Weekly Report #6

Samuel, our baby, was sick this week, so we tried to minimise our outside activities. We didn't get together with our homeschooling friends on Thursday as we usually do, but, as predicted by the doctor, Samuel was over his three-day fever by Friday so we went for a Nature Walk and then visited the library for some great picture books, all before morning tea time.

Joshua is continuing well with his writing and reading requirements, but I didn't given Anna any sit-down Pre-School activities at all this week. Instead I stayed on top of my laundry and cooking responsibilities and made sure I spent plenty of time playing with the kids and reading aloud to them. I am trying that bit harder at the moment to manage my homekeeping responsibilities well, because Jeff is at the hardest time of year with exams the week after next, and it is much better for him if I am a helper rather than another cause of stress!

Today is the first day of daylight saving here in WA, so we have also been trying to get them to bed earlier each day in preparation of the hour's jump forwards in time. At the beginning of daylight saving I am usually very thankful as the kids no longer wake up before 6am because "the sun's up, Mummy!" whereas towards the end I look forward to getting them out of bed at a reasonable hour with little grumbling. The seasonal variation that we experience here in the south of Australia has taken me by surprise because I am so used to the unvarying day length of the tropics.

On Wednesday night I stayed home from our small group Bible Study so Samuel wouldn't infect any of the other family's children, and I used the time to pray and plan about our academic plans for next year. I am planning to add in a bit of "Culture Appreciation" and some "Science" and "Geography" along with a more formal mathematics program (Early Bird Mathematics 2) even though Joshua will officially only be doing Pre-Primary (K5). I rang my Dad and asked him for advice on classical composers to include in Music Appreciation and planned out the framework of a science and geography course. In the first semester, we're going to look at one continent each 2-3 weeks and learn about animals that live in a selected habitat of that continent, as well as a bit about the physical geography (etc). To lead into this, we're doing a bit of a unit study on dinosaurs, because that is what fascinates Joshua at the moment. Graham gave Joshua a lovely dinosaur colouring book and a make-your-own dinosaur skeleton wooden kits (a Stegasaur) while he was here and Jeff has just found some Dinosaur lego that was handed down to us a while ago from neighbours with older kids. I'm trying to add into our read aloud story times some non-fiction on dinosaurs as well. If it all seems a bit much, I'll make the semester plan spead out over the full year. Otherwise I plan on doing something on Australian geography and the seasons in the second semester.