I've decided to have a theme to the days. Monday is Nature Day, Tuesday we do Geography, Thursdays, Shakespeare and that leaves Poetry for Friday. Wednesday is our day "off" because of all of the outside activities we have, although I'd like to figure out a way to make it our art and music day. So far, I've been too tired even though I know that I'm making it seem like a much bigger deal than it probably is. Can you tell I feel a little guilty and conflicted?
Anyway, we went on our nature walk this morning to the lake. We saw ducks and a couple of geese.The kids spent a good amount of time rescuing worms--pulling them out of the drainage ditch and putting them in the nice cool dirt nearby. We took pictures of some of the things we saw and tried to make sure we spent some time being quiet so we could hear the birds and whatever was around us. It was a nice time, although I wished I had my hat since it was already getting hot.
Once we got home, the kids had a snack and drew in their nature journals while I read a chapter of The Burgess Bird Book. That might be my all-time favorite homeschooling find. It's not just for homeschoolers and it's not a text at all. I love it, the kids love it, what could be better? You should read it.
I put Emma down for a nap since it was close to 11:30 and sent the boys off to do some math. Harry did his test from chapter 9 and Sam reviewed the +9's. They were giving him a hard time last week, so I had him spend some extra time on them. That seemed to do the trick and we moved on.
We had a Dutch windmill to build, so we did that while talking more about New Amsterdam. We are so behind on Story of the World, but that's okay. We will get back to it full time once we have spent some more time talking about the colonies. As much as I believe in the trivium and studying world history from the beginning to the end, I also think the kids should know about the early Americans. My plan for history right now is to continue on with SOTW, reading a chapter each week, but really focusing on the colonies and early America.
I also did some reading with Annika. She's interesting to me and I'm not sure if what I'm doing with her is working. This is one area where I'm having a really hard time not comparing her to the boys. They were both reading fluently by this point and she can't seem to always remember which letter is which, even though we've done so much to teach them to her. She's a different person, she's still really young, she'll learn when she's ready. I know all of these things, but I want to make sure I'm giving her the attention she needs to have a chance to learn. We did a vowel page from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and read/looked at one of the Bob Books. We also read a nursery rhyme and did a coloring page with it.
Harry did a spelling pre-test and will do the real test later on in the week. Sam "read" Tuesday--it's a wordless book, and drew some frogs.
We ended there for the day. I still need to read to the boys. Sam and I are reading Little House in the Big Woods and Harry and I, The Jungle Book. Our bedtime book is Bill Bergson, Master Detective. We are planning to do some Mad Libs in a few minutes and that'll be our grammar for the day. I also want to get out the markers and stuff and make some Halloween cards for the cousins.
Wow, it's kind of scary that I can talk this much about one day.
