So many weird and wonderful bugs to look at, touch and hold!
the big green thing is a Goliath stick insect (appropriately named!) If you or your children want to know more this link HERE has lots of information 
and look what we found in a wild cherry plum tree on the way home…
yum!
Categories: homeschooling, natural learning.
The Emu is a large flightless bird. They stand to be 1.5 to 2 metres tall, and on average weight 36 kilograms. They have 3 toes, and long legs which allows them to run extremely fast. In this species, the female is larger than the male.
Emu’s feed on grass, leaves and small insects. They live all over Australia in grasslands.
The female lays up to 20 eggs, which are large and are soft dark green in colour. These eggs are often prized not only by humans for decoration pieces, but by animals as a food source. The male incubates the eggs for a period of 7-8 weeks, and does not leave the nest for this period. When the eggs hatch, the male emu looks after the hatchlings for another six months.
Amazing Fact: The Emu is the world’s third largest bird. The Ostrich and the Cassowary take the top positions.
Animal Facts: The nest of an Emu can be up to 1.5 metres wide!
Learning this fun song is a great way to become familiar with a few Australian birds (plus a kangaroo and a dingo thrown in!)
and for the little ones here’s the Wiggles doing the song with Steve Irwin
More resources for learning about Australian birds:
Categories: family, homeschooling.
I only just found out about this (thanks Carmen!) but apparently I have been nominated under the catagory of ‘Best Homeschool Methods Blog 2010′. Wow! What an honor and (admittedly) a complete surprise! I don’t actually expect to win, but hey! what a rush just to be nominated From what I can gather votes close on the 17th November (just a couple of days!) so if any of my lovely readers feel led to vote go HERE for the Best Homeschool Methods Blog catagory.
Thankyou to whoever it was that nominated The Home Truth!
Categories: homeschooling, news.
This is going to be a SUPER fast post because I’m rushing to finish up prep for Shabbat! But I missed last week and I know if I don’t post now I won’t get a chance after Shabbat, so here is what we have been up to this past week…
Bridget started on the creative writing exercises HERE. Thanks to my dear friend Loni for the link! I’m not the type to have ‘sit down’ lessons with Bridget, so it looks a little less formal in our house, but so far we like it She’s also been working on her blog, reading and finally finishing this!
She’s be posting all about it soon on her blog. She was rewarded with a brand new sewing machine too, so she’s rather happy this week
I found one of the GREATEST resources for my boys on the net! Look at THIS! So far we’ve only made the swords, but hope to do more in the coming weeks.
But I must admit that not much ‘school’ work happened this week. Mostly we were all really distracted with…
We now have 9 kids from 4 does. Melody had triplets today, the others twins. 3 girls, 6 boys. We still have two more does to kid, and then we are done for the season. Praise Yah!
Would you like to join the weekly TOBY Homeschool Highlights? Check out the guidelines HERE.
Sorry for such a short entry this week…have a blessed Shabbat everybody! May His Name YHVH be sanctified in all the earth!
Categories: homeschooling, TOBY Homeschool Highlights.
I can hardly believe that last week is over! It flew by so quickly and here I am again late for my highlights. Oh well, at least I’m consistently late! The camera decided to pack it in last week so the bad news is that I have no photos. The good news is that it was under warranty so we got a new one today!
Here are some highlights from our homeschooling week…
That will have to do for this week! Check out other Toby Homeschool Highlights HERE.
Have a blessed week!
Categories: homeschooling, TOBY Homeschool Highlights.
As many of my American friends are sorting out their curriculum choices for their coming school year, I decided that I would join in by sharing my plan for the next two months. In Australia, our ‘school year’ always begins in February…but our family are generally moving in the direction of trying to gear our minds to the ‘year’ beginning when it actually does…14 days before Pesach.
