Australia, Parliament and more

Every year we begin our homeschooling year with Australia, in one form or another.
This year, I decided Brid needed to discover more about Australian Parliament & Government. So I proceeded to write out a list of questions and gather some links.
I wrote down basic questions to start with, knowing she would want to research and investigate various areas. The questions were:-Who is our PM, What council do we belong to, Who is the Local Mayor, How is a Bill passed, what type of government system do we have???? etc. These are random- they were set out much neater and in order.
I had a few links to various kid friendly sites like this as well.
This has been quite a worthwhile project. I have not assisted in this one at all. Brid has had a vision for it and has set out to achieve that goal by herself. I have been banished from the school area, so she can surprise me. So tomorrow is the day it must be completed. From the little peek I have had its looking good.



Parliament House, Canberra.



American Indians

These are the resources we are using at the moment for researching and exploring the Native American Indians. We have also downloaded this for extra resources. Its been a lovely change from the usual school day. I have left most of the setting out to Brid, and again she has put together a framework for her work to be completed. I have used a very simple lesson plan. I also have sourced a book by Holling. The book of Indians. A very good book, easy read aloud, and thank you to the ladies on 4 real for suggesting it. It covers the main tribes of North America, in a story. Wealth of information.

The framework for a teepee

One book I forgot to put in was Pocohontas. It was completed very early on and was very enjoyed. Thank you to all the people who helped me source resources for this study. We will update soon, but Today we are looking at our soon to be 1st Australian Saint. Mary of the Cross. Have a Blessed Day

The way we approach our school day

Recently I was asked to talk about how we approached our day, at a Homeschool camp, It was very late, so I skimmed through my notes and picked the most important and relevant parts for that evening. It did make the talk a little jumpy, so I decided to share it here. Some of this has been shared before.

A few months ago, Brid was feeling very tired and after all the usual good food, rest, reducing activity etc., and these were not effective, we decided to take a break from the usual book work. ( she had grown 8cm in a few months, looking back on it).

I searched homeschool share and others for inspiration, for a lapbook/ notebook and saw one on Ballet. Brid loves to dance, so I knew she would love this. Brid entered into the spirit of the project with zest and got out all her old ballet books, picture books and used them as references as well. It was interesting to see her style of learning, how she organised her work, and worked her way around her project.

So my mind started working overtime,why not trial this approach with all her topics we cover? All we would keep from our current timetable would be religion/devotion, saint reader, cursive writing practice and maths. This meant after morning tea @ 11ish, she was free to embellish her topic.
So what topics would we do like this?
Science, History, Geography, Music, Art, Latin, Virtues, everything.

So what’s so good about it?
Brid gets momentum, there is no stop/ starts. I see it as a preparation for high school work. (in Australia high school starts from 13). She is free from scheduling as such. I know she can stick to task as her concentration has increased. We are seeing much more work completed and being put on display more often. So Brid is very much encouraged by this.

So what about subjects she isn’t keen on? Well that is why we created a newspaper. It can be quite a fun thing to write a newspaper and all those areas that you ‘have to do’, can become much more alive.

So will we continue? Yes we will in one form or another. I can see a place for it. I know Brid has matured in her studies, and on reflection, we had moved away from a bookwork, schoolie approach a while ago.

So in the future we will tweek it as I need to. Next term, we are looking at American Indians- we haven’t studied much American history, and although this will only be a snapshot, we can spend lots of time unpacking and discovering so much more. Its been fun researching and purchasing/ borrowing great literature and references, knowing it will be a source of fun. Thats a whole post ofits own.

So from the mouth of the Brid “ I don’t feel so rushed”. “ When I start something I want to be proud of it, by doing it thoroughly.”

Topic Approach week 3 and 4

Its been around 4 weeks since we began using Topic approach. Its been a good fit so far. Brid likes to 'get into a topic' and although she will move on to another, she finds it distracting of her concentration.
So the last week Brid concentrated on her newspaper. It is something, she puts together once a month, on various topics. This month being Music.
This week we have been able to flesh out Rome. We are close to the end of this period in History and it has been worthwhile being able to stay on a topic and get momentum.
So would I say its been a good switch?
yes and a tiny bit of hesitation on a no.
We are covering more and certainly the continuity is worth it, but I am reluctant to say its how we will continue.
Time will tell.

Topic Approach week 2-

Last week, we covered several Musical Composers, and this week Brid is looking at rivers of the world.
 I wrote a lesson plan, last year and I just tweak it to suit our needs. I chose to look at rivers, because there can be so much that can be discovered about the surrounding countries and landscape.
Firstly, I ask Brid to identify where the river is and support this by adding the longitude and latitude, and landmarks. This gives us the opportunity to discuss map referencing.
I then ask her to look at the townships and cities on the river and ask her why they were established there. Now sometimes, I need to help with this one, but she is learning to identify the reasons. So the question then arises what is this rivers' main purpose, and who are the people of this area, particularly for rivers like the Congo and the Amazon.
She then finds the length of the river, and discovers does it cross states, countries and if so which ones.
Where is the source and where does the river flow to. We use google earth to look along the river. Some are fascinating.
We are loving this approach to our school day.
Once we have covered the main rivers of the world, we will journey to looking at people of the world in greater depth. This will merge with history at times as well.