Serenades and Solace

Spelling City review

My children have had limited access to internet play time as a general rule. If they've ever wanted to play a game on the computer, it's either been through the library or a disc I've purchased. However, we've been given a wonderful opportunity to try out an online spelling site through The Old Schoolhouse review team, and it's time to let you all know how we've done with it!

Spelling City is an online resource to help encourage children to learn their spelling, definitions and uses. It also offer teaching resources such as Dolch words, compound words, literature based word lists, and homophones.

Once you have selected your word list, you can choose to select "Teach Me". A real person will pronounce the word, spell it and then put it into a sentence for you. It's the same for the "Test Me" section.

Spelling City is as simple as you like for free, or get more creative and explore the Premium Membership for $24.99U.S.  We have had access to the Premium Membership, which allowed me to enter the children's names and then track their progress with words used, and those where spelling problems existed. We also had access to premium games. For a complete view of what the Premium Membership offers, have a look at this page. (*I've been informed that the Premium Membership will be upgraded to included more wonderful features to help with vocabulary and phonics.)

The children enjoyed using this site. The games for Mariposa's age level were pretty much right on par with where she was at for this time, although she did find the typing of sentences tricky, having not learnt any keyboard skills yet. She could practice the week's spelling words in various forms of games. "Hang Mouse" was one of her favourites; although she would sometimes deliberately type a word incorrectly to see what would happen to poor mousie! ☺

The newer parts of the site called "Student Writing Practice" and "Paragraph Writing Practice" are more suitable for Maestro, as it would be also for older children. Of course, this would mean more time and proficiency using the keyboard, so keep that in mind.  I can see this being a really good tool for further work in vocabulary building, especially in science and literature.

If I had even younger children just beginning to learn spelling, then the "Beginning Spelling Lists" using phonics would be ideal.

Should you feel a little lost navigating the site, they do offer training videos for teachers and parents. I found these to be very clear, so you needn't feel unsure exploring the site with this information.

Once signed up to the site, some encouraging emails will be sent through to you. They want to know if you're having any troubles, so wonderful customer service is a plus. Newsletters are also sent out with any news on additional coming features (see * above).

NB - I received this item from TOS for the purpose of review. There is no other compensation and the opinions are my own. Thank you to TOS and Spelling City for the use of this product. If you'd like to read further reviews on this product, please click on the icon below.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Bring your 'brolly to Melbourne

You'd better bring your 'brolly,'Cause it's wet, wet, wet.The weather bureau declared it'sOne of the wettest winters yet.

Now, often you'd be out a'walking;The clouds, above they'd loom.A quick downpour, you'd duck for cover,Then your activities resume.

But not this year, my friends. Oh no!The rain, it came to play!And reminds us how winter used to beWhen the rain would stay and stay.

Ballarat has Wendouree returned,And a century's record broke.Free swimming pools in the backyardsMakes gardening almost a joke.

What is growing, though, are all those weeds,And mold on the window panes.Quick! Wipe them down and pull them up,When the rain begins to wane.

I'm sure the 'brolly makersAre rubbing their hands with glee.Everywhere we walk now'a'daysColoured 'brollies there always be.
© alecat 01/09/2010

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

This morning's priority: art in gumboots

Now, who wouldn't have a chuckle to themselves when they find their daughter already up, having made herself breakfast to eat out on the decking and then launched straight into artwork?



The sun is warmer today.  Even though we really appreciate the rain we've had, having some warmth in the morning and sunlight streaming into the house certainly lifts the mood.  Who can resist enjoying it,  beginning first thing in the morning?

And we have apricot blossoms! Yay!  Spring must definitely be very close.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Sweet wheat treats

Today was our final day of dance competitions for 2010. YAY!!!
And what a day! They were running 2 hours behind schedule, so a long wait in the foyer, thankfully with an easy 'picnic style' dinner.

The children all danced exceptionally well, with places in 3rd and 1st with their troupes. We've come home a happy but tired lot, glad to have a 'normal' week scheduled ahead.

Here's a recipe I've not yet shared, made with Wheat Biscuits / Weetbix (cereal). These are very sweet, so one recipe can easily make 24 servings. Perfect with a hot coffee.


