Home School

Current Covid conditions have certainly changed our lives. School work for Katy has been limited with the second trial looking something like this -




The teachers and school are still fine tuning the delivery with the focus on providing a daily schedule beginning in Term 2. Once the above program was complete, Katy turned her attention to the Earthquake project that was to be due this week. An earthquake was to be researched and the information presented to the class by whichever method the student decided on.

Ella persuaded Katy not do a powerpoint presentation as in her experience, they became boring to listen to. Instead she suggested to make a film. After much brainstorming, Katy decided on an interview platform in which different 'experts' (all with variations of Katy's name) would present their opinions on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Ella was going to play the role as the host of the show. All began well with the filming despite everyone laughing so hard at the bloopers!




The following day, filming was scheduled to continue, however disagreement between the host and experts erupted and the show subsequently cancelled. Katy went back to the drawing board and with director Andy on board, produced the following clip! Great effort Katy!

Too Cold For...

Sourdough starter...I've now tried twice to get one going and on both occasions, the starter has begun so well and then died on day 4. I'm blaming the weather - that fact that inside temperature is nowhere near the 21 - 23°C suggested by the recipe. The cold weather is great for one thing though... our first fire of the season. Again we fell way short of the unofficial Canberra milestone of not putting your heater on until Anzac Day thanks to a maximum temp today  of 14°C !

Urban Geocache

Today's route choice took us into the suburb and away from the nature parks. With only Mira accompanying us, we rode off towards Aranda Primary for the first puzzle cache. With three girls trying to co-ordinate the numbers it was a bit chaotic, nevertheless we rode off in the direction of where we thought the cache was. Several minutes of searching along a back fence of a private property, we became a little nervous and accepted defeat.

The next cache was a short ride away on the red bridge. Slightly cryptic instructions had us wandering up, down and under the bridge and attempting various other searches - all in vain as once again we came up empty handed. Not a great start to our exploring.

Luckily the next cache was simple, located next to Ella's high school. On opening the cache the girls sorted through the treasures inside while I was busy logging the cache. Katy holds up a small square blue packet and asked me what it is. I'm momentarily stunned as I look and see that blue packet is a condom!!! I try to fob it off but then Ella begins to giggle!! Obviously this girly giggling is intriguing to both Katy and Mira who look at it more closely wonder what it is! Ella's education it seems has come from reading Kaz Cooke's book Girl Stuff 13+. Still making a fuss, I told Ella she could inform them but she was way too embarrassed! So with no beating around the bush I explain in very simple general terms as to the contents of the packet and it's use and was met with quiet embarrassment! Surprisingly everyone retreated quickly to their bikes and were keen to get going! Fine by me :)

Another puzzle cache was on the cards but it also proved to be too difficult for our girls who weren't prepared to do maths problems to solve the co-ordinates. We headed off to the famous Owl statue on Belconnen Way. A good cache... finally!

Through the streets of Macquarie to the school oval and amongst the ivy we discovered the last cache. Another interesting trip.

 

Homemade Hot Cross Buns

We've had an interesting journey in our new home schooling routine - I'm sure most families have a story or two to tell. ACT public schools went pupil free on the 24th March with 2.5 weeks of schooling left before the Easter school holidays began.

I'm unable to bring my work home so for me it's almost life like normal going to work. A few things have altered - as I am no longer need to rush home for after school activities or be around for school drop off, I've extended my hours which also allows for allocating time spaces between patients minimising the amount of patients in the waiting room. The other main work changes coincidences with general Covid guidelines - loads of hand hygiene and cleaning. Unfortunately we've had problems sourcing the soft paper towels that we use to wipe the gel off people's skin and subsequently ran out of them thus have had to improvise with other not so ideal products. These towels for us are a bit like the toilet paper situation!! The order has been on back order since February (before Covid) so who know when they will return to our rooms!

At home however life is certainly not like normal! With work spaces all set up, everyone was keen for the first day at home. I arrived home around 5pm and asked Andy how the day went. He replied that he was going off for a longish ride!! Hmm ok so not that great.

For Andy and the girls working together at home required a revision of expectations after the first day. Ella seemed to be self sufficient and had enough work to continue with. Her school seemed quite quick to transition to online learning via google classrooms. In fact Ella adamantly told us that she wasn't home schooling but self schooling!!