Just as an aside, we are also aware of the Greco-Roman names of months and days, and even though I still use them in certain instances (like the title of this post!) we are moving in the direction of being more aquainted with the numbering system that YHVH uses in Scripture. Just to let you know
Added to this, I generally break up our year according to the other feasts, and according to my university timetable. I am about to start a new semester of study and NEED to have an organised plan for homeschool acedemics so my brain can be freed up for Ancient Greece and Rome! As we are natural learners, there are always directions that we go in based upon the children’s interests that I can’t necessarily plan ahead for, and these adventures are usually recorded in our week TOBY homeschool highlights. But, I have found (mostly for my own peace of mind) that I need to have at least an outline covering the key learning areas. So this is our curriculum plan that should take us up to Sukkot. After Sukkot, I’ll probably plan for another month or two and then spend the summer unschooling!
This plan is only for Bridget (12) and Jonah (7) …except for any read aloud time, art and craft + Torah and Hebrew which includes everybody. William does plenty of ‘acedemics’, but I don’t need to plan for him. He is still too busy being 5 and a half to have time for anything formal yet :-)
Torah/Hebrew
English
Bridget -
Jonah -
Maths
Bridget – finish up Singapore math workbook and begin Life of Fred fractions.
Jonah – finish up Singapore math workbook and begin on Signpost maths.
Science and Technology
Christian Liberty Nature Readers + Prepare and Pray projects where applicable, creation/nature documentaries, Exploring Creation with Astronomy.
Human Society and Its Environment
Critter of the week, Edible plants/weeds, Prepare and Pray mapwork + discussion questions where applicable, library books on topics of interest.
Creative Arts
Sketch Tuesday weekly assignments, painting, patchwork sewing and craft group (Bridget).
Physical Education/Personal Development
Swimming lessons (stroke correction), bike riding, ball games, kite, household chores, Keepers at Home lessons (Bridget).
Categories: homeschooling.
Today we talked about the word ‘love’. In Hebrew this word is ‘ahav’. I made up a little notebook page where the kids could first write the word in English, then the transliterated, then in Paleo Hebrew and in Modern Hebrew. We discussed what each letter represents and then talked about what ‘love’ really is and what it looks like. For this I used Jeff Benner’s word meaning which goes like this…
We do not choose our parents or siblings but are instead given to us as a gift from above, a privileged gift. Even in the ancient Hebrew culture ones wife was chosen for you. It is our responsibility to provide and protect that privileged gift. In our modern Western culture love is an abstract thought of emotion, how one feels toward another but the Hebrew meaning goes much deeper. As a verb this word means “to provide and protect what is given as a privilege” as well as ” to have an intimacy of action and emotion”. We are told to love God and our neighbors, not in an emotional sense, but in the sense of our actions.
I then gave the children the opportunity to draw their own word picture according to their understanding. It was a very rewarding time, and I pray it helps us to see that love is so much more than what our culture deems it to be.
Helpful resources:
Hebrew word meanings - Ancient Hebrew Research Center
Introducing the Ancient Hebrew AlephBet - Jeff Benner
The AlephBet CD: The Building Blocks of Life - Brad Scott (one for Mum’s and Dad’s or older children to listen to. WELL worth it!)
Akhlah – for learning modern Hebrew script
The AlephBet Song (sticks in your head like glue!)
If anybody would like my worksheet, just leave a comment with your email addy and I’ll happily send it in PDF.
Categories: ancient hebrew, hebrew, homeschooling.
Go HERE for a wide range of lesson plans.
Happy learning!
Categories: homeschooling.
The Road to Reading – part of Literactive.com. The program takes the early learner on an interactive journey of exploration and learning. Starting with initial nursery rhymes, it moves through pre-reading activities, alphabet awareness, letter sounds, short vowels, CVC word blending, initial blends, long vowels and all the phonic activities critical for developing early reading skills. We really love this one. There’s computer keyboard practice games and skills pages too which are really handy!