Sweet Wheat Treats

3 Weetbix
1 cup (85g) dessicated coconut
1/2 cup (120g) caster sugar
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa
150g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence

Icing:
1 1/2 cups icing mixture
1 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp hot water

1. Heat oven to 180degC. Grease and line a 16x26cm tin.
2. Break up Weetbix and place in bowl with coconut and sugar. Sift over the flour and cocoa. Stir.
3. Add the vanilla essence to the melted butter. Pour this over the dry ingredients and stir. Spoon into tin. Bake for 15 mins.
4. Make icing: sift icing sugar and cocoa into a small bowl. Add hot water and mix. Ice the slice whilst still hot. Cut into 24 squares.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

A spark for science

Sometimes you have to laugh.  Yesterday, Maestro's science experiment didn't want to work properly.  I tried to help him, but ended up not being much help at all.

That perplexed look of ... "but why?!"
Maestro's been learning about electrical circuits through Sonlight's Science 4 program, using the TOPS Electricity book.  I'm really liking these books.  There are cute little pictures and a good variety of experiments to understand the concepts.



For most of the time, we'd been doing very well ... but yesterday?!?! 

We were meant to be finding out the resistance of electrical flow through two types of wire.  For some reason, that bulb just wasn't going to light up, but we knew something did happen when Maestro could smell smoke, coming from the card on which the thinner wire was taped.



Just to show you, the light bulb was working perfectly fine on previous experiments.  The fuse hasn't blown, so we'll just have to come back and try again later. Maybe Papa can help solve this puzzle.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Weighing in the costs of homeschooling, literally

I admit, I haven't been asked this question too often lately: "Doesn't homeschooling cost more money than sending (junior) to public school?" It certainly was a topic discussed with friends in our early homeschooling years, so I must have answered it pretty well to not warrant any further investigations.

Actually, how DO you answer that question? There are so many choices as to how you homeschool that will determine where the literal dollar is invested. Most homeschooling families are only on one wage, so a careful analysis of the home budget is something that will need your time.

All government subsides aside, lets take a raw look at those things that you need to consider. What are the basics you are going to need?

I think it would be pretty obvious that a basic set of stationery would be a need. The items you choose can be as simple as a pencil case with a couple of lead pencils, a pen, eraser, sharpener, ruler, and coloured pencils should get you started. Then there would be the paper, lined and/or unlined, coloured project paper, maybe an exercise book, or a binder for the loose pages.

I kept our earliest stationery costs to a minimum by purchasing a craft pack from Homeschooling Supplies. It was designed to have all the required bits and bobs a 4-7yr old would need to get the phonic craft projects done, with some to spare. Purchasing a pack like this was certainly a lot cheaper than having to buy bulk packs of paper, glitter, special cards, etc. In fact, I've gone back and purchased those packs independently of the phonics books so that we had that 'minimum' array of stationery and craft materials on a rainy day. (Look up "Phonics - Kit Parts" and you'll see two art packs available.)

Our stationery 'wants' have also played a part in our expenses, especially as the children grew older. Some of these items were small whiteboards per child, with the accompanying markers. I also bought a comb binder for our book making. It's been very handy for me in binding up all those free books I get online, too. Finally, I also bought a laminator.  From this I've made up my own flashcards, calendar for the children to practice 'making' the date, protected reusable pages such as the handwriting guide and number board (yes .. a future post here), and some games I've made up.

Okay, so we're set up with stationery, but we still need to teach our children. From what do we teach? "Well, books!" I hear most of you say. Choosing a curriculum can be daunting when you start out, so just start slowly. I think if you can get hold of some good fiction and junior non-fiction from the library, you can have literacy, copywork/handwriting if you take sections of what you or the child is reading each day. Better still, you can use that selected piece for copywork to highlight some pointers on grammar too.

Maths is one subject that will most likely be a first priority as far as looking for a text, unless this is a talent you have and you can adequately break the learning into smaller steps quite easily. Don't underestimate the library again, here. For the junior years, there are copious books written on counting, sorting, ordering, etc. If living books are your choice, then don't overlook the Living Math site for lesson plan ideas and their wonderful list of books per learning area.

