Bus / Life Learning Week Ten & Week Eleven (updated )

Well as far as terms go, we are in our 2 week school holiday break.
All this means for us, is that we don't get asked "Is there no school today?" when we are out and about,lol.
Also we tend to stay away from the popular areas or places that school kids generally hang out in, during the school holidays.
Not because they are bad, just that those places are just over run with children.
We like it much more during the school week, when there is not as many people around :)

After our lovely weekend in Gisborne where hubby and I got to spend some time with our lovely grand daughter and her parents.
Miss Personality got to spend a weekend with her grand parents, which she hasn't been able to do for nearly 3 years. She had a blast and came home full of chatter about the things she did, what grandma had brought her things she had observed that had been different and similar to the way we do things.
I guess there wasn't too many similarities given we live on a bus and all :)

Miss Personality also got to have a friend, who is also Miss Blondini's sister (figure that one out,lol), come sleep over in the bus.
Miss Blondini's sister had asked to sleep over after coming to our bus and getting to see where her big sister gets to sleep every time she comes to stay.
Miss Personality was so good, her friend was a little un settled during the night, given she was sleeping somewhere different. Heard Miss Personality trying to console her and support her through it, during the night. " If you just think of something fun to do tomorrow, it will help you get to sleep", also " I really would like you to get some sleep so you will be all happy tomorrow and won't be tired".
Gee I wonder where she has heard that before,lol.

Then Miss Personality got to sleep over at her friends house.
Her friend that had a sleep over when they discovered the hedgehog in the camping grounds during the daylight.
Miss Personality's only request was to be allowed to ring us at bedtime :)
She got to make her own mini pizza with her choice of topping.
Had ice cream sundae for dessert and her and her friend, and her friends two siblings got to camp out in their play room, on stretchers and in sleeping bags.
The next day they went to some glorious gardens called The Looking Glass Gardens in TePuke.
She had an awesome time.

Next day she had another sleep over at her big sister Blondini's mum's house, whose other sister slept over in the bus.
It's great we have such an awesome relationship with Blondini's mum and her family. Blondini's sister in her mum's family is only 9 days older than Miss Personality, so they have all grown up like one big happy family.
They had an early night and just cruised in bed watching dvd's before time to turn out the lights and go to sleep.

Over all Miss Personality had a very exciting and busy school holidays.
And she loved every minute of it and can't wait to have all her school friends over again next school holidays :)

Bus / Life Learning Week Nine

Monday 30th June 2014
Miss Personality has woken up with a sore tummy and isn't feeling 100% at all.
So we are just going to watch dvd's and see what she feels like doing.
Hope fully she is feeling better soon.
Watched a few episodes of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman.
Brought up conversations about prejudices and depression.
Miss Personality decided to text dad, so she could tell him she was sick.
Watched a dvd - Free Willy - Escape From Pirates Cove.
After she had watched it by herself, she came and told me all about the things she had learnt about Orca/ Killer Whales, including their echolocation and how it works.
She then drew a picture on the fridge with the whiteboard marker pens.
Added some more rows to her knitting of Barbie's sleeping bag.
Re watched dvd Super8.
Miss Personality was curious to know why it was called 'Super8'.
Dad explained to her that it was the name of the camera the children used to make their movie.
She was very interested in how the kids were making their movie.
Asking lots of questions about where they were filming and why, about their special effects they had used to make one of them look like a zombie.

Tuesday 1st July 2014
Well it must have been a 24hr thing, as Miss Personality is feeling a lot better today, thank goodness.
Miss Personality got all her personal jobs done quickly so we could go to grandma's house.
Mum had some washing to catch up with.
Once we got there, Miss Personality got straight into her activities we had discussed the day before.
Since we don't have a tv on the bus, going to someones house usually results in Miss Personality becoming a tv zombie.
So she had to do her assigned activities first before she could got relax in front of the tv.

