Home Study Kit

November 8, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

Just a quick plug today for the wonderful Jo of My Organized Chaos. She has put together a Home Study Pack option. So if you found the e-course price a bit intimidating, then perhaps you might be more comfortable with this new offer.

What’s even better is that it is currently on an Earlybird Special, so take a look and see what you think.

If you’re still not sure, then why not sign up to Jo’s newsletter and see just what neat ideas she has to share. Just click over to My Organized Chaos and sign up for the free training videos and to receive the newsletters.

Things around the Patch have improved seriously since I went through the e-course and I now use the course printables every day to keep me on target. Not to mention the altered perception it has given me of what I can achieve here in the Oh Waily household.

It can’t hurt to take a look, and what’s not to like about free training videos?

Q & A Day

November 7, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

Today’s blog post is brought to you by the punctuation mark – ?

What this translates to is me answering questions that I’ve been asked by some online friends. (Thanks for helping out with NaBloPoMo material guys.)

What does a “typical” day look like?

Well, I’m sure that everyone – no matter what they do with their kids – will say that there is no such thing as typical. But we do have routines. Currently they look something like this.

Three days a week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) both Oh Waily kids head off to the gym daycare for two hours of other-kiddie and adult interaction*. This starts at 9:15 and finishes at 11am. Most days this pretty much tuckers them out, so they have some food when they get home and one of them usually takes a nap. If Miss Oh is particularly tired I sometimes sacrifice a regular bedtime that night for daytime sanity – hers and mine – by ‘encouraging’ her to have a rest by having snuggles in her bed together.

On Tuesdays, just after lunch this term, we drive to the not-so-local swimming pool and Miss Oh has lessons with a small class (4 other kids) of home educators. Master Oh plays on the other side of the littlies swimming pool – sometimes on his own and sometimes with other HE kids. This takes up the entire afternoon.

Those are the anchor activities currently for us. Everything else is fluid around these.

As for subjects and teaching style, this is pretty fluid at the moment too. We’re basically just feeling around to find the right way to go about all of this grand learning we hope to do. A little while ago we would do more formal, sit down learning in the Classical Education style. This was okay, but a bit stifling for a physically active 5 year old. So we are trying out a more laid-back approach, with much shorter bursts of information and learning. But the information and coverage of CE is still going to be trotted out when it will work for us.

I am currently trying out the Khan Academy website for keeping Miss Oh’s hand in with the more formal written side of maths. I have found that if we go back to simple conversational methods of teaching addition that she loses confidence when she sees written equations. Right now we are working on the first and simplest maths practice options there – Representing numbers, Number Line 1, 1-digit addition and 1-digit subtraction. My current goal is to grow her confidence and have her feel able to tackle new ideas. Oh, and I’m waiting for my Singapore Maths books so I can get some inspiration for other things we can do (without the computer). I have been asking her to do these four activities (there are 8 exercises per activity) each morning. It would take her 15 minutes or so, although she is finding the subtraction a difficult concept at the moment and that has made it a little longer.

The other biggie is working on reading. She has had access to Reading Eggs for a while now, and we have always had letter identification and sound related games (I Spy) previously. I have always encouraged her to do the lessons there whenever she has wanted to – and since it is computer related, she is usually happy to spend 30 minutes or more pottering away. It is obvious though that while it has helped stimulate her interest, we also need to revise and revisit the basics to help her settle to reading. She, I think, does remarkably well with her reading but just (again) requires confidence in her ability. So along with regular (daily or every other day, it varies) access to Reading Eggs, we also have been doing reading together and sound revision using my little white board and some magnetic letters most days lately. (Thanks Pete’s Emporium for the very cheap, but usable minuscules.)
And it goes without saying that we read stories each night together as this is one of our routines.

Just a note here about the reading. As I am not “buying in” a curriculum to teach reading** and do not have access to the graded books found in schools, I have found that identifying the appropriate level of reading book from the library to be a bit of a trial. They may say “Stage 1” or “Beginner” or some such other terms, but they vary wildly in readability. So I have worked out my own very simple system. I now have a small hardback notebook in which I write down the title of the book, the publisher’s name, and where on their sliding scale (P, PP, or PPP for example) the particular book sits. Then I get Miss Oh to read it to me. If she needs help with too many words, that grade of book goes on the “future” list. If it’s just right or a bit of a stretch, then it goes on the “look for more of this level” list. I know. It’s not rocket science, but it has made my library visits considerably easier and less fraught with concern that I’m going to get something that puts her right off trying.

