Manipulative marbles

Waratah using marbles and silicone muffin pans to work out division problems (with remainders) set by the Divide it up: puppies app. Waratah is in year 1 and this is year 4 - 5 maths work, but he quickly grasped the concept using manipulatives.

Pumpkin Harvest

Waratah planted heritage pumpkin seeds in his garden this year, and has been waiting anxiously for harvest time. Here is one of the fruits of his labour!

Maths: MES1.4 Compares the masses of two objects and describes mass using everyday language.

Science: LTES1.3 Identifies ways in which living things are different and have different needs.

Science: PPES1.4 Explores and identifies ways some forms of energy are used in their daily lives.

Science: PSES1.5 Recognises the relationship between everyday products and people’s needs.

Science: ESES1.6 Explores and identifies ways the environment influences their daily lives.

Science: INVES1.7 Investigates their surroundings by observing, questioning, exploring and reporting

PDHPE: ALES1.6 Develops a repertoire of physical activities in which they can participate.

Trampo-learning

Waratah experiments with:

static electricity

balance on an unstable surface - static

and dynamic.

Meanwhile Mulga and Boronia conduct their own experiments and investigations.

Creativity

Mulga and I have been working on his pencil skills. Here is a rare drawing by Mulga entitled 

"People I love".

Waratah has been listening to Don Spencer's "Please don't call me a Koala Bear ('cause I'm not a bear at all)" on constant repeat. He was interested in finding out more information about this, as he was not sure it was true. To assist in his investigation, I drew up a Venn diagram for us to fill out as we researched the question. However, Waratah had other ideas. Here is my outline for a Venn diagram transformed into the head, thorax and abdomen of a rather lovely slater.

Homeschool hangout

A lovely chance to catch up with the Penrith homeschoolers. It was a very windy day, but the boys enjoyed the merry-go-round, swings and climbing frames with their friends. (Many families dislike having photos of their children on the internet, so I make it a general rule to select photos in which only my own children are recognisable for posting on this blog.)

End of Term 1 Swimming at Springwood

We have seen great progress at swimming this term. Waratah has realised that he really enjoys floating, while Mulga has discovered the joys of going underwater. Conversely, Mulga is still working on developing stability while afloat, and Waratah has yet to conquer his dislike of putting his face in the water, although he has worked hard at it and made a significant effort to do so.

Boronia has also enjoyed swimming, particularly the socialisation aspect of having a friend only slightly older than herself. She is quite a water baby, and has gone from being with me in the sling, to paddling and kicking along, with a bubble on her back, supported by a pool noodle or kickboard (and me of course).

Mulga has done well with a consistent teacher.

Waratah has experienced some stress from a succession of teachers while his regular teacher was recovering from an injury. However, I am very proud of him for persisting despite his dislike of the change in the expected routine.

As usual, to celebrate the end of term, the water slide was opened up. All the kids loved this, and their way of enjoying it demonstrated their personality in interesting ways. 

Mulga was a daredevil, going as fast as he could, face first.

Waratah was more cautious, but also enjoyed making the ride last as long as he could, slowing himself and even stopping along the way. He prefers to remain in control of the situation, where Mulga is prepared to let go and enjoy the rush. Both were equally happy afterwards, and part of my preference for this swimming pool - which involves quite extensive travel to get to - is the willingness of the teachers to adapt to the needs of the boys as individuals.

We always stay for a swim after our lessons, and for both boys (and Boronia) this is the highlight of their day. Both boys have greatly increased their confidence and ability to play in the water. Their increasing familiarity with the other homeschooled children we swim with has also increased their confidence in playing with others. Although we will not be swimming during the winter months (Term 2 and 3) we plan to continue expanding on this socialisation aspect by meeting some of these same families for regular bushwalks.

Little girl's tea party

Today Boronia and I enjoyed a lovely morning tea with her godparents. The boys stayed at home as they are both recovering from the flu. Boronia was a perfect little lady, and greatly enjoyed her fresh scone!

Attention grabbers

Boronia is quite fascinated by this spinning top. When the top is pumped, the outside spins, and on the inside a little train travels around its track making appropriate choo choo sounds. Boronia is conducting many cause and effect experiments, including trying to work out how to pump the handle, how to slow and stop the top by touching it, and what happens if you hold the clear dome and spin the stand (you can spin the train really fast.)

Insects and iPads

Perhaps the title of this post would be a better name for our homeschool!

With our usual knack for discovering interesting insects, we spied this gorgeous green grasshopper with pink eyes perching on top of our car, when it was parked in Camden.

We observed it closely and discussed what it would find to eat in that habitat (there was very little grass visible); whether it was born there or had hitch-hiked on our, or someone else's car, what similarities and differences there might be for a town grasshopper and a country grasshopper,why it might have chosen our car to sit on (Waratah thought it might be waiting for a lift home with us) and other such questions... 

Both boys are now proficient iPad users and use their iPad minis for much of their independent schoolwork - wherever we happen to be!

Boronia has now joined the ranks of happy iPad users, with her own apps on my iPad (thankfully protected by a Griffin Survivor case...). Here she is using Spongewords, which is her favourite.

