Where have I been?

I must admit I’ve never really been consistent with blogging and after a run of a month or two if I’m lucky I tend to lose interest or something happens I and get busy and can’t find the time and when I’m no longer busy any more I don’t get back to the blog like I should.

And of course this is what happened to this blog. 

I did get very busy trying to start up a new business idea I had.  While I didn’t get the business running, it’s not over yet and is just on hold for now, most likely until bubs is born.

Also with Rocket Boy on his way to his 6^th birthday I have to meet all the legal requirements to home school him here in Aotearoa.  This means applying to the Ministry of Education for an exemption from having to enrol him in a registered school.  It is pretty simple to apply but you do need to understand how you are going to educate your child, have goals for the next 12 months, know how you plan to help your child achieve them as well as be able to measure them to know if your child has meet those goals and of course be able to state the resources you will be using.

That is it in a small nut shell; well I hope it is otherwise I’m writing a long document on the wrong thing.  I will share a copy of his exemption application when finished and approved.

I also got the New Zealand post card exchange group up and running and we have already received our first post card.

Now what I have to decide is where I want to go with this blog.  Do I want to attract readers?  Am I writing it mainly for myself?  Do I want to set a challenge for myself and this blog which is achievable?

I don’t have the answers to these questions right now so I’m just going to try to feel my way around and see what I make of it at the end of the day.

If there is anyone reading I would love for you to say hi, and maybe even suggest what you would like to read about here in my small part of the world wide web.

Unschooling

I love this quote from Marisa on Facebook, she was describing what ‘Unschooling’ is to another user and this really does sum it up for me

Unschooling is basically the opposite of school, the term came about from John Holt who was a teacher, he tried to reform schools in the US and failed and instead switched to encouraging parents to homeschool but not to do school at home. Unschooling comes from the same prinicipal of having an unschooled musician or an unschooled artist but is extended to every subject. Other descriptions that are used are child led learning, whole life learning, integrated learning, incidental learning, organic learning etc and if you search other peoples blogs or sites on homeschooling/unschooling you'll see those terms. In basic terms the school system is to learn xyz incase you need it when leave school, learn it now and it might have meaning or use later depending on what you do when you leave school. The school system decides that everyone needs to know the same set things to succeed and a big focus is put on reading, writing and maths. The unschooling way turns that around and instead we follow the philosophy that *if* you need to know xyz then you learn it at that time (and if you never learn it then there's no harm because you've never needed it so why know things you don't need to use), in context with meaning and because you want/need to, therefore it already has use and purpose and because the information is being learnt because the child wants to learn it it will be remembered. It also takes a big shift in thinking away from children needing to be forced to learn xyz at a particular age, tested or otherwise assessed, rewarded or punished for good/bad performance and instead we trust that children want to learn that their basic drive for knowledge, competence and independence is all they need a long with a little facilitating (showing them how to find the information, answering questions, helping when they ask for help, expanding their world so they experience many things), guidance, love and support. A bigger focus is put on relationships, there are no subjects, we don't do math or reading or writing those things are learnt through living along with everything else. A good example is to think of how we all learn to talk, we learn because communicating is important and talking is the best way to do it, babies have speech all around them as part of their everyday life and through just living they learn to talk, they don't need lessons in how to speak or to have it broken down in to tiny parts for them (i.e the way phonics does with reading).

 

Right now I’m currently working on the question ‘Is homeschooling what Rocket Boy needs?’ and I keep coming up with the answer ‘Yes’

But this doesn’t mean we’re going to throw out all our work books and just play with lego from now on, as while Rocket Boy would love this, I struggle with letting go.

I love lists, and routines and structure, I like having a set curriculum and goals to meet each week.  I have folders decided to different parts of my life, meal planning, daily schedules, even a Christmas planner with 2013 Christmas planning already started.  While I can and do just go with the flow and quite often make impulsive decisions (after all every move we’ve made as been decided within days of the itch to move) I couldn’t live this way every day.

I don’t think I can just unschool, but I can make steps towards unschooling and let Rocket Boy take back some of the control with his education.

We don’t do any work after lunch as he’s expressed many times that he’s had enough by this time of the day.  If he doesn’t want to do something I suggest, we don’t do it.

I still have rules around screen time, if he wants screen time he has to earn it by completing Reading Egg lessons.  He also earns money for new Lego sets by completing work such as Reading Egg lessons, reading books, and completing letters in his Handwriting Without Tears work book.  I know these are so very school like ideas but this is the control I just can’t give up yet.  Maybe with time I will be able to let go a little more.

