Monday, October 22, 2012

Just another day homeschooling

Monday 22nd October 2012

I love looking online for blogs where people share what their day looks like. I think one of the most common questions ever asked is, " Am I doing it right?" 

Well I had the revelation that there is no right or wrong way, as every blog I have ever read, reads differently. And no two days will ever be the same either.

I woke up this morning and actually went for a 41 minute walk before the kids got out of bed. It was a great time to just get my thoughts together and do some mental planning of how my day was to go. Arriving back at the house the kids had surfaced and were busy eating breakfast.

We started our day with worship, something we try to do every day. We generally try to read a chapter of the bible and then have a discussion about what we have read, make comments or ask questions, then each take turns in saying a prayer. Some days its just the prayer if time is a bit short. Well at the moment we are reading through Daniel, so today was Chapter 5 and the writing on the wall.

After that we progressed into Maths. Miss E did a quiz and scored 86 out of 100 and then did another lesson with the focus on telling time. Miss Z is doing some revision of geometry facts and formulas, while Master J was trying to get out of doing long division and converting fractions to decimals.

With all the lessons fully completed and corrected, we decided to move outside and do some work on health and nutrition and physical education.
We had found some "test your fitness" activities and thought that we would do them and then formulate an exercise plan and retest in four and eight weeks to see if there was any improvement. Miss Z made up some record sheets for us to record our data. Miss E had her skipping rope and Master J was in the garage getting out the dumb bells........ and thats about how far my planned day got.

"Hey mum, theres a Kingfisher in the garage". Everyone runs into the garage to find this tiny bird flapping around on the ground. Its leg is damaged and I am thinking that its wing might have been broken as well, as it couldn't get off the ground. Well what to do?
Grabbing an older towel we gentled grabbed the bird from under the bikes and took him inside.




A quick internet seach and we had a contact number for WIRES ( Wildlife  Information, Rescue and Education Service). A phone call was made and then it was a waiting game for someone to ring us back. Not knowing exactly how long we would have to wait for the local person to contact us we found a shoe box and placed the bird inside.



While waiting, out came the bird book for the kids to try and work out what type of kingfisher this little fellow was. It was decided that he looked most like a Sacred Kingfisher. They also decided that my he was a she.

The phone rings after about 5-10 mintues and we are asked if we could met the carer half way, so it was into the car for a drive to Gerogery. About a 15-20 minute drive. She had made arrangments to take the bird to the vet. Should the kingfisher survive and be able to be released we shall get a phone call as they will release the bird back here, where she came from.

So by now my tummy is rumbling, not to mention the kids, so its a drive home to make some lunch. Miss Z made Macoroni Cheese for everyone. While that was being made I had some time to work on Go For the Code Book C with Miss E. It threw her a bit today as it has moved on to listening and identifying end sounds. Once she got over not trying to find the first sound she did really well and the book is just about finished. Only about 5 pages to go and then we shall be up to Explode the code book 1.

After lunch, Master J worked on his science. Miss Z and E did some more exercise outside with the skipping ropes and trampoline. Miss Z then came inside and worked on writing a drama script for the next kids church drama. Miss E then settled in to braiding. We had seen some really lovely friendship bands on the weekend which inspired her to have a go at making her own and not just the ordinary straight one either. She came up with her own design using 2 colours, knotting them and then every so oftern she would join the 2 colours making a chain type thing.

 I then got a very pleasent surprise with my Aunty calling in for a cuppa late this afternoon. A very nice relaxing event. After she had left, it was time to get the 3 loads of washing of the clothes line, folded and put away. Wonderful hubby stepped up and offered to cook dinner, which I will never say no to, so here I sit typing up a blog entry.

Well dinner was yummy and the day is done. Not exactly how I had planned it in my early morning walk, but things were learnt and sometimes it is in those unexpected things that we learn the most.

Should you want more information about WIRES you can go to http://www.wires.org.au/