Math manipulatives can be quite simple in the beginning. I kept small tubs of bottle tops, pegs, buttons and a number board I printed off showing the groupings in tens (from 0-99). A set of cuisenaire rods and base ten blocks weren't purchased until we were doing groupings (around grade 2).

The other subject areas could be done through library books also, that is to select a theme and then write up some of the highlights learnt, in the form of a unit study. Science, history and geography can all be done that way.

But what if you are looking for an actual curriculum? Why do people like myself choose a more expensive program like Sonlight?

Well, for starters we homeschooled with the basics as I've described above. Unfortunately I didn't blog about our homeschool happenings then, but yes, that's what we did. Then I purchased some very basic books from Homeschooling Supplies. These assured me that we were 'covering our bases' and it was my real first point of contact with another homeschooling family (yes, we started out not knowing any other homeschoolers, but that's another story.)

As my circle of homeschooling friends and knowledge increased, we began to realise there was a whole other world out there. There actually were books for homeschoolers, and in many different flavours for learning styles. Okay, I'm going on a bit of a tangent here, but that really was a factor that began to influence where the money got spent. This was where we had to do some serious budgeting, because over the course of the next few years the question WE were having to ask ourselves really was "Will homeschooling now become the more expensive option?"

We liked the literature that Sonlight offered, but knew that most of the books weren't available in our Australian libraries. We'd have to buy them, somehow. We had to budget carefully after doing research on purchasing and resale values.

I highly recommend the following points in planning your homeschool budget:

- Keep a list of books or courses that you find may be of interest.

- If you can arrange it, meet with others who can show you some of what they are using. The homeschool forums are great for this. Ask questions! Meet new people and you'll most likely find that many will be most willing to share.

- When you're quite adamant about the books you'd like to use, shop around. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of suppliers and do cost comparisons. Some places I like to check out regularly are Book Depository and Christianbook (check their 'Homeschooling' page often for weekly or monthly specials). If you're after a really good price comparison on new books, then Booko is worth checking out (for those buying in Australia primarily). It compares Fishpond, Amazon and many others. Realise, though, that it's not an exhaustive list of suppliers.

- Then contemplate how many of those things can you source secondhand, on loan from a friend, or even better, for free? Op shops often have a very high turnover of educational books, so ask if they can hold an encyclopedia set, or music books, for you. Libraries usually need to turn over their stock, too, and we've acquired many free books from the librarian who is looking to give them a new home. Again, too, don't overlook asking for "Wanted to Buy/Borrow" through the TRP homeschool forum, or check the list of classifieds on AHS Classifieds. You may also choose to sell on any books you've already decided you no longer need, for no advertising cost on either of these sites.

In my left sidebar there are lists with links to homeschooling forums, homeschooling links and sites offering teachers helps and ideas (many of which are free). I update this if anything in particular does grab my attention (remember ... I use my blog as a bit of a reference tool too, so if I want to find something later, it'll be there!)

One thing I haven't yet mentioned are those 'extra curricula' activities. We have dancing and music lessons. I know this an extra expense, but I've put the income I receive from helping to make the dance costumes and my singing students into the picture here. If your family does do a sport or another hobby, this needs to be considered also.

Well, I don't know if I answered the question of price comparisons, really. I don't know if I can give a blunt 'yes' or 'no' as there are so many factors involved. To do an absolute comparison, you would need to find out the fees a school is charging, the number of excursions in which they participate/cost, uniforms and shoes, and any other supplies that may be needed for your child.  You won't need to sell your books for each child so as to acquire the latest edition, either. What I can say is that homeschooling can be tailored to fit into your budget quite well. It doesn't NOT have to cost that much, without compromising on what you will help your child learn. Making use of the free resources around you first is a good way to start, especially if you're trying to find your feet. It's most likely that you'll be investing time researching either way, which is absolutely the best way to go before spending.

