Learning the Ropes

Last week was our first full week of 5-day homeschooling. It is a learning experience not only for Rebekah, but also for me...in more ways than one. I am learning right along with her, which I am enjoying very much. I'm also finding what is working for us and what is challenging.

Math-U-See has always been fun, and we are finishing up the Primer after two years. We went through it very slowly taking lots of breaks and coming back to it as she was interested. Some days even while in kindergarten over breaks she would ask to do math, so we pulled out her workbook and Cuisenaire rods. We are finishing up with learning to tell time on a clock now and will move on to the Alpha book shortly. The first few lessons are a review of the Primer, so we'll just skip them. She knows those lessons well, so I don't see the need to spend a lot of time reviewing them.

Joshua is starting to show interest in the Cuisenaire rods as well. I bought him the Primer workbook and then had decided to wait a year before starting him in it. But when he showed interest I took the plunge to pull out the workbook. Well, he is able to do the problems fine, but we have a long way to go for the written portion. Instead of circling the correct answer he wanted to try to trace the number, and they just looked like scribbles over the number. If we pursue anymore in the book I will just do it orally. He has a while before he is really ready to use any sort of writing device.

Science has been fun too. We are going through the six days of Creation and focusing on one thing that God created on that day. Since we are on the first day we have been studying light. Last week we studied shadows and how they change throughout the day, and we made a sundial observing where the shadows fall each hour of the day. This week we are learning about light reflecting and refracting as well as looking at color such as a rainbow.

A friend of mine who has homeschooled her children for many years invited me to her home before we officially started our year. She showed me all the fun activities she did with her kids and what her grandchildren do now when they visit. Her house is full of games and activities, and she gave me lots of ideas to do with the children that is fun and engaging. Before we left I ended up with a jar of five tadpoles. Their swimming pool was full of them. When I returned home Joshua was ecstatic over his tadpoles! The newness wore off after a couple of days, but the kids are keeping good tabs on them. We are now down to two tadpoles, and I'm hoping that at least one will make it to grow into a frog. It is a fun nature study for the kids.

Literature has been a bit challenging. Right now we are reading Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. It is not a very exciting book, but I didn't want to give up altogether. It is interesting to learn some of the natural things about swans, but the story has not grabbed us like I had hoped it would. We plan to read Charlotte's Web later this year, so I hope it is much more enjoyable for us, plus we'll get to see the play in the spring.

We have studied Bible history, and many of the stories so far Rebekah has been familiar with from Sunday school lessons. While reading the biblical account of Noah's ark we also read The True Story of Noah's Ark. I highly recommend this book! The images are beautiful, and while we don't really know what life was like on the ark because the Bible doesn't tell us, the author of the book tells what it might have been like. You feel like you are on the ark with Noah as you read along in the book. At the end details on the dimensions and how the ark was probably made is given. Rebekah saw what looks like pieces of wood that could be put together to build the ark, and she decided she wants to make one. So, Darrin is working on some plans to help her make a model ark, and that will be their project together.

After reading about the Tower of Babel we read about the first settlers of Mesopotamia. The lesson was rather textbook-like, and I really struggled getting Rebekah to pay attention. I have spent a lot of time this weekend looking for ideas to make world history fun. So, we are going to make a lapbook on Ancient Mesopotamia as well as do some hand-on activities about the culture. We'll actually probably venture off from our curriculum to do these things, but I think it's important that this be a FUN learning experience. Narration is very challenging too, so lapbooking will be an opportunity to narrate in a fun way, not just orally.