HSMJ - In need of your prayer

In my life this week…

Please pray for us.  My eldest son is having some serious health issues and we are in need of specialist appointments and I am anxious for answers and solutions.
As of now my son has been in hospital since Wednesday and so far all the tests have come back negative. (In most ways this is a good thing but at the same time it means that we still don't know why he has no feeling / movement in his legs from mid thigh down.)  We definitely need a revelation as to what is going on.

On a positive note however I placed my order with Sonlight and had the experience of our items arriving in under four days!

In our homeschool this week…
 

• We did a fire safety experiment and worked on completing our firesafety Notebook pages and Unit Study.
• We started our Who Is God ? And Can I Really Know Him? apologetics course from Apologia.Sir N is thrilled with his new Notebook and the stories.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

iHomeschool Network is hosting a FREE printable link up party extravaganza. 

Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler currently has World's Greatest Artists Vol 1 and World's Greatest Artisits Vol II for FREE until Sunday.

 I am inspired by…

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

• Saturday -I accompanied my friend to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  The music was beautiful.
• Sunday - Went for a trip to the beach with friends who came to visit.
• Monday - Was a good day at home and in the evening I visited my sister with a friend who gave us a tutorial in making an explosion album.  I had fun learning to do this.  Sir N also did exercise class with the L family.
• Tuesday - We stayed home.  It's school holidays and we are resting. YAY
• Wednesday - Spent the whole day at hospital with no 1 son.
• Thursday - spent the afternoon at the hospital.  Still no answers.
• Friday - Spent a few hours at the hospital and went out my mom.

My favorite thing this week was…

• 
  

What’s working/not working for us…

• Having my first born in hospital with no answers and him wanting to check himself out.

Questions/thoughts I have…

• 
  

Things I’m working on…

• Fire Safety Unit Study.
• A blog post on composition in the high school years for the Home School the High School blog Carnival which will be on Monday.

On My Bedside Table ...

•  I finished reading  From a Distance by Tamera Alexander (Currently free on Kindle) while at the hospital with Mr T on Wednesday.
•  I have a few books but have not read much since Wednesday due to no 1 son's hospitalization.

In Bloggy world I’m reading…

• I have been poking around the free printing link up over at iHomeschool Network.

I’m cooking…

•  Not much.  I have been blessed with two cooked meals from a friend.

On Pinterest I found...

• A few more pins of interest.  I have been gathering resources to teach Shakespeare in the future with Sir N.

I’m grateful for…

•  The prayer warriors on the Sonlight Forums as well as my friends and family who are praying for Mr T while he is in hospital.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
In the introduction to A Child's History of the World in the introduction the author says this about teaching a child only about their own countries history:

"It only promotes a narrow-mindedness and an absurd conceit, based on utter ignorance of any other peoples and any other times - an intolerant egotism without foundation or fact." Virgil M. Hillyer.

Blessings

Chareen

This post is linking to:

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers - Weekly Wrap-Up
iHomeschool - Homeschool Mother's Journal

HHSC - Writing and Composition in High School

1. What place do you see writing have in your high schoolers education?
   
   • Personally I think that as home educators we underestimate the importance of this vital means of communication.  I believe that being able to communicate well via written communication is as important a skill as that of learning to swim.
   • Looking back I have come to realise that as home schoolers we seem to have a culture of not pushing our children to write as much as they are expected to in school. This in turn breeds an attitude in our children of I don't need to do that because I am not in school.  
   • I have learned that you need to start as you intend to finish.  If you want your high schooler to be a writer then you need your Junior school student to write without complaint and to do this you need to equip yourself with a plan of action.
2. Do you use a writing program?
   
   
   • Yes I do.  My passion for writing programs and one that I recommend to every new homeschooler I meet is from Institute for Excellence in Writing.  I love this program for it's ease to use, the fact that all the teaching and preparation work is already done and all I need to do is pop the DVD into the player and watch Andrew teach my students.  It is progressive and each lesson builds on the lesson from before.
3. What approach do you use?
   
   • In this area I agree with Charlotte Mason and Karen Andreola's approach. If a student can not express themselves verbally through narration then they will not be able to express themselves with ease on paper. 
   • Working on narration skills in the early grades certainly pays high dividends in the high school years with the fruit of a student who is able to "Attend, remember, visualize, comprehend, synthesize (see the whole from the parts), and articulate as the result." A Charlotte Mason Companion page 115.
   • Narration helps a child to train his/her mind to "sort, arrange, correlate, select, reject and classify" information. A Charlotte Mason Companion page 115.
   • "Narration develops the power of self expression and forces the child to use his own mind and form his own judgement." - Karen Andreola A Charlotte Mason Companion page 114
   • I adopted Andrew Pudawa's advice to be my children's dictionary in the younger years. This meant that when they asked how to spell a word I told them. In this way my student practiced the correct way of spelling a word rather than the wrong way. I found when they guessed the spelling (which invariably meant incorrect spelling it resulted in months of practice to undo the incorrect spelling.
   
