Hi Everyone,Well, a lot has been happening at our house....we're planning a Party to celebrate completing the section on Ancient Egypt in our Story of the World studies. We are in the process of making a stencil of hieroglyphics to print onto a roll of paper to decorate the house for the party.
We are also working on ideas for party activities such as creating pyramids from sugar cubes, weet bix, and whatever cubes or oblong shapes we can find..someone suggested lamingtons but that really is a bit of an ask...to sacrifice a yummy Australian icon for the sake of a game...I think not!
In addition we are looking at Egyptian recipes and have come up with various filled wraps (felafel, meat with lots of spices, tabouli, hommous etc), rice dishes such as basic Egyptian Rice (Ruz Mefalfel) and Rice with Beef and Nuts (Ruz bel khalta). For dessert we will feast on an Egyptian Sweet Couscous Dessert and a Spicy Egyptian Chocolate Cake.
The Mummification Process of our apples and chicken experiments are going along nicely.... the control apple is decimated and the preserved apples are in varying states of hydration. The chicken specimen is well preserved and our next step is to smother it in fragrant oils and wrap it in a bandage like an Ancient Egyptian Pharoah would have been. It's all very exciting.....
We've also had another Ed Department Review. Alexandra wrote her own review and I was impressed at the amount of self-directed tasks she has managed to achieve throughout the year. I take this as another reminer to trust our children to learn what they need, when they need to. As long as Alexandra continues to motivate herself and extend her learning in the direction of her passions, I am totally comfortable with whatever she chooses to do next. Alexandra has mentioned that she would like to attend a Secondary College next year, so perhaps that was her final review ever and we have almost completed the homeschooling journey of our first child ....an interesting thought!
For Jay's review, because of his age (6 yo) and learning style, I included photos with relatively concise explanations rather than loads of writing in our documentation. This still allowed me to expand on the reasons behind various activities and answer any pertinent questions the reviewer asked.
Another change is that Jay has started going to Scouts. This has provided him with such a variety of activities that over the past month he has covered society and environment (disabilty awareness week activities), health and physical education (camping), science (studies of marine life)...I could go on, just in that 1 & 1/2 hr window once a week.
I also appreciate that this is a larger group environment with volunteer leaders who run the show. This situation will allow him in short snatches to get along as part of a group, sit and listen when required, wear a uniform (which he adores), and to generally do the sitting down and concentrating thing. I think that in their place, these are valuable life and social lessons, and can add to a young child's image of who they can be in different environments. It's also quite outdoorsy and community minded which I think is beneficial. Anyway, that's the Scouts promo finished with :)