As for other subjects, well they just turn up based on our newest planning device – the monthly theme. I try to make sure that a number of different aspects are touched on when we do our themes. Last month was Gardening, and since Miss Oh loves to be outside in the garden, clipping and digging and weeding with me, it will be a continuous theme. We count seeds, talk about what plants need to grow. Discuss the weather and what makes up the clouds and why it rains. Daily conversations often provide the most amazing opportunities to impart information and seems to be the most welcome way to learn currently.
I also have a gardening related science lesson on our living room window ledge at the moment. It will be an upcoming post, when the shoots finally grow big enough to photograph.

I guess if you wanted to pin down or name our style of learning it would be part unit studies (the monthly theme idea plays in to that), part unschooling (or natural learning – that which comes from daily life and conversation) and part structured (like at school – exercises to do). We’re a bit of a mongrel really.

Eclectic learning will do me for a name. And our days reflect that. Some days I have planned activities ready to go, other days we head to the beach or get out into the garden. Other days I let them go wild with their imaginations and they get to play^ or build things for most of the day.

I’m not sure if that answered the question, but I hope you get a better feel for how we spend our days. Eclectically.

If you have any questions about what or how we do things, feel free to leave a comment. There will be more Q & A days this November so, if you’re interested in this bit of our journey, stay tuned.

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* Theoretically I am exercising during that time, but this past three weeks – not so much.
** As though you really need to !
^ I’ve just got an interesting looking book from the library – Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul by Stuart Brown. I’m looking forward to reading all about the benefits of play.

Grass People Update

November 6, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / 2 Comments

As part of a gardening day last week we started out with a short back and sides for our two grass people. It was a great chance for the kids to take a close up look at all the shoot and roots that had sprouted out, and gave them a fine motor control exercise in the process. Here are the kids in action.

Ahh, watch and learn younger brother, watch and learn…
And as for the final result, pretty well done I thought.

Then the lad took to the scissors. He had a bit of trouble with holding and snipping, so apologies for the quality of the photograph as I was holding the camera with one hand and the Grass Person with the other.

And here they are, all cosied up again in their watering container.

I should really show you the photograph I took of the back of them. They are like the grass version of Robin Williams. Hairy back anyone? Grow a grass person.

There will be more from Gardening Day shortly, presuming anything sprouts.

So, how do you combine educational activities with fun and fine motor development? I’m always interested in new ideas.

Neighbourhood Walk Revisited

November 5, 2012November 5, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

No doubt, if you’ve been reading the Patch for a little while, you will remember the fun adventure we had wandering all around neighbourhoods from various parts of the world.

Well, Jo put together a nice pdf file from all of our contributions and today I am going to put it up in the sidebar for anyone who likes the idea of using it with their children.

Hopefully it will be the first downloadable here at the Patch. Enjoy !

The Desk

November 4, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / 3 Comments

Today I was going to update you on our Grass People and the haircuts as administered by the Oh Waily kids. But, something more exciting has come along and gazumped them.

Ever since I started on Jo’s My Organized Chaos course I have been looking out for a desk for the kids. The lovely little table that you will have seen in nearly all my previous room photographs is simply too small to accomodate two children at once. The problem was, where do you find a table that will take two little bodies, their paper, pencils, crayons and any other sundry items they want? Oh, and at a price that I could live with.

Children’s tables do not come in a size fit for two. At least not two to work at. Play tea parties, yes. Do small confined activities on a tray, perhaps. Draw together, no. Write together, no.
There were other options to try. Secondhand stores for larger tables that the legs would be cut down to size on? Maybe. But then what do you do when they get a bit taller? Glue the legs back on, bit by bit?
Suddenly turn into some amazing joiner and create my own? Hah, only at the risk of finger, thumb and any other stray appendages.
Buy a ready made one? At over $200, and still only one height. Erm. I love my kids, but…. who’s arm and leg should I sell each time I want to upgrade my seating arrangements?

Then, because I had been collecting interesting ideas for this very purpose over at Pinterest, it all became clear to me. I would do this. It would require minimal woodworking skills [read: none], a smattering of painting skills [read: delegate to Mr Oh Waily] and some basic maths [read: measure for the board accurately].

And hey presto ! Courtesy of a some good work on Mr Oh Waily’s part, the cot was resurrected from storage at work, the base area was measured, a piece of board was ordered and cut by the store, it was then painted and painted again. Finally this morning it was put in place and here are a couple of photographs for the almost final result.

Sorry about the light, unfortunately the morning sun comes in that window and causes a bit of bother when I want to take pictures in that direction. But I’m sure you get the idea. Here’s another with the curtains closed over a bit.

As you can see, we didn’t even have to do anything with the height of the bed. It slotted straight in at the original top height holes. And I’m sure with the aid of a drill and some good measurement, we will be able to keep this desk going for a few more years until the kids really do need their own workspaces and therefore new desks or tables.