If you'd like to read input from others who are sharing their advice on the cost of homeschooling, jump on over to the Homeschool Blog Cruise.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Free Music Warehouse

Freely Educate has posted about a site that is offering a 'warehouse' of music that is in the public domain.
Anybody doing music studies should visit MusOpen.

When you get to the opening page, select the buttons "Music", "Sheet Music" or "Shuffle".

• MUSIC - Select recordings by composer, performer, instrument, period or form.

• SHEET MUSIC - Look up sheet music by composer, instrument, period or form.  

• SHUFFLE - will randomly select a composer, with a brief biography and selected work.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Students of song

You can always tell when life's become a little busier here.  I just don't have time to get onto the computer that often!  We've had birthday gatherings, with many more to come.  Most of our family seemed to be planned to welcome in the Spring; so we've had our prelude with the August babies, another in early September, then we'll have another long run of birthdates from late September through to early December.  Two new nephews/nieces will be added to the extended family fold during that time, too.

Another reason for my busy-ness is due to a few new singing students I've taken on.  Two of these are sisters with the most beautiful, clear Celtic type voices.  Ahh! They're going to be just a delight to teach, as I'll get to hear their developing song every week.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some music resources I've found useful.  Let's start with theory.  The theory books I'm recommending to the youngest students (ages 8-9) are written by Lina Ng.  She has some very, very easy, colourful, fun 'sticker' books called "Theory Made Easy for Little Children".  Maestro's first violin teacher introduced us to this series.  I'd recommend them to children as young as 5 yrs old through to 9 yrs old if they're happy to use stickers.  Otherwise, move further along the series to the more advanced books, beginning with "My First Theory Book".

For vocal warm ups and exercises, I'm falling back on some well-learned exercises I remember from my choir days.  We had a standard repertoire of drills that I'll never forget.  However, I also wanted something for the students to see, and also so I can expand on some of my knowledge too.  So, after a visit at a music store in the city, I came across some books by Nancy Tefler, called "Successful Warmups".  I'm really glad I picked them up when I did as in checking online now, I can't seem to find a source for you (sorry!)  I know that there are other books out there, but I do like how these are set out with little exercises which build up skills gradually.

Now, finding the songs that we're learning has been a fun task!  For the younger ones, some songs from a program put together through the ABC is being used.  Most schools use these books/cds now.  In fact, I remember when I used this program at school, but we all had to tune into the radio at a certain time each week for our singing lesson.  Maybe some of you remember using these books too? Sing! is available through ABC shops.  I've sourced the 2008 and 2009 editions, and will collect the 2010 as the price goes down toward the middle of next year.

Besides this, I'll be looking for other materials as we go along.  I have some of the AMEB vocal exam books, of which "Singing for Leisure" is easiest to use with the backing cds.  Thankfully I also have a store of manuscripts from my choir and school days, too.

Oh, and I must also mention that I've found some inspiration from a blog: Singing Teaching in Paradise.  I came across this lady through the Down to Earth forum.  Wonderful!  She has some resources mentioned that I'll be trying to track down as needed.

That's all I have on that for now.  If anyone knows of any other wonderful resources, I'd love to hear from you!

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Week 8: Blog Walk

This week's list of blogs for you to peruse:

1. Ramblings from the Crazy House
2. Chicagoland Homeschool Network
3. Marine Corps Nomads
4. Faith, Family and Fun
5. Books and Bairns
6. Chatter, Clatter and Things That Matter
7. Canadianladybug Reviews!
8. Life at oak Grove
9. Home Sweet Home(school)
10. a glimpse of our life

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Honeyeaters in the Rosemary

Our couch is situated in a very good place, it seems, as we can still be aware of our backyard birdlife whist enjoying a book together.


Today, we were watching a New Holland Honeyeater feasting on the nectar of the rosemary flowers. All of the sudden the baby appears also. We must have a nest nearby!



These birds are small, about the size of a canary. They're black and white, with bright yellow on the wings, and a very high pitched 'chik' sound (go to this page for a sample of their song on mp3).

After the parent flew off, the baby hopped around and allowed us to take a couple more pictures. They're not too clear because of the glass window, the rain and the angle at which we were trying to get a good photo ... sorry!!



