First week of term!!! Lots of learning through life!!!

Last week I had a lot planned but we only ended up doing very little actual work at home :) This partly had to do with my over enthusiastic plan and Adele communicating that it was too much!! I do get a little over-excited! :( But that was good because now we have a new plan that is working well :)...Yay!!

Damon my eldest also started school last week, so due to that transition and some appointments only a small amount of work at home was achieved, but that is o.k!! The kids still learned lots :)

Adele started the term with a maths assessment. 

Avril started back at her MEP maths. She loves this maths. Here she is learning about addition and subtraction through play.

MEP maths gets the kids actively showing the number using their bodies.

Here she is drawing over horizontal and vertical lines.

Don't touch the edge!!! Which is longer?

Avril had to communicate, below, how many flowers of a certain colour were on the left or right side of the first or second row. She had to complete the stems for some of the flowers. 

We have continued our lessons in Free Reading - letter A - aaa!

Below we are playing a game, where I point to the letters and Avril has to be quiet if it is not A, but when I point to an A, she is to say 'aaa'.

After the first two games, Avril wrote some letters for me and she pointed to the letters :)

Avril is using the Blinky Bill Copywork book as she learns to form her letters.

FIAR is wonderful and makes home learning so relaxing! We have started rowing Madeline.

I wasn't sure how much Avril would enjoy looking at the globe but she surprised me! She was so excited and keen to learn! She listened and watched intently as I showed her the UK and France on the globe. Then we played a game. I spun the globe and then her challenge was to find the UK and France, including Paris. And she did it!! I was very impressed!

She also surprised me by excitedly looking through the maps in the book, Around The World in 80 Days. She loved checking out the flags that were scattered around the map.

Avril headed outside to paint a French flag.

Plus lots of other patterns :)

Josef had a turn too :)

Adele was not keen when she realised her topic for language arts was trees! But thankfully I had a few books on trees and after a little while researching her answers, Adele was enthusiastic and eager to show me what she had discovered :)

Adele was reading The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible. She had certain pages to read and surprised herself by reading even further as she was so interested in the information she discovered.

Of course we are always preparing food!! Adele helped me prepare banana and chocolate tortillas for lunch. They were so gooey and warm!! Yum.

WE all thoroughly enjoyed them :)

Adele had been keen to make a paper bag house for a few weeks. So this week she got started on this project.

Avril and Josef joined in the fun!!

Then we had a city!!

I was delighted to find Josef sitting quietly reading some Thomas the Tank Engine books.

Then it was Anzac Day. We didn't make a dawn service but we did make a late morning parade and service in Morpeth. The parade was great they had a person dressed as an injured soldier riding a donkey - Simpson and the Donkey. There were old army veterans, a Scottish marching band, and different community groups marching. The kids thought this was fascinating.

The service was a little long for the littlies as they became restless and they couldn't see anything. So as not to disturb everone else as they became noisy, we left early much to the disgust of the two older kids.

We headed home and we made Anzac biscuits.

On Friday we headed to a school open day of a local presentation - SteamFest. This celebrates the time of Steam engines.

The kids explored displays of steam engines, big and small. They rode a miniature train and a cityrail train. The staff opened the drivers compartment for the kids to see.

The Powerhouse Museum put on a presentation for the students. They created a human steam engine, using students as the different parts of the engine. They had to power Cogs.

Then it was lunch time.

The miniature train...

There I am!! With my two gorgeous kids :)

                                                                                                            Very cute!!

Josef getting a piggy back off Daddy...

Waiting for the train...

The tracks are over there, Daddy....

On the train...

Sitting in the drivers seat....

Back at the display the kids started a treasure hunt. Could they find the different engines and the engine parts? Avril and Josef had a good try :)

The kids observing how a milking machine works.

The kids are still keen about their plants...and the plants are getting bigger!!

Hey Damon!!

A great week and it seems we actually did do quite a bit!!