NBTS Blog Hop - {Week 2} Curriculum.

Welcome to Week 2 of the Aussie NBTS Blog Hop.  This week we are sharing our curriculum for 2012!

Last week you met my three children Mr T, Miss J and Sir N who have all been homeschooled.  Mr T and Miss J have completed their education with me and the only student I have at present is Sir N.   This is a new experience for me educating an only child so each day is a little different to what I 'know' from then.

Our major family experience will be returning to South Africa for a 10 year Family Reunion in




We will be spending the majority of our time in Hoedspruit which is where Paul and I met, married and were blessed with our first two children.  We are looking forward to some great rest and fellowship with Paul's parents up at Trackers.

This will be a summary of what I would like to do with Sir N this year. For a full breakdown you can have a look at our Curricula for 2012 page.

I would summarise our style as Sonlight at the core and Eclectic. Please note I do not use every single item in it's entirety.  I use what we need and ditch the rest.

For our spine we are using Sonlight Core A with Grade K Readers - 5 - day.  This core is all about Exploring God's big world! It's about aquiring a very broad overview of world history and exploring different cultures. I LOVE my IG (Instructors Guide) it is my saving grace.  It keeps me on track and moving forward because I can take many scenic routes and follow one too many rabbit warrens in my schooling.  You can have the first 3 weeks from Sonlight IG emailed to you just select which Core, Language Arts & Science.

Time Line

• Historical Time Line Figures from Homeschool in the Woods.
• Sonlight Time Line Figures A

Bible

• Ergermeier's Bible Story Book
• Leading Little Ones to God.

History

• Sonlight Core A  
• The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times.

Geography

• Sonlight Core A 
• Expedition Earth: A Journey through God's World

Read Alouds

• Sonlight Core A 

Readers

• Fun Tales
• Learning Language Arts Through Literature Blue Book
• Fitzroy Readers
• I Can Read It!

Language Arts

• Language and Thinking for Young Children
• Go for the Code
• Learning Language Arts Through Literature Blue Book

Science 

• Sonlight Science A - 5 Day 
• Sonlight Science P4/5
• During our trip to South Africa we will be living on a beautiful game farm with Dave Rushworth who pioneered outward bound education.  He is a fountain of knowledge and a wonderful mentor and amazing naturalist.  I love watching him impart his wisdom and knowledge and look forward to Sir N spending time with him for two months.
• Paul is a wonderful source of Natural information and generously imparts his love of nature with Sir N daily. (this weekend he found a frog and gecko and brought them in for us to see)
• I would like to incorporate Nature Journaling this year and spend at least an hour each week outdoors looking at nature (The Outdoor Hour).

Art & Art appreciation

•  Usborne ART Treasury.
• The World's Greatest Artists Unit Study

 Music

• Classical Kids
• Hide em in Your Heart by Steve Green.

Math

• Abeka Arithmatic 1

Notebooking

• The Notebooking Fairy
• Last In Line

Handwritting

•  A Reason for Handwritting Level K

Whew it's quite a list !  I felt overwhelmed writing it and wanted you to know that we do NOT do everything everyday. More on that in week Four of the Not Back To School Blog Hop.

Writting this list certainly took me down memory lane and inspired me to write a Time line of my homeschool journey.  Come back on Monday and see a little of my journey over the last 15 years in the wonderful world of Home Schooling.  The things that have influenced my choices and kept me moving forward. 

Don't forget to hop over to Our World Wide Classroom and read what other Australian homeschoolers are using this year in their homes.  There are excellent links and summaries so grab a cup of coffee (or two or three ...) and hop around Australia.

Till Thursday when we will all be sharing about our Learning Spaces.

Blessings
Chareen

This post is linking to: Our World Wide Classroom NBTS Blog Hop

2012 Goals and Plans

I was over at Amy's place Little Adventures where she shared her goals for 2012 and was inspired to make some of my own. (Thank you Amy)

These are the Amy's words that inspired me to make goals for the new year:

Have you ever set out "resolutions" for the New Year only to find that within the first month of the New Year you are not doing those set resolutions AT ALL and then you feel guilt and shame?


THROW AWAY THE WORD resolution. It gives this finality of things that makes it very difficult when life gets busy (and we all know life gets busy all the time).


This year, I am going to make goals. Goals are things to strive for... and work your way up to... I want to lay out a plan ... things I really want to work for each week, month, project for the year, etc...

Goals for 2012 Lord Willing (James 4: 13-15)

1. Spiritual:

As the year draws to a close I have been thinking about my spiritual walk (actually the lack of) and thinking back and remembering the times in my life that I have walked closer to my Heavenly Father.

One time in particular stands out in my mind is the time that I spent reading my bible from Cover to Cover chronologically. It was a year of healing and spiritual growth that had me excited about getting out of bed and reading my bible.

Lately I have felt I need to repeat that journey with my Heavenly Father and have decided to blog my journey in 2012 working my way through the Word of the Lord, loving learning and being healed.

I would love your company, your insights and more importantly your conversations so please join me in 2012 over at:

One Year Through the Word. 

