When the Little Sibs' are Studying Apologia's Botany Course

: : Shoe Taxonomy : :

AHE Science & Technology Fair

{10 on 10}

#1

: : That time of year already! This is my first one done, will be busy with the rest in the coming week or two! : :

 #2

: : Everyone else is in bed, so the neighbour's cat is making himself at home! : :

 #3

: : My Snowy <3 :="" td="">

#4

: : Yep, peeps, I got it. Yay! :) : :

 #5

: : Working on it. One of these days I'll graduate! : :

#6

: : See below : :

 #7

: : I think I've said before that Summer is my favourite season. : :
But wedding season isn't so bad either! ;)

#8

: : End-of-year certificates for recorder students : :
I've taught for two whole years now!

 #9

: : Abstract photography? : :

 #10

: : So when I photograph plants, the background gets thrown out of focus . . .  : :
now I just need to get the same effect with portrait photography!

{10 on 10}

: : In our house, a person gets a chocolate bar for each textbook finished : :
and Danielle wanted some chocolate for our trip, so she did a couple weeks' work in a couple days!
This is one of the last projects for Apologia's Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures

: : Packing for the trip : :
We're heading south to visit Nana and the cousies for a few days :)

: : Moral of the story: don't fall asleep in the evening! : :
{or this will be waiting}

: : Father's day cards : :

: : New curtains in the kitchen : :

: : Just cos everything's better with chocolate ;) : :

: : I was hungry . . . so I made cranberry and almond muffins :) : :

: : Dried rose : :

: : Loving the silhouetted vibrant green! : :

: : And another silhouette : :

Responding to a Comment || My Life at Present

Over here I responded to some of the questions in this comment. Now I'll share a bit about "the season of life [I'm] currently in". Wow, that sounds open-ended. Where do I start?!

Well, I think I've said this on here before, but I'm in my last year of formal schooling (yay!), so I'm {meant to

be} working really hard to get everything finished that I want to study in high school (level). That means piles of math and science, along with some French.

Of course, being in my late teens with my graduation approaching, people regularly ask about my plans in terms of a job or career. I've been teaching recorder lessons to a few homeschooled students since the beginning of last year, and next year I plan to teach flute as well. Flute is actually my main instrument (I play it to a higher level than any other), but due to it's greater complexity, I opted to get some teaching experience with the recorder first. Once I've completed all the grades, I can go for my teaching diploma (that's just for flute -- there's one per instrument!) which is through ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music). And voila, I'll be a qualified flute teacher!

So, I think those are the two biggest parts of my life currently. As a daughter at home, I also have various family/household duties, such as working in the family business one day a week, cooking, cleaning, etc.

With my impending 18th {or perhaps that has subjective rather than intrinsic value?} and the end of my "school years" approaching (something akin to the end of an era!), a season (or seasons?) of my life are coming to an end. And I'll leave it at that {can you feel the suspense?!}, since this post was meant to be about the season I'm currently in. And I didn't write all that much. Oops.

Response to a Comment || Of Homeschooling and What It's Like

A while ago a commenter suggested I post about what it's like to be homeschooled, what I use, and how I/we do it. 

So, what is it like? For me, normal. I've been homeschooled since I was five years old, and have never been to school, so I don't know any different! But that's not very specific so here goes. I love the flexibility it provides. We can get up, start, finish, and eat whenever it suits. We can visit places or go on holiday during less busy times while most people are at school; it's so much easier to get jobs done quickly if there isn't a maze of people to work your way through! I can easily book appointments or music lessons during school time and study before and/or after them.

What do I use? I love Apologia science (Junior series by Jeannie Fulbright, high-school texts by Dr. Jay L. Wile). The books are written in a conversational style, which I find much more interesting than a bland presentation-of-facts approach, making it easier to remember the content.

For my other subjects I use publications from BJU Press. Before I started their English curriculum (during intermediate), I certainly didn't find workbooks on the subject easy! I think I may have known nouns and verbs, but adjectives and adverbs were foreign to me. Although my inherent English was, I think, pretty good, I had little understanding of the mechanics behind the subject. I've since completed their grade 12 (NZ year 13) text, and for the past several years, English has been my favourite subject!

How do I/my family do it? Well, it's in my nature to be independent, so once I learned to read it wasn't uncommon for me to work alone. Basically, I (and now also many of my siblings) complete various textbooks as our core curriculum (much the same as school students complete homework I suppose). While we generally work alone, Mum is available to assist in either providing or locating a source of help if need be. We regularly use the library and internet for research projects. 

And extra-curricular activities? All but two of us currently take music lessons of some sort, and some of my siblings regularly take swimming lessons. Throughout the years we have enjoyed gymnastics, pottery and art classes, athletics, soccer, dance, and attended a knitting club, homeschool sports club, and book club at a local library.

I think that about sums up my thoughts on the topic for now. Thanks for reading!

Auckland Home Educator's Science Fair

Ok Here's an old post I found saved as a draft, I figured I may as well post it seeing as I'd already done all the work!!

Well on Tuesday the 29th of June (*clears throat* 2010), Jarrod and I had to very quickly finish our science projects so we could take them over to New Lynn for judging that night....unfortunately that made me very tired that night, which isn't exactly helpful when your being judged!
I also had decided to do my experiment WAY to close to fair day, so i didn't have enough time to think through the whole experiment process, AND, i forgot to repeat the experiment a few times to check my results were accurate..but anyway..there's always next time i suppose!

My project was called "How Long" (No, it wasn't anything to do with the song!). It was, however, about how long deodorants can hold their scent when applied to a certain fabric that we had heaps of.
Here's a few pics taken while i was working on it, unfortunately we don't have any of it at the fair

Jarrod's project was something to do with airfoils and how they affect flight on model aircrafts, pics below:

Well anyway, Jarrod and I were judged on the Tuesday night, after which we got home around 9 - 9:30 I think, and Monique had to finish hers off, before we took it in for judging at 9am the next morning!
Monique did a project called "Ponies of the World" for the 'Observational' (as opposed to experimental like Jarrod and I did, or technology - where you design something). She researched various ponies using books, the internet, etc... She also dressed up, and made several props for her display.

We ate lunch throughout the day, as we didn't have much time after prizegiving (which was around midday) [no we didn't get anything!, although I did recieve an email a couple of days later asking if I wanted to do more work on my project and enter it in the Auckland Regional Science Fair, which is for all the schools as well. After much thought I declined as we were very busy around that time] because we had to pack up all of our stuff (of which we had a lot!) and get to my flute lesson in Mangare by 2pm.

All in all, it was a great day, after which we were all ready to relax, but needed to work on our history projects for a couple of days later!

Luv Bee