Miss Personality decided to write up her list, so she could keep track of what she needed to achieve.
Mum didn't even need to ask :)
And I commented on her effort to write nicely without being asked too, which was great to see.
She decided to do 3 pages of her word find workbook.
It covered topics like gadgets and gizmos, inventions, some explorers.
She noticed that some of these things had dates as to when some things were invented and when certain people had explored. So she added these dates to her time line.

She then went on to do 3 pages of her maths workbook.
Then 3 pages of her science workbook.
It covered topics like light and shadows, materials and light, the sun and shadows.
I asked her to read to me out of the workbook, the information, so that she could get help pronouncing any words she was finding tricky.
She then did 2 pages of an activity called Spelling Rules.
It helps with certain words that can be tricky to spell.
Miss Personality finds it difficult to get her brain into gear when it comes to creative writing.
Maybe it is more my fault as I haven't done enough of it with her in the past.
But hey, if they are not interested, I can only do my best :)
So we had pre discussed doing an acoustic poem.
She had liked doing this for her butterfly unit study we did.
So we decided to do on on Chocolate, for her Charlie and The Chocolate Factory themed unit.
First I had to get her to brain storm as many words as she could think of, to do with the word chocolate.
It took a bit, but once I got her focus, she came up with heaps of words.

Then she started her poem by doing a draft copy.

After her huge effort she had put in, I said she could go and watch some tv before we went back to our bus.

Wednesday 2nd July 2014
Miss Personality started off her day having breakfast, doing her personal jobs.
She read some pages from her Garfeild comic book.
She then decided she wanted to start her good copy of her acoustic poem from yesturday.
I asked her to go over her draft copy for spelling mistakes and then talked about ways she wanted to present her poem.
  
Very impressed with all Miss Personality's effort with her poem.
She did an awesome job with it and was very creative with her presentation.
She then went on to do some pages of maths from her workbook.
Then while she was waiting for to do some loom banding, she watched a dvd of Scooby Doo.

Thursday 3rd July 2014
Well it was payday today, which means shopping day and running errands.
We went to Bayfair shopping mall and bought dad's birthday present.
While we were there we caught up with a friend of mum's.
Miss Personality always enjoys having an opportunity to chat with someone other than mum :)
She was also very helpful in helping mum's friend find the things she was looking for in Kmart.
When we were finished we went to the library, to return some books & dvd's and then get out some new ones.Miss Personality found some more Garfield comic books. Mum found another dvd of CSI NY, since Miss Personality enjoyed watching the last one so much. Mum also found a couple of books I thought would be good to read together with Miss Personality.

Both are in diary format, which I think would make the story sound more real.
Will get around to reading them to her at some stage, if she is interested.
Went to the supermarket.
Miss Personality always enjoys pushing the trolley and putting all our things on the conveyor belt counter.
She had a conversation with the checkout lady, as she was curious as to how the counter top moved and stopped on it's own.
I love the way that home schooling opens up the opportunity for Miss Personality to learn about life from life.
She gets to talk to so many interesting people in her travels, and I am sure most people enjoy the conversations too.
When we got home and unloaded everything, Miss Personality made a fairy wand on the loom band from memory, from the day before.

She also made a mermaid :)
She then went on to watch some episodes of CSI NY.

Friday 4th July 2014
Last day of school term today, not that it means that much to us, as we all know every day we learn, whether it is structured learning or not.
Miss Personality is very excited to get to go stay with grandma and grandad this weekend.
Was so cute though, because as much as I feel that us spending 24/7 together, and I get the feeling sometimes that she would love a break from me. She asked if she could ring us every night including tonight.
She helped me pack her bag and organise everything she wanted to take.
Did her personal jobs, dried the dishes and put them away, and emptied the rubbish bag and put in a new bag.
Miss Personality made another mermaid on the loom band.
Then followed a YouTube tutorial to make a minecraft spider.

Then when she had finished that she went off to start listening to and audio book called Middle School - My Brother is a Big Fat Liar by James Patterson and Lisa Papdemetriou, while following the words in the book.

Then she watch the dvd Looney Tunes .