This is our basis, but William has lost interest for the time being hence I’m using computer based programs for awhile. It’s a great program though and I highly recommend using it. Donna Young has some writing practice sheets that go with each lesson HERE.
and William’s favourite ‘game’ type website is Poisson Rouge…I really can’t explain this website…you just have to visit it figure it out
Categories: homeschooling.
learn the Alephbet in no time at all! (and join me in having the blessed song stuck in your head for every minute of your waking day!)
Categories: homeschooling.
The more I read about Natural Learning, the more I see how Hebraic it is as compared to the Greek styled school approaches. Here’s an except from a recent post on Homeschool Australia’s blog;
“Natural learning is recognising that we are all learners and that no matter what we do or happens there are lessons and abilities that we are learning in each moment of every day, even when we sleep and dream. Instead of adding arbitrary and often unnecessary tasks to our daily lives, we capitalise on the learning that is already happening. Natural learners take their cue from what is happening as a natural consequence of living. There are important lessons to be learned that arise naturally from daily life: nutrition, staying healthy, caring for possessions, pets, family, others, creating an environment that sustains life and feeds the soul. Humans have been living and learning like this for millennia, creating civilizations along the way.”
Read the whole article The Difference Between Natural Learning & Unschooling
Categories: homeschooling.
For more articles, books and support in unschooling or natural learning go to Homeschool Australia
Collecting Samples of Children’s Home Educating Progress
Collecting samples for any subject can be relatively easy once you realise that most subjects are related in one way or another, plus get into the habit of using the camera or tape recorder to record children’s activities. This ultimately provides a superior record to that teachers in schools are capable of, and children enjoy looking back on their homeschool records later. Many families now use the internet to record progress – uploading photos and short videos to personal websites/blogs.
I would collect any scrap of writing my sons did and put them in a scrapbook. At first I had scrapbooks for different subjects, but then we just had one big scrapbook for each child. I would date the ‘sample’ and write some evaluative comment (examples are in my book Getting Started with Homeschooling) . Or I would record in our diary a description of what the child had done.
For example: three weeks after a trip on a tram my son build a LEGO tram and tram station in great detail. This activity reflected learning in Society and Environment, Technology, and Art. All I had to do was write about how his skills and understanding had increased in each area. I could write a page on that activity alone, date it, stick it in his ‘scrapbook’ and if I took a photo, add that too. He could add a couple of sentences.
Because this activity covered learning in many areas it can be used to illustrate progress in any one of those areas by comparing it with more recent insights or skill acquisition. It could be that a couple of months later my son might have had a conversation with me comparing trams to trains and asking why we have both (and why one is electrified and one is diesel). This conversation could be recorded in the same way as above, and covers increasing understanding and knowledge in both SOSE and Technology.
I wouldn’t record everything my children did, just the activities I could see were packed with new learning. We all know when our children cover new ground with their questions and activities.
Flipping back through the scrapbooks and diaries would provide me with two samples that showed progress. Often just a drawing or a scribble in the scrapbook, or a photo, was enough for me to remind me of what the child learned that day and I could ramble on for a couple of paragraphs. Dating records is important.
I did all this recording not for the benefit of getting registration but because it built my confidence as a competent educator. On the days that I felt I was a hopeless educator the diaries and scrapbooks said otherwise. I also kept them just in case when my children grew up they’d accuse me of not teaching them at all, because we unschooled – those scrapbooks were going to my defense! As it was, we never needed them.
Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network. Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects.
Categories: homeschooling.
Loni over at Heart in Training has come up with this fabulous weekly meme for those who are teaching their children in the light of the WHOLE of Yah’s Word. We are Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua, and I am excited about this to keep me on track with what is really important in our homeschool! Go HERE to Loni’s blog to find out more. Grab the button and come and join in!
Categories: homeschooling, TOBY Homeschool Highlights.
For the last 2 weeks we have participated in Sketch tuesday with Barb at Harmony Art Mom. It’s a great way to get the kids to draw as they are excited to see their sketches with others on the web each week. This week’s assignment was ‘Hats’.
