go here to hear about the play Tom wants to do.

New room.

Steve has worked so hard finishing off the family room/home school room. Today we will have our first day working in there. We are still waiting for the lino to be laid but it is organised enough that we can work from there.

Photos to follow tonight as long as Joseph is co-operative and lets mum sit on the computer.

Hopefully I won't be like this tonight.

bad things, good things.

The bad:

Last week our car was in an accident. A driver behind me ran into me when I stopped at an intersection.

The good:

We have all the details of the other driver and he has taken responsibility for the accident.

We have been into the crash repairers and they think the damage is pretty superficial.

No one was hurt.

The bad:

Christopher is getting very high blood sugars.

The good:

We had a good 15 months of him being in the honeymoon phase and he didn't get DKA.

The endocrinologist from WCH has been a great support and help.

Christopher is on the waiting list to start pumping.

The Bad;

This week Joseph has been very unsettled and we have had a lot of little extra things to do that has made our time table hard to follow.

The good:

I have sat down this morning and put more details into our time table. I printed it out so when we have a lot of extra things to do and get off track, I can just look at the timetable and get back on track.

The good:

I now have 150 followers. Nothing bad about this. Thanks so much to all my followers. I am so happy to have made so many friends online.

Tom and Amelia. Week two links.

Go here for Amelia's story writing.

Go here for Tom's fruit cake recipe.

Early morning.

It is 6.30 on Wednesday morning. I finally have a bit of time to do a post. Over this week, I have had plenty of ideas for posts but when I get on computer, I go to facebook or plurk or read other blogs so have run out of time to post here.

We have had a great start to the 3rd term. I won't tell you to much about what we are doing because Tom and Amelia will be writing on their blog about it. Amelia wants to start her own blog too so I am going to encourage writing each week for both of them. At this stage they will be updating each Wednesday. I will probably post a link here to their blogs when they have updated them.

Joseph is getting around all over the place now. He is much better than he was on the weekend but still has a runny nose and is finding it hard to breathe when feeding.

Here is a picture of Steve painting the family room. We thought it would be far enough along to start homeschooling in this term but we still have lay the lino and get things a bit more oragnised in there for this to happen. I think once the lino is laid, we can put all our boxes and tables in there so hopefully we will be working in there within the next couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to having this room done. I think it will make the lounge room much easier to keep tidy.