Romeo and Juliet

We have been tackling this classic tragic love story for the last few weeks...thanks to Aunty Kandle in the US we have a modern version that is aimed at teenagers. It has reworked story in the front of the book and the original in the back. The language has lead to some interesting discussions here at the Zoo School.

Today we managed to get a hold of the Baz Luhrman movie Romeo and Juliet....how interesting to see the story of two fighting families transferred into todays world.

The whole idea of it being gangs at war has helped my teen fully understand the whole story.

And in typical Baz fashion....its over the top and gaudy but oh so good!

Term 1 Planning

Well I have done it! Term one is all mapped out and ready to go. We are just waiting on our grammar book to arrive via Aunty Kandle (hurry it along will you?)...we will be starting without it though as school is back in session as of next Monday!

Lolly has been told it is to be head down and bum up this term. We have tracked down a pe group that meets twice a month near to us...and we look forward to joining in with that.

Holidays

We are on home schooling holidays here...we have already started talking about what we want to accomplish this year and we've been gathering supplies and materials to use for the first term.
I need to sit down and map it all out on paper...once that is done I'll post it here.

Meanwhile there has been lots of exploring technology here at the Zoo School. This Christmas saw the girls receive a laptop (Lolly) and a DS (Boo) from my parents...and my brother gifted them both with an iTouch. They have been experimenting with all the different applications and uses of these tools.

They have also been working on some gross motor skills trying out Boos pogo stick. :)

This Week in Zoo School

This week we concentrated on our times tables, and we learned about angles and the lines that dissect them. We've started reading New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (again!) in preparation for the upcoming movie and we read alot of information on skunks and where they live.

We got another 2 squares of our blanket knitted up...this is a long term project! LOL

We planted out some seeds...capsicum, radish, lettuce, chives, cucumber, phlox, heart-sees, cosmos and nasturtiums. This is what it looked like on Monday...

And this is what it looks like today!

We practiced drawing eyes and wings:
And we worked a little more on our mixed media canvases...


And we did lots and lots of constructing with K'nex. We've made a robot, a Ferris wheel and a serpent roller coaster:




We've also baked jam drops, peanut choc chip cookies and cupcakes. And we cooked Caramelized Chicken cutlets for dinner.

Busy....busy...busy!

Welcome

This blog is a chance for me to talk/share what is going on in the Castle Zoo School. We took a huge step nearly 9 weeks ago and un-enrolled Lolly from formal school. In the past few weeks we have seen our 14 year old blossom and start to show an interest in learning. She spends her free time reading, crafting, drawing, and building!

We will attempt to update this blog each few days to show what we've been up to.