Categories: art, homeschooling.
Categories: country living, family, garden, homeschooling.
We had our official “first day” of lessons centred around the Prepare and Pray unit study today. It was pretty laid back, and I am happy that we are easing into our new routine. There were some things we didn’t get to, but it doesn’t matter because we are easing in In a month I begin my university studies, and I am eager to have us all in a workable routine well ahead of time! So this morning I introduced the children to The Swiss Family Robinson and we read chapters 1 and 2. We found the places mentioned in the story on our world map and talked about how they may have travelled from Switzerland to England. We were tickled to discover that if not for the shipwreak, the Robinsons were actually planning to settle in Port Jackson, New South Wales! We talked about some vocabulary words and Bridget began making a list with dictionary definitions. We listened to Psalm 23 and began to write it by dictation. Jonah did quite well for his first attempt at dictation! We are still finishing off our Queens Language Arts program so we did some lessons from there, Jonah read to Dad from his reader and Bill finished some phonics worksheets. Then we watched the introduction videos to our Ancient Hebrew Language course and played with the letter flash cards. Later in the week Jono will be starting on projects and activities, animal studies and introducing the astronomy unit for the year. Oh, and of course, maths Some other things I have planned for this week include…
Categories: homeschooling, Prepare and Pray.
Starting in 2 weeks time, our family will be embarking on a family preparedness unit study called “Prepare and Pray”. Prepare and Pray is written by Jim and Robin Brashear from Shekinah Family Ministries for the specific purpose of preparing faithful families to overcome and thrive during perilous times. Prepare and Pray follows the adventures of “The Swiss Family Robinson”. From the website…
Prepare and Pray is a 36 week literary unit study designed for the whole family, toddler through resident Grandma and teaches a confident, positive approach to impending difficulties using simple resources and family teamwork. Fear is not the object of this study, but it is our desire to stimulate a watchful, prudent attitude which will equip children and parents to develop untapped abilities, press through physical limitations, and respond reasonably and scripturally to threatening situations and the challenges of end-times living.
This unique unit study covers language arts, history, geography, social studies, science, lifeskills, Bible, Art/Music, Health and Physical Education. It is written from the perspective of implementing a Hebrew approach to educating our children rather than the Greco-Roman approach that our culture is based on.
Please visit Jim and Robin’s website for more information, and join me here on my blog as I journal through what we are learning from week to week.
Categories: homeschooling, Prepare and Pray.
Jonah (who will be 7 in a couple of weeks) has recently started on Rod and Staff’s Bible Nurture Reader grade 2 so he decided to let William have his 1st grade reader. He is nowhere near ready for it, but was so excited that Jonah considered that he was! He was also keen to pass on his chess knowledge to his little brother who is very eager to learn everything he can from him. Later in the day, William told me that he loves Jonah because he shows him how to do things
These photos are priceless. I never want to forget these moments.
and this is yesterdays spectacular sunset. We serve an awesome God!
Categories: family, homeschooling, Jonah, William.
Homeschool Freebie of the Day has this fantastic cookbook from 1957 on offer today only. I’ve had a quick browse through it, and it is so very cute I just had to give it a plug.
“It includes a huge selection of simple recipes for salads, breads, main dishes, desserts, and snacks! Along with the recipes there are tons of helpful information pages on how to plan out your meals, preparing for company, measuring and mixing, using cooking utensils, manners in the kitchen, cooking tips, cleaning up, and related practical advice.”
Categories: cooking, family, homeschooling.
God gave you children as a steward and gave you the authority over them:
Psalms 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Genesis 33:5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.
Genesis 48:8-9 And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these? And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.
Isaiah 8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
Hebrews 2:13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
On rendering to GOD’S what is GOD’S:
Matthew 22:21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
(People tend to ignore the latter portion of the verse. Our children are not Caesar’s!) Children belong to God:
Ezekiel 16:20-21 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
God’s commandments to us regarding our stewardship of the children He has given us include:
Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.Deuteronomy 6:6-9 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
How someone thinks in their heart is what makes them. How do children learn to think of the world, of God and His creation, in school?
