We've only been doing the "classical" (which is in quotes because, a. I am planning on making our school and curriculum our own, and don't feel the need to label it any one thing in particular, and b. I am leaning toward a more classical education, but it's safe to say that, two days in, I'm probably not doing it all right.) schooling for two days now, but I have a good feeling about it. I haven't felt as rushed about getting certain amounts of things done each day...I've concentrated much more on the kids really enjoying and understanding the things we have been learning.
Instead of rushing through a bit of the science lesson today so we could "check that off" and move to the next thing on the list, we spent a good hour on a couple of pages of our Human Anatomy and Physiology text, discussing the skeletal system, looking at pictures, and getting up and pointing out our different bones and what they're called.
While we ate breakfast we read the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Then we meandered over to the Tweebs history lesson in A Child's History of the World. (They really enjoyed today's lesson about the Israelites going from Canaan to Egypt and back to Canaan again, because we have been studying in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua in Bible class, so they knew their stuff!)
While Motormouth finished up his science notebooking assignment, the Tweebs did their reading and some phonics/language worksheets with me. Then while the Tweebs got cleaned up for the day, Motormouth did his reading in Favorite Medieval Tales.
The kids spent the afternoon at my cousin's house for their nature class that meets there every other week. While I cleaned my kitchen (oh my goodness, part of my sanity is restored.), they learned about the healing properties of calendula, went on a nature walk, found and played with a rough green snake, and the Tweebs found some lovely poison ivy that they proceeded to rub all over their hands while they looked at my cousin and said, "Look at these soft leaves...wanna feel how soft they are??" To which she replied, "What is our rule?" ...."Don't pick something up unless you know what it is...." "So what is that you are holding?" "A leaf........oh no! It has thumbs!" So they may get a chance to test out their new calendula oil that they have been making for the past six weeks.
While we were eating dinner and getting ready for boy scouts, Motormouth and I worked on history. The book we're using for him at the moment is Famous Men of the Middle Ages. We're still in the introduction, so today's lesson was about Valhalla, the Valkyries, the Frost Giants, Heimdall and the forming of the world. While we are Christian, and don't believe in mythology, I still find it absolutely fascinating. Right now what we are studying is Germanic mythology, but we will also at some point be covering the Romans and Greeks. We read our lesson together and worked on our memory work for history, and the Tweebs worked on Art. We talked about Vincent Van Gogh and they each colored a coloring page based on Starry Night. Before the boys went off to scouts and Thing 1 and I went to my sister's for a Partylite party, Motormouth finished up some math. (Saxon 6/5, if you were wondering.)
So, that's what our day looked like today. Like I said, it's a work in progress, and there are some tweaks I'm going to have to make to our schedule. (Such as, in our Latin-centered education, today there was the GLARING omission of Latin class. And I didn't realize that until I started typing this paragraph. Well, crap.) There is always tomorrow....I know it's going to take a few days to get into the swing of things. Hopefully by next week I'll have us on track. :)
I'm exhausted, and really should go to bed, but instead I'm going to sign off of here and watch Once Upon a Time. Sleep is for the weak.
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