Once dad got home it was off to grandma's and grandad's for the weekend, while mum and dad went to Gisborne to visit Mr Confident and his fiancee and their little girl. We also got to spend time with Mr Affectionate as well. It was an awesome weekend and as per usual the weekends are never long enough.

 Grandad got cuddles (hubby).

 Grandma got cuddles (me).

We tried to sneak Miss Lilliah into our car, but we think we would have been in trouble when it came time for her next boobie feed :)

Bus / Life Learning Week Four

31st May 2014

Well we have been in our bus for 4 weeks now.
Still loving every minute of it.
Even though we have a few leaky spots when it rains, which require the careful placement of containers to collect the drips.
Even though we have to regulate when the tanks (toilet & grey water) need emptying or re filling.
There is still something so pure, comforting and tranquil about this way of life.
We have some people comment about the cold living in our bus, but I have lived in houses that are way worse than what we are living in now.
Our little heater, heats up the bus great.
Being at a motor camp means we can have the heater running all night if we like as we pay a set amount to be parked up and connected to their power source.

Our only dilema we had this week was our toilet waste tank got full.
We knew this because the toilet tank of fresh water ran out.
When we went to empty it, the pump was working but nothing was coming out.
With daylight savings here, hubby was trying to solve our toilet issue after work.
With daylight fastly fading, we decided to leave fixing it till the weekend.
Which meant that we now had to use the motor camp toilets.

As you can see by this photo, that building behind us is the toilets/ shower/ kitchen building.

So we don't have to go far.

But when the bladder demands to be emptied at some un godly hour and their is frost on the ground.

It can be a very un exciting, but desperately needed, walk to the toilet.

As for Miss Personality, she loves living here.

When she has had enough of the conversations with mum and dad, she goes off for a wander and chats with who ever she finds.

She has made a friends with the care takers son and his sister. She has made friends with Helen, one of the staff members of the motor camp.

This is her week:

Monday 26th May 2014

Got up early to take dad to work.

Stopped in to visit grandad.

Miss Personality made good use of the tv while we were there, as she has such a horrible life with out a tv, NOT!

Went to the local library

Miss Personality asked librarian for help to find where the reserved books are kept, so she knows where to find them in future.

Asked about reserving some books on minecraft, looms and dvd's on Horrible Histories.

Picked some books and dvd's and issued them using the self service computer and her library card.

We are just loving the library. Kids dvd's are free to get out and she can have them for 2 weeks.

The other dvd's are $2.50 each for 2 weeks.

So I got out: Scrapheap Challenge, Bear Gryills - New Zealand, The West Wing - Season 2, Dr Quinn Medicine Woman - Season 1, Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Rodrick Rules & Dog Days, Chronicles of Narnia - The Dawn Treader, Sooty and Sweep - The Big Surprise, Bindi The Jungle Girl.

We came home and Miss Personality made her lunch - yoghurt and apple.

Watched DVD - The Magic School Bus -  Exploring Space. 2 Episodes, Out of this world - space junk, comets, meteors and asteroids. Get lost in space - Solar system.

Watched DVD -  Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated -  Danger in the Deep - 6 episodes.

Miss Personality then finished off her maths work sheets from the other day, to earn a pebble.

She dried and put away dishes to earn another pebble, and did 2 other worksheets where she has to find objects in the picture, to earn 2 more pebbles.

Using 5 pebbles she chose to watch DVD Tom & Jerry and The Wizard of Oz.

I had forgotten that she needs to use 5 pebbles to watch a DVD, so she got away with the first 2 DVD's :)

We then had to drive back into town as she had a her musical theatre lesson.

She absolutely loves this and looks forward to each lesson. 

She gets to do singing, dancing and drama.

They are practicing for the production at the end of the year, that is based on the story of The Little Mermaid.

Tuesday 27th May 2014

Miss Personality read some books in bed.

They were DK readers. 

2 were based on the Indiana Jones movies, which she has seen a couple of.

The other one was called Finding the Titanic and then she read some jokes from the National Geographic book called Just Joking.

She watched Dr Quinn Medicine Woman with me.

I really liked this show when it use to be on tv.

We have also watched first season of Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables.