Not long after it decided it had enough and flew off, a White Plumed Honeyeater decided to come on over and check on the food situation. We have lots of these nesting in the nearby trees. They're very good at alerting us to the presence of any cats in the backyard with all their chattering.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Our learning room, slightly reshuffled

I have lots of pictures today, having just done a quick tidy up of the learning room. You see, it's been a very wet couple of weeks, so my temporary clothes line has occupied the space in the middle of the room. Well, it's been moved away for a better look.


Facing the back window, we've moved the desk I had been using to another room to be used for sewing. The couch now occupies that back window space, which is just lovely to snuggle up on when it's a dreary day like today. We can make the most of the natural light and any warmth from the sun that manages to come in.


The children's learning table has shifted to be in front of their bookshelf. Each child has their books allocated to one shelf (where possible), with the bottom shelf holding various resources and jigsaw books. The cupboard space underneath is ideal for storing the laminator and other bulkier items.


The art/craft/stationery supplies cupboard now lives to the left of it. The other bookshelf with all the games has been moved to Maestro's room.



I like the fact that I now have some wall space to put a few things up on display. It may well be where a magnetic whiteboard will soon live as I intend to start using All About Spelling soon.




My 'teacher's corner' hasn't changed too much. Hubby found this writing desk for me as a replacement for the sewing desk.



Standing near the fireplace, you can see across the room to where our music corner is. The filing cabinet holds music books, a few percussion instruments, and one drawer is for all my music teaching notes/files/books. As you can see, the middle of the room is lots of space for the children to practice their dancing. (No, we don't have any birds in the birdcage.  That's been passed on to me from my Mum, and is still wishful thinking for the children.)


If you'd like to see lots of other school rooms on the "Not Back-to-school Blog Hop", head on over HERE.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Is it too cold to grow radishes?

Right now, in Melbourne, it's about the coldest it's going to get as we start heading towards Spring. On a clear day, there's actually some warmth from the sun coming through, but mostly we're having a very wet and cold winter.

This being the case, I started Mariposa on her new science experiments with a word of warning: "We aren't going to see these seeds grow as quickly as the dvd and book says they might. In America, they would probably be planting these in autumn, whilst the soil is still warm. We're in winter, so we'll see how it goes."

So, we began!




Mariposa set out her seeds as per the instructions in the TOPS: Radishes book. Our supplies included an empty cardboard milk carton, paper towelling, a pen and radish seeds.

No growth was noted for three days. Then finally, a squeal of excitment when a few of the seeds had begun to grow. Now we could start drawing the growth stages.



Almost two weeks on and we can see definite changes. In fact, we're ready to move on and plant a few for another stage of experiments.


Mariposa made a very lovely observation during the week. "Men can't make seeds that grow like this, can they mum?" Well, no, but they have been trying! A little discussion of genetic engineering then developed, but mostly I was admiring that something as "simple" as a seed can teach so many wonderful lessons. Then I quietly gave much praise that my daughter can draw on these observations to connect with other fundamentals in God's word.

I'll share some of Maestro's experiments soon. He's been very busy learning about electricity circuits and magnetism. ☺

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Giant crystal cave found in Mexico

After our church services today, a friend shared an email received about some giant crystals found in Mexico. We were all amazed with the beauty and size, so I just had to share. These were discovered in 2000 and are some of the largest natural crystals ever found.

There are writeups on the National Geographic site here and here.

Go here for the BBC report with video of footage taken inside the cave.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Cupcakes for a birthday girl

Mariposa is now 9 years old. 9! She's been waiting to turn 9 for years. It brings a promise of having her ears pierced soon, but we have to wait until after the ballet exams.

We made a lovely big batch of cupcakes to share with her ballet class, topped with whipped creme cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice. Nana and Grandad were here whilst they were being made, so taste testing was done early and a smile of approval.


Here is the basic recipe we used for the cupcakes:

100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour
few drops of vanilla
1-2 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 190degC/375degF. Set out paper patty cases (we used the muffin tray, so 12 of those, or 18-20 smaller ones).
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs a little at a time with a tsp of flour. Gently fold in remaining flour with milk and vanilla essence.
3. Spoon into patty cases, around 2/3 full. Bake for 15mins or until risen and slightly golden on top. Cool in patty cases.

