Week 2 of Home Ed.

Another busy week for Zico. 

Reading: Zico has been reading 2 or 3 books everyday ranging from level 1 to level 6. He enjoys the security of known books. 

 Zico asked "what's all this junk? in the water" Daddy replied that it was the same seaweed that we had just seen living on the rocks from the kayak. Then followed a discussion about how important the seaweed is as a home for the little fish that Zico had been catching. It is their habitat.

 Zico went out on the Kayak with Daddy. He used his own rod to catch 11 fish. Zico learnt how to cast and how to reel. Zico put his fish in a little container with salt water so he could watch them, then we he was finished he returned them all to the sea. Zico caught some Kahawai and some Spotties.

 Zico has been making great progress with his writing. Last week we focused on the writing 2 sight words "I am". This week our focus has been on "I can" . Zico wrote. I can run to the toilet. After the writing he has been reading the sentence and ordering some cut up words of his sentence.
Other sentences for the week have been.
I can see Mummy. I can see Robots. I can see a fish. I can see a cushion.

 Maths: Zico has been doing some more counting in authentic contexts. He has also been learning about adding and taking away. Here Dave was using mini figs for Zico to count. Zico has been using Studyladder to play some maths games including a game about duration of time.

 Physical Education and Health: Zico attended athletics at Saxton Stadium. He practised different ways of jumping and stepping over hurdles. He practised throwing different things too and his favourite was the ball on the rope which was hammer practise. Here is Zico working with another little girl in a pair.

 We had to get out of the house for an open home so we had lunch at a cafe. We didn't miss an opportunity for learning though. Zico made a tower with all the blocks they had. He estimated that it was 10 blocks tall. We counted it together to check. It was 16 blocks tall. We then talked about what number it would be if we added one block or took one away. Zico counted all the blocks again to help him answer these questions correctly.

 Physical Education: Zico has been making great progress with his Swimming. This week he was swimming by himself with the board. He also used a noodle to float around in the deep pool for the very first time!

 It has been a week of trying new things. We visited the Hockey Street playground and Zico tried out lots of the equipment. His favourite was the little swing and the tunnels.

 At Gymnastics Zico tried doing Donkey Kicks, throwing and catching a scarf and jumping on the trampoline all at the same time and many other new things.

 We had to evacuate from the Gym due to a fire. Zico and the other children were very lucky to see smoke and flames. Hear the fire crackle and the sirens and see the fire fighters with their hoses trying to put out the flames. Luckily no one was hurt.

Week 1 of home ed.

 Monday was a Zico's last day at Montesorri  and on Tuesday it was Zico's birthday. Zico got to show the class all his photos from age 0-5. He enjoyed walking around the circle with the globe as we all sang the special birthday song "The earth goes around the sun." It was a busy day cake with family, swimming lessons and kite flying too.

 Wednesday started with a pick a path batman book over breakfast. Zico has memorised all the different pathways so Batman can beat Mr Freeze. On the way to Horse riding (RDA), Zico listening to Fox in Socks and turned the pages in time to the story.

 At RDA Zico did a great job of using the new monkey strap as he wasn't confident to hold the reins this week. He also got to play a new game with balls and a scoop and he remembered all the letters and sounds from the signs around the arena.

 The Waimarama Community gardens are right next door to RDA and the kind lady there said please help ourselves to fruit from the fruit trees. We chose 3 apples, one for each of our family, plus one pear and one Nashi.

 In the long grass by the orchard we found a big bug with dots on it. Zico held it and it climbed up his shoulder.

 We stopped at the beach on the way home for morning tea. We had some running races on the sand and did some counting. We counted seagulls toes and compared them to our toes. We also learnt about number sentences the + sign and the - sign and the = sign.  Zico practised writing some number on the sand to make the sentences true.

 Back at home Zico drew a picture of our 3 apples that we picked and we co-constructed a sentence about the apples and Zico wrote "a" for apples.

Zico went to homeschool Gymnastics and he did a great job of listening to instructions and trying out rabbit jumps and frog jumps. Zico saw his cousins as well as some old faces from Play centre.It was a tiring hour with lots of new learning.

 Finally Zico drew a picture of Daddy on whiteboard and wrote the "a" in dad as well as a x for a kiss and a o for a hug.

 Thursday was more writing at home after sight words and reading . Today Zico looked at the word "am" and wrote "I am Zico. I am 6." Then it was time for "Kids go Wild" home ed. group. Zico got to see his cousins again out at the Lee River. There was dam building and a river crossing and stone throwing and lots of inventive stories that Zico made up around the rocks. Rocks were also used for some maths with Zico counting up rocks.Zico was so lucky that he got to see a fish in his dam.

 Back at home Zico build marble runs that worked and didn't work and then decided to take photos of anything and everything. I like this "selfie!"

 Friday started with more listening to stories over breakfast followed by some reading. Zico made lots of great corrections when he made a mistake. After reading there was more writing and drawing. Some number work in his Star Wars workbook and more counting when Zico had time with his Nana and counted out his age in marshmallows.