My Life as an Indian

Kirk spent most of today as an American Indian. He sewed a tunic (which he can wear to Northern War) and went hunting for deer. He also discussed at length their houses. His tepee unfortunately is still under construction.

V-I-K-I-N-G

Mum, I know how to spell Viking. V-I-K-I-N-G!

Ahhh... A boy after my own heart!

Last week it was Indians and it looks like this week it will be Vikings. He then asked, "Why did they call them Vikings?"
"I don't know, we will have to research that."

GOAL!!!

The soccer team kicked their first goal and Kirk achieved his - NOT to cry during the game! Well done my little boy.

Nerd Cert I

Kirk passed Nerd Cert I the other day. He excitedly pointed to David Attenborough on the DVD and exclaimed, "This man tells me all about animals - he's really good - I watch all his stuff!!!"  and he doesn't recognise  High 5 or the Wiggles.

Cock-a-doodle-doooo

Kirk is buckling down to work properly now. When we open a page of his handwriting text - he just does it. If I tell him it's not good enough and rub it out, he just does it again with more care and no complaints.

His maths progress is great but what I am even happier about is he can self-assess and is setting his own goals. If he receives less than 80% in Mathletics he is disappointed and deservedly celebrates when he achieves full marks. Today he aced his term assessment from the Signpost Maths textbook. Partially this has occurred because reading and writing is falling into place hence the textbook is a lot easier to understand. He willingly does 2 or 3 pages at a time and can sometimes predict what they want him to do.

3 weeks ago we did a mapping exercise at Frank & Elaine's place with our homeschool group and this week Kirk surprised me with a spontaneous map of our yard - everything was recognisable and in the right place. Incidentally he drew this map for the Toothfairy because he has lost another tooth.

He is also loving soccer even though he is the woosiest boy there! His coach, Ashley, is very patient and gently explains and encourages him. His swimming progress is also pretty good and I am hoping he will be good enough for swim club by September.

So where is Skye in all this? Usually harassing him!

Reading at last

It's taken a while but reading has finally clicked for Kirk. Admittedly it's just phonically and only 2 & 3 letter words but he's made it to first base. PHEW! I hope the next landmark comes a bit quicker :-)

Get Rhythm

Need it. Slowly succeeding.  I won't harp on because others already have.

We're Legal!

We have the temporary "go for it" from the homeschooling unit until they read our program. It seems their workload grows every year.

This term we're doing seashore and estuarine ecology, building on what we did last year and we're reasonably on track. One of his tasks is to make a collection for a Case of Curiosities. The other week we went beachcombing at Kelly's Beach and he found a lot of cuttlefish bones so we spent a few days learning about cuttlefish and what animals are related to them (basic classification). Afterwards he dictated this for his book, I made 4 suggestions about better wording;

Cuttlefish Bone

Yesterday we went to the beach and we had a little swim. The weather was a bit rainy and bit cloudy. Then we went beachcombing. We found cuttlefishes’ bones. They are very soft and I can put my fingernail through them. Some broke in my hand. Cuttlefish bones come from cuttlefish. They’re  much softer than normal bone. It helps them float in the water.

Cuttlefish change colour so they can hide. This is called camouflage. They also squirt out ink when something is attacking them. The ink blinds the attacker while they escape. They do not have any other way of defending themselves so cuttlefish are smart, they have big brains and can do tricks.

______________________________________

Today we went to the Burnett River (tidal)  to look at the effects of the flood. He was SOOOO impressed...especially when he found a fantastic crab trap which he intends to give to Grandpa. We saw all sorts of wreckage; boats, jetties, bowling balls, fences etc... and then he noticed there were a lot of large crab holes but very few small crab holes where as the opposite was previously true. So we speculated on what happened to all the small ones and he concluded they were washed into the ocean. I'll make a point of visiting the sites again in 12 months to see if their numbers have rebuilt.

On the sporting front: Kirk's swimming confidence is growing and he is a lot more competent in the water but I would not say he is a great swimmer yet. We are trying to swim two or three times a week and HOPE he will be able to join the swim club at the end of the year. 

Kirk is also looking forward to starting soccer on Saturday...so far it has cost us almost $200 so he had better like it because he won't be dropping out!!!

We're having fun with the homeschoolers group. We're making sock puppets at the moment (They only stick the needles in each other a couple of times) and will put on a play for the toddlers playgroup soon. Strangely all the kids have wanted to make chickens...

If anyone wants to see what we're doing this year. Drop me an email and I'll send you our program.

Better Catapult Capers

As I mentioned yesterday in my family blog I was disappointed in a science class I was required to teach. It sounded fun but turned out to be over controlled and burdened with paper. I had to purge my miasma so today Kirk and I made a very simple, yet effective, catapult. The design works really well so I reckon we might make a few of these tomorrow in class if the kids can find a little spare time...and I am sure they WILL!

