What have we been doing in September so far?

We wanted to be butterfly's for the day
After we visited the local milking shed...which was a really neat experience I think we'll be doing again a few more times so they can get past their shyness and largeness of it all...we had to play "milking sheds" so the whole courtyard was turned into a farm complete with pond, frogs and ducks, with bees for pollination, with rabbits, with tractors, with mice for eating the grain, with cats on the sideline for drinking the milk AND don't forget the dogs to keep everything in order. So all the soft toys were lined up like cows. Baby brother was sent off to walk the dog and round up any strays.

Wow and all that from a 10-15mins standing in the pit and getting pooed on ;-)
Jack Morgan Museum visit. We all teamed up for a Homeschool visit about 16 children. The museum put on some games and talks. Our daughter was probably a little on the little side to sit for very long to listen so we'll have to have another visit again where she can just explore and ask her own questions.
A Sock-ta-puss. The activity at Playcentre was making hand puppets. While sorting out all my old socks getting ready to leave to go DD realized she would have enough to make an animal....AN octopus!!! So a needle and thread were sorted and she started. The project was really stuck to really well. She had a few breaks when she wanted to go off and play but it was completed this morning and now has pride of place on the foot (haha) of her bed.
Ballet special. Our teacher asked if DD could take part in a special show the other week. There were going to be a few little groups of girls each putting on a little dance for the people of the gardening club. Our daughter very young and very small looked so lovely all in her little outfit...(I'm not into pink or Ballet but she's loving it). I was just about in tears watching her she did so well in front of 100-150 people...she'd never done anything like that before and it was just perfect.

And.....
I feel like I've been running very fast and not got far in some cases.

I feel like I've lost my "Oh my goodness she's 5 issue...and the oh my goodness her friends are all at school now" stress...a little ;-)

I've had the spring cold for about a week now, just pasted on by my son....thanks love. I've been wanting to write up learning story's and keep up with the portfolios but I've really needed to go to bed in the evenings.

Just today I was starting to feel like I've been really slack and worried that our daughter had not finished working on the Jolly phonics...once we finished reading the book the interest kind of faded away. But its come back again.

I looked over a few blogs about doing interesting things with letters. I suggested we make a wall frease (I'll get back to the spelling on that soon). I described the way these other children had worked on one using craft (which I thought my daughter would love as she often asked to use the craft stuff) so each letter was decorated using different medium.

So here comes the crunch point.

LET GO!

"No Mum lets just draw them"

"Oh"

Daughter draws a perfect s, I'm floored. Her s's are always 3's. It as large and bold and...

"OK"

"We'll cut them out too and you can stick them on the wall"

She did about half the letters in quick march then flicked to something else...then 3 hours later another bunch of letters...I can't keep up so I'm slack in that part...but they will be on the wall tomorrow.

Listening

Julian Treasure: 5 ways to listen better
http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better.html

Wow

In re-writing our cert. Of exc one of our learning areas will be listening

Abc

I will always hear my Mother trying to sound out 'library' when I was trying to write a story. She's a teacher my Mum...but I was not a very good student. I've only just recently worked out how to spell that word since using jolly phonics.

What a difference it makes using a system like jolly phonics. At least both the learner and the person sounding out the work know the sound and corresponding letter. No point in sounding a letter out to someone who does not know shape and sound first.
It's filled in a lot of gaps for me that's sure.

I've been reading Sandra Dodd for more inspiration...and visited the site Playful learning... I think we'll have to leave some letter things to do around...my daughter loves making books and loves craft work...so mix the two together.

Also the letter hunt is a good idea.

Sandra Dodd quotes - unschooling

I never thought I would get this book it seemed to be out on constant loan at the library...and I was not sure if I should buy it

I love the first paragraph
...From the point of view of the parent, it is creating and maintaining an environment in which natural learning flourishes.

I think a lot of quotes will end up in our Cert. Of exemption

Good bye colouring in books

I've made a bit of an effort to slowly remove the colouring in books. I do feel that they were holding my daughter back from learning how to express her-self. Was it just as she was beginning to learn how to draw or was it because I took the books away??Anyway drawing has become amazing. There are real people and things now. This has our letter box, our garden, her chickens and our house.

Lead by example

I've been told and read so many times that if I want my children to learn something then I need to do it myself.

Learn to read - they need to see you read

Learn to write - you need to write...wow how hard is that with a computer around...time to pick up pen and paper

Learn to count - do it yourself

Learn to add - show them working it out on paper a real life problem

So I've been writing letters and cards...wow how cool is that...I've not had time to do this for ages.

Cooking and baking

Gardening and planting seeds

Adding up numbers

Living life ;-)