We decorated with 100g creme cheese, 2 tsp lemon juice and 1/2 cup icing sugar, all whipped together then smoothed on top of cooled cakes. Decorate as desired (we had some left over little icing sugar flowers).

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

What a Wednesday!

I don't know what else to say.

Today has been ... one of those days!

We had the internet mysteriously decide to not work for 24 hours.

The building where my children have their dance lessons had an explosion occur downstairs, which caused a fire and everyone had to evacuate. I'd just dropped them off before this all happened, so didn't hear of it until after the fact. All are safe, but it was something to do with the heating system. The actual source still hasn't been found.

On the way home from these dance lessons, our old reliable car decided it was just getting too old. It's arthritis must have been very painful as it shuddered the last kilometer home. Then on the way to the mechanic, she just couldn't take it and seized up her engine, not even a block away from home. We knew she was getting old as her pistons were getting a bit rattly and the only solution was to replace the whole engine or let her keep going until she couldn't any more. Well, this was the day. So much for saving money in July!

I managed to skimp a lift to the dance school to teach my singing student, then thankfully another mum there was able to give me a lift home.

Mariposa missed her promised horseriding lesson. As compensation, though, she went for a visit with friends for a baking day. It's her birthday tomorrow, and looks like it'll be a quiet one at home. Nana, and possibly an aunty with young cousin, will join us tomorrow ... and hopefully give us a lift to her ballet class.

Maestro just made it to his violin lesson and will then have a three week break whilst the teacher is on vacation in Thailand.

What's next? Well, priority #1 is going to be looking for another car. We're sleeping on our options, but low running costs and good condition are important factors. Let's just see what tomorrow brings.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

2010 curriculum - it's going so well!

It's mid year and I've already been thinking about how our new adventures with Sonlight have proved so fruitful. In another six months we'll begin another group of books, some of which I've already begun collecting. In fact, I have some shelves already full of books that I was busy sorting yesterday, but I'll show you those on a future post. That sorting was all for another purpose, and I'm not quite done tidying to show anyone the 'ta da' moment yet.


However, I thought that some may like to see what we have been using via previous posts. Why? Well, there's a 'Not Back to School Blog Hop' going on, which is a lot of fun .... and who doesn't like to see what the other homeschooling family is choosing to use?






(click the image to transfer)

This week is "Curriculum" week.

I've already posted what Maestro is using this year with Sonlight's Core 5 program HERE. We changed maths curriculum to Singapore Maths and he's completed a whole grade as of the end of this week. It's been a great success. He's also finished the Wordly Wise book we started in January, so I'll move him to Vocabulary through Classical Roots.  Otherwise, we're very happy with how we're progressing through everything. We should finish Core 5 by the end of the year before beginning Core 6.

Mariposa is also continuing through her books (see HERE). Her reading skills have improved incredibly this year, with her not only reading the small novels we bought for Sonlight's Core 1+2, but others from the library also (that was unheard of before!) Although ... she made me laugh today. She had comprehension as part of her Language Arts and she complained. She'd prefer to do grammar instead. Her brother is the complete opposite, preferring comprehension over grammar any day!

Like her brother, though, she is also now using Singapore Maths and it's suiting her really well. She can still use the manipulatives (cuisenaire rods and base 10 blocks), but the pictorial examples given in the book helps her see the idea of the problem without my having to sit and re-word everything as much as before.


Would you like to see what other homeschoolers are using? Jump on over to this week's Not Back-to-school Blog Walk.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

House Account Monthly - August

I've decided to join a monthly meme at The Legacy of Home called Meme for Prudent Homemakers. I'll share bits of our budgeting experiences plus any tips/lessons learnt along the way.

1. Did you record all your spending this month?
Yes, I do this at the beginning of each week as a matter of habit.

2. What are your goals for keeping a ledger?
Ultimately we want to be debt free. That is no mortgage, no loans. We've always been very careful, but it's too easy to 'guess' we're okay then find later we're not. It's so much better to be accountable, therefore 'mind your account'!
This is an example we're teaching our children, also.

