Elizabeth’s Blog

I have been so busy that it has been hard to get motivated to get on a computer. Just so everyone knows, my blogs will probably be few and far between. Ted will keep everyone more in the flow on our day to day life.

If our trip for some reason ended tomorrow, I would say it has already far exceeded my expectations and the learning that we have had has been far greater than I ever dreamed. That said, I am thrilled this is only the beginning and that we have gotten into such a good routine. We usually get up between 6 and 6:30 a.m. and the kids go straight to whatever table we have and start their work while munching on a banana or something. They usually choose to do math first and we do four pages each morning. Other daily items are 4 pages of worldly wise, 2 pages of geography, and Australian reading comprehension. Ted also spends time each morning with each of them on a University of Chicago book called Everyday Math, which is a terrific book.

Everyday I choose other things to alternate in and out for variety. Some examples so far have been: matching tracks to the animal, geography matching games, and lots of projects around Australia.

Everyone in the family chose an animal to report on. They researched their animal and then we all gave oral presentations after dinner one night (Gibson’s on wombats is on his blog).

Special readings so far include information on animals both non-fiction (Tasmanian Devils, penguins, echidnas, koalas, kangaroo, seahorses, seals, dingoes etc) and traditional folk tales, Australian etiquette (did you know that thumbs up is not polite? I keep catching myself about to do it!), the Opera House, and Tasmanian history.

They are keeping hand-written journals as well as their on-line blogs.

The kids can now take a map of the continent of Australia and freehand mark in 32 important locations including cities, oceans, states, capitals etc.

I make quizzes on what the naturalists have presented every couple of days to make sure the kids are staying on their toes and listening.

I am proud of how disciplined we have been (school is 7 days a week) and how much work we have already covered. However, it is not our morning working that is the most amazing — it is what we do afterwards with the guides. Since the focus of the trip is learning we have tried to have guides, naturalists and tours in as many places as possible. We learn and see so much more and get such insight that it is amazing.

A few of my highlights from the past two weeks are:

Behind the scenes tour of the Sydney Opera House

Attend Barber of Seville at the Opera House (I was amazed at how intently they watched)

Sydney Aquarium; focus on platypus and crocodile exhibits

Guided tour of Australian Museum; focus on skeletons & minerals

Sydney zoo to see animals we were giving reports on. Go in the cage and get photos with koalas

Blue Mountains with guide to see their “grand canyon” and get up close to wild kangaroos and feed wild crimson rosellas (a bird in the parrot family).

Tour of nature preserve in Tasmania by its Director, where the kids fed kangaroos, saw a mother and baby Tasmanian Devil, held a baby wombat (they are incredibly snugly!) and pet koalas. In addition to the great animal encounters the information that the kids received was fantastic.

Full Eclipse of the moon over the Tasmanian country side.

Tour of platypus & echidnas nature center

Tour seahorse breeding farm

Night time “hunt” for kangaroo, wombats and possum with naturalist

Walk through a rainforest with a naturalist

Feed a bottle of milk to an orphaned baby wallaby

Go to sea lion covered beach with naturalist

Walk with naturalist and find wild echidna

Find fairy penguins on rocks below our house with naturalist

T & G played baseball with team in Adelaide and had a picnic with families afterward

Hike around and then watch sunset by Olga rocks then go back to watch sunrise over Ayres Rock and hike around it with naturalist

Meet reptile specialist for touch and learn about animals around Ayres Rock. Sterling is the snake, lizard loving queen. Gibson liked the dingoes but we decided Scallop probably would not.

Night time astronomy lesson at Ayres Rock Observatory

Now can you see why I have been a bit busy to get on the blog! We miss you all. Keep in touch. Xoxox

Elizabeth

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 6:05 am and is filed under Oceania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.