All Aboard!

Getting Ben on board our homeschooling journey has not been easy. He's a very contrary boy. When I'm busy with Sarah, he will keep badgering me to school him. When I've finished with Sarah, and it's finally his turn, he'll turn away and says he doesn't want to do school.

This past week, I've finally given him a 'big' desk of his own during school time. I've made lots of alphabet and number tracing sheets (from Christ Centered Curriculum) copies. When Sarah is schooling, Ben does tracing (or Chinese writing). That has helped keep him occupied and focused. Once Sarah's is done and perhaps busy with written work, Ben is more cooperative and will continue to sit for his lesson.

Only drawback is that with this new table open, Gabriel has bumped his eye and head into the corner a few times already. He's not used to it being there. I'm thinking of hanging some tassels from the table.

An affirmation of our homeschool programme has been Sarah's good results in her Chinese language tests conducted by her Chinese enrichment class. She even did very well in Oral!!

We're boosting the kids' oral now by giving them Bible verses in Chinese to memorize.

Hiiii! I'm Baaaaaaccck

From where? Nowhere, actually. Just a long (and lazy) hiatus. Heh heh.

I guess it's good to put my thoughts into words, only thing is, sometimes, I'm just too lazy to do so. Hence the hiatus. I really should find a regular time to do this. I thrive on schedules. *snigger*

Homeschooling has been great. We're progressing down the academic alley. Even Benjamin is starting to come on board more regularly.

I've recently started them on Training Hearts Teaching Minds, by Starr Meade (what a name!) a devotional based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This is supplemented by the WSC in songs which we play in the car. To their credit, the kids now know the first 28 Q and A of the WSC! We're still on Q1 in the devotional, though.

Our other subjects are progressing normally. Sarah's Chinese is improving, though we are still not successfully conversing regularly with her. She has now started to write 笔记 for each chapter, often with great pools of tears and frayed nerves. But then, it's nil sine labore, right?

She just took part in her first gymnastics competition, at IDP1. She's only be training at this level for 2 months. She only participated in the Vault. It was a good experience. Will post photos at a later time. Her team-mates did well enough for all of them to win overall team 1st. So she got a shiny gold medal in addition to her participation medal. Mummy learnt to tie her hair in the 'pineapple' style, and also not to assume that all notifications from the gym for her level are also meant for her, personally.

We've also been quite under the weather for the past month or two. Flu here, skin infections and impetigo, cough, cold, then I've just completed a course of antibiotics for tonsillitis and sinusitis. Feb 8th, I had surgery to excise an enlarged axilliary lymph node for biopsy. Thank God, it went well, and the results were as expected : dermopathic lymphadenitis. That's a good result despite it's long name. Better than Lymphoma or something to that effect. Anyway, there's still the Mondor's cords here to remind me of the surgery. Sarah is now down with a bad throat again. *sigh* when is it going to end?

Right here. Til next time.

Things to do

Need to re-plan social studies/National Education curriculum from scratch.

Need to look into making a list of mini-book ideas for lapbooking.

So that's what I'm currently into.

1st post of the New Year

OK OK.... I promised to blog weekly. So this is my first for 2011. Been too busy otherwise.

We're officially homeschooling this year. So far, the core subjects have been going pretty well. The time table needs some adjustment, but we're getting used to the routine, and learning what can and cannot be done in the time we have. Here's a run down for Sarah's curriculum:

English/Phonics

Rod and Staff is really easy to follow. It seems to be clear in explanation, and has an adequate amount of drill which can be done both orally and as written work.

We still do Christ Centered Curriculum Phonics, once a week. Sarah enjoys that and continues to learn a lot from that programme.

To supplement it all, she does some Cloze Passage exercises every now and then. (Must keep up with the Singapore curriculum, after all).

Maths

We are continuing with Right Start Math B. It's fun for Sarah, with a mix of arithmetic and geometry. She is very serious about Maths, which is great.

