Remembering It's OK to Stop

There is one lesson I am constantly forgetting, and relearning, in our homeschool adventure - and that is this:

It's OK to stop.

Just because I had planned to cover X lesson, or Y number of pages - doesn't mean that's best for Hayden and/or Corbin that day.  We all have our good days and bad days even as adults.  Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I just can't concentrate.  Other days, I can spend a whole afternoon researching a subject and absorbing every detail.

And guess what?

Our kids aren't any different.

Today was a perfect example of that.  Hayden was hitting a wall with his attention span while working on his Language Arts book.  He was fidgety, fussy, spacey, and his mind was just not in it.  Immediately, I could feel my temper shortening and frustration setting in.  I wanted him to get his work done in a timely fashion and I was tired of redirecting him.

Luckily, I took a deep breath, stepped outside of the situation (and my frustration) and thought about it for a minute.  It wouldn't be the end of the world if he stopped today.  In fact, he's 1 lesson away from completely the entire year's work of LA program.  It's not like he hasn't put in the work!  And I don't want our homeschool to be me nagging (or yelling!) and sucking the joy out of our learning.

Instead, I told him to close up the book - we're done with this for the day.  Next thing I knew, he was sitting on the couch, immersed in a math iPad game for the next hour (he's still going).  Obviously, his brain had other ideas on how it wanted to be used today.

One more thing I am learning to love about homeschooling.  Learning doesn't happen just because you plan it, it happens when they're ready. 

You Can't Schedule Wonder

During our weekly Picture Study we enjoyed another one of Joseph Turner's paintings - this time of a wind mill. 

Of course, this then led to discussion on windmills and watching a video on a working grain mill - fascinating stuff!

Which then led to a discussion on gears - which I am now researching more to find some good manipulatives to play with and make our own "inventions".  Tip: The Thinkery currently has a wonderful gear exhibit that I think we may spend a bit of time in this month, now that we've introduced the concept.

The next hop was on to a discussion of flour - and what you can make with it.  So this afternoon we are baking bread.

You never know what's going to happen when you homeschool and I just love that!

A Moment In Time

Still traveling in the Middle Ages, we talked about what life was like without so many of our modern devices.  Since we are also starting our Solar System unit during this time - starting with the Sun - I introduced the kids to the concept of the hour glass as a method of measuring time.  Later we will be making a Sun Dial to continue their understanding of time.

I found a great craft to make your own hour glass and the boys had fun watching their sand and measuring our "hour glass".  It turns out, ours is actually around a  3 minute timer!

This is an easy craft that anyone could do with just a couple simple items you probably have around the house.

Materials:

2 bottles of similar size, one must have a squeeze top to slow the sand pouring in/out.
Tape
Sand

We used two salad dressing bottles that I cleaned out and scrubbed the labels off.  Hint: Use an SOS pad to scrub the sticky label residue off.  So much faster than just a sponge.

Pour the sand into one of the bottles.  Tape the other upside down to it and enjoy!

It took all of 5 minutes to create (besides cleaning the bottles!  That was the difficult part) and was lots of fun for the kids as they "timed" their activities the rest of the day.

Entering the Middle Ages

We have moved on to the Middle Ages - a time period I think my boys will really enjoy if I do a good job of presenting it to them.

I have dumped the Winter Promise snorefest Hideaways in History and instead decided to move forward in a more Charlotte Mason way - with great living books.  Books of knights and dragons, kings and battles - all things two little boys love to hear about and have read to them.  Also, keeping in mind their age, I am trying to pick books that they can understand.  It's a fine line between "twaddle" and completely losing them in old English literature where even I have to concentrate to understand the story.

We've only just begun, but Saint George and the Dragon has started us off well with a wonderful story and beautiful illustrations.

 

I am checking another book out from the library today - we will see if that one is a keeper too!  If so, I'll post on it later.  We bought Saint George and the Dragon at Half Price Books for $1!!  I am keeping my eye out for other gems of this quality every time I go so we can build up our library.  The joy of not purchasing twaddle, is that the books will last for years and years, not just a short age range like so many of the ones I've purchased in the past.