   • Once my children could physically write and had a basic level of reading I added in copy work.  This served two purposes one they learned to spell new words and two they practiced excellent sentence style and structure along with the benefit of correct grammar.
   • In the younger years my approach is daily copy work of excellent writing.  
   • As the student matures and is able to handle more work I added in weekly work from the IEW Student Writing Intensive programme.  
   • I have used both the introductory and continuation courses.  I have found that the introductory more than equipped my students with the tools they needed to complete many different assignments.
4. Which ‘tools’ did you use in the younger years that helped prepare your high schooler to write and prepare them to join "the Great Conversation"?
   
   
   • I started off with equipping myself with a deeper understanding of writing and style by attending the Teaching Writing: Structure & Style. I found that by having an understanding of how to compose a story / research paper equipped me to plan how to teach my students as well as assist them in accomplishing this task at hand.
   • Second on my list was reading great literature so that my students became familiar with an excellent range of vocabulary.
   • The third thing was make sure that they could spell and spell well. I started my students on the Explode the Code books (we did the first six books) and from here progressed to Spelling Workout books A - H (The Curriculum Choice has a great review of this product)
   • We did not do any specific grammar courses other than read and copy excellent literature.

This post is part of the Homeschool High School Carnival.  Don't forget to pop on over to Take Up and Read next week to read what others are saying about this topic.

What are your thoughts on composition and your high school student ?

Blessings
Chareen

Fire Extinguisher Refills

While on holiday in South Africa the fire extinguishers at the farm needed their annual maintenance check up and service. Bayteck drove to the farm and we were able to see the process.

 First each cylinder is checked for pressure and whether the powder is compacted.

 If the powder within is compacted the cylinder is emptied of it's contents.

 New powder is measured and poured back into the cylinder.

 The nozzle is refitted and the cylinder is re pressured.

 The cylinder is then washed and new stickers adhered with expiry dates and inspection dates.

There are a few types of extinguishers on the market today.

Source

When you use a fire extinguisher remember to PASS

Source

 An interesting look at the history and types have a look at Wikipedia, Atwood Fire and Security, Fire Safety Advice Center,

That sums up our fire safety explorations.
Blessings
Chareen

Ten Days of FREE Printables from iHomeschool Network.

iHomeschool Network is hosting a Print-A-Palooza a link up extravaganza to wear out your printer starting on Monday 24th September. It is a collection of free printables from bloggers all around the world. Feel free to linkup your own printables in the categories. 


Linkup's

1. Monday -  Household Organization
2. Tuesday - Homeschool Organization.
3. Wednesday - Language Arts
4. Thursday - Fine Arts
5. Friday - Personal Organization (blogging, devotions, family, etc)
6. Monday  - Math
7. Tuesday  - Christmas
8. Wednesday - History and Geography
9. Thursday - Science
10. Friday Oct 5 - Birthdays (invites, banners, cards, thank yous, wrappers, etc)

Linkup requirements:

• Linky will be open for submissions of your FREE printable for the next 66 days from Tuesday 25 September.
• Only link to your own printables (created and owned by you.)
• Only link to free printables.
• Link to the post or page that includes the download link to your printable. Do not link to your homepage.
• Include a description of your printable in your linky title.

Blessings
Chareen

TT - Fire Safety Resources

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post to Learning All the Time Favourite Resource Link Up. 

This week ...
we have been studying fires and fire safety here at home.   I thought I would share the resources we have used.

Field Trips

• Fire Services Museum Victoria.
• Fire Safety Display at Eastern Hill Fire Station.
• A Firetastic day visit at Werribee Station.
• Fire Extinguisher Refilling.

Craft

• Finger Firefighters.
• Paper cup Firefighter.

From our Library.

• Fire, Friend or Enemy ? by Kingfisher Kaleidoscopes.
• Look Inside Machines - Fire Fighters - Jon Kirkwood (Sir N's favourite book)
• In Time of Need - Fire by Sean Connolly
• Learning Ladders - Community Helpers by World Book
• Fire Service by Margaret Metz
• Fire Services by Nicolas Brasch

Experiment

• We did the Fire Safety experiment that Erica shared on Confessions of a Homeschooler.

On YouTube

• Home Fire Safety (with Captions)
• Firefighter George & Fire Engines Vol 2
• Friendly Fireman Kids Safety Video.
• Fire Fighter Gear with Sparky the Fire Dog.
• Fire Extinguisher Safety.