Meanwhile Katy who is Year 5 had very little to do. The school was under pressure to produce an online learning platform which surprisingly takes more than 24 hours to create!! They were also under instruction from the ACT education department about how this was to be delivered and were not allowed to provide any worksheets or education material to the kids in the meantime!! We really felt the teachers and the situation they themselves in but at the same time it was all a little strange.

For Katy though this meant she was bored.... together Katy and Andy came up with a daily timetable. He printed off a few maths sheets but really had no idea about the curriculum or what level Katy was at. Turns out that Katy needs more interaction with her learning which meant Andy was having trouble completing his work tasks.

As the days ticked by, Andy and the girls became more efficient and familiar with their new situation. Katy and Ella both found themselves in the kitchen baking. Katy cooked these very impressive hot cross buns which were served warm with butter and were delicious!!

At the start of the second week of home schooling, Katy's teachers were ready to roll out and test the online learning platform they'd obviously been frantically working on! Katy was excited to receive this timetable via seesaw.

A little video of the 5/6 teachers introduced how this system would work. The slide contained the timetable for the day with links to powerpoint presentations or videos for writing and maths. Katy was much happier with this but still required help to work through the theory part of each lesson before continuing on with the tasks on her own. Unfortunately, it was only a tester and for the remainder of the week there was no further instructions so once again Katy and Andy were required to devise a boredom prevention plan!! One good thing though was her piano teacher Arianne, gave Katy her piano lessons via zoom!

Caching Around Mt Painter

Yesterday's geocache excursion was such a success, I suggested a loop around Mt Painter. Surprisingly the girls once again agreed and off we rode. We locked up our bikes for a loop of 3 caches. The first cache was a bit tricky, located in the end of a guard rail but we eventually found it. The next one super easy and the third involved us trekking halfway up Mt Painter! Beautiful spot for a break and while we were enjoying the views, Ella realised she'd lost her phone from her pocket!!

No problems we thought, we'll just use find my phone but Ella's phone didn't have reception. She had remembered last using it at the first cache which was 700m away and so I was thinking that our chances of finding the phone were pretty slim especially in the long green grass. Nevertheless, we spread out and retraced our steps. I was FTF (First to find - a geocache term!) the phone when we were about 10m away from the first cache! Phew... morning disaster averted! On we continued.

At the next cache we recorded our first DNF which is always a little deflating. However we were beautiful roses greeted us at our last cache and brought back our smiles. Takeaway coffees and milkshakes from Little Oink completed our morning.

 

 

Replacement Exercise

We are struggling to get the girls out and about since all organised activities have ceased. Going for a run or ride isn't their kind of cup of tea ...yet... so I reinstalled the geocache app we began six years ago. Interestingly the girls are so much happier when they are enjoying the great outdoors and even more so when they are engrossed in something.

Off we headed on our bikes to the bottom of Aranda Hill for a geocache loop around the kangaroo paddocks. It was a gorgeous afternoon to be wandering around for a few hours. Our favourite cache today was the frog in a sock while the hardest one was the micro at the old rabbit hutch.

 

 

 

  

Covid - 19 Creeps In

Arriving home from Melbourne late on Sunday night, the girls came to pick me up. Both were bubbling about their recent working bee tales from Guthega. Katy was also very excited to be packed and ready for school camp - a three day adventure to Camp Cooba located between Cooma and Berridale, the next morning.

Over the weekend, Covid-19 restrictions were beginning to take shape. The Australian government had made an announcement that all organised, non-essential mass gathering attended by more than 500 people must be cancelled from Monday 16th March. Although this announcement  didn't recommend school closures, it did apply to a range of school events which included school camps!!

Katy was devastated to find out the next morning that camp was no longer on. Unfortunately for Katy, it's the second year in a row to miss this exciting and memorable event as we were in France last year. Actually for us the camp cancellation was a blessing in disguise as Katy woke up fairly sick and would have struggled at camp. In fact she spent the next three days home sick!!

Camp wasn't the only thing to be cancelled, so to was the Autumn Score Series and Netball. As the week progressed the outlook was becoming bleaker! Gymnastics and Silks closed their doors. Our weekly timetable of activities was becoming bare!



Next came the email and abrupt end to the school term...with the ACT schools becoming pupil free! Andy was to take charge with the home schooling as he is able to work from home unlike my job. So on Monday night, Andy and the girls set up their new home school desks and work areas -  all ready for the next morning!! Andy and Katy in the front room and Ella on the dinning table. Bring on home schooling!!