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Feb
19
2012

Life and !schooling in 2012

Apparently there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the moderator department, which meant I completely forgot about the moderation until the new moderator rocked up on my door towards the end of my work period.  Oops.  Fortunately I work from home and can make up hours easy, and I hadn't gone out to pick up my shiny new computer yet, though I had gotten dressed to do so.  So all she saw was that my place is a mess, which is about normal and I don't clean up for anyone!

We chatted and she seems like a nice person.  I gave her enough information to write a happy report and get us approved for another year.  She also sent me the literacy outcomes to help with the learning program which I have only just worked out that I do actually have (I'm a bit slow, I seem to do a lot of things because they make sense or because I need to do them to do other things etc and never realise they are processes that have names or that I'm implementing a program).

So what's been happening around here, we've managed to cram a bit into the couple of weeks we've been back.

Jul
09
2011

Not quiet on the !schooling front

I just haven't been writing about it.

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

Venom drawn with black whiteboard marker on paper

This week just gone has been crazy.

Jun
03
2011

Reading and writing

Cub loves being read to, and is constantly bringing books to us and demanding "Wead book!"

Happy toddler with a book

I can also say "duduk" to him and he will sit down.  All three kids understand "makan" and "bagus" (Tao used to pronounce it "ba-goo-doos" when he was Cub's age :) and that's as far as I've gotten with Malay; my vocabulary is shocking and grammar non-existant.

May
18
2011

The initial homeschool moderator visit

We had our initial visit yesterday, with the next one scheduled for another couple of months.  Everything went pretty much as expected.  The lady was nice, and was happy with all the learning areas except for English and maths, and also wanted to see more "scientific communication".

Turning a flower blue

Tao and Ruan set up an experiment to turn a flower blue, directed by Tao, who had seen a demonstration on some science show on ABC.  They made the blue water with paint and water (as we don't have food colouring).  They then went on to do some other arty crafty thingies while they waited for the colour to be drawn up to the flower.

I had nothing to do with it.

Feb
21
2011

Three decades, and some dolls

I recently hit three decades.  I spent most of the actual day finishing up the coding for the site that's going on the kiosk Sprat and I are doing for the Christmas Island Tourism Association and cleaning for the party on the following day.

Ruan requested the whiteboard so I took it down for her, and little arty girl knocked herself out drawing on it.  Tao came in to me at one point asking how to write an F.  I explained it as like an E but without the bottom line (and previously I've described the E as a backward 3 as that's how he was writing it, just straighter).  Later he very excitedly came out and asked me to come look at something he'd done for me.

I obliged.

"Happy birthday" as sounded out by my 6yo

I didn't think it was too bad an effort for sounding out "happy birthday".  That squiggle on top of it is a heart drawn by Ruan, copied from the blue one above it that I drew at her request and she coloured in.

May
20
2010

Basic literacy and numeracy sans formal lessons

[imported from livejournal and backdated]

Dec
22
2008

Individual learning styles

[imported from livejournal and backdated]

Feb
28
2008

"Sky fi"

[imported from livejournal and backdated]

Dec
20
2007

P R E O

[imported from livejournal and backdated]

Aug
08
2007

Here comes a Ru, walking walking...

[imported from livejournal and backdated]