Our Month Ahead ~ February and A Brand New Learning Year

February:  This is our first month back to academic learning and a very busy month for family celebrations -  three family birthdays and one wedding anniversary, all within the same week.

One of Daisy's favourite, shady, reading spots in summer

In previous years we preferred to ramp the subjects back up slowly but have found that is not really possible with Te Kura, so we try to make as many adjustments as we can: no extracurricular courses or activities in the first term and only sign up to start three subjects with Tekura, then once we have those up and running we reevaluate in March to see if the children have the space and energy to add on more which is usually something like a Barista course, Red Shirts with the Warehouse, First Aid  Course, etc...

This week Daisy is spending time setting up her initial course selections and getting started.  She'll be working through Maths, English, and, Digital Studies courses with Te Kura this year; we've bulked up the English course to include components we are wanting to Daisy to have had exposure to, which will include lots of reading, discussion, and complementary lectures.

Here's a rough outline of what our first week back looks like...

Morning Book Basket  (yes, we still start our learning day this way and share the reading load between us)

Bible:

• The Book of Esther ~ The Life Application Bible  KJV   (this a lovely bible to read and discuss together with young adults)

Poetry: 

• A Child's Anthology of Poetry ~ Edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword      Reading from:    I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon ~ Stephen Crane p.58,     to:   Souvenir of the Ancient World by Carlos Drummond De Andrade p.65  (this book is purely for read-aloud enjoyment, and a gentle re-entry into this year's, potential, poetry study)

Other:

• The Fallacy Detective ~ Nathaniel, and, Hans Bluedorn   Intro p.3  to  Lesson 4  p.37  (Daisy is reading this to us)
• The Student Leadership Challenge ~ Kouzes & Posner  (Daisy is reading this to  herself, and then we're discussing it together)

English 

• Poetry and Film, intro unit  NCEA 

Math

• awaiting contact from Te Kura teacher   (tap, tap ... anyone out there)

Digital Students

• Started .... but I can't remember what Daisy said she was working on 

Delight Led Courses/Hobbies This Year

• Photoshop (select areas)
• Art
• Card crafting
• Life Skills   (which also still includes raising and selling livestock.  She has three miniature Angus this year, a first ... photos will follow in another post sometime.)
• Learning to Drive    (I've been out of action for a while with less-than-health and surgery, so this didn't even 'get started' last year.  Daisy's quite happy as she's in no hurry to learn to drive.)
• Piano and guitar

Free Reading

• Various  :)
• The Traitor's Game ~ Jennifer Nielsen, narrated by Jesse Vilinski   (epukapuka audio) younger listen by a favourite author for Daisy