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

Proposed Highschool Literature, Reading List, NCEA English for 2019

As this is a possibilities/planning post,  I'll be back to change, delete, and update as we go along.

Beneath are some of the items Daisy (17) may, or may not, read this year.  This is her last full year of highschool courses. 

LoriD on TWTM forums would probably label this as a kitchen sink selection: where we pull any items we like together and even if it doesn't look like a cohesive reading list, we're calling it one.

Study Guides and Personal Growth Books for 2019

• NCEA English ( writing, and, literature studies)
• Greenleaf Guide (selections from various books listed in literature beneath)
• Invitation to the Classics ~ Cowan  (Selections)
• KJV Life Application Bible (selections)    
• How to Read Slowly ~ James W. Shire
• Poetry for Dummies with a selection of poems (Selections)
• Ourselves ~ Charlotte Mason   (1905)    hmmm, which box did I pack this in? 
• On Stories ~ C.S.  Lewis (1914-1963)
• Outliers: The Story of Success ~ Malcolm Gladwell 

Biographies/Memoirs

• The Hiding Place ~ Corrie Ten Boom   (1971)
• Gifted Hands ~ Ben Carson   (1990)
• The Zookeeper’s Wife ~ Diane Ackerman   (2007)
• Have a Little Faith ~ Mitch Albom   (2009)   

Play/ Dramas/ Short Stories

• Sophocles Plays   (c. 440 BC)    audible drama (mum to preview first)
• The Winslow Boy  play (1946) and film (1999)   
• The Penguin Book of English Short Stories ~ Edited by Christopher Dolley (pub 1983)

Literature

• Epic of Gilgamesh   (c. 2500 BC)    abridged & selections 
• The Odyssey ~ Homer   (c. 850 BC)
• Till We Have Faces ~ C.S. Lewis   (1956)    Angelina Stanford webinar on Cupid & Psyche (this is an online class I purchased last year through Circe Institute and I hope we, at least I, get to go through)
• The Aeneid ~ Virgil   (c. 30 BC) abridged & audio   
• The Inferno ~ Dante   (1320)
• Gawain and the Green Knight   (c. 1400) selections   
• Rob Roy ~ Sir Walter Scott   (1817)
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ~ Washington Irving (1820)
• North and South ~ Elizabeth Gaskell   (1855)   
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ~ Stevenson   (1886)  
• Night ~ Elie Wiesel   (1982)   

Free Reading Options

• D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths  ~  (audiobook)
• The Three Musketeers ~ Alexandre Dumas   (1844)
• Just William ~ Richmal Crompton  (1921 – 1970)
• Georgette Heyer (to be selected)  (1921 – 1974) Discuss later. Compare and contrast the characters from a Heyer book and an Austen one.  How are clerical men, families, portrayed in each.
• Winter and Rough Weather ~ D.E. Stevenson  (1951) (Daisy is not a fan of this author)
• Thrush Green ~ Miss Read   (1959)
• The Year at Thrush Green ~ Miss Read   (1996)
• A Beautiful Blue Death Bk1 ~ Charles Finch   (2007)
• Charles Todd  (Bess Crawford series)  (2009 – 2018)
• Return to Me:  Restoration Chronicles Bk1 ~ Lynn Austin   (2013)
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon ~ Kelly Barnhill   (2016)
• The Love That I Have ~ James Moloney   (2018)  (need to purchase or loan from the library)

Audio

• The Three Musketeers ~ Alexandre Dumas   (1844)
• Cranford ~ Elizabeth Gaskell  (1853)
• The Woman in White ~ Wilkie Collins  (1860)
• The Moonstone ~ Wilkie Collins, narrated by Peter Jeffery  (originally pub 1868)
• Georgette Heyer (to be selected 1921 – 1974)
• Ngaio Marsh  (to be selected  1934 -1947)
• Thank You, Jeeves: Jeeves  Bk5 ~ P.G. Wodehouse (1934) humour
• Sarah Morris Remembers ~ D. E. Stevenson  (1967)
• The Silmarillion ~ J.R.R. Tolkien   (Originally pub 1977)  Classic   Audio   Others may also like a heads up about content in chapt 19, which we skip (incestuous brother/sister relationship)
• Salt to the Sea ~ Ruta Sepetys  (2016)
• The Last Moriarty:  Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Bk1 ~ Charles Veley and Anna Elliott narrated by  Edward Petherbridge  (2016)
• The Wilhelm Conspiracy:  Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Bk2 ~ Charles Veley and Anna Elliott narrated by  Edward Petherbridge  (2016)
• The Jubilee Problem: Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Bk5 ~  Charles Veley and Anna Elliott  narrated by Simon Prebble and Wendy Tremont King   (2017)  (audible)
• The Traitor’s Game ~ Jennifer Nielsen   (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 :)

Proposed Literature and Reading List for Daisy 2018

This is a post in progress where I will be archiving the items Daisy (16yrs) may, or may not, read during the next three terms this year.    
Many of the titles we have selected out she'll be reading, and then discussing with me as she goes through each book.  Some of the topics in these books are gritty, and very mature - if we don't feel Daisy's ready to read and discuss things covered in each title in depth we'll adjust the depth of content being covered, in those books, as we go along.  I do believe in preparing  children to discuss gritty/raw/disturbing things that can happen in life;  but, not in traumatising them, nor in presenting topics before each student is mature enough to handle grown-up issues.   I thought one literature provider, Sonlight, used to really push the envelope on presenting mature/difficult/growing up issues before most children are ready:  I used to save the too-much-to-soon titles in SL's literature packages until a needed level of maturation had been reached to deal with some topics - every child is different - and other books we skipped altogether.  

