3.23.11

Wasn't I supposed to be keeping up with this blog a little better than this? I think so. :)

Today we jumped back into homeschooling after taking some days off to soak in absolutely beautiful Spring weather. Highs in the 60s and 70s and SUNNY most of the time... how could we resist being outside?

Anyway, today we did a few different things. I allow Jude to choose what subject he wants to work on first and he almost always picks his favorite: math. He's practicing addition. He did one workbook page then used blocks similar to these to make up his own addition problems which he then wrote on his chalkboard. I've noticed he can give the answer to easy addition problems quickly, without thinking (something like 4+1 or 3+3).

Next I started reading about Martin Luther from his history book when we got side-tracked by the storm rolling in, which dropped marble-sized hail. That led to running outside after it stopped to pick up a bunch of pieces to save in the freezer, which led to videos on YouTube of much bigger hail, then  an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy about storms. In that episode there was a simple experiment we could do with a 2-liter bottle and water to make a tornado. The kids thought it was awesome and each took a few turns trying it, with my help. Luckily we had a 2-liter bottle we hadn't yet recycled. It was a quick and easy science activity.

After our little detour we got back to reading about Martin Luther.

Next it was on to science and a brief overview of the digestive system. We read about it in one of our human body books first. Then, I cut two different colors of yarn to the length of both the small and large intestines and laid them out on the floor, winding it around a bit. I had them do the science activity in this weeks unit (which was a little weird but they liked it). They crushed crackers with a fork (like chewing), then put the cracker crumbs into a Ziploc bag and added water (the stomach). As they walked along the yarn (intestines) they mushed up the crackers and water. All to represent digestion. 

Jude finished up his other work: handwriting and a couple pages about rhyming words in his Finding the Answers book.

We do most of our reading before bed. We read about five storybooks and three Spring-ish books: A Nest Full of Eggs, The Reason for a Flower, and God Made Birds (which is apparently of print but has great pictures in it. I think the copy we have was mine when I was little).

Today was one of those really great homeschooling days. We didn't do anything spectacular. We followed the curriculum but also ended up doing something unplanned: learning cool things about storms and doing a fun experiment. Stopping in the middle of the work we're "supposed" to be doing to take a great opportunity to observe and learn about hail and thunderstorms, just wouldn't happen in a regular public school. I love homeschooling.