Do you unschool? How did you find this way of learning/teaching? Was it easy to move to unschooling or did you never start ‘schooling’ in the first place?

Weekly Wrap Up

Another week, another wrap up.  I think Rocket Boy and I have worked out a routine as the amount of work completed each week seems to be rather consistent.  I would love it to be a lot more but I can’t expect  too much from my boy and he is progressing in all areas so that’s enough for me (that’s what I keep telling myself at least)

We started this week with a Star Wars preschool pack, even Lady bug had a go at most of it.  We rounded off the day with watching the movie Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

Rocket Boy and myself visited a toy shop while Lady Bug was at kindy one morning and I had to restrain myself as this particular toy shop focuses on educational toys, many which have a lot of open ended play (not sure if that’s a correct term, but basically the toy can be played with in a lot of different ways, and the child is only limited by their imagination)

The first was a set of foam magnetic shapes which Rocket Boy enjoyed making lots of different shapes out of, this one below is a castle.  Rocket Boy doesn’t have much of a imagination so stuck with the examples on the paper provided in the jar.

The next was impossiable to walk by as I LOVE Melissa and Doug products.  This was alphabet stamp set, with both upper and lower case.  It didn’t take Rocket Boy long to crack this open and start spelling words he knew.  This set is also good for completing work sheets or spelling games without the pressure of handwriting.

Both these toys were brought with Lady buy in mind but that doesn’t mean they won’t get used by Rocket Boy most weeks as well.

Rocket Boy also completed another weeks’ worth of lessons from the Blue Book.  As Rocket Boys reading level is more advance than the level in the blue book thanks to all his work in Reading Eggs we can complete a week’s lesson in around 20 minutes, sometimes less.   Rocket Boy handwriting is improving so much with the work sheets from this program, but as our main handwriting focus is from the Handwriting Without Tears program I don’t put any pressure on Rocket Boy on the end results of these sheets, I just ensure he starts with his pencil at the correct place.

Rocket Boy completed letter N with Handwriting Without Tears, there are less and less pages left in this book so I see us moving onto the next book very soon.

We also received our first postcard from Post Crossing from America, Rocket Boy did a great job of helping me find the city it came from and placing the sticker in the correct place.

That’s it for this week, next week is the first week of the school holidays here in New Zealand, and as I provide school holidays care I was going to give Rocket Boy a holiday as well.  I’ve since talked with the parents of my care kids and most are coming with some kind of homework so I may be able to get Rocket Boy interested in completing some work yet.

Starting a home business

Starting your own business can seem like a good idea and easy to do, while I do believe I have a good idea I’m finding that it’s not that easy to do.

I have all these ideas in my head and I want to get them down on paper but while I can talk to others about it and get across what I need I’m struggling to get it all down in a way it makes sense.

I’m not going to go on about my idea, I’m going to keep that under wraps for the moment until I’ve got all the T’s crossed and I’s dotted.  I also want to see if I can get a business grant to cover start-up costs.

The idea is less than 3 days old so I shouldn’t be feeling so much pressure to have it all on paper by now.  I just need to stop and breathe and maybe record my conversations so I don’t forget anything.  

Have you ever created a business from nothing?  Any words of advice to share?

Post Crossing - 1st Postcard

We received our first postcard from Post Crossing all the way from California, America.  The postcard was vintage and all about the California missions.

The text on the back of the card says:
The founding of the Spanish Missions in California furnished an epic in history.  These historical monuments are reminders of the great Franciscan adventure.  Years of patient labour, decades of heroic sacrifice by Fray Junipera Serra and his Franciscan brothers lie behind the era of the founding of the twenty-one Missions and their branches, the ruins of which still stand in wonder and beauty, at various points along 600 miles of California’s glorious costal region.

The sender was great and sent the postcard in an envelope so she could use several stamps -  6 in all.  This is what both Rocket Boy and Ladybug loved the most.  I will have to teach them how to remove stamps safely and get them a stamp collecting book soon I think.

 

I showed Rocket Boy the postmark which showed that the postcard came from San Francisco then we found it on the map.  Rocket Boy is always happy to find places in America as his favourite you tube show ‘brick show’ is made in America and every time we look at the map he has to point this out.

Rocket Boy even put the sticker on the map and managed to get it in the right spot so every time we look at the map now we can easily find San Francisco.

Star Wars

We had a fun family day filled with Star Wars yesterday.  When hunting through some old boxes I found some preschool packs I prepared so long ago that I forgot about them.  Rocket Boy took one look at the Star Wars pack and wanted to start right away.