3. Do you have a success story to share?
Actually, this month I do. ☺ I divide our monthly allowance into fortnightly amounts. This is due to the fact that the pay comes in then, and it was a way of tracking smaller goals.
Well, I'm happy to say that we were almost $100 UNDER for our food budget after doing the minimal shopping week challenge last week. We're also just under for the other consumables (petrol, pet food, etc.)

On top of this, the annual home insurance was due. Ouch, that's always a lot of money, but a prerequisite of the mortgage agreement. Hubby decided to phone the company and ask if there were any benefits to being a customer with them for 15 years. Yes there were, AND there was another special going as well. So another $200+ saved thanks to one phone call.

4. (Optional) How are your children doing with this? Any cute sayings from them, or progress in their financial education?
The tax return cheque arrived today, so it was a perfect opportunity to show the children how to take it to the bank and fill in the paperwork.

5. Any helpful resources you've found? (such as a website, link to an article, or book)
To be honest, I hadn't really been looking for any last month.

6. Were you able to put aside some savings this month?
Yes!

7. Comments or Thoughts?
We watched a couple more episodes of "Gourmet Farmer" last night. There is an episode where he decides to sell at the local market with a friend, so puts in an enormous amount of work for seemingly so little return.
It was interesting to talk about how we, as a family, spend a lot of time doing certain jobs, especially food preparations, that do take a lot of time. However, the experience in the skills developed, the quality of food, savings made by only purchasing basic ingredients and the social interaction make this so much more valuable than any price you'd pay in a supermarket or restaurant.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Week 7: Blog Walk

I'm late getting this up, but you can't miss these.  Some really lovely blogs to visit here from "First Mates" on the TOS Crew.

1. Closing Time
2. One Blessed Mamma
3. El Cloud Homeschool: Busy Minds, Busy Hands, Busy Feet
4. Alive in Spirit
5. Ozark Rumblings
6. Army of 5
7. Fenced In Family
8. Debbie's Digest
9. Footprints in the Butter
10. Got Chai?

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Living an artisan life through a dvd

Sometimes it really pays to have a good browse on the library shelves. You never know what's been added to the collection!

Gourmet Farmer grabbed my attention. You know all those warnings about "Don't judge a book by it's cover"? Well, I judged this dvd rightly. Even the librarian told me that she'd heard it was an excellent watch. And it IS very interesting.

Matthew Evans decides to move from a prestigious job of Sydney's food critic to that of a farmer in Tasmania. He claims to know nothing about the goings on at a farm, and this proves true in the viewing. Just tonight (accidentally watching the second disc first!) we saw his first attempt at milking his newly acquired cow. By the end of it all he seems to have mastered the new skill okay to get by, working toward his goal of becoming a true artisan farmer.

ABC Shop sells the dvd. There's also a blog through the SBS site HERE.  The language is a little coarse, but other than that it's good family viewing.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Documentary series about Genghis Khan

We raced (safely, within the speed limit) back home from Maestro's ballet lesson to arrive just in time to view a documentary starting at 8pm on ABC2 about Genghis Khan.

Having almost completed all of the book Genghis Khan & the Mongol Horde, I was keen to let the children view this and see the countryside of Genghis's reign. We'd seen a couple of other documentaries about Mongolia, but none with this experience.

An Australian named Tim Cope had done a few epic journeys already, but in 2004 he travels from Karakorum to the Danube River in Hungary; 10,000 kilometres across breathtaking countryside. The aim of the journey was to retrace Genghis Khan's path on a solo trip with only horses, camels or on foot.

Along the way he meets nomads of the land, learns the importance of 'the language of the horse' and is welcomed openly into their lives, even taking advice about his need to bathe.

It's very interesting viewing, especially with our reading behind us as we recall points made in the book to what is said. We've only seen the first episode and are looking forward to watching the next five.




For ABC's interactive official interactive site about Tim's travels, go here. You can see photos, behind the scenes, interviews and more background information.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education