Friday 28 October 2016

Ambleside Online Year 6: looking back on the week


We finished Shakespeare's King Lear yesterday. Moozle wrote this narration on the play today in 'the style of Plutarch.'








I've mentioned in previous posts that we were watching a movie version of King Lear on YouTube. We've got as far as the end of the eighth video but I'll probably skip at least the next two for Moozle as I think they're a bit too gory in places for her at this stage, although all in all, the movie is quite well done.

AO Year 6 has some interesting science books scheduled: starting off with The Mystery of the Periodic Table, a biography of Albert Einstein and The Elements by Theodore Gray in Term 1 and adding in a number of others as the year progresses, so we began a Science Notebook as she's been itching to add it after seeing what her older siblings have done previously. As I've done with the others, I added in the Periodic Table of the Elements videos on the Nottingham University website. She watches these after reading chapters from The Mystery of the Periodic Table & The Elements. 




I'm looking forward to reading Rachel Carson's, The Sea Around Us, which Benj enjoyed a few years ago. I posted some videos and other resources on Pinterest when he did it, but this time I think I'll put them in a blog post as they are scattered all over my Pinterest pages and are hard to find.



This is a creative narration from a later chapter in the above book:






Art

A painting in acrylics, copied from a photo:



Reading

In case you haven't realised, Moozle is a book gobbler. She reads incredibly quickly, as did Zana, one of her older sisters, but they both have excellent recall, regardless. This week she has been re-reading some of the Billabong books by Mary Grant Bruce plus a whole stack of Patricia St John titles.


  


As I've substituted Australian content for some of the American titles in the Ambleside Online curriculum over the past five years, I haven't worried too much about keeping historical fiction in chronolgical order, especially as all my children have loved reading and it's been hard to keep up with their reading habits. We read books such as John of the Sirius by Doris Chadwick, Stowaway by Karen Hesse and many other Australian titles as family read alouds regardless of what historical time period we were studying. The younger ones listened in as I read to the older ones and picked up so much history on the way. My girls read the Billabong books for themselves as soon as they were able and I didn't wait until they came to the historical time period they were studying before I gave them the books. That said, I haven't found it difficult to supply them with great books for the time periods they study, but it has freed me up in some ways so that I can include classic books other than predominantly Australian titles - from Scotland & New Zealand, for example - over the course of their education.




Benj, Moozle and I have been listening to this Sherlock Holmes audiobook narrated by Ruth Golding on our car trips:





Linking up at Weekly Wrap-up


12 comments:

Unknown said...

As always, love reading all that you are doing! I'm slowly listening to David Copperfield via Librivox. I find for me, Dickens on audio books, works better. I found a fantastic reader...thanks for the heads up on Sherlock!

Silvia said...

I love reading all that you do too, Carol. I do love that acrylic painting.
We have some overlaps (we are reading The Sea Around Us and loving it), and soon we'll do the Mystery of the Periodic Table and The Elements.
I should say ditto to Amy's comment, as I also appreciate the heads up on Sherlock.

Carol said...

The reader wouldn't be Mil Nicholson by any chance? She is excellent with Dickens.

Carol said...

I thought The Mystery of the Periodic Table would go over Moozle's head but she's enjoying it. The Elements helps in her understanding, as do the videos.

Brian Joseph said...

It is really a good thing that Moozle is such an enthusiastic reader. latly I have been hearing stories from parents whose children do not like reading.

I think that Sherlock Holmes are great reading choice for children.

Aflyonmyhomeschoolwall said...

What delightful narrations! Moozle has a gift for writing.

Tasmanian said...

Hooray for Patricia St.John!

Carol said...

It's a shame that some children dislike reading. It's not that there is a lack of good material but if the options of video games and movies are readily at hand, they will likely be chosen first unless good reading habits are already in place.

Carol said...

Thank you. She'll be encouraged by your comment.

Carol said...

Oh yes! She's such a sensitive writer and understands children well.

jaklew said...

I loved reading your post. My oldest is in Y6 this year so this was really great. I hadn't seen the videos before. Do you select certain videos for her to watch? do they correspond with readings? Thanks!

Carol said...

Hi, she does her readings & then I'll get her to watch the video that fits in with what she's read - hope that makes sense. Sometimes the books might make mention of another element in passing or touch on something else, so if it piques her interest I'll see if it's on that website or find somthing somewhere else. Eg. when iron was discussed, stainless steel was mentioned, so I found a video that showed the process of making the steel.