Notebook Pages

• Our inspiration came from Shower of Roses and Pinterest.  
• The notebook page links have moved and we found them at Home School Helper on Line.
• Smoke Detectors
• Four Steps to Fire Safety.
• Never hide from Fireman.
• Our Families Escape Plan.
• Our Meeting Spot.
• Getting out safety.
• Emergency numbers
• Stop. Drop. Roll.
• What to do with burns.
• Trace and Colour for a Fireman Theme.
• Fire Safety Colouring Page.
• Word Find.
• Puzzles and Mazes.
• Word Games.
• Colouring Sheets.

On the WWW

• Learning about the Alphabet: F is for Fire Safety contains a fabulous list of resources and suggestions as well as many hands on tutorial links to make learning about fire safety fun.
  
• Flash Games.  Learn about fire safety at home and in the bush. 
• Kids Fire Safety Links and Worksheets.
• History Snapshot of the CFA.  Great visual timeline of firefighting history.
• Fire Safety over at Kindergarten Nana.  Full page of links to crafts and activities.
• Firesafe Kids on CFA website.

We have had a great time exploring fire safey.  Can you recommend any fire safety sites for us to visit ?

Blessings

This post is linking with 

Learning ALL the Time!!! - Favourite Resources.
Homegrown Learners - Collage Friday

Fire Services Museum Victoria

After an informative fire safety morning at Eastern Hill Fire Station we went next door to explore the Fire Services Museum.

This museum is open to the public on
Thursday & Friday 9 am - 3 pm
Sundays 10 am - 4 pm
Groups on other days by prior arrangement.
Admission fees do apply.

There are many interesting things to explore in this museum and it's an adventure to behold just on it's own.  I will let the photo's tell the stories of some of the treasures we saw.

 This is an "Austin" serries II front mounted pumper. It was placed in service in 1952 in Ararat Urban Fire Brigade. It made it's way to the museum in 1984. It pumps 350 gal per min and the first aid tank holds 120 gal. It carried a crew of eight.

 Top left - a variety of hand chemical extinguishers. The portable fire extinguisher was first developed in 1816 to replace the buckets of water that were stored in buildings for protection against fires. Captain Manby is given the credit for it's design which contained three gallons of water which was pressurized by a hand pump to expel it's contents.
The first soda acid fire extinguisher was deomnstrated at the 1851 Great Exhibition of London
Bottom right - This is an 1880's hydrolic pump which was used to test the Soda Acid and Foam extinguishers to an internal pressure of 300 lb/sq in every four years.

 One of the volunteers took out a brass helmet for us to try on.  These were used in the service until the early '70's

Left - St Florin the Patron Saint of Fireman. He was a roman fireman in Austria. When he became a Christian he was sentenced to death in 305 AD.
Top Right - United Kingdom Cap badges follow a basic pattern, an 8 pointed star upon which is the county arms or crest.
The points have individual significance and depict the qualities of a Fireman - Tact, Perseverence, Gallantry, Observation, Dexterity, Explicitness, Sympathy,

We finished the day with a tour upstairs of the emergency phone network and operations centre from days gone by.

It was a wonderful couple of hours of exploring the history of fire services in Australia.

Have you been here ?  Do you have a museum like this near you ?

Blessings
Chareen

Eastern Hill Fire Station Visit.

Metropolitan Fire Station (Eastern Hill Fire Station) Source: Wikimedia Commons

Friday was a wonderful day spent out at the Melbourne Fire Station at Eastern Hill.  They have a weekly fire safety display that I highly recommend you take your children to see.

The day started with an explanation of how to vacate a burning building. Crawl Low.

 

One of the Fireman got dressed in all his protective gear and let the children hear what it sounds like when he is breathing through his mask and encouraged them not to be afraid of a fireman if he looks likes this and not to hide but come to him as he is there to help them. The children then had a race with the fireman to see who could get into their gear the fastest as the crew need to be on the road in 90 seconds.

Next on the list was how to use a Fire Extinguisher and Fire Blanket.

The crew brought out the jaws of life and explained that they sometimes need to use these to help people who are stuck in their cars after an accident and not to be afraid.













From here the display shifted to the "Dolls House" where someone need rescuing from a burning building.  The crew arrived with sirens blaring, and proceeded to demonstrate a rescue.









Finally it was play time with the water and time to explore the fire engines!

This was a truly worth while experience.  We had a delightful time together.  From here we walked around the corner to the Firefighters Museum.

Have you visited your local fire brigade recently ?  Do you have your fire plan in place and do your children know what to do or where to go if there is a fire in your home ?

Blessings
Chareen

HSMJ - Dear Homeschool Mom ...

In my life this week…

 My CBD order finally arrived.  I am so excited about this.

Some friends from New Zealand have come to visit and blessed me with a trip to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra presenting Tchaikovsky's Pathétique.

