Books, books and more books, experiments, flapjacks and Indiana Jones!

This week started pretty slowly, probably due to the fact that M worked at the weekend and only had one day off this week. This meant that we had to cram all of our last minute prepartions for J's birthday in on Monday.

We headed into Exeter in the morning with a flying visit to M's parents before going into the town centre to try and sneakily get presents for J.  On the way back it was a food shopping stop at Tesco, then home to get the older two settled with their maths work for the day.

I have set them work for the next 8 weeks.  We decided that as they have had quite a bit of study time off this past month, that they would just work through the half term, breaking up then two weeks before the official school term ends.

They each have English Assignments and I am working on Biology for them at the moment.  Maths has been broken down as follows:-

Handling data

Tallying, collecting and grouping data
Mean, mode and median
Scatter diagrams I
Line graphs and pictograms
Probability
Questionnaires
Measures of central tendency and measures of spread
Probability
Pie charts and frequency diagrams
Scatter diagrams II and Cumulative frequency diagrams

Number:

Rounding and estimating
Negative numbers
Prime numbers, factors and multiples
Significant figures
Ratio and proportion
Long multiplication and division
Fractions
Decimals
Percentages
Standard Form
Surds
Sequences
Powers and standard index form

Space

Angles & Area
Measures
Polygons
Volume
Co-ordinates and bearings
Three Dimension
Symmetry & Transformations
Pythagoras Theoreum
Basic Triganometry
Graphs of sinx, cosx and tanx
Sine and cosine rules and area of a triangle
Circle Theorum
Congruency
Loci

Algebra:

Indices eg 22
Graphs
Proportion
Flow Charts
Sequences
Inequalities
Basic algebra
Solving equations
Quadratic equations
Simultaneous equations

B will be following GCSE level, D Key Stage 3. They will both be trying to cover each section over a two week period.

I also purchased this week, around £100 (Amazon prices) worth of books for £32.  I printed off the GCSE English Language and Literature List and went to my local second hand book shop (which also donates a percentage to charity) and gave them the list.

Managed to get quite a few, and also from the charity shop a few extra classics that are not on this list.

B has made a start on The Color Purple by Alice Walker

D selected The Hobbit

As well as their English assignments they have been copywriting, which is very boring, but it is important in an exam that they present their answers neatly, and also to be able to write fairly quickly and clearly.

I keep telling D this when he claims his arm is hurting after one page (I ask them to do four sheets of A4 a week).

Now back to child led not structured revising for GCSE type of Home Education.

J has been learning the odd letter or two, which he seems to really enjoy, and today I intend for us to paint a letter tree so he can stick all the letters he has learned so far onto the tree.

We have also started to do weekly science experiments, which he has decided he now wants to do every day.

Started with this one which I saw over on An Ordinary Life? Blog

Layers of Liquids - Density

J had great fun with this, although it may have gone a bit pear shaped at the end when we put talcum power in it and gave it a stir

Also we made fruity flap jacks, which he thouroughly enjoyed, and they tasted great.  The kitchen, however, looked like a cluster bomb made of out of oats had gone off!

He also was very pleased at his attempt to write the letter "b".  When looking for all the books off of the GCSE list, J came accross this etch a sketch type of book with instructions on how to write lower case letters.

Also from the Charity shop we found a marble run, which J spent a whole afternoon playing with, with his big brothers help.

This apparently, is the tallest marble run EVER!

Yesterday we went to the HE Group, sun was shining so lots of play outside. He also made a new friend, who is a girl, which is a shock because at the moment he doesnt really like girls, they get on his nerves apparently. This girl, however, was quite cool as when he was playing "Indiana Jones" when he pretended to shoot her, she fell down and "died" like she is supposed too!

He absouloutely loves Indie, and we recently bought him a summer hat from Primark, which he thinks looks a lot like Indies hat

He also mentioned that  he would like to be an actor when he grows up, and maybe be the new Indiana. 

Last week though he wanted to be a miner, because he would like to work underground, as then he would be able to wear one of those cool hats with lights on!