Ants in Yer Pants

When I was little my Grandma said she would buy me a watch when I learned to tell the time so naturally I have given Kirk the same bargain. This has been sped up considerably because when our Mums visited Annette brought a kids calendar and a clock from Bernie so now Kirk is keen to learn  how to tell the time. The days of the week are also starting to make an impression - this week it clicked that the days of the week have an order.

Ann also brought an ant farm with her. Richard had a great time putting it together and both Kirk and Joshua are all fired up about filling their ant farm. They liked it SO MUCH Dad went out and bought another one so they could each have their own metropolis. I imagine they have plans to invade each other one day...

Busy

This last few months have been very busy  but we are squeezing in our schooling around our manic social life. Last week was all focused on the SCA and this weekend he had a birthday party.
Kirk has been fairly obsessive with numbers & is consistently reading numbers to 100 and understanding numbers to 1000 about 1/2 the time. We've been experimenting with the spiragraph and playing a lot of Snakes and Ladders, Snap and Memory.  I'm reading Enid Blighton's Magic Faraway Tree series to him and working on a few sight words. Now that Sean is home more, they are spending time in the shed together. He's exhausted at the end of most days.

Long time...

Since returning from Gold Coast it has been difficult to bring our routine back on track, nevertheless Kirk has been working very hard at reading 2 & 3 digit numbers and simple words. Now I'm back at school teaching the odd day, I have the opportunity to compare him to the preps and he seems to be about average.

I still haven't bought him that trampoline which he thoroughly deserves but Aunty Michelle gave him Joshua's bike which thrills him immensely. There isn't a lot of flat area to ride it here so he takes it to Jorja's and rides it all day there. Rachel tells me he is managing to ride it on 2 wheels going forward but still requires the trainer wheels when cornering.

Last term we were studying space and since our trip have been fairly lax with it but as he is gravitating to anything space oriented I shall plug along with it and see how far we can push the theme. He has matured these last couple of months and I think he might be ready to learn more of the physical concepts rather than just facts.

A problem Kirk has had the last 6 months is a very slight lisp, not unusual for his age, and I have been trying to correct this and concluded its persistence was due to the lack of front teeth. A visit to the ENT said it was more likely due to inner ear fluid. Hopefully after his tonsil operation we will be able to correct this.

We made a couple of model rockets today. One the traditional style - the other closer to a multistaged rocket. Learned about making cones and cylinders.

Almost there

Although Kirk still has an issue with the 10s, he is developing a solid grip on counting to 100. He is very determined to understand double digits and the difference between numbers standing together, being added or multiplied.

He is still enjoying our exploration of space so I will continue with this. He's chuffed with Uranus which has fallen on its side and tonight watched a fictional documentary on the discovery of a planet with life. He has a huge imagination. I wish he liked art so he could show us what is in his head.

Writing the alphabet has reached a plateau so we will play with pastels for a while.

Questacon

Yesterday Questacon came to Bundaberg. Kirk and his friends had a ball. Not surprisingly he spent much time playing with the gear board. It is a vertical magnetic surface with 1 moving gear to which you stick different sized gears and watch what happens.  We then spent the afternoon in the Botanical Gardens with our friends. 

Please Mum!

For months Kirk has been nagging me for a trampoline. A fortnight ago I gave in and said that when he could count to 50 by himself he could have one. At the time he could barely get to 15, let alone 50. I thought this would buy me a heap of time but it looks like I will be forking out a lot sooner than I expected. On Monday he watched his friend, Jorja, count to 100. On Wednesday, with some help, he did it himself. No kidding. This week he has spent a lot of time asking me about numbers. Questions like: "What's a 6 and a 3 make?" (63), "What is 6 plus 3?" (9), He has also been obsessively counting everything and doing a lot of self talk about number comparisons, "8 is bigger than 6."

Note to self: material rewards WORK but forgo trampolines in the future.

TESS Animal Wildlife Sanctuary Day

Around 60 people attended the homeschooler gathering at the sanctuary.  Kirk enjoyed being able to touch the animals and interract with them.

Space fact from Kirk: The centre of Jupiter is hotter than the sun.

Image

Kirk spent the afternoon practising archery at the Historical with us. Ron commented that he looked like Robin Hood and he was delighted with the comparison. I wonder if this is the point where imitation for fun becomes modelling the self? I wonder...

Fishing at Coonarr - Take 2

This time, sensibly, we went in Bob's car - albeit I had to leave Skye with Cissy because there were no seat bolts (Cissy is sooo tolerant). We caught a swimmer crab (Kirk thought this was hilarious), 4 undersized flathead and 4 dart - 3 of which we fried for lunch with salad & rice. Kirk had a great time and and keenly absorbed everything about baiting and casting the rods. After lunch Bob and Kirk checked the trap and found and enormous red claw yabbie.

Of late Kirk's knowledge of the world is rapidly expanding but his capacity for self awareness and control takes two steps forward and one step back. Sigh...

He ain't Newton

...but he observed that when things are scrunched up they fell faster. At the time he was throwing a windscreen shade around (AKA bat wings). So I asked him to do the same thing with a piece of paper and explained what is happening with regard to gravity and wind resistance. So tomorrow we're making parachutes.