It isn’t a finished item yet, as there is plenty of space to hang things so that the table top is completely clear. I just need to work out the hows and whats of storing things and using the space best.

The only other downside has been finding a space for it. We really only have one wall in this living room that could take it, and that is the one the bookshelf sits against. It took a few different manoevres to find a place that would work. It’s still not 100% ideal, but we will go with it for now and see how things pan out. Like all of this home education lark, it’s a matter to testing and altering and testing again until you find the right fit.

Where do your kids work? Their own table? The kitchen table? Do they share a space? ~~Nosy~~ curious people would like to know.

Family Fun: Fishing

November 3, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

If you are of the vegetarian or vegan persuasion you may prefer to move on to tomorrow’s post without stopping here. The title should be the giveaway.

Mr Oh Waily has been wanting to take the little Oh Wailys fishing for some time now. He is finally home, mostly, and the weather is improving, mostly. It is not possible for this to be a solo Dad and Son or Dad and Daughter trip because as the old saying goes, “there’s no show without Punch” in this household.
To that end the entire Oh Waily clan headed out to one of our small local wharves. Ostensibly Ms Oh Waily’s role in all this was to keep small hands from fiddling with hooks and falling over the side. A role I can definitely get my teeth into.

The day was windy and wild, the waves were whipping up and I spent a great deal of mental energy seeing us all being blown over the side*. So I was vigilant with wind and children while Mr Oh Waily set up the rods one by one. Miss Oh Waily was the first to get her hands on one and with my help we started the patience teaching lesson that is fishing. Lots of nibbles and bites but no one wanted to hang on.

A few minutes later Master Oh Waily got his hands on a rod and I absolutely kid you not, his Dad had only just lowered the line out and the little fella had put his hands on the rod when they got a bite. A proper bite. The sort that sticks.
With only some instruction about winding the line in, and a bit of a steadying hand, Master Oh Waily landed his first fish with his first cast on his first day of fishing. Can you say “beginner’s luck”?

When the line was wound in, it was in fact two fish. A little one and a larger one. Mr Oh Waily released the littlest one before it occurred to either of us that we should be taking photographs of this, so here is the Little Fisherman with his one “large” fish. It would have been as long as his forearm at least, so not so small for a small person.

By my non-fisherman reckoning this might have been a female Spotty (original name, I know) or Paketi. Any real fishermen out there, feel free to correct my identification. Before unhooking and releasing said Spotty back to whence she came, Mr Oh Waily held her long enough to show the kids some of her interesting features – especially the little needle teeth. Small but vicious I’m sure.

The only other fish caught that day was by myself while I held one rod after children had grown bored and Mr Oh Waily reeled in the other and removed its array of hooks for storage. Roughly the size, or slightly smaller than Master Oh Waily’s fish. Score one for Mother and Son.

We then went out a few days later, to another of our local wharves, in the hopes of letting Miss Oh Waily catch herself a fish. For this event Mr Oh Waily went and invested in a rod just for her. Can you guess what colour? Hmmm. Yes.

So, off to Petone wharf we toddled. And the roles were reversed on this trip. Master Oh went fishless while Miss Oh caught her first fish. Again it was a duo – the very first was tiny and thrown back straight away, followed up with a reasonable sized second.

Again, the fish was probably as long as her forearm, perhaps a little longer. And as you can probably work out from the photograph, she was happy to catch it but not so happy to hold it close, hence I’m holding the line and she’s holding me. The flicking and wriggling was quite off-putting to her. So no kiss for this fish before it headed back to the sea below.

Despite the wriggling and floundering of the fish both kids seem keen to go again, so this may turn into a semi-regular, weather permitting, family fun trip out.

Have you taken your kids on a family adventure lately? If so, what did you do?

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* yes, I know I have a thing about falling from heights. Live with it. But in my defence, I’ve lived in Wellington for two years now and on at least one occasion I have thought that I was going to be blown onto the road in front of oncoming traffic (and was only saved by the fact that I had stood some feet back from the curb). Yes. The wind gusts here. I mean GUSTS. Not some nancy gust but a full, throaty, intentional GUST.

Grass People

November 2, 2012November 2, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

So I’ve been working on some planning of activities stuff*. Once again, Jo’s course has been a great help in keeping me focused on what matters. As part of my newly acquired ideas around the planning process, I had dubbed October as “gardening month”.

What this has been translating into, is more time in the garden and an array of small planned activities. The first of which was a piece of Pinterest inspiration.

Grass People.

