Already the middle of the year for us

I can't believe it is June already! Were did the year go.  I was on course for 6 weeks but we did manage to homeschool.

Here are the other lapbooks we did so far this year.

The kids wanted a spy theme so we did a lapbook on that and on the FBI. They really loved being spies for a while.

We spoke about the 12 spies in the Bible and they were really impressed that there were spies in the Bible

The Bible verse they memorized

We continued to pray for the Nations and  learned about the countries they come from:

• Akebu
• Ica
• Gusilay
• Swafwa
• Elkei
• Melanau

Here are some of the extra books we worked on - Still doing "My Fathers World" and "Footprint in our land"  We did the story on Old Bob's Brown Bear"

We also did some "real" schooling and finished these books for the first two semesters.

The Grade 1 books

Grade 3 and 4 books

Other lapbooks we did was the one on the Solar system - I have posted a separate blog on that.


Another one was on Ocean life and the book "To the Rescue"  We went to KwaZulu Natal on holiday and homeschooled while we were there - only the fun stuff, the rest we did when we returned.

We visited Bloedrivier (both sides of the river and learned about the Zulus and the Voortrekkers)

This is the Octupus "Klippies" We had to fight to keep it in the ocean and not to bring it back home

Building Sandcastles is always part of homeschooling

The books we read and used

Our lapbooks (mostly with photos)

My daughter started reading and is very happy with herself for finishing her first book - the same book that was my first book to finish in school.  "Boet en Saartjie"

She is still changing her letters around and even when reading but we are working on this and hope this will soon pass.

My youngest son who is autistic is also doing great. These are the books he is working on.

 I through in a "Frozen lapbook" just to boost the kids and do something totally different.

The Creation

Our first lapbook this year was about the creation.  All three the kids participated, some did more than others.

They also had to draw or paint their favorite part of creation.  Jac chose the planets! Neo-Rie chose horses, and all types of animals she could find. With Zane it is always difficult to make decisions. But he finally made a collage of animals

The books we used for school are the following:

We are doing "My Father's World Grade 1 combined with Kindergarden and some other books for school this year.  Zane does not have his own curriculum but we are using the CAPS curriculum mostly for this transition period.

Art Appreciation

Praying for the Nations

For Art Appreciation we are doing the Come Look with me books.  
We are also Praying for the Nations each week. Starting again at A for Akebu.

I will post some more pics and homeschool stuff next time.

We are back in White River

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog.  Our year in Thabazimbi is done and we are back in White River for about 6 months or so.  Still on our way to Macedonia.  So we picked up Homeschooling again. It's been busy with courses and visits  in-between but we are managing. 

Here are some pictures of our temporary home for a while. Most of the furniture and curtains etc was donated and borrowed from all over! I will post the homeschool stuff next time

Our living room

Home school room

More homeschool room

Kids bedroom

Kids bedroom

More of the kids bedroom

Kitchen

Living room again

The Solar system

Our next project was the Solar system.

Jac really enjoyed this part of homeschooling since this is his favorite topic in the world right now.

I was on a course for a little bit more than a month, so hubby did most of the "formal" homeschooling and I just did the lapbooks with the kids

New town and new things

Well we moved to Thabazimbi to help open a special needs school here.  I was hoping to still homeschool the children during this phase in our lives.  But now it seems it will not be possible for us to homeschool and give all our attention to the special needs school and do all the early intervention therapies for Jac at the same time.  About 6 months ago we found out our youngest son is autistic and now we have to focus on him for a while.

I will be placing my two other children in the mainstream school for now, while we live in Thabazimbi, which will we for about 9-10 more months? We are not 100% sure.  I will still do some lapbooks with them during our period here, to keep me focused on homeschooling and having some fun doing it.

Our first one was a Christmas lapbook, will post the pictures soon.  The second one we will do is a Rabbit vs Hare one.  The reason for this is that we found a small hare outside our door on New years morning and now will care for it.  It looks like a Scrub Hare or "Vlakhaas" in Afrikaans.

So here is to the new year 2013 with all its new beginnings for our family.

The new year

My homeschooling is off to a slow start this year. There are so many things happening in our lives that schooling is not going to look the same as last year. I will basically focus on the 3 R's. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

We are not going to be at home a lot, traveling, fundraising and then off to Macedonia. There it will be language and cultural learning for all of us. I will post some of the stuff we do this year, but I don't think there will be any lapbooks this year? Maybe one or two I just love making them with the kids

Healthy body and food. Gogo went to vote

I have combined two themes again, they kind of are similar so it works for me. We did the book "The day Gogo went to vote" about the first open elections in South Africa. We talked about the previous president Nelson Mandela, learned (are still busy learning) Nkosi Sikelele i Africa. Our national anthem.

We also talked about the food in the book (Samp) and also then combined it with healthy food , fruit and vegetables from the "MFW" curriculum.

We prayed for the two nations the Roma and the Ica people in Columbia.

We talked about staying healthy and doctors and the food pyramid etc

Healthy food

Healthy living

South African flag, and Nelson Mandela

This was our last "official" school of the year. Here are the pictures of our prayer wall and our maps of South Africa.

I have also included pics of some of the books we did this year.

Our prayerwall

South Africa

Books we did this year