Last term I decided to take a break from blogging. But I have returned this term with our journey to share :)
I had always wanted to be an ultra organised person and believed that using a day by day planner would help me to do that, but I was wrong. As I tried to implement our day by day planner I started to feel like I was lagging behind, not keeping up. The kids were feeling like I was dragging them through our day. I was feeling disheartened as I had been really excited (for those who know me - over excited :) ) about starting Weaver for two terms. I had planned everything, collected all of our books and I felt that God had helped me to find it. So for it all to become too hard, was very disappointing. So i put it down for the term. I let the kids choose their own study paths and I tried to overcome the feeling of being burned out.
Towards the end of term we picked up our old Konos book. This had worked really well for our family and I believe God drew me to this book to show me how to use the Weaver program he had given me :) At this time I had put the Weaver up for sale and was hoping to get a good price, but I just had this niggling feeling that it wasn't suppose to sell and God kept drawing me to resources at the library that I could use alongside my Weaver plan. Then one night I picked it up and the rest is history.
The error I made and that I often make is that I get over excited and overplanned :) Also the words of a good friend kept ringing in my hears, not everything needs to be in an in depth written task, we didn't need to try to go into everything in great depth and that I needed to make it my own and not try to do everything!! Wise friend :) God taught me this through using Konos at the end of term. So I applied this way of doing to Weaver and it works!! I also have gotten rid of the Day by Day and have made my own plans based on their objectives. I have designed Weaver to fit in with us, not the other way around. We have also come up with our own pace and I am not worrying about how long it takes us. The Weaver now fits our family and everyone is enjoying the journey.
So I will start our first entry back, where we have continued on :)
This term we have been studying architecture. We have been looking at the materials used to build houses, we have read books about houses from around the world, we have looked at architecture in nature and we have been sketching some of our discoveries.
Here we are sketching our own home.
We have also tried our hand at making our own mud bricks. We used an ice cube tray to make mini bricks so they wouldn't take as long to dry.
We have been reading the Bible and learning about the Tower of Babel and the purposes of the people for building it. We have reflected on how God is worshiped in the hearts of men. We have discussed how God created and is in control of the workings of the universe. We have reflected upon how personal our God is and how we can trust him with the intimate details of our lives. We have discussed building our lives on God as our foundation and reflected upon how firmly we are planted when with God. And we have just started to discuss Jesus as the chief cornerstone.
Tower of Babel.
We have discussed the process of moulding a Cathedral bell and followed a similar procedure in creating our own candles.
The two Littlies have been learning about change. We have discussed how some change is reversible and some isn't. We have sharpened pencils and tried to put them back together :) We have defrosted ice and then refrozen ice. And we have each made a scrapbook to show how each of us have changed over time.
Adele couldn't miss out on this activity!!
Damon has been researching architecture of a Medieval Cathedral. Damon chose Elgin Cathedral and created a report discussing its architectural features. And he has also been reading about volcanoes and has produced 3 note booking pages about three different types of volcano and how they work.
Adele has been reading about the Industrial Revolution and about it's impact on Australia. She has completed a report on technology in the Australian mines around the time of the Industrial Revolution. And alongside this she has been reading about the Australian Gold Rush.
We have also been spoilt for excursions this term. The kids got to visit the Life Education Centre for a lesson on how to keep our bodies healthy and to learn what was inside our bodies. The bigger kids discussed drugs and peer pressure scenarios.
We have also attended the Shakespeare Festival at Gloucester. We all attended the Merchant of Venice, even Josef at 4 got an experience of Shakespeare :) And he did really well.
We were also lucky enough to squeeze a trip into the beach before the cooler weather hit.
I am so thankful we continued our journey with Weaver. A family shouldn't fit a curriculum but a curriculum should be used as a tool that compliments the families learning.