Naturally there are many ways and means to create these ever-growing grass heads, but we went with the feet of stockings, cotton wool balls, grass seed, coloured rubber bands and some googly eyes.
Mr Oh Waily did the work of creating the people with the help of two small pairs of hands, while I supplied the hot glue gun to attach the eyes.

Here is what they looked like at the start, bald and currently sightless.

Here they are about a couple of weeks later. Don’t they just look like a pair of wild-eyed, gurning champions? Perhaps we should have added something approaching a mouth to help them out in the looks department.

A haircut is due and will been administered by small hands in the next few days or so. I will give you an update on the child’s version of a short back and sides in due course.

As I came to the planning side a little late in October I think we will be extending our gardening activities in to November, running them alongside the activities and topic that I have already chosen for that month. So more greenish thumbed things to do with children coming up.

What sort of nature-oriented things do you do with your children?

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* Another piece of useful advice (and an array of printables) from My Organized Chaos

NaBloPoMo Patch-style

November 1, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

November has rolled around again. How quickly this year seems to have sped past! And November in the blogosphere brings out the worst in me. I determine to join NaBloPoMo and squeeze every ounce of inspiration out of myself for 30 days straight.

As I have already mentioned over at Oh Waily, I will be ramping up my experience by posting at both blogs. I can feel my eyes rolling up in to the back of my head as I type that for the second time today. Oh dear. What tendency to over-commit? Ohhhh, that tendency…. righto then. Tiptoe gently to the blog entry, keep your face neutral and looking towards the crazy blogger, feel for the door handle, turn and gently push your way out. Turn, slam door and run for your lives !!

You haven’t backed away? You’re as crazy as I am.
Oh well, I’m looking forward to being crazy with you too. See you tomorrow for the start of the “real” posts.

If you’re joining in with NaBloPoMo this year, leave a link in the comments so I can come over and hang out with other ~~nuts~~ creative people too.

That’s Pinteresting

October 12, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

Courtesy of my time with Jo on the My Organized Chaos course I have become inspired to sort out (read: re-organise) my old child-related pins that I had collected as myself.

I am currently relocating all of my pins to my new profile The Pukeko Patch. I have a ridiculous number of pins, and I will have a ridiculous number of boards by the time I am finished. I plan to have broad subject boards and theme boards, with some pins being on both.

So far I have 19 boards and 145 pins, but that’s just the beginning of the transfer of ideas. If you are Pinner, then come join me on my quest to store ideas for educational and fun projects and activities to do with my children.
It has been a great exercise to do as I have rediscovered many excellent things to do, and ideas for monthly themes.

I have left a button in the sidebar for you to click on if you want to follow me and all the little finds that I come across.

If you pin, and especially pin about things educational, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your username. I’m always up for finding new ideas.

Happy pinning.

Books and reading

October 4, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

What are we currently reading here at the Patch?
Well, depending on the child we have a bit on the go.

Miss Oh Waily is currently being read Charlotte’s Web, one of my lovely “children’s classics” purchased from the Book Depository a little while back. This, in my dotage, is also my first time around with Charlotte and Wilbur, although it is quite possible that I read this as a youngster and simply don’t recall doing so.
It is, so far, a superior tale to that of Stuart Little which I found to be wholly unsatisfactory as a story and could not in good conscience recommend.

Master Oh Waily is being read a variety of picture books including A Gold Star for Zog by my favourite duo – Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, and the very odd (and child chosen) Pot-san’s Tabletop Tales by Satoshi Kitamura.

Miss Oh Waily, is in her turn, reading books to us. She is making her way through the Splat the Cat books I brought home from the library, the first of which is Splat the Cat Sings Flat, which he most certainly does, to the amusement of two small Oh Wailys. We have two other “Splats” on the shelf at the moment and they have each taken their place in our evening reading. Miss Oh has been using the online Reading Eggs programme as well as my original teaching of the letter sounds, so she is progressing quite well. There are a few gaps, but she is certainly making her way along the path to reading for herself.

I’m now planning to use The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading to review what Miss Oh knows and to start the process off with Master Oh too. He’s not all that fussed right now, but he loves to look at books quietly on occasion so I am getting myself all prepared to start from scratch with him. My delightful daughter has, so far, been patient enough to allow me to practice the basic lessons on her. Little does she know that I’m doing it to make sure that the very simplest things are actually understood in her mind too.

As for me, I’m rather enjoying my latest 1001 Book choice – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré. I can’t believe that it has taken me so long to hit this classic work of spy fiction. I think Mr le Carré may have a new fan.

As for our jaunt into the world of the audio book, Miss Oh was keen to listen to stories on our car journeys but Master Oh caused a scene after the first couple of times and made listening impossible. Little ratbag. So audiobooks are on hold for a little while and we’ll try that again.

What are you reading with your kids?