Studying South Africa

We didn't plan on studying South Africa, but we have been asked to do a talk on South Africa at our home education group.  I only really got excited about doing it after Christmas, perhaps there was just too much to think about over that period, and naturally when I am excited the kids are(well except for Eden and maths).  Of course it is such a vast subject and we only have so much time to do the presentation, and I plan on splitting it up with other South African families too, so we will see how it develops as we go on.  We have started on history, and seemed to get a little fixated on the Bushmen - they were the first indigenous people that were met by the Europeans.  They are an extremely fascinating people.

Eden's watercolour of a Khoikhoi man.

The children do love acrostics- Eden's acrostic:

Buck are grazing
Up sails an arrow
Soaring gracefully through the sky
Heavily plunges into the flesh
Men dancing around the fire,
Aged wrinkly mouths tell their story
Night strikes, but tomorrow is another day

Niamh's acrostic:
Brown little people
Uttering and clicking
Shouting and dancing
Hunting has just begun
Munching all the juicy tender buck
And now the night has come
Nomad Bushmen - in the morning......another place

The amber sparkle 
of a fire 
Crackles and 
retires to embers 
Memories created 
relayed in stories 

Little brown people, 
faces animated. 
Dancing, praising the spirits up high. 
The hunt a success, bellies full. 
Water all around, tranquil.

Parched pans, 
reflecting mirages. 
Chapped lips,
hunger pains. 
Trekking, 
searching,
vast empty plains. 

Caved galleries visited. 
Coded messages 
deciphered. 
Buried water found. 
Another spirit crowned. 

The Bushman, 
 a Nomad. 
Forever, 
wandering. 

Author - Winbow

Zoology

The children have been really excited for this curriculum to arrive. Of course Eden wanted to go straight to the Zoology - land animals which is book 3 but books 1 and 2 are a prerequisite. It was highly recommended by a friend and I'm glad it was. The quality of the book is excellent and the children are really enjoying filling in the journal and the experiments. We look forward to doing the other books in the series too.

We are currently doing Zoology 1

Sorting all the animal toys in the house into Kingdom, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species - a study in taxonomy.

Experiments in flight.

Learning about the Bernoulli principle, the upward force created by wing shape that enables a bird(and a plane) to fly.

A page out of their zoology journal.

Cartooning fun

Eden has become interesting in cartooning, so her dad started her off with a few lessons. She then got quite a lot of books out of the library, and specifically enjoys the manga style of cartooning. Her enthusiasm has rubbed off on Niamh and Ciara too, who did a lot of their own cartooning too.
Eden practising.
Eden used some of her dad's art supplies to create the above and below cartoons, the markers really makes a difference in giving it a more professional look.

The manga style has affected a lot of her portraits(which she does on a daily basis), with either sketch or paint.


Two more examples of what she has created with markers and ink.




Ciara's superhero cartoon. Niamh made some really good cartoons, unfortunately she stuck them up in her bedroom so as yet I have not taken photos of them!

Wax resisit

Art Monday has proved to be such a great idea as the children have come up with so many lovely projects. Even if I have not organized something for them to do, they look up in their art books for projects they would like to have a go at. This wax resist turned out really well.
First they drew the picture with wax crayons.
And then they painted over with watered down acrylic.

Niamh was very pleased with how it looked, and thought it looked very much like a pastel picture.

Maths mad!

A lot of people ask how it is possible to school 5 children of different levels at the same time. Although they are all at different levels they pretty much follow the same subjects each day. So they will all do their maths together, and then all do spelling, handwriting, grammar, science etc etc. Most of the time Ciara and Ayla play a lot together, and I am sooo grateful that they love each other's company as much as they do, but often I get to read to the younger two while the others are stuck into their workbooks.

Two little munchkins.
Jude absolutely loves maths, and it is not uncommon for him to do two hours of maths everyday - that is computer work and workbook work combined. It always takes up the majority of his school day.

Fall trees made with egg shells

Another fun fall project using eggs.
Firstly the eggs get painted with acrylic.
These are then stuck down to black card with modge podge - the eggs crack as they are pushed down to glue them down. Once the glue dries, the card is cutting into lots of leaf shapes.
An autumn tree is painted and then the leaves are stuck down, a really effective picture.
Eden's tree.

Salt dough leaf prints

The kids had a lot of fun with this multi stepped autumn project.
First make salt dough, and find some leaves to make leaf imprints into the salt dough.
Niamh got really creative and made a frog.
Jude even got stuck in with the painting.

Niamh enjoyed putting the finishing touches on her frog - perhaps a paperweight ?


Niamh finishing it off with some modge podge.
Which seals it off nicely and gives it a nice shine.