Christmas Island: nature trail and Albert the robber crab and friends

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It’s been mostly overcast with bouts of rain so the last week has been kind of slack and kind of relaxed. We’ve been three times to two different beaches (though I didn’t take photos of the second beach partially because it was late when we went and I wasn’t sure how good the photos would turn out in that light, and mostly because I was going to be swimming as well, could have given it to my dad though), one loopy nature trail (which was slightly longer than I thought but a decent walk nonetheless, and we didn’t go to the lookout because it was probably too long a hike for the kids) and a few epic Minecraft sessions. I haven’t got as much art done as I was hoping but bits and pieces are getting done. The kids have been watching a LOT of Pokemon, a couple of other movies and reading books borrowed from the library (independently during the day in the case of the bigs; they each have a book on dinosaurs and 8yo has one on space and 6yo has a cookbook in addition to books selected for bedtime stories) as well as playing outside on the play equipment Nanny and Granddad are spoiling them rotten with, and looking at the fish in the pond.

!schooling 0000E18c - E22n | Apr 30 - May 3

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Our garlic bulb has grown quite large but is now looking a bit limp and sad. Got the kids to draw it again (still have to find where 8yo put his first diagram). 8yo’s writing is improving a lot. Got him to work out the perimeter and area (both of just the floor and the entire building) of a building he was making in Minecraft.

!schooling 0000E04c - E08n | Apr 15-19

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Been a bit of a lazy week this week.

6yo made a (very) short story book with illustrations and a shape book to help 4yo learn his shapes. Bigs did their 10-12yo maths books and were either horribly distracted, not in the mood or they are starting to find the work harder as both only managed to get through one section before the endless fidgeting and recalcitration set in. As I watched 8yo prowling up and down the house while he worked out multiplication problems in his head I thought perhaps it was a good thing that he wasn’t going to school at this stage as he’d drive a teacher batty with his shark-like need to be always moving.

Schooling 0000d25c e01n apr 8 12

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Last week and a bit have been slack and uncoordinated partially due to Easter and mostly due to the sleeping pattern going seriously out of whack resulting in myself and the kids going to bed way too late (me because I was staying up late to finish stuff off and also to make sure the bigs were asleep before turning out their light, and them because I have no idea).

!schooling 0000C11c-15n | Feb 25 - Mar 01

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8yo

8yo decided to do Khan Academy for maths, and happily worked through a few addition/subtraction stacks. After he giggled at me a few times for taking longer than he had to work out the problems, I told JJ that he could supervise at least 8yo’s maths from hereon (it won’t happen as I’ve said that a few times from about two thirds of the way through last year, and I’m still supervising everything except when I’ve asked JJ to supervise due to work). He didn’t watch any of the videos as he understood the basics behind the stacks and just needed some assistance with the 4 digit stuff.

Homeschooling thought+photo dump

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Because I don’t blog it nearly as often as I should.

7yo’s reading is now well and truly away. He reads everything from street and shop signs that we’re passing to books. His current favourite book is his Pokemon Black & White Handbook that Sprat bought for him. It’s not unusual for him to wander around the house with it, have it open on his lap while watching tv, and sometimes he’ll be multiscreening, watching tv, playing Pokemon White on his DS and have the book open beside him for reference. I’ve known for a while and I think both 7yo and Josh are discovering that he can actually parse what he considers large blocks of text when he wants to.

Massive Christmas Island photopost

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Everything that happened after the dangers of parking your ship next to a cliff, which I would have posted if my sites hadn’t been playing silly buggers. Everything is okay now, which means I’ll be posting about as much as I was inclined to post before.

Family themed photos and miscellaneous ramblings

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Yesterday, we went out for a drive. Christmas Island isn’t the biggest island in the world, if you point the car’s nose down the road and drive without stopping along any major track you’ll end up back where you started in about half an hour.

We went out in an exploratory mood and took many photos. Of course all the photos JJ took while we were out and about were with Kerchunk and nothing on Snap so there’s nothing I can post. We’ll just have to go out again and take more when the battery charger arrives.

Not quiet on the !schooling front

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I just haven’t been writing about it.

Last week, 6yo drew a picture of Venom from Spiderman with black whiteboard marker on paper, including sounding out the name and checking with JJ after writing it out.

This week just gone has been crazy.

Individual learning styles

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[imported from livejournal and backdated]

Again with the attempt to keep up recording. I have a funky silver Smiggle diary which I’m going to be using for homeschooling notes, and if I remember I’ll transpose them on here and point the relatives at it, as well as anyone else who’s interested in homeschooling or unschooling, just on the offchance :)