I made a deal with Rocket Boy, if he completed everything I asked him to out of the pack we could watch the last Star Wars movie he had yet to see, Episode III Revenge of the Sith.  This really motivated him and he was very impatience and didn’t even want to wait for me to have breakfast or get dressed before we started, tuff luck my boy, this Mumma needs food and a shower first.

I found this pack at Homeschool Creations.  One of the many sites out there thh have a huge amount of free resources you can use with your children.  It only costs you paper, ink and if you want lamination pockets.

Rocket Boy was very keen for me to take photos of everything so I could share ‘on the internet with your friends Mum’  I also had to email Poppa to make sure he saw it as well.

Below you can see Rocket boy circling the first letter of each name of the characters, this was great for pre writing and phonics. Sorting pictures of characters with shapes on them onto a card with the name of the shapes, Rocket Boy did this buy sounding out the start of the word to work out what shape it was.  Then there was some pre writing exercises and measuring the light savers, keep in mind we use the metric system in New Zealand so the measurements are in centimetres.

Ladybug had to join in so she had a go at most things but really enjoyed wiping off the whiteboard pens off the laminated cards.

Several different activities here, the shape one again (opps didn’t realise I put that in twice) and some handwriting, as you’ll know from earlier posts, Rocket Boy does not like handwriting, but was happy to do this activity (most likely he was thinking of the movie at the end).  We only did the uppercase page as the Handwriting without Tears program starts with uppercase first so it’s what he knows.  I did have to write some of the letters for him on another page first but he did every letter on that page himself and even correctly formed each one as well.  The Yoda and Darth Vader pages were just tracing the letters but still good practise.  Spot the different, and patterning.  And last, I would place a number on the card and Rocket Boy would place the correct number of star ships.

Rocket Boy was not happy with his first attempt at the letter E and did not want this shared this picture so I made sure I took a photo of his second attempt which is below.

Rocket Boy had a LOT of fun this with pack, and even Ladybug stayed at table the whole time with us.  Ladybug is showing more and more readiness to start some work of her own so if I get myself organised you’ll be seeing some new preschool posts featuring my little Ladybug soon.

Meal Plan Monday 15th April - 21st April

Last week didn’t go quite to plan but I did make 5 out of the 7 meals planned even if they were on different nights.  But that’s the beauty of meal planning, everything is there ready for the meals so you can cook them when it suits you.  Just because you said you were going to have it on Tuesday doesn’t mean you actually have to have it on Tuesday.

I was actually surprised at what the kids ate, while they may not have finished everything, they did try some foods I would never have expected.



Please keep in mind that I’m not a photographer!!  

The Oregano Chicken Schnitzel and steamed vegetables was changed to Chicken fingers with chips and spinach but I did manage to use almost all the ingredients planned for the original meal

We also had grilled fish with home made teriyaki sauce and sautéed vegetables.  This is not the kind of food I eat never mind the kids and I LOVED it.  The kids even ate the fish which might have been the first fish they ever ate happily that wasn’t deep fried.  This dish is going to go on my regular list.

I’m having trouble coming up with a plan for this coming week as hubby is away for work from Tuesday and not returning until Friday so with just me and the kids I’m going to go for convenience as much as possible and that may mean take aways.

But I did get mince out today to make meat balls which didn’t happen so I will have to cook it tomorrow which means that’s one day planned.  The kids have asked for home made pizza and chicken nuggets so that’s another two.  So here goes…

 Monday – Butter chicken (this was a frozen meal from the supermarket)

Tuesday – Meatballs in a tomato and vegetable sauce with either pasta or garlic bread.

Wednesday – Take aways

Thursday – Home made pizza

Friday – Chicken nuggets and chips (will add a salad but I’m the only one that will eat it)

Saturday – Roast Chicken, vegetables, and chocolate fudge pudding (our friend is visiting so it’ll be nice to make a large meal that will actually be eaten, as this is not a meal the kids like)

Sunday – Chicken and home made pasta (using any left other chicken from the roast)

I also need some ideas for fruit based desserts, as Ladybugs dietician thinks that introducing new fruits to her this way might have more success that fresh fruit.  Ladybug currently only eats bananas, but will suck on oranges and apples.

So far we’ve tried fruit sponges, pineapple upside down cake, fruit crumbles, sticky date pudding, fruit in jelly, icecream or custard with tinned fruits, and she has turned her nose up at all.  If you have any other ideas please let me know in the comments.