I'm also quiet excited about being able to purchase tickets to take Sir N to see the MSO at Melbourne Zoo next month. (The Carnival of the Animals)

In our homeschool this week…

• We read a few books on Fire Safety in preparation for our trip to the Fire station.
• We watched the Slow Mo Guys on YouTube.
  Giant 6 ft Water Balloon
  How a Slinky Falls
  Rubber Bands vs Water Melon
  How a Hard Drive works in Slow Motion
  Bottle Bomb
•  We did a unit study on Fire Safety and went to the Fire station.
• Attended the last session for Kelly Sports.
• Forgot to attend our last swimming lesson for the term ... Sigh

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

• Have you ever felt overwhelmed with how to do it all and fit it all in ?  Nadene over at Practical Pages has written a great blog post on this very issue called: Theme for the Day. Nadene writes :
  
  Most homeschool moms plan to do it all …
  but most weeks, we fall short,
  fall behind …
  My secret to fitting in most of the extras in our curriculum is to
  do “One More Thing” after our basics …
  We have a …
  Theme for the Day
• A great series of articles on Nature Journaling broken down into stages.
  Introduction
  Stage 1- See and Identify (ages 6-9)
  Stage 2- Taxonomy and Description (ages 10-14)
  Stage 3- Style and Create (ages 15+)  
• Are you teaching High School Physics ?  If so have a look at Smarter Every Day on YouTube.  Dusten does slow mo clips with detailed physics explanations.

I am inspired by…

• So very many blog posts this week I don't even know where to begin :)

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

• Saturday -We visited my Mom and Dad and had a family BBQ to celebrate my brothers birthday.  It was so much fun seeing all the cousins playing together.
• Sunday - 
• Monday - Monday was CHEF where the kids played and the Mums shared curriculum ideas and talked about Picnics anywhere.
• Tuesday - We took a trip to the Melbourne Museum with the T family to see the Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia exhibition. If you are taking your children with you I recommend that you hire a Kids Audio Guide for $7 and follow the Family Trail. The afternoon saw the boys partake in Kelly Sports and receive their certificates of participation for term III.
• Wednesday - A good quiet day at home.
• Thursday - Another day at home followed by a shared dinner with the T family.
• Friday - Fire Station visit followed by a look around the Fire Fighters Museum and a picnic.

My favorite thing this week was…

• Having my CBD order arrive.
• I finally bit the bullet and purchased a planner / diary.  I have chosen this year to try The Well Planned Day Homeschool Planner.  I was a little surprised at it's size but am really happy with it.  Too many things have been falling off the brain plate so a diary should help solve this problem.
• The other thing I have purchased is published by Apologia.  I purchased Who Is God ? And Can I Really Know Him? as well as Who Am I ? And What Am I Doing Here?

What’s working/not working for us…

• 
  

Questions/thoughts I have…

• I've been reading Theme for the day and was wondering what do you do to fit it ALL in in your homeschool. I'm seriously thinking of implementing this into our homeschool.

Things I’m working on…

• Setting up my new planner.

On My Bedside Table ...

•  From a Distance by Tamera Alexander (Currently free on Kindle)
• Teaching the Trivium - Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn. I finally bit the bullet and purchased my own copy so I can underline and write notes for myself.

In Bloggy world I’m reading…

•  Theme for the Day by Nadene.
• Read Books - When all else Fails.
• Read Alouds - The Homeschooling Glue.
• My Friend Charlotte over at Home Educating Family.
• So you Think you can Homeschool.  Great humorous look at the life of a homeschooler.
• 7 Ways to Regain Homeschool Perspective.
• Teaching Classical Music for the Musically Challenged Part I
• Handwriting 

I’m cooking…

•  East African Chicken.

On Pinterest I found...

• Robin Sampson who is a homeschool mom of 11 and an author.
• Nadene from Practical Pages is now on Pinterest.

I’m grateful for…

• The freedom to stay home full time and be a home maker.
• Friends who pray for me and my family.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Blessings

Chareen

This post is linking to:

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers - Weekly Wrap Up
iHomeschool - The Homeschool Mother's Journal

TT - Finger Print Drawing Book

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post to Learning All the Time Favourite Resource Link Up. 


This week ...

Ed Emberley's Fingerprint Drawing Book

• Format: Paperback
• Number of Pages: 48
• Vendor:  LB Kids 
• Publication Date: 
• ISBN 13: 9780756958930 
• ISBN 10: 0756958938
• Author Ed Emberley
• Illustrator: Ed Emberley

I first met this book in a Christchurch library years ago when Mr T and Miss J were as little as Sir N.  They loved this book and so did I.  It is so exciting to see what you can draw with a few simple lines and your fingerprints.  This book provides hours of entertainment and creativity.  I am so pleased to find it's back in print and available from Amazon and Book Depository.
You can view three tutorials on his website for an owl, a cat and a man.

Thumb-Body Likes You over at Make Monthly.

For some more pics inside check out "Fingerprint Drawing" over at Blue Purple and Scarlett

Have you used any of Ed's books ?

Blessings