A home educating associate would probably label our list beneath as a kitchen sink selection: where we pull any items we like together and even if it doesn't look like a cohesive reading list, we call it one.

I'll keep updating as we go along, adding and deleting titles.  

Selecting books out for 2018 and 2019

Study Guides, Courses, and, Personal Growth Books for 2018:
King James Bible (select books)

Poetry for Dummies ~ John Timpane

How to Read Slowly ~ James W. Shire

NCEA English ( writing, and, literature studies via Te Kura)

Essentials in Literature (EiL): Level 10 ~ Matthew Stephens (selections. complete in 1 term)
Cupid and Psyche with Angelina Stanford ( must sign up before April 17)

Classics Reading List:

BC 5000-400 AD     saving these next two titles for 2019
The Odyssey ~ Homer (c. 850 BC)  Audio and book    (Mature Content) 

The Aeneid ~ Virgil (c. 30 BC) trans. Cecil Day Lewis     We have an Abridged Audio but Daisy would like to go through an unabridged version of this classic poem.    (Mature content)

400-1600

Shakespeare (any play of interest not yet studied)

Plays
Tartuffe ~ Moliere (1669) play (audiobook)
She Stoops to Conquer ~ Oliver Goldsmith (1773) play  NCEA Reading Response

The Madness of King George III  ~ Alan Bennett

A 1994 film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own play.  The copy we saw had had the bedroom/sensual scenes edited out – which made it a good choice for a family movie.  We all enjoyed the movie adaptation of the play.

1850-present day

any works of Dickens not yet read (1860 -  )

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ~ R.L. Stevenson   (1866) Brit Lit.  Audio.  Content: Drug Addiction    Switching to 2019

Three Men in a Boat ~ Jerome (1889)  completed

Anthem ~ Ayn Rand  (1937) Dystopian  (sensual content at the end. we skip that portion) NCEA Reading Response

Animal Farm ~  George Orwell (1945)     Brit Lit / Political Satire  NCEA Reading Response

Fahrenheit 451 ~ Ray Bradbury  (1953)  Dystopian NCEA Reading Response

To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee  (1960)  (EiL)  America Lit.  Content: an accusation of rape, centred around racism.  Daisy was surprised at how much she 'enjoyed' (?) this book.   NCEA Reading Response

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

A Surfeit of Lampreys ~ Ngaio Marsh (1941)   Golden Era Mystery.  The way the victim is murdered is rather awful – a skewer through his eye.

The Labours of Hercules ~ Agatha Christie (1947)  Golden Era Mystery.  Audio

Till We Have Faces ~ C.S. Lewis (1956)  Cupid and Psyche Myth Retold    Audio    Switching to 2019

To Say Nothing of the Dog: Bk2 ~ Connie Willis  (1997)    Sci-fi / Comedy    (I have to listen to the tie-in title  Three Men in a Boat before Daisy & I listen to this audiobook.)

Babylon’s Ark ~ Lawrence Anthony (2007)  N/F.    profanity edited out.  Autobiography  NCEA Reading Response

Have a Little Faith ~ Mitch Albom (2009)     Biographical  Switching to 2019

Caroline ~ Sarah Miller (2017)  set in 1870’s    Historical Fict   Daisy has no interest to read this.  (ETA:   another reader stated that the book has some unnecessary s3x scenes at the end of it - I haven't pre-read this book yet so I'm just giving the heads up for other parents who like to be in the know about "content issues" in books too. )

Short Stories, and, a selection of Poetry

Various 

Free Reading:  (adding books read as Daisy completes them)
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
Melbourne House ~ Susan Warner
Pine Needles ~ Susan Warner
Vanderbeekers of 141st Street ~ Karina Glaser (younger years book)
The Cat of Bubastes ~ G.A. Henty (audio. Jim Weiss)
Amberwell ~ D.E. Stevenson
Summerhills ~ D.E. Stevenson

The Bess Crawford Mystery Series ~ Charles Todd (the first 4 titles)

Highschooling The Final Two Years ~ Down to One Student

Two years from now I'll be donning the badge of homeschool mum emeritus.
With Jay (just turned 18) focusing on self-directed studies in Economics, and working part-time, I have just Daisy to facilitate highschool subjects for this year.
It feels a little surreal to be in the last few years of our family's home educating journey. When we received our exemption to home educate Jay, way back in 2006, the task to educate him seemed to stretch out so far in front of me - and while difficult terms felt longer than they were, the cumulative years of educating at home have gone by so quickly.
People ask me what I'm going to do once I've finished homeshooling the children.  A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.  There are so many things I could be doing - it will be interesting to see how the post homeschooling years play out ..... though I am hoping to take, at least, a few weeks off to clear away the-educating-at-home debris (-: 
However, between now and then Daisy and I have a lot to achieve.