• Be up early and spend time in the Word before anything else.
• I would like to make a prayer journal and use it.... 
• The Power of a Praying Parent
• The Power of a Praying Wife
• The Power of Praying for your Adult Children

2.Mind:

• I have been feeling challenged to Be True to Myself. I want 2012 to be the year that I find my true self.
• Work on 52 books in 52 weeks Challenge
• Take every thought captive into the obedience of Christ.  I really struggle with negative self talk.  I have been challenged to think about what I am thinking.  To help me I will be reading Battle Field of the Mind.
• Meditating on scripture.
• Putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.  I love to sing and somewhere along the way I have lost my melody.... My aim is to play worship music on a daily basis.

3. Body:

• Becoming fit and healthy so that I am able to play and keep up with Sir N and enjoy my holiday to South Africa in April.  I want to enjoy my climb up the mountain at Trackers. My husband would like to take the family on a hike up here.
• I want to get back into Weight Watchers at home.  My weight as of today will be my new starting point and I will move forward from here.  I aim to divide my weight loss goal by 10 and use that amount as my mini goals.  I will have 10 mini goals then.
• I would like to aim to do 10 000 steps a day.
• My aim is to detox from Caffeine (I ♥ tea ...  but alas I feel I need to go on a tea fast for a while.) I read a great post titled Why I ended my love affair with Coffee. I encourage you to have a read and follow the links that Jo provides it makes for interesting reading.
• To be up early and go for an hour walk at least 5 mornings a week.
• Drinking 8 glasses of water a day. 
• Regularly take my supplements.
• Eat nutritious meals and make treats just that treats and not daily staples.

4. Relationships:

• Going for a walk once a week with Paul on my own.  We have done this a couple of times of late and it's been a fantastic way of reconnecting without social media, television and daily living distractions.
• Phoning rather than sms'ing to be in touch with friends and family.
• Taking time to play with Sir N. Taking out those games that are sitting idle in the games cupboard.
• Taking the tag-along out and going cycling with Sir N a few times a week.   Teaching Sir N to ride his bicycle.
• Finding ways to connect with my teens.
• Meeting fortnightly with Homeschool Mums for encouragement and accountability.
• Making cards for birthdays and posting them on time ....

5. Home School:

• I would like to work my way through A Charlotte Mason Companion. I was thinking of setting aside time once a month to talk about a chapter or two from this book. Anyone want to read this with me over the next year ??
• Spend some time on each Saturday reviewing my Sonlight Instructors Guide and getting in mind what is ahead for us each week.
• Choose which Note booking pages we will do for the new week ahead.
• Have a look at what we will be doing in our Art study for the week.
• Doing a weekly Nature Study
• Having a look at our Time Line book once a week on a Friday.
• Continuing our journey through Expedition Earth
• Once we have the basics in place I would like to add in Hymn Study.
• Swimming lessons. 

Looking at this list it looks fairly busy but we will not being doing these things daily but on different days of the week.  I will spread the work over the whole week.

6. At Home:

• To move from C.H.A.O.S. to being organized.
• To gradually work through each room at home and de-clutter and pass on what we don't need or use to someone who is in need of our excess.
• Plan healthy and nutritious meals.
• Find new tasty meals for my family.
• To actively work on reducing our debt.
• Spend an hour three times a week working in our garden.
• Do a load of washing each evening.
• Shine my sink every night.

7. Digital

• Blog three evenings a week.
• Learn to create websites using Microsoft Expression Web.
• Back up ALL (7 years worth ..) of digital photo's. Sort and burn to disk.
• Create photo albums with above photo's
• Learn to understand Domain Trading and setting up auto income generation.

8. Creative

• Work on my scrapbooks one evening a week
• Finish Paul's three Albums.
• Make cards on a fortnightly basis.
• Work on cross stitch while watching dvd's with Paul or out visiting a friend. 

I have found writing up these goals rather challenging as it has been a few years since I have made any goals.  I have been living from moment to moment and day by day without a vision or a hope.  No more.  As the old adage goes:  If you aim at nothing you will surely hit it. 

This has been a really positive experience and I would recommend it to anyone. Pop on over and be inspired by Amy at Little Adventures to make and set goals for 2012.

" You are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream " ~CS Lewis

Blessings

52 books in 52 weeks for 2012

I love to read.  It's my idea of a good holiday and one of the best ways to recharge and refresh.  When I was at school it was nothing for me to read a 1 000 page book in two days.


In case you are wondering I did not love reading as a young child.  When I was around 10 years old I can remember my Mom offering me R10 (the equivalent of around $100 now) to read one 150 page book.  I tried but gave up after two days.

It was not until I reached high school that I started enjoying reading. I think I was around fourteen years old.  It would take me a whole week to read ONE 150 page book! After about four months I was up to eight books a week and progressed to longer novels.  The library became my new best friend.

Then ....

               new seasons in my life meant that the time was no longer available to read.

Reading for me is as essential as breathing is to live.  I was sitting thinking that I can't remember when last I read for pleasure or learning on a regular basis.  So when I read about this challenge I became inspired to start reading again.

52 Books in 52 weeks 2012 Challenge

So who is up for the challenge and will join me in the new year ?


Look at what I have in my book basket: 

52 in 52.

Blessings

This post will be linking to: Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.