Bus / Life Learning Week Eight

Sorry this post has been a bit late.
Limitations on internet/ WIFI can delay posting ability.
But that is okay, another day is just as good :)

Our family life lesson this week was how to repair a leaking bus, lol.
With each period of rain that we have been getting, we have been gaining more an more places where the incessant rain can find a way in.
But it has provided a great learning opportunity for hubby to discover some unknown handyman skills.
Good old silicone to the rescue.
While we waited for it to rain again (which in our current climate didn't take long), to test the silicone out, good old hubby researched other alternatives, just in case the silicone didn't work as well as anticipated.
So when it rained hubby was at work, so I got a phone call to ask how things are going,
YAY! Our leaking points of entry are dramatically less.
Thank goodness for that.
Needless to say more silicone will be administered on the weekend, if fine (fingers crossed).

Any way, what did Miss Personality get up to this week :)

Monday 23rd June 2014
Miss Personality asked to re watch dvd Eclipse from the Twilight series of movies.
Had breakfast and did her personal jobs.
She then decided to remove old nail polish from her nails and then repaint them.

Miss Personality then discovered this little gem, that mum had bought a while ago, and had been forgotten about. She happily read through the instructions, then chose which thing she would like to build. Then followed the instructions and built it. Still needs to be tested in the sunshine, but since we haven't had a lot of it lately, it will have to wait for another day.
Miss Personality then asked to re watch dvd Breaking Dawn part 1.
She then decided to peel, chop up and cook in a pot some potato, so she could have mashed potato and gravy for lunch.
Re watched dvd Breaking Dawn part 2.
Then off to Musical Theater lessons.

Tuesday 24th June 2014
Mum has returned to watching episodes of the next season of Dr Quinn Medicine woman.
So Miss Personality had her breakfast while she watched an episode.

I have noticed that Miss Personality has been choosing to watch a bit too much dvd lately and needs some inspiration / motivation to do some other things that I know she needs more practice with.
So I came up with a plan of writing on the fridge ( our budget whiteboard), the key learning areas like, maths, hand writing, creative writing, spelling, reading, history, science, and arts and crafts. She can chose how she approaches each topic, with a bit of compromise and negotiating with mum.

Miss Personality made a hut on mum & dad's bed (her favorite place to snuggle up), and read some books from her latest visit to the library. (reading done)

As she read her books, I asked her to write down date, title and author for each book she read. (hand writing done).

I mentioned to Miss Personality maybe doing a unit study on Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. We brain stormed together some of the things we could do to cover this topic.
Went into town and visited library.
Miss Personality worked on the first piece of work to go towards the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory unit study.
She invented a new lolly, then drew a picture of it, with a description of what it looks like, what it does and what it tastes like. (arts & crafts, hand writing, creative writing, spelling done)

Later on in the day, she then decided to write a short story using the foam stick on letters. (creative writing, spelling, arts & crafts done)

At bedtime, mum and Miss Personality snuggled up in mum and dad's bed and started listening to the audio version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, while following the words in the book.

Wednesday 25th June 2014
One of mum's passions is to knit.
So Miss Personality decided she would like to knit a sleeping bag for 2 of her dolls.
One being Barbie and the other being Polly.
I explained to her that before we start knitting we need to know how long and wide this sleeping bag needs to be.
So she got out my measuring tape and measure the widest point on her dolls and then the length.

She asked mum, to put the stitches on the knitting needle for her to start with.
Then mum demonstrated what knit and purl stitch looked like.
Then off she went :)
(hand writing, spelling, maths, arts & crafts)

Then while she was eating her breakfast, she chose to read some pages from some books.
Which she wrote down the date, title and author and how many pages of each book she had read.
(reading, hand writing, spelling done)

Miss Personality then went on to do 3 pages out of her science workbook.

1st - Introducing different materials.

2nd - The properties of materials

3rd - Types of rock.

I then asked Miss Personality to read to me the pages she had done, so that she could get help with any words she found tricky.

(science, hand writing, spelling, reading done)

 Miss Personality then chose to do a re tell of the three little pigs story, with some modifications to it, on the ipad. ( creative writing, spelling, technology done)

She then watched dvd of Horrible History and then wrote down any dates or things of interest to her on the timeline we made up the other week. (history, hand writing, spelling, maths done)

Because she had pretty much achieved everything on our key learning areas list.

She then got to use 5 of her earned pebbles to watch a dvd of her choice.

She compared the running time of about 6 dvd's to see which ran the longest, and then chose to watch that movie, which was The Looney Tunes Season 1 Volume 5.

Thursday 26th June 2014

Miss Personality  started off her day listening to the audio version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and following the story in the book, while eating her breakfast.

After breakfast, she decided to add some more rows of knitting to the sleeping bag she is doing for Barbie.

Miss Personality found a work book called Mental Maths.

She chose to do 3 pages that covered addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication.

Miss Personality spotted the caretaker's son had come home early from school.

So she quickly went off to play with him for a little while before the next rain cloud come over.

Sure enough it rained and she was back.

She wanted to watch a dvd, but unfortunately the key learning areas had not been ticked off the list for the day, so we negotiated and compromised.

She then chose a page out of her Comprehension and Written Expression workbook on Finding Facts - Kites. She had to read the information given then answer some questions.

I had to remind her to write in her best writing. 

When she had completed it, I asked her to read out loud to me the information she had to read, so she could ask for any help with words she found tricky.

Miss Personality then added to her re tell story of the three little pigs, that she had started on the ipad, the other day.

She then did 2 pages of her science workbook.

1st - The properties of rocks

2nd - Parts of soil

3rd - The drainage of soil.

I asked her to read to me the information on each page.

She then had free choice for the rest of the day.

Friday 27th June 2014

Miss Personality decided to do some puzzles out of the newspaper.

Then she added some more rows to her hand knitted sleeping bag she is doing for Barbie.

Miss Personality read some pages out of a Garfield comic book.

She then washed the dishes and wend and did her personal jobs.

Mum discovered a new loom band bracelet with flowers on it.

Miss Personality asked to be shown how to do the flower charm for it.

Miss Personality then did 3 pages of her maths workbook.

1st - find thousands, hundreds, tens and ones

2nd - Place value crossword

3rd - Greater than and less than

Added some more of her re tell of the story Three Little Pigs on the ipad.

Because she achieved everything she needed to do, she got free choice for the rest of the afternoon.

She chose to watch dvd's:

Free Willy - Escape From Pirate's Cove

Phineas & Ferb - Best Lazy Day Ever

Smurfs 2

Only one more week till the school holidays here, which means another school term is done.

I will probably keep Miss Personality going with doing stuff that covers the key learning areas on the fridge.

Only because she is doing so well with setting her own tasks and getting them done before she can watch dvd's or do something else.

I will be a little bit relaxed with it though.

If she has a friend staying over or visiting or her big sister staying, we will do something else we can all do as a group.

With my latest stash of loom bands, I have a feeling we will be doing that a lot through out the school holidays :)