Our homeschool schedule for term two 2019

After a fantastic Easter holiday, we're back into all our homeschool activities for term two. This is what's keeping us out of mischief this term...

The girls have both signed up for netball again. Last year we were blessed to have the girls in the same team as each other, which meant training and games were all at the same time. Alas, this year they're in different teams, so we're out at the netball courts three days a week. The girls love it though so it's worth it. Netball is such a fun sport.

L is still doing Suzuki violin lessons and will be performing in her first ever Town Hall concert this month. She's nervous about it, but there will be so many other children performing with her, I think she'll be okay.

We really tossed up whether to continue S's piano lessons this term. Her teacher is wonderful, but S has been throwing way too many tantrums around practise time at home. In the end, I decided to keep her in the lessons because I think music is so valuable, but it wasn't an easy decision when lessons cost as much as they do. She seems to be doing better this term, so I'm glad we kept her in.

As part of our Christian homeschool group, the kids are all doing Touch Rugby for their sport this term. The group also runs art classes, and this term J is doing salt dough modelling with the littlies, while the girls do lino screen-printing. All the kids are loving their art classes.

Last week we stayed after the official sessions had ended and had lunch with everyone and then played for a couple of hours. My kids all ended up playing soccer on the field with their friends and didn't want to leave.

Every term we go on a couple of trips with our Christian homeschool group. This term we've already been rock climbing at Extreme Edge in Panmure. That was such a great day and we're now planning to hold J's birthday party there, because it was so fun.  With our homeschool group, we'll also be going to the Auckland War Memorial Museum in a few weeks. Oh, and we're going to see the stage show of Annie, as an extra activity one of the mums organised.

The kids also attend classes run by another homeschool group, and this term J is doing the Little Ferns nature class again because he absolutely loved the one he did last term. Every week the teacher brought in such interesting and exciting material from nature - like birds nests and fossils - and she ran really fabulous activities that the kids got so involved in. This term, J is also doing Gymnastics, Art Play and Fit Kids.

S is doing a polymer modelling class, a Jazz fun dance class and a visual art landscape painting class.

L is doing the same Jazz dance class as S, as well as basketball and a Lego class. We tried to get her into the polymer modelling class with S, but it booked up too fast. The homeschool group is getting bigger and bigger each term, with more families joining. I'm not sure if that's because more families are homeschooling, or if more people are finding out about the group.

For our school work at home, we are continuing to use Math U See for mathematics, but we are also supplementing that with Prodigy Maths sometimes, which the kids all love.

We are continuing with The Good and the Beautiful for language arts, literature and geography. I've been so pleased to see how J has progressed in his reading. He's the only child I've ever taught to read, so it's amazing to see it actually happen like it did for the girls through school.

We trialled Mystery Science last term and it was a roaring success. I've now bought us a subscription because it's so well-done and we wanted to unlock all the mysteries. We were able to get a discount on our subscription through NZCHENZ, so definitely check that out if you homeschool and are wanting to get subscriptions to different online resources.

We're still working through Story of the World Volume One for history, although we're getting close to the end. It's cool to see how the stories work their way into the kids' playtime. J went through a stage of drawing Minotaurs after we studied ancient Crete.

The kids are also part of an after-school club that meets once a fortnight at our church. Every term there's a new theme, and this term the theme is ancient Egypt. The kids have been exploring the food and culture of the time, and having so much fun doing it. Older kids dress up like Egyptian characters to run the activities for the younger kids, so it gives them great leadership experience too. I think L will be part of the older group next year. 

We've been listening to audiobooks in the car, like The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, and The Princess Academy and The Goose Girl series by Shannon Hale. Now L has started carrying a wireless speaker around the house to listen to audiobooks every chance she gets. We borrow the audiobooks for free through our library.

I think that's everything we're up to this term. It definitely feels like a busier term than last thanks to netball, but I've still got a couple of days each week when we're completely at home, so that helps me catch up on stuff around the house, and breathe.

Kitekite Falls.