I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever know a "normal" week of homeschooling.
Not that it's been a bad week…I'm just waiting for some sort of rhythm and schedule to develop. It's coming slowly. I've read several places that the first year after taking kids out of public school to homeschool is a transition year. It's a year to undo, relearn, and find what is natural for us in schooling.
I keep reminding myself that…
over and over…and over…and over…
We're getting there. At seven weeks in, we've done a lot more than I could have anticipated.
This week, both kids moved along rather quickly in math. Because of the format of Math U See, there have been a few review units for them. They both still seem surprised when they get 100% on their tests, but to me it's a great reminder of what that one on one time can do. They are truly mastering not only the application, but the concepts.
In geography, we've been working on oceans and currents. I decided a few weeks ago to really slow down this subject.
History has been a blast this week. In The Story of the World, we've been learning about the Code of Hammurabi and I think it's been their favorite subject so far. To really drive it home, we played "King and Queen Hammurabi" and brought law infractions before the king or queen for judgement.
Hanna playing "Queen Hammurabi" and Caleb asking for a ruling.
Caleb's face after getting that ruling. We tried to stay as close as possible to what we had learned about Hammurabi's Code – which meant that there were a lot of trial by river, cutting off of hands and death verdicts.
The longer we played, the more intricate (and hilarious) the court cases became.
It also made the mama's heart happy when Caleb "membered" a story he'd learned at church about another judge and went on to tell the entire story of Solomon's decision. Not only did it demonstrate that he pays attention at church (something I'm never exactly sure of), but it opened up a little window to talk about how what Jesus teaches us is so opposite to Hammurabi's code.
In literature/language arts, both kids moved on to new books. Hanna is reading A Wrinkle In Time and started a quote book of Mrs. Who's quotes. Caleb is reading Dinosaurs After Dark, along with every other dinosaur book he can get his hands on. I'm struggling to get him to write, but he is keeping a Dino Journal and adding something new he learned about dinosaurs each day.
Bible Study continues to be a favorite time of day for all of us. We've reached Moses and the Deliverance in our Old Testament Studies. I think I've learned nearly as much as the kids have with this study. In Hero Tales, we've been reading about and discussing Menno Simmons (which makes this old Fresno Pacific and Mennonite loving girl happy).
Other subjects continue along at their own pace. Each day seems to bring it's own difficulties and rewards. Thursday we fought allergies and migraines and I realized that days like this were one of the many reasons we chose to homeschool. Rather than fight through and be miserable, we called it quits for the day and spent it snuggled up together.
It's been a crafty week – with banners and pillows and wall hangings…
Hanna created the Boo banner using one of my Myscrapchick sets and Cricut. Tom finally had time to put the magnet boards up a few weekends ago, but I've got to pick up a few more magnets before I can really put them to use the way I'd like.
And yes, that poor bookcase seems to end up that disorganized every single day. It would make a lot more sense to bring it (or repurpose another one in our bedroom) to the dining room where we base our school day. I've got to ponder on that a bit more.
A few goals for next week:
- finally make it to co-op park day on Friday
- flesh out some changes I want to make to our geography studies
- nature study
To view more Weekly Wrap-ups, see what others are up to at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
