Our journey in NSW

What a journey this has been. It has been lots of fun looking at landmarks and places we have visited. Such places as Sights in Sydney, the Hunter river, Blue Mountains, Fitzroy Falls, Goulburn. Brid is reviewing NSW this week and has enjoyed her discoveries.

Our favourite book is My Place- Nadia Wheatley The best part about it is just travelling in the same area and watching it grow, and then discovering that it was the place WYD08 held many of its events in that week. I volunteered for this week, and as I was stationed at Barangaroo, I got to see it fairly empty in the mornings @ 8am or so.

We were both very delighted to be able to google this area of Barangaroo, and to see the 'Big Tree', still growing. It was the landmark that positioned us, the reader, in every new decade and page that Nadia took us too.

This is what Barangaroo is famous for of late.The main sight for WYD08. To the mid left of the photo, would be where the big tree would be located.

Our week in Queensland and other stuff

You may ask, how are we travelling with school? You may not.
But my answer would be, pretty good.

Brid is becoming more and more self motivated, as the term goes on. I think you call it maturity! I spend less and less time teaching, as she is on cue with each subject. It actually makes me feel a litle guilty, as once shown the guidelines and expectations, she is fairly capable of keeping the momentum going. I did spend a lot of time with her in the early years helping, planning and developing her skills. So it is finally paying off. Am I spouting off - maybe, but we have journeyed to a new place, an exciting place.
This freedom for me allows me to work on virtues a lot more closely. As I am not in the thick of books, I can see what needs affirming or correcting.
Today at the end of lessons, Brid thanked God for fun lessons. Was I taken back, yes, but thankful in her enjoyment.
So what has this to do with Queensland.
Last week, I resourced several books including Australian Traveller books and we are in Queensland in its heat, rainforests and its reefs. This is an area Brid has taken on herself. She is happy reading to herself, but occasionally we sit and read together.
So today, she put pen to paper --or should I say hand to keyboard and began. Drafting her ideas was yesterday,
Tomorrow will be using IEW to critique her sentences her paragraphs and dress up her work.
It looks pretty good so far.
This year, we settled into a 3 day week. These 3 days are very full, but we make sure we have plenty of breaks.
Earlier in the year I purchased Latina Christiana with the DVD. Great purchase.It is a nice way of finishing of Mondays.
Classics for Kids completes Tuesdays. It's relaxing and often Brid will either listen further or inspire her on the piano.
Sports, Irish Dance and Music is Wednesdays. So we limit this day to Maths and Bible. This means its fairly stress free- and no 'hurry up, we will be late', from me.
Art completes the week, on Friday. Its a 40 min drive away, so just Maths & Saint reader.
It has been easy settling in to the school groove.
Beyond the school day, we just as most homeschoolers do, take the time to have teaching moments. I now strongly believe everything can be a teachable moment, its just a matter of embracing that moment.