We have 4 weeks left of school for the semester. We are going to make it! We've all decided that we love Home Schooling and want to continue next year. Our new format has really improved our outlook and we've had very easy-going days.
I think we're starting to get cabin fever a bit. When the sun is shining through the windows and the kids go outside with me in the morning to water the garden or do other chores or recess, they really want to get back outside. I don't blame them. Our attention spans, yes "our," are shorter than normal, but things are still going fairly smoothly.
We finished the Chronicles of Narnia series today. We had 4 chapters left so I told the kids that if they got their seatwork done by 11, then we would read the rest of the book. Success! Nothing like a little motivation. Now I need to find something else to read to them for the next 4 weeks. I have "Little House on the Prairie" and "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingles Wilder. I think we might just do those. My kids love to be read to. They also like to read out loud to me and I like that too. It is a rush in the mornings to decide who gets to read our Bible verses before each devotional in the mornings.
There are several new concepts that my son is supposed to learn in Math and I just don't feel like doing them. We are switching curriculum for Math next year and these things aren't even covered until 5th grade in the new curriculum, and he's going into 4th. There are a few things that were taught in 3rd grade that we didn't cover, though, so I'm doing supplemental pages to cover them, like reducing fractions and simple addition and subtraction of fractions. He likes his math lessons.
Most of the concepts for My first graders are just reinforced now and she says, "I have to do this again! I'm bored with it!" Dropping the e to add a suffix or doubling the end consonant before adding suffix. I know it bores her, but she doesn't always get them right when the rule is not spelled out in the directions, so we plug along. I think her only real "new" concept is contractions, but she caught on quickly. I don't know the true rule or a cute rhyme with it since I don't have the teacher book, so I just tell her to put the apostrophe where the letter(s) are missing and shove the 2 words together. She is noticing contractions in her free reading time too. I love this discovery time for both kids.
Oh ... the unexpected lesson of the week was last Saturday evening. The kids wanted to watch the sunset, so we went for a drive. There is some land South of town that has been in my husbands family for about 100 years and his aunt owns it now, but its abandoned. We drove there to watch the stormy sky and the sunset. We wandered around the old farmstead and Daddy told us where the house use to sit and the grainery still had grain in it. We were learning a lot. We walked up to a barn and heard a mysterious noise. My daughter yells, "Dad, that's a snake." You bet it was! He immediately jumped back and found that He had been between 1 and 2 feet from a rattlesnake. It was thicker than a 50 cent piece and 2-3 feet long, but coiled. We all stepped back and kept our distance. Daddy took a long stick and disturbed the boards in the barn so we could hear it rattle again. We all now know how to identify the sound and appearance of rattlesnakes. When we got home we watched a few videos online about rattlesnake and discussed how to deal with encounters and attacks by rattlesnakes. First Aid was a little different than I thought even. You don't cut where the bite is, but can try to suck out the venom through the bite itself. We definitely counted that as school and it is useful information to have when you live where we do.
I think we're starting to get cabin fever a bit. When the sun is shining through the windows and the kids go outside with me in the morning to water the garden or do other chores or recess, they really want to get back outside. I don't blame them. Our attention spans, yes "our," are shorter than normal, but things are still going fairly smoothly.
We finished the Chronicles of Narnia series today. We had 4 chapters left so I told the kids that if they got their seatwork done by 11, then we would read the rest of the book. Success! Nothing like a little motivation. Now I need to find something else to read to them for the next 4 weeks. I have "Little House on the Prairie" and "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingles Wilder. I think we might just do those. My kids love to be read to. They also like to read out loud to me and I like that too. It is a rush in the mornings to decide who gets to read our Bible verses before each devotional in the mornings.
There are several new concepts that my son is supposed to learn in Math and I just don't feel like doing them. We are switching curriculum for Math next year and these things aren't even covered until 5th grade in the new curriculum, and he's going into 4th. There are a few things that were taught in 3rd grade that we didn't cover, though, so I'm doing supplemental pages to cover them, like reducing fractions and simple addition and subtraction of fractions. He likes his math lessons.
Most of the concepts for My first graders are just reinforced now and she says, "I have to do this again! I'm bored with it!" Dropping the e to add a suffix or doubling the end consonant before adding suffix. I know it bores her, but she doesn't always get them right when the rule is not spelled out in the directions, so we plug along. I think her only real "new" concept is contractions, but she caught on quickly. I don't know the true rule or a cute rhyme with it since I don't have the teacher book, so I just tell her to put the apostrophe where the letter(s) are missing and shove the 2 words together. She is noticing contractions in her free reading time too. I love this discovery time for both kids.
Oh ... the unexpected lesson of the week was last Saturday evening. The kids wanted to watch the sunset, so we went for a drive. There is some land South of town that has been in my husbands family for about 100 years and his aunt owns it now, but its abandoned. We drove there to watch the stormy sky and the sunset. We wandered around the old farmstead and Daddy told us where the house use to sit and the grainery still had grain in it. We were learning a lot. We walked up to a barn and heard a mysterious noise. My daughter yells, "Dad, that's a snake." You bet it was! He immediately jumped back and found that He had been between 1 and 2 feet from a rattlesnake. It was thicker than a 50 cent piece and 2-3 feet long, but coiled. We all stepped back and kept our distance. Daddy took a long stick and disturbed the boards in the barn so we could hear it rattle again. We all now know how to identify the sound and appearance of rattlesnakes. When we got home we watched a few videos online about rattlesnake and discussed how to deal with encounters and attacks by rattlesnakes. First Aid was a little different than I thought even. You don't cut where the bite is, but can try to suck out the venom through the bite itself. We definitely counted that as school and it is useful information to have when you live where we do.
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| The Rattlesnake |
How exciting! We found a cottonmouth at the wilderness park. Love finding education out and about!
ReplyDeleteWe've found snakes at wilderness park too, I didn't know there were cottonmouth there. :( I enjoy the learning experience, but don't enjoy the subject matter.
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