Twinkle Twinkle Bloody Huge SUN

Currently he is hooked on the comparative sizes of our moon, earth and the sun and will tell anyone who will listen about it. Mercury is pretty dull - a bit like the moon - but Venus thrills him with its volcanoes and sulphuric acid rain. Looks like space science is a winner.

We've had a lot of friends here this week. The Edgar family came on Monday and the kids both helped rescue burrowing frogs from the sand and lug pavers for the front path. Today the 5 George kids were here for a few hours and they all played outside in the sand and on the swings.

Reading & writing is experiencing slow but steady progress. He is consistently differentiating initial sounds and rhymes. Inconsistently identifing & writing letters. Can listen to a string of sounds and make a word from it. We just do a little every day.

In maths we're building vocabulary such as more, less, fewer, most, least etc... He's adding & subtracting inconsistently. Counts well to 15. Of late he has been asking for a trampoline and today I finally said "Yes"  ...when he can count to 50. Hopefully that will buy me sufficient time to save up.

The stumbling block to counting is the "teens". English is an odd language - we have 1 to 10 and then the teens which to a child in no way resemble the first 10 numbers then we revert to using the initial base 10 nunbers.

Today

Phil, Ben and Bradley came today to finish off the shed. I played with Bradley, played Rainforest on the computer and we normally hang out the washing. We smoked chicken wings and pork ribs in the smoker. The chicken tasted great and the pork tasted great. It is a gas fired smoker with sawdust to give the smoke flavour.  We also put a big bowl of water in the smoker to keep the meat moist. I want to make smoked beef next time.

Duck Dodgers

Kirk has decided he wants to be an astronaut, not just as a payload specialist but THE PILOT. So we looked up the requirements. Mmm...I think I shall take advantage of this phase and put dinosaurs in the back burner. What a great excuse to watch science fiction.

Found Sock

We found Dad's woolly yellow sock yesterday. He lost it in Tasmania and Yvonne, being a meticulous housekeeper, remembered to give it to me when we visited. Me NOT being a meticulous housewife promptly lost it again until yesterday when it was discovered in the sewing pile. Kirk thought he would make up a story about it....

One day Grandpa was looking for his sock but he couldn't find it. Then he went to the zoo and it was there! It was being nibbled by squirrels. He was really angry and banged his foot on the ground and went into the cage and took his sock back.  [At this point Kirk fell asleep]

In the morning we stuck a couple of Harmony Day badges on it and it became a yellow eel which ate frogs and the puffer fish Nanny knitted.

Mud Monsters

Little Athletics

Last week Kirk started Little Athletics. He was keen to boast how he would beat everyone but the imagined did not match the reality and he was overwhelmed. Nevertheless, once Sean performed longjump with him he figured it was all right and started to make an effort. This week he managed to get over his fears a lot quicker and joined in.

Progress

Woohoo!! Kirk is starting to understand initial sounds and rhyme. I've really sweated over this one. It's all well and good to have letter recognition but then you have to put it together.

Fiddler Crab

Kirk has made a dozen or so butterfly prints today and this was his favourite.

Snorkling

Yesterday Kirk finally had the opportunity to use his snorkle set. He was thrilled to be able to see all the fish which were mostly diamond fish and diamond-scaled mullet.
Click on the pics for enlargement. Landscapes are hard to do  in Blogger.

The snake is back - By Kirk

The snake is here and it is hiding behind the head of the big mask. He is about a metre and a half and he's a tree snake. He's got yellow on the bottom and green on the back. He was going to eat a frog. Not much because there are only 2 frogs left. I think he's going to eat all our frogs and I don't think we will be able to eat any more frogs. Frogs can't beat snakes. Snakes have a special tongue. We smell with our nose. Snakes smell with their tongue.

But what if I COOK HIM FOR SNAKE STEW?!

Note:  This photo was taken this time last year and I am sure this is the same snake. Sorry the camera is out on loan so I can't show you how big and beautiful he is now.

Nintendon't

The Fly, a light remote-controlled hovercraft, WAS Kirk's latest toy. Predictably it is already broken so Sean made for him a Nintendon't. It is a postcard with a Nintendo display drawn on it. It is called a Nintendon't because it don't really work! Kirk finds this hilarious and he and Sean spend lots of time using it like a remote controller for a paper aeroplane or he can use it solo by imagining the games. The Nintendon't requires no batteries and costs nothing yet can provide this imaginative child hours of entertainment.Who needs electronica when one has a whole brain to play with?

Another week full of friends! We picniced at the dam, played soccer and cricket and did a lot of swimming.
This week Kirk completed a preppy math book. I don't push texts but they are helpful. e.g.While he learns matching and categorising by sorting the washing (which he can do by himself), the book decontextualises that skill and helps him understand these skills as concepts. He is pretty chuffed with himself and I am pleased he finds it easy. The preppy English however will take a lot more effort.