A Day in Our Lives {NBTS}

Welcome to week three of the annual Not Back to School Party, I'm co-hosting this event with Kylie over at Our WorldWide Classroom.  I love meeting new home educating families and find inspiration in knowing how their days go and what they do.  I'd love to hear more about your day.  If you have a blog please come and link up your post us and if you don't blog I would love to hear about your day in the comments.

Daily Schedules I've found to be a bit of a hotly debated topic among home educating families. There are so many opinions and some families schedules can leave you feeling overwhelmed and inadequate for the job of home education.  You can read some of my thoughts on scheduling here: Our Rhythm - Year Round Schooling and Homeschool Daily Schedules

I've done both.  I've scheduled every minute of every day and done no scheduling what-so-ever. Neither options lasted very long for us.  I've avoided writing down a schedule for Nathaniel as it seems to cause him a lot of stress if we don't do something at a scheduled time of the day. As a result I have a rough schedule in my head which is flexible around the things we need to get done or field trips we are booked into attending.  Over the last few years I have come to value Field Trips and I am appreciating more and more the impact they have on our students educational experiences.

In this way: give your a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information. - Charlotte Mason

Alas I digress ...

What does our day look like ?
In an ideal world I would love to have a very strict schedule.  I also know that that is not real life.

• We get up and share a cup of tea each morning to start our day.  On days when I need the car I take Paul to work and we have breakfast when we get home.
• After breakfast we do a couple of household chores (generally we hang washing and unpack the dishwasher)
• Nathaniel and I then spend some time reading read alouds
• We have morning tea and do some seat work at the table. (Math, LA, Notebooking etc)
• By then it's lunch time.
• After lunch we either go to afternoon activities or we cuddle on the couch and enjoy more read aloud time together
• Sometimes we watch documentaries on demand TV.  I prefer SBS Documentaries for these.

"Every lesson must have its own time, and no other time in this world is there for it. The sense of the preciousness of time, of the irreparable loss when a ten minutes' lesson is thrown away must be brought home." - Charlotte Mason Companion page 93

Homeschool Adventures
You can follow our day to day adventures on Instagram via ChareenR



Looking forward to reading about your days come and link up with us

Blessings
Chareen

Second Week Back {HSMJ}

 In my life this week…

• We are trying to get back into the swing of things ... 
• I am rearranging my library of books.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

• 5 Things to Remember When You're Planning Your Homeschool Curriculum
• Two weeks left to get your FREE States and Capitals Printable Flash Cards and Worksheets
• Using Picture Books to Demonstrate Narrative Writing.
• Special Needs education Homeschool Moms share on how they structure different areas in order to support their children’s educational needs.  
• Grab Your FREE bundle of LOVE from the Old Schoolhouse
• 5 Ways to Weave Hymns into Your Days
• Valentine Rose Art
• Websites for Teaching Trigonometry
• Get SKWIRK for half price over at  Our World Wide Classroom

In our home school this week…

• .We have continued reading The Wizard of Oz.
• Enjoyed learning about the Greek and Roman gods in a Child's History of the World.  
• Read about the Illiad and the Odessey
• Made a Valentine's Angel
• Commenced recorder lessons for 2015
• Practiced catching a tennis ball for the upcoming Boys Brigade International Games
• Continued reading the orginal Hans Christian Anderson stories.  
• Recommenced our art drawing technique class.
• We've been reading Dinosaurs of Eden in preparation of our trip to see Walking with Dinosaurs in March.
• Continued with our science studies of the planets.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

• This week was considerably quieter than last week!
• We had recorder and art lessons.

My favourite thing this week was…

• I love this gentle reminder I can never put myself back in the picture
• Being encouraged and reminded by Sarita in this post Eight ways to show your family love throughout your homeschool day
• The Preschool Years ~ Turning Mommy Guilt into Mommy Grace

 Things I’m working on…

• This week we made a Valentine's Angel in our art class.
• Sharing about our Sand Sculpting Field Trip 
• Sunset Wonders a photo journal
• Some ideas on this years curriculum for Nathaniel Year 4 Curriculum
• This afternoon I will be sharing a day in our life ...

A Question to Ask

• Do you keep a Common Place Book ?  IF so why ?  What is it ?  I want to know more ...
• I started researching it 

 On the WWW I’m reading…

• This is an interesting read on the dangers of Social Media and the ramifications of a word carelessly spoken How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
• The Reality of a “Fifty Shades” Relationship Guilty of first degree murder of his wife, and the reason ...  She would not consent to a Fifty Shades Relationship with her spouse 
• This was cute Penguin goes shopping Video
• Lessons I’ve Learned from Parenting Teens
• 18 Lego Hacks We Are Obsessed With
• 7 Sure-Fire Ways to Chase People Away from Your Blog

  A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Geelong Waterfront

Blessings
Chareen

Connect with me

 

Linking to

Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor


A Week In Review Link UP

Join Lisa and I each week and share your week in review.  We look forward to reading about your

• Week in Review
• Field Trips
• School Work 
• Homeschool projects
• And anything homeschool related.

Here is a button for your post.

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.everybedofroses.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Virtual%20Fridge" title="My Week in Review Link UP"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JfK0Pu8bjjRGkWVH2UajSwQ-LHWiM4FZ-326h-H_4BLk-s1IXdBu1tG_LN3fiWkqklIjwPrYRzA42txZHjDxOJyoVc3xUhgUjDfwPeQT2J_Hu-KUcXGFekmkbNZHTdP66xEBuLPAEAWP/s1600/my+weekinreview2.jpg"height="125" width="125" alt="My Week in Review Link UP" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

An InLinkz Link-up

Sand Sculpting Australia {Field Trip}

Last week Friday I had the most wonderful experience joining a few other home educating families and going to the Sand Sculpting Australia exhibition: Friends Foes & Super Heroes.  This particular event will remain open to the public until the 26 April 2015.

I learned some interesting facts about Sand Sculpting.

• 'Brickies loam' is used to sculpt with.  This sand is different to the sand on the beach in that each grain of sand is square, which means that it sticks together better.
• Sculptures take up three weeks of 8 hour days to sculpt.
• Only water is added to the sand to enable sculpting
• Sculpting takes place from top to bottom.
• All the sculptures are solid sand.
• Completed sculptures are sprayed with a biodegradable sealant to help repel moisture
• Although they are strong they do need maintenance.  This is the job of the resident sculptor.
• After the event is finished the sculptures are broken down and the sand is stored for future events.

You can read more about the history and how to build sand sculptures over at Sand Sculpting Australia.

Sand Sculpting Australia - Disney Princesses

Sand Sculpting Australia - Disney Princesses

I loved the attention to detail

Disney Pixar Toy Story

The Evil Queen

Mater from Cars

Disney's Micky and Friends

Mother Gothel from Tangled

The resident sculptor doing some maintenance on Disney's Frozen Sculpture

Star Wars X-Wing Battle Scene

Star Wars Rebels

Marvel The Avengers

Marvel - Spider Man

Jungle Book

Friends Foes and Super Heroes

Homeschool Friends trying their hand at Sand Sculpting

Next up we made some sand art pictures

It was a beautiful day to fully immerse ourselves in the art of sand at the beach.  If you find yourself near an exhibition take some time to appreciate the creativity in this art form.

Blessings
Chareen