22 June 2018

June catch up ~ Homeschooling Highschool with Daisy

It's been a while since we've given an update on the progress being made in our home educating, highschool, space.

Daisy is making steady and good progress in NCEA Maths.  The lack of clear,  in-depth instruction, and then the volume of work given to complete does not match up; it's often a case of trying to find clear instructions of how to work the maths equations elsewhere.  Khan Academy is often a sanity saver!

Digital Studies is the NCEA subject she finds the most enjoyable and has completed these, pre-set, assignments in lately: Design a greeting card - we did laugh over this one as she does much better card crafting by hand, not digitally - design an advertising poster for a bake sale, and, design a certificate.

English and Literature:
Leroy adores Daisy's prescribed, and free, reading time - a perfect chase to snuggle up beside a stationary lap.
Jane Eyre ~ Charlotte Bronte  (1847)  Classic/ British Literature  
(Essentials in Literature 10)
Daisy got so involved in this book, and even though she is familiar with the storyline she enjoyed the unabridged edition so much more.  

Anthem ~ Ayn Rand  (1937) Dystopian    (sensual content at the end. we skipped that portion) Daisy has read this but hasn't crafted a reader response yet  (NCEA Reading Response required).

Fahrenheit 451 ~ Ray Bradbury  (1953)  Dystopian   NCEA Reading Response completed.  
We need to wait until Daisy has completed all 6 of her reading response papers before she can submit them for marking.  Daisy's English teacher confirmed she has met the rubric for this paper.  I'm thankful that her experience with NCEA, so far, has been smoother than Jays - he ended up with 3 different teachers in one year, and each approached rubric requirements differently.  

The House on Mango Street ~ Sandra Cisneros (1984) (I haven't pre-read this one yet.  Daisy said this has some boy & girl tension in the book, with the boys aggressively pursuing girls)

Other Books:
Matilda Bone ~ Karen Cushman   1300’s  gritty content. Historical Fict
A Parcel of Patterns ~ Jill Paton Walsh   set in 1665   Historical Fict.  Not for Sensitive readers 
Night Witches ~ Kathryn Lasky    set in WWII   Historical Fict   This book has some swearing in it, no f-bombs though.

Free Reading:  
The Trial ~ Charlotte M. Yonge
Ember Rising ~ S.D. Smith
Under Drakes Flag ~ G.A. Henty (audio. Jim Weiss)
Sherlock Holmes  (collection of stories on audio)
Mildred and Elsie: Bk3 ~ Martha Finley
Mildred's Married Life: Bk4 ~ Martha Finley
Daisy ~ Susan Warner
Daisy in the Field ~ Susan Warner
Vanderbeekers of 141st Street ~ Karina Glaser (younger years book)
The Cat of Bubastes ~ G.A. Henty (audio. Jim Weiss)
Tom Brown's School Days ~ Thomas Hughes  (see my review here)

For science we are continuing on with our own interest led studies:  Practical application with raising and selling livestock.   Daisy can only have the number of cattle and sheep that our small lifestyle property, 12 acres, can support each season.  During summer we had too much grass due to too much rain,  and even with topping the paddocks Daisy needed to bring in more livestock to keep the paddocks down - we don't make hay - so Char and Coal, two young steers were added to her paddocks.
(L) Bach and Mocha (Frnt)
As we don't like to feed out to a large number of cattle during the winter months Daisy is getting ready to onsell some of the cattle - via a cattle broker - and yes, we will be 'harvesting' one beast and a few sheep. 
The lake Dn dug for the property attracts a variety of bird life and we enjoy finding newcomers, like the New Zealand, or sacred, Kingfisher, above.  Dn rescued it, dazed,  off the road where he thinks it may have been sideswiped by a vehicle.
Aluminium frames fitted in.
Daisy has a part-time job, and is helping with our family's house build - which keeps a good chunk of her daylight, after schooling hours , busy.
This week she got to assist with putting in the aluminium window frames - we joke that together she and I are nearly as strong as one weak builder  - it feels like a huge sense of achievement, to fit the window frames into the bedroom you're going to sleep in.

Craft
Daisy is working on crocheting Austin the Rhino out of the book Edward's Menagerie ~ Kerry Lloyd.  She's crocheting him in steel and cream, he looks adorable, I'll try to share a picture when he's completed.
Cardmaking is something Daisy continues to delight in doing, and it goes so well with audiobooks, lectures, sermons, or, music pieces she is wanting to listen to.   She's just made some really lovely engagement cards - which I won't share a picture of until the recipients have received them :)

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