Isaiah 54:13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
Jeremiah 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Again, a child’s mind is trained in school.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Does a child receive this kind of training in public school?
Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Does a child “walk with wise men” in public school?
1 Corinthians 15:33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
That’s communications as in “community.” Is it a good idea to put children in that situation?
James 3:13-18 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Psalms 119:97-104 MEM. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
Biblical Reasons to Homeschool…Brandon and Rebekah Staggs
Categories: biblical truth, homeschooling.
“A great supplement to your science, phonics, handwriting, and math curriculum! Just enough to keep little ones attention and easy enough for mum to do in one sitting!”
Todays freebie at Curriclick is this cute little insect folder activities for preschoolers through to first graders. I don’t know about anybody else, but we are noticing the increasing appearance of insects with the warmer weather…a good time to do something like this!
Categories: homeschooling, preschool.
No, it’s natural learning. I like that title much better. We have time in our day for set book work (maths, english, phonics, hebrew etc.) but that time is not at a set time every day. It might be at 10am (it’s never earlier!) or it might be at 4pm. We might do some in the morning and some at another time in the day. It all depends on what else is going on. Sometimes we read something together on the couch, and that might spark discussion that can go on for the rest of the day. Sometimes the eldest might write about something we have talked about, but mostly they all love to just go and act it all out! We are reading about the Vikings at the moment. I mentioned the study we are following (loosely) in an earlier post. For the entire afternoon all three children have been immersed in imaginative Viking family play. They ate lunch (left over lamb stew) in their longhouse (the garage) and the last update I got was that the sleeping benches had been constructed out of boogie boards and old feed sacks.
Categories: family, homeschooling.
Just found this great little unit study for little ones! My boys are so into anything war like, so this is right up our alley You can get the study HERE.
Categories: homeschooling.
So I managed to get a load of washing in the dryer and another one in the machine with Bridget’s help
I made porridge for breakfast and we ate it by the fire that has been burning for 3 days now.
It’s cold and rainy. Perfect winter, recuperating weather
The children are watching ‘Little House on the Prairie’, and I thought I would just sit down for a bit!
I had laparoscopic tubal reversal surgery last Wednesday at the RPA in Sydney. They had to perform part of the surgery by laparotomy because one fallopian tube was shorter than expected…hence a longer recovery. But everyone has been very helpful, and I have been able to rest a lot
Why did we have this surgery? Because 4 years ago we decided we didn’t want anymore babies. Last year, Yahweh convicted us from His Word that we are really not at liberty to make those kind of decisions for ourselves We repented and He graciously allowed us to reverse the procedure. Isn’t He good? Children are a blessing, we know that now
With so much down time I have been planning the rest of the year in our homeschool. The ages of my kids are 11, 6 and 4. I plan for the 11 year old and adapt for the younger two, and I find it easier to do mostly everything together. I need to give credit to all the wonderful scope and sequence and scheduling info that is on the DownUnder Literature website. Thank you, Michelle! Your advice has helped me enormously!
CLICK HERE to see our weekly schedule. I am still to purchase the Apologia Science unit and the Lamb’s book of Art, but in the meantime we will do a unit study on William Tyndale, and perhaps that unit on the Baroque period. The Real Story of Mankind is free from HERE and we have only just started to use it, but it seems like a great world history overview. Oh, and I forgot to mention on the schedule that Bridget is learning about Klezmer music…how to play the style on violin, the history of it etc.
Sound like too much? Yes, it sounds like too much! Oh well, we’ll see how it all looks in reality next week when we start up again
This week…reading books, watching wholesome films, a little bit of copywork here and there, helping mum get from the kitchen to the bed…
Categories: homeschooling, parenting.