She also does some exercises from a local 'Assessment Book' to keep her up to date with the local stuff.

Chinese

She's on Book 1B already because we started 1A last year. She seems to be enjoying her Chinese, especially as she can learn the textbook material online. We're really trying so hard to speak to her in Chinese every night, but sometimes we forget.

I confess that I don't have much time for her to review what she learns at her enrichment classes apart from doing the 听写 (spelling) with her. Her Chinese is improving and she can actually speak in sentences now.

She also does pages from a revision book every week or so.

Science

Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding (BFSU) is really great! Fun, and simple, yet covering the basic concepts.

Apologia is going slower though, because the timeslot alloted to it has been constantly missed. I must re-adjust this, so that she can still read her Apologia Science.

Art

Sarah's art has never been her forte. With our Artistic Pursuits art programme, she has been enjoying doing art, and getting the idea of how to do art. So I would say it's quite successful. She looks forward to her art lessons every Monday afternoon.

Social Studies & Latin

Social Studies has been quite a disappointment. The Primary 1 textbook and workbook are so simplistic, it's a laugh! I think I have to plan my own curriculum when I have the time to.

We're on Lesson 3 for Latin. Sarah has a vocabulary of about 20 words, and has learnt about verbs, vowels, consonants, diphthongs. She can also recite the Sanctus.

Gymnastics

8 hours a week, 3x per week. New competition leotard cost $100. Mummy had to learn how to do her ultra-short hair neatly. Need I say more?

That's all for now.

Certified!

Yes!! We've got our COE! To a Singaporean - the COE is the Certificate of Entitlement to buy a new car. But that's not the COE we managed to get. We got a Certificate of Exemption from Compulsory Education. So now it's time to get down to the schemes of work and scheduling.

Last week, Sarah was conferred the title of "Gymnast of the Year" for her class in Prime Gymnastics Club. It was a surprise to us. She was elated, and couldn't stop talking about it for a few days. Well, I hope she'll be able to get "homeschooler of the year" from us in the coming year.

Holidays! Milestones

It's holidays again. Til the end of the year. We've started our homeschool holidays 2 weeks early because the kids have been signed up for some intensive Chinese classes every day for the next 3 weeks. Ben is going for Speech and Drama, and Sarah for Oral and Comprehension.

I hope to do tidying up and spring cleaning of the WHOLE house, but bit by bit of course. Send kids for class, come home and tidy up for 1 hour before fetching them. Don't know if it'll work, because alas, I realise I must also prepare lunch! Gymnastics is still ongoing 3x a week.

Milestones

Yesterday, at Mama and GongGong's place, Sarah finally hopped onto a two-wheeler all by herself, pushed herself off, and rode down the road. She then turned and rode back. I was so proud of her accomplishment. We had been running with her wobbling about for ages, so this was really a proud moment.

Sunday School - Sarah is now in the bigger kids class, P1-P3. With Aunty Mei as teacher. They have just begun a new series called Children Desiring God by John Piper. Sarah remarked that she liked Aunty Mei's class, and went up to Aunty Mei to tell her. An encouraging moment for Aunty Mei indeed.

Ben is now without his sister in his Kindergarten Sunday School class At first he refused to attend, I had to take him in and sit him on my lap. But once he saw what the others were doing, he joined in, and everything was OK from there.

Gabriel now feeds himself rice at mealtime. He must have his white rice alone first before he'll eat any other protein or vege. Strange behaviour. He has also begun to tell us when he needs to poo. Great! He talks in sentences, but most of the time, I cannot decipher what he is saying.

Today's sermon was a summary of Ephesians. The main thrust was the grace and peace of God bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. Wonderful Grace of Jesus. And the deep deep love of the Lord in electing, calling and justifying us. May we meditate on this and find this love and peace in our hearts so that we too can share this love and peace with others.

CE application

Finally printed out the application and supporting documents for the exemption from Compulsory Education.  Going to file it up, photocopy my certs and send it in.