We had to wait until Daisy turned 16 before we could enroll her as a young adult student with (The New Zealand Correspondence School) Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu - Te Kura for short.  Once her enrollment was accepted we elected for  Daisy to work in only three NCEA subjects this year (Maths, English, and Digital Studies), which is gifting her with time to pursue other areas of interest.

As an aside: the children's birthdays are two years and two days apart - hence the shared birthday cake beneath.

Jay's half of the Cake: Bitcoin and Astronomy-themed 

Stacey crafted this clever split cake. I've blocked out the names.

Daisy loved the hand-painted farm-theme, complete with a horse

A few NZ home educators ask why (?) we choose to unsubscribe from being registered homeschoolers and enroll the children as young adult students with Te Kura.  Though homeschooled students, 16yrs and older, can enroll to study in one or two subjects with Te Kura and still receive the home educating allowance, we find it is more beneficial for our family to have access to the interesting, and sometimes very expensive - though free to us - extras Te Kura offer young adults studying three or more subjects.
IE: The Star Courses. 
Along with a few other worthy courses available in 2016-17, Jay also did a retail experience course, Red Shirts with The Warehouse, which he found very insightful.
Daisy is keen to complete the Barista, and, the Red Cross First Aid courses.

I'll add a separate post detailing the other, non-NCEA based, subjects of interest she plans to do, along with the selection of literature she'll be reading during 2018.

We've selected out quite a few audiobooks for her to listen to as well, which gifts her with time to crochet, colour-in, or card craft.

Posters colour co-ordinated for our decor♥ 

Our Months Ahead ~ Oct til Dec

Regular Blog posting is definitely a back-burner activity for me this year, yet I still keep an updated record, offline, of what we are hoping to achieve each week.
We are currently three weeks ahead with our proposed literature/Church History schedule for books to study/read and Daisy has completed one of her English courses, Essentials in Literature, for this year, and has a few weeks worth of work left to complete on the other one, Essentials in Writing.
Jay is taking a much slower pace with Te Kura (NCEA) based subjects than we had imagined at the beginning of the year due to other educational irons, of his own interest, he has in the fire.
I'm not going to talk much about Te Kura based NCEA courses until we've completed our journey; however, I will say we've been tempted to ditch the whole NCEA, credit collecting, process for Jay a time or two :-P

And as promised, in a previous post, a few pictures of our nosy cows.  Whatever we're doing they want to see or, worse, be involved in it.

Ringside seat.  The neighbours steers rush to the fence to see what we're doing

The electric fence is the only thing keeping our calves from getting VERY close.
L. Mozart,  R.Mocha

L. Beethoven,  R. Bach.  Yes, all our cattle have names.

Scheduled Learning (updating as time allows)

Family

Bible

The Book of Acts 

Book Basket for Oct-Dec

The Abolition of Man  ~ Lewis  (audio) 

The Misanthrope ~ Moliere   (1666)  (audio)

Stories ~ C.S Lewis

Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques ~ The Great Course (audi0.  we purchased this from audible as one of their daily deal offers.)

Jay

Church, Literature, & Book Basket

Book Basket for Oct-Dec:  

The Church Ages

Book of Proverbs ~ KJV Life Application Study Bible
Leaders and Misleaders ~ Van Heerden  (business. NZ)

Margin ~ Swenson  (business. Christian)

Three Men on The Bummel ~  Jerome  (humour)

Audio’s schedule to listen to Oct-Dec:

Sparkling Cyanide ~ Christie
Curtain: Poirot’s Final Case ~ Christie

Daisy

Church History & Geography    

Rose Book of Charts      p. 46  AD1900 

History, Literature, & Book Basket: 

Book Basket For Oct-Dec:

Bible study with mum, continue

The Church Ages

Three Men in a Boat ~ Jerome

The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn ~ Hoobler

Oct-Dec Free Reading/audios:

the following titles are all very light reading; as Daisy is neck deep in reading and fact compiling, for a research paper

Journey Under Warning ~ Locke

A Tree for Peter ~ Seredy

The First Four Years ~ Wilder

Young Pioneers ~ Lane
Prisoner B-3087 ~ Alan Gratz   (available thru NZ  e.pukapuka)

Audio’s scheduled to listen to Oct -Dec:

The Courts of the Morning ~ John Buchan

The Three Musketeers ~ Dumas  1625+    switched book to audio.  Purchase $0.00 kindle first and get the audiobook read by John Lee for $0.99 

Miss Buncle ~ D.E. Stevenson

Mrs Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha ~ Gilman    continuation with our worldview study:  others may like to know this title includes psychics, Zen Buddhism, fame & multiple marriages, terrorists

Sherlock Holmes, unabridged, mysteries (various)  Daisy's sweet friend, Fleur, got Daisy interested in listening to Sherlock Holmes' (non-dramatised) stories again.  They've been card crafting while they listen.

etc...