We did lots of talking about how they use to live back then.

Because it is based on the story of a woman doctor, Miss Personality asked about medicine and how it has changed and when did it change. I said that is a good question and we will have to look for a book on it, next time we are at the library.

I dug out a suitcase full of her toys that she had forgotten about. I set it up on our bed and she happily played with them for an hour or so.

She chose to use 5 pebbles to play minecraft  for 60min on the ipad.

Miss Personality then asked to paint her toes and fingernails with nail polish.

I find this activity is actually great for fine motor skills and hand/ eye co ordination.

She got given some countdown cards from grandma the other day. So she was putting them in order of their values on the back. They have different number values for strength, mischeif, bravery and memory.

She then put her montessori inspired beads in groups and add them up to see how much was in each group.

Wednesday 28th May 2014

Watched another episode of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman.

Talked about hypothermia.

Miss Personality read to me, a bit about it from a book, about to treat hypothermia. We had got from the library.

Bushcraft and Survival - In an emergency by Neil Champion.

We also talked about head injury and how it can affect you and cause you blindness.

Also about relationships of different people who lived back then, in that period of time.

Miss Personality helped me find the things we needed at the supermarket.

When we got back to the motor camp, Miss Personality decided to go off and see if she could find Helen, one of the staff members at the camp.

Then I spotted her later playing with the caretakers son and his big sister.

Thursday 29th May 2014

We had to go to Auckland from Tauranga as dad had to have a check up with a specialist and have a medical procedure done to scan / ultra sound his pancreas from the inside.

Miss Personality watched some DVD's on the drive down.

 - Tom & Jerry and The Wizard of Oz

- Shaun the Sheep

- Barbie and The Pearl Princess

When battery ran out on portable dvd player, she then turned to playing games on dad's iphone and ipod.

While we were waiting for dad to come out from having the medical procedure done.

We played some games of hangman.

Miss Personality was using signs and labels on the walls in the waiting room to chose her words, that mum had to guess.

She also did some games in the magazines in the waiting room.

Didn't get home till after 10pm, long drive home.

Friday 30th May 2014

Miss Personality is doing a monkey using the loom bands. She is trying to do it from memory as she has done it a few times. When she had finished it didn't come out quiet like it was suppose to, so she pulled it all apart and said she would have another go later.

Watched DVD - The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

I asked her if she would like me to read her the next book in the series so that when the movie came out, we would know what it was about. She said ok. So I looked up on my phone what the next book was called and read to Miss Personality a bit of what it was about.

Watched DVD of Sooty & Sweep -  The Big Surprise. 

I remember watching this when I was a child.

I know my daughter loves slap stick comedy, so I knew she would enjoy it, and I was right.

She was giggling away a few times and we talked about how they were puppets and where the person who was operating them was hiding.

Miss Personality noticed on the cover of the dvd that it went for 100min. She calculated how many hours that was 100min = 1hr and 40min.

Watched DVD - Suzy's World.

This one was on Little Critters, like spiders, flies and how they stick to the wall/ ceiling, glow worms and what makes them glow and why. cicada's, sandfly and why they bite and how, weta. With each insect she also discussed their life cycle.

Miss Personality also got out her book Guinness World Records 2004. She wanted to find the rarest flower, it didn't have it in there.

She then asked me to read to her - the most poisonous fungi, most massive plant, largest prey consumed by a carnivorous plant, smelliest flower.

Watched DVD Scrapheap Challenge with the family.

The lovely Sue Elvis has started vlogging (I think that is what it is called). 

She does a blog called Stories of an Unschooling Family.

I love reading her blog because she is so down to earth and just natural and someone you can really relate to.

Any way she did this short (8min) video called Does Unschooling Work?

http://www.storiesofanunschoolingfamily.com/2014/05/twice-five-minutes-on-friday-does.html

I found it reassuring, as I am sure all home schooling parents need a little every now and again.

I really connected with what she said about how after they turn 18 years old, or what ever age they decide to venture off into the world. That they are pretty much unschooling, learning from their own interests and from any mistakes they make along the way.