A full Monday
I woke up around six, did my devotionals, and prepared the homeschooling table. The children woke up by 7:30 and we delved right into the material I had planned. We don't usually start this early but I seized the moment as they curled up on the couch. We spent perhaps an hour learning about map terminology, discussing "legends" and "landmarks," discussing the names of the continents and what the differences are between a country and continent, identifying the equator and prime meridian, and discussing hemispheres (and pertaining geometry). The concept of "landmark" proved more challenging than I thought it would.
Wolf is working on his geography belt loop with Cub Scouts, so our social studies work revolves around his Cub Scout guidebook. Since hanging up these massive maps, we are all still gazing upon them frequently. Psalm loves Libya. He has since decided that our flag should look like Libya's as well, as it is solid green and easy to color. I was surprised when reading the book Togo that the twins immediately asked if this was about the country Togo? Well, no. The dog. :)
We had breakfast and used "Leading Little Ones To God" for the first time, which is a devotional for parents and children. That means it has a story, Scripture references, questions to discuss, a related hymn, and a memory verse. I had, frankly, been prayerfully "winging it" in this area and wanted to get a more structured plan. We started with chapter 35 so we would learn about the resurrection right around Easter time. In the meantime, we will spend time with this chapter every morning this week, Wolf will copy the verse daily (and the twins if they want to) and do a journal entry of some sort, such as a picture with a story or response pertaining to it.
We read "Little Red Riding Hood" and discussed the different variations of ending we had encountered. All of this occurred with occasional breaks for creative play involving leggos and Transformers. Bethany woke up. Psalm started composing letters to Noah so Wolf and I took turns spelling words for him. I ultimately mailed two for him yesterday with a third in waiting to go out today. Hubby and Zoya headed to the library at one point after he woke up (it was his day off! yay!).
While they were gone, we read our "Five in a Row" book, How to Bake an Apple Pie and See the World. It is fairly short for a FIAR book, with a charming set of instructions about where to go to get the individual ingredients for the pie (since the store is closed). The book takes us to France, Italy, England, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, and Vermont. Whenever we read a book multiple times, we draw a little graphic to go with it and then post it on our world map. In this case, we made six apple pies and Wolf and Psalm learned where these countries were and stuck them up there.
They breathed deeply and dreamily discussed how yummy those places would smell now. I learned where Sri Lanka is, as I had no idea until reading this book. (My mother would be proud, as she has complained since I was young that American kids don't learn enough geography.) :). The rest of the family returned and we had lunch of pasta with salmon.
Alex and Zoya had returned with some books on tape so the twins and Wolf started listening to those and following along in the book. I headed to the university computer lab here in town to do my own schoolwork and Alex took the kids to the park. The days have been stunningly beautiful. At this point when I left, I was comfortable in a t-shirt and had to shield my eyes from the sun. This time of year is so hopeful! I believe the snow will go away! I believe summer will come! They took a neighborhood friend with them, Wolf's best friend who lives near here. I studied foreign policy. They played.
Upon returning home, Wolf, Zoya and I headed to Cub Scouts. We were there to decorate for the awards ceremony this weekend and get Wolf all signed off on the electives and activities he had been working on. Rather delightfully, the theme is "All Around the World" or something like that so the kids got right to work sitting at a huge banner and drawing "international" things. It was a wonderful tie-in with the material we had been working on. As we left, the stars were bright and clear and we found the Big Dipper, the "Drinking Gourd" as we had learned about recently, and discussed how that was the very same constellation that had guided escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad, etc.
Blue and Gold Ceremony
Today was the day of the Blue and Gold Ceremony for Cub Scouts. Wolfgang received recognition for both Bobcat and Tiger patches and associated beads, as well as his geography belt loop. We recently read a book called Jalapeno Bagels which featured two recipes at the end so we opted to make Chango Bars for our international dish for the ceremony. Sighs of contentment all around...they were seriously good. Every recipe we've made from a children's book thus far has been very, very tasty.
Shop class with Dad
I read an article months ago which was written by a father looking back on his upbringing. He wrote about how his parents used to save all their broken appliances and equipment and let him go to town taking it apart and putting it back together again however he could. It helped him to understand more about how things work and to get comfortable with using tools.
I have, consequently, been rubbing my hands together in anticipation for whichever appliance would bite the dust next. Turns out, the vacuum met its end in a way that made repairing it impractical and uneconomical, so Alex and Wolf held shop class in the garage. (Ha! I should do some of this too. I could use some handy skills.)
Next on the curriculum is a stereo which has breathed its last tune.
I think the baby's about to wake up...better go.
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