Spongewords is a video variation on flashcards. It displays and reads a word, and then shows that word above a ten second video of the object. The videos are generally well chosen. My only criticisms would be that musical instruments are shown silently. It would be nice to hear the sound the instrument makes. The categories are: people, shapes, food, activities, colours, animals, indoors and outdoors. There is an "all" option which displays objects randomly from all categories. This is the one we like. The accent and spelling is American, but this doesn't cause any problems for us, because I generally read the word at the same time as the announcer (before and after each video) and I haven't noticed any spelling problems yet (other than "color" which is in the menu). Boronia particularly likes the animals of which there is a good selection. One other nice feature is the 'lock' function. By holding two padlock icons in the top corners of the screen, the parent can lock the app on so that a child's random swiping does not close / change anything. The top notification bar remains active, though. We tried out the free version first, and then paid $4.49 for the full content.

In the next photo, Boronia is using her other favourite app, BabyUI. This app allows her to see the screen respond to her touch, or any movement of the iPad that she generates. It variously displays coloured motifs, such as 

- dots which randomly wander around the screen until you touch it, when they "flock" around the touch; 

- a blank screen where stars pop into existence when you touch it, and then fly off and fade;

- a kind of firework/fountain effect that blooms under your fingers; and

- a glowing rainbow coloured nimbus that starts as a bright flare and fades to spinning rainbow dots.

If you swipe your finger on the screen, any of these motifs form a trail behind your touch. The sound effects are fun too, including popping, chirping birds and giggling babies. BabyUI stands for Baby User Interface, and according to the developer, this app teaches Boronia that the screen will respond to her touch in a consistent manner. The boys insisted that they have a copy too, as we all love entertaining Boronia by leading trails of decorations around the screen :D We purchased the full version of BabyUI for $0.99.

Some paperwork...

Waratah's painstakingly folded origami velociraptor 

from the book which Papa gave him for his birthday.

Mulga's fine motor skills sticker work.

A rare note from Waratah to me when he woke up early one morning, 

so I would know where to find him: 

"I am playing iPad in the playroom at 6 o'clock at day."

Mulga has become fascinated with Ben10, and is convinced that within the next year he will someway, somehow, obtain his own Omnitrix, so he can transform into a selection of amazing aliens and save the world, and especially his family. In an effort to (a) get him to stop talking about it for a little while by proving I had heard him and was taking him seriously, and (b) get him to make a mark on paper, since he does not display the same artistic drive Waratah had at that age (and younger), I asked him to draw some of the aliens his Omnitrix would contain, and wrote down what he dictated about them. 

When my ploy to exhaust his interest did not work, we went to Google and researched all we could about what the Omnitrix is, how it works and where it comes from.

Hay Day

One of the most popular and long-lasting games we have played on our ipads this year has to be Hay Day. This bright and cheerful farming simulation has helped us to:

•  practice reading large numbers, 
• practice reading words, 
• learn about supply and demand, and market forces,
• learn about harvesting, production and manufacture (you need to harvest raw materials from your animals and fields and combine them to make the more complex products required by your customers),
• learn patience and the need for saving up to buy necessary infrastructure (rather than spending all your money on cool decorations) as we have not spent any "real world" money on this game,
• learn about games that want you to spend real world money in order to progress, and discuss the effectiveness of advertising strategies used to entice you to do so,
• learn about the cyclical life of a farmer, for instance, that animals need regular care, and that crops must be regularly replanted.

It has also been very enjoyable. We all have our own farms. This is Mulga's.

The following review expands on why we have found this game to be such an enjoyable learning experience:

Rather than all produce being treated as “cash crops,” immediately turning into money the second it is harvested, crops and animal products go into a player’s storage. The player then has a number of different options for what to do with them. They can be sold directly to characters who come visiting the player’s farm; they can be used with special buildings to create more advanced products (milk from a cow can be turned into cream, for example); they can be sold to other players; or they can be used to fulfil orders.

Orders are published on a noticeboard on the player’s farm and usually require the player to provide multiple instances of two or more products, some of which might be manufactured items. Upon fulfilling an order, players send the component items off in a delivery truck, which takes a short period of real time to deliver the items before returning with money and experience points in the back.

...

Trading with other players unlocks at level 7 and allows players to put items up for sale in their roadside shop. Players can set the price and choose whether or not to advertise in the local paper — if they do, their products and the price will appear in other players’ mailboxes each day, while if they don’t their products will only be available for sale to friends who visit them. This is an excellent feature, since players can not only put up crops and other produce for sale, but also tools. It helps get around the inherent illogicality of most social games whereby players can send items they don’t possess to friends in order to “help” — here, players can trade items in a much more realistic manner than usual, giving a much greater sense of realism and requiring far less suspension of disbelief.

 The game monetizes primarily through its hard currency, used to speed up time-sensitive actions. Soft currency may also be acquired via in-app purchase. Purchasing coins will help the player progress quicker as the game is relatively tightfisted with the amount of money it gives out at a time, requiring the player to work for their cash rather than awarding it in vast quantities. Despite this, the game never feels unfair — it is perfectly possible to have a satisfying experience without spending any real money on the game, it will just take a bit longer.  

http://www.insidemobileapps.com/2012/06/21/down-on-the-farm-again-with-hay-day/ 

A welcome visitor

Waratah spotted this awesome creature investigating one of his drawings on the fridge!

Other than tentatively identifying it as some kind of lacewing, we have yet to find out what it is.

It is now high on our long list of critters to identify and post on Project Noah, particularly as I was able to get such great photographs of it. We particularly love its jewel-faceted eye!