Family Field Trip: West Wind Recreation Area

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

On Anzac Day we decided to make the most of the excellent autumn weather and head out to see somewhere unusual. A wind farm.

We headed out towards Makara on Wellington’s west coast until we reached Meridian Energy’s West Wind Recreation Area. This let the Oh Waily kids get up close and personal with a huge wind turbine. It also allowed the Oh Waily parents the opportunity to admire some beautiful scenery.

We were also able to talk about electricity; where it comes from and what sorts of things around the house use it. And because part of the short walking trail takes you through a pine plantation we were able to have a wonderful sensory experience. The tall trees waved significantly in the wind, creating all sorts of sounds including creaking as they rubbed together and whooshing as the wind blew through. Due to the plantation being pines we were also able to have a great walk on a very luxurious and thick carpet of pine needles. We even managed to pick up a pine cone and Mr Oh Waily talked about how they work.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

The Turbine.

Looking to the southwest.

And now a bit more of the South Island.

Some of the remains of Fort Opau.

An odd remnant of art, now encased and preserved on the derelict wall.

Master Oh Waily striding with intention across the hilltop, whilst being buffeted by the winds.

Miss Oh Waily on the top step of the non-existent barracks from Fort Opau.

If you live in or near Wellington and the weather is fine and not too windy, then this is a great trip to take with children. Older ones would most probably manage the two other, longer, walks in the recreation area. They are more like tramps and not just gentle meandering walks, so you would need to come prepared for that. I think the scenic rewards would be well worth the effort though.

Moveable Alphabet

May 4, 2012May 30, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

Miss Oh Waily has always been in love with numbers, with the odd little bit of interest in letters thrown in just for variation. I have been waiting patiently for her to show her sensitive period for reading and interest in all things writing. Would she oblige me? No, not really.

So, in true lack of patience style, I have begun to work up more opportunities to stimulate her interest in letters. We have had the sandpaper letters for some time now, and have had a variety of applications for the iPad for about the same amount of time. These have been used quite happily. We have a moveable alphabet app for the iPad, but I wanted something tactile too. However, I didn’t want to pay over NZ$ 100 for a nice wooden set of type just on the off chance that it wouldn’t be used at all. Instead I chose to visit Montessori Print Shop and pay for a downloadable version that included lesson instructions.

I know I could have created a simple set for myself, or used a free one from the internet, but seriously at the price charged by MPS it would have taken me more time and effort than this modest outlay to gain a variety of alphabet colour options and find, then format, all of the picture images included.

The hardest part of putting all of this together was finding a box for storage. In the end I had to go with a box in which the letters sit at a slant rather than lie down in. Other than that one hitch, the semi-homemade moveable type is now available for use. Here is what it looks like:

And here are some of Miss Oh’s efforts with the pictures and alphabet. Can you tell that she likes the capital letters?

And what would our photographs be like if some of the soft animals didn’t get in on the act?

We started with the “c m a t” combinations and extended it to include all of the simple three letter “at” words. Miss Oh seemed happy to do this, but I think is still reserved about her letters enough that it will be done with my encouragement and participation for a little while longer.

So long as it is fun and not a chore for her then we will keep it up.

Welcome to The Pukeko Patch

May 1, 2012May 1, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / 2 Comments

Welcome to The Pukeko Patch Homeschool.

We are now officially open for business. That is to say, I am now putting all of the Oh Waily children’s activities and learning milestones here instead of at my long term, personal blog.

If you are unfamiliar with the Oh Waily family, take a quick stop at the About Us page to learn a little bit more before plunging in to the back catalogue of doings from the Oh Wailys that can be visited on the Earlier Posts page.

I hope you enjoy following along with us in our learning journey. I’m sure we shall have a roller-coaster ride of adventures, and no one likes missing out on a good fairground ride. So don’t forget to click on the Follow Us by email button in the sidebar before you go. Or if you prefer you can click to have us turn up in your Facebook feed.

To start us off I plan to post twice a week unless real life interferes with my blogging time, which as all parents know, is quite likely. Posts will be coming your way each Tuesday and Friday. I may even throw in a bonus third post if I’m feeling especially chatty. I hope this will be just enough to keep you entertained, but not so much you want to run the other way from “filler” posts.
Let’s just see how we get on, shall we?

Object Box Alternative

February 12, 2012May 30, 2012 / Ms Oh Waily / 4 Comments

This past week I thought I would try again with Miss Oh and letters.
She knows their names and most of the sounds. We play I Spy to help with sound recognition and for fun, but other than that and the odd bit of writing Miss Oh is just not that bothered about them.

It isn’t a great concern to me. She likes books and having stories. She likes me to point out the words. She even asks me to write messages for her to copy, especially for cards she makes. So it isn’t as though she is totally disinterested. But I thought I would give it another nudge with a different game. This is a home made alternative to the Object Boxes. For those unfamiliar with this aspect of Montessori, here is a link to some details about it and a working example of someone using it.

Now I don’t have the luxury of access to lots of miniature objects. Cost and actual existence of them being the main issues. Unlike our American cousins we simply don’t have the population base to stock lots of these little knick-knack toys and at a tiny cost too.
So, my home made version was part I Spy, Treasure Hunt and Object Box.

I took a medium sized basket and added one of the sandpaper letters to it.

Then Miss Oh was asked to go find 5 objects from around the house that started with the “muh” sound. And this is what she brought back.

And for those of you who can count, yes there are only 4 objects. I would be the fifth, but it is hard to be in and take the photograph at the same time without a tripod.

We took turn about. Miss Oh chose another of the starting letters (c, m, a, t) for me to find, and it made me more aware of how difficult the game can be, despite obviously knowing a large number of nouns.

And here is her other effort, the C box.

She really enjoyed this, so it will be on the list of games to continue to play while Master Oh is having his middle of the day siesta.

What games do you play for fun that helps your kids learn about their language?
I’d love to know.