“Home schooling”

Wow this can be a real struggle with one out of two of my children! Lexie is happy to do her schoolwork and eagerly chooses a book each time. Both children have spelling, grammar and maths books, which cover the entire year’s curriculum. They also have a large Naplan book each, which covers reading comprehension as well. In addition, Angus has a handwriting book as well, which only adds to his feeling of persecution. Because boy! It’s like pulling teeth to get him to do any schoolwork. We are currently on school holidays (because they need a break from their ONE hour a day…LOL No. I am keeping them in line with their school) but I have insisted that they keep up their journal entries. Thank goodness I can say “Your Principal told me you need to write a journal every night”. My Aunt Selma gave each child a beautiful journal when we left, which Lexie has taken to with great joy. Angus is currently writing in an old school book with dotted thirds lines and will switch over when he has done a little more handwriting practice.

Lexie writes in her journal most nights, but Angus does his with me in the mornings. He is too tired and grumpy at night. And too hungry and grumpy in the morning until he has been fed – it’s a fine line we are treading! He is always happy to finish the writing part and get to drawing a picture at the end of his entry. Hmmm… I can understand that.

The other thing we have is the good old trusty iPads. We have some GREAT maths apps and I discovered a good reading comprehension one too. For those that are interested: Splash Maths, Lobster Diver, Maths Champions, IXL Maths, Coop Fractions, Cloud Tables, Telling Time and Wings for mathematics and Mr Thorne’s Reading Challenge for grammar and comprehension. (If you have other suggestions, please feel free to add them in the comments, or email or text me!) iPad apps are a great way to pass time when we are driving in Bertha and it is a school day. Its too bumpy to do any writing or bookwork, but iPads work a treat.

We’ve met a number of other travelling families now, and each of them is doing either home schooling or Distance Ed. Either way, they spend about 3 or 4 hours a day doing schoolwork so our kids are always looked upon with extreme jealousy. Mind you, the last family we met PAID their children $10 every three days of schoolwork – we are NOT going down that path!