Week 5

Another busy week for the Pearsons. We are selling our house and everything is in boxes. Zico had an extra day with Nana and Grandad this week so he could get more attention whilst all the packing and cleaning was done. He saw some irish dancing with them on Friday for St. Patricks day and also did a huge walk along the waterfront.
Maths: Zico enjoys counting and in the car together we counted all the way to 100. Zico told his Daddy later that after one hundred it is easy as you just start again but add 100 and he gave him the example of 101, 102. Great memory Zico. Zico is getting faster at recognising dice and finger patterns too and is learning his tricky teen numbers. Zico's first tooth fell out this week and the tooth fairy left him $2 which he chose to spend on an icecream. Here is Zico pointing at numbers on my home made number line whilst he ate his icecream.

 Physical Education. Zico has been doing so well with his confidence at swimming that he can now float on his front and back without Lisa's hands touching him....look carefully at the pictures. We are so proud of you Zico.

 Zico has been enjoying talking about Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Today he discovered the stamps and made a story of dinosaur footprints with his stamps.

 Literacy: Look at all these books that Zico has read in the last 5 weeks, there is a whole range here from level 1-6, so some are easy and some a little tricky. Zico particularly enjoys the Mo and Toots books as they have great pictures.

 Zico has started to trace over alphabet letters each day for the last two weeks. He finds it tricky to stay on the lines but he never gives up. Today's sentence was "I can see a box." so we practised writing the letter x. (There are lots of moving boxes for Zico to see in our lounge)

 Zico's other sentences this week were: I can see a tree. I can see the T.V.  I can see a drink. I can see a tooth.

Creative play: Every week Zico plays a game called Stomp with his dinosaurs. He always invents good storylines for the characters. This week there was a bit of a fight, but then the baddy turned good and one dinosaur had lost it's mummy.

Week 4

Maths: Zico has been doing some Subitising and is getting faster at recognising finger and dice number patterns. Zico used his knowledge of doubles to work out 2+3 when he was carrying his toys. He said "I've got 2 and 2 and 1 more so that is 5). Zico has also been practising writing some numerals and has notices that the letter s can look like the number 5.

Literacy: Zico has continued to read his 2 or 3 books a day as well as enjoying listening to us read the Batman you choose books. He loves choosing what will happen to Batman next. This week for writing Zico has written. I love my Mum and Dad. I can see a mini fig. I am going horse riding. I can see a big fig. I love my mummy. Zico's handwriting is getting smaller and neater and we are starting to look at staying on lines sometimes.

Physical Education: Zico has been trying lots of new things with his body this week. At horse riding he held the reins, fished off his horse and threw skittles. At Gym he went on the high beam by himself. At Swimming Zico floated on his front and back by himself for the first time! He also went on the flying fox by himself for a few seconds too!

Art: Zico has been exploring some 3D sculpture this week using tin foil from his Sandwhiches he made a snake and a boot and later in the week using modelling clay Zico made a Dinosaur with a long neck after we had been talking about Jurrasic Park.

 Zico is transferring his knowledge and skills from Gymnastics into the real world. He balanced on this at the playground and balanced on the wood by the river on our weekend walk.

Week 3 Home Ed

Another busy week for Zico with lots of varied learning.

Zico has been consolidating his knowledge of letter names and sounds. He chose to do his alphabet puzzle on Monday as said the sounds as he put the pieces away. Then Zico made his name and I asked him to make mine.  Zico has said that he enjoys reading and we have been reading 3 books a day.  For writing Zico has gotten faster and his letter formation is getting better. He has written some more I can see sentences.
I  can see a hook. I can see a banana. I can see a bottom. I am going fishing. 

 Zico enjoyed using scissors to cut out some minifig pictures. He invented stories around them being clones for his new character robot face.

 When we were using the glue stick Zico wanted to do some more glueing. I found some shapes for him to glue and asked if he wanted to make a picture. He chose to make some patterns and then asked me what was next in the pattern. We talked about how one pattern had 2 repeating elements, triangle circle, and the other had 3, triangle, circle, rectangle. He then wrote the digits 2 and 3 next to the patterns.

 Zico asked for his Duplo and made lots of robots. He is so good at building and creating stories around them.

 Zico has been enjoying time on Studyladder learning maths. His favourite is an addition battle game. He is learning to use his fingers to either count all or count on from the biggest number to get the answer.

 Zico's confidence in his body is growing. He has re-discovered his love of playgrounds. This week he's been on the flying fox at Hockey Street playground for the first time and climbed the steep ladder to this slide at the beach playground.

Our day started with writing about our planned afternoon fishing trip.

Zico decided to write "I am going fishing", he drew a kayak on the sea to go with this.

Zico learned to hold his own rod and wind when he had caught a fish.

We studied the bird life that surrounded us and went over the names of all the seabirds we could see: Gannets, Terns, Blackback gulls, red beaked gulls and shags.

We also looked at the tides and the effect it had on our kayak as we drifted back to shore on an incoming tide.

After lunch we were off to gymnastics, Zico went on the beam, the trampoline, the rolling ramp, the bar and through the big tube, the instructor was amazed that Zico remembered how to use everything on the circuit with no repeated instructions.

Phew, then back home again for our reading and basic sight words...what a busy day!

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.