Week 4

For week four we are home and, boy, is it nice to have some more space after doing school in a 25 foot camper for the last four months. In this blog I will attempt to give a recap of each week activity. There will be a few notable days that I will point out in other posts. For the most part, I am going to try and focus on commenting on the progress that the kids make (and sometimes the progress that Mom makes) each week. This week the focus of school was on learning about ancient Egypt. I didn't get a few of the materials until the day before they were needed so the kids got a little bit of a surprise. "Surprise kids we are going to make pyramids out of straws and clay!" As usual they were just fine with the project that they were not prepared for. I, however, bumbled through the instructions because I was in no way prepared. It's a good thing it was not a very involved project. I've posted some pictures below of the "pyramid Project."

Dustyn is making progress in reading. It's not that he can't read, he reads quite well, he just has no desire to. This week he asked if he may read the Model T manual that our neighbor gave Brad. It is a neat old book that has the entire Model T pulled apart to show the different parts and how they work together. It is an 85 year old book and all of the pictures are brief drawings. The book is mostly words and he is blazing through it. (Note to self, find more mechanical books for him to read.)

 Daniella has started her middle school science with "Exploring Creation with General Science" By Apologia. She is loving it. She is able to do simple experiments to understand the workings of our world. I have had to caution her that the book work must come before the experiments. If not she would just do the fun stuff and not do anything else. Dustyn is not old enough to do this book but he is having a blast watching what big Sister is doing. Sometimes he tries to worm his way into the process but I have to remind him that this is her project and he must watch.

                    Thank you for wearing gloves while working
                            with the food coloring. :)

Science requires book work and navigating big names like Archimedes and Aristotle.

Brothers can sometimes be helpful with experiments.,Sometimes. :)

As we went through through the week things started to get easier. Language lessons were not a fight like they were at the beginning of the week. Compromises were made, white out was used on the lesson planner and the kids were allowed to do their work in any sitting position they wanted, as long as the work was done right.

Work is done sometimes on the floor...........

..............sometimes in a fort made of couch cushions.

Finally, we re-enacted the unification of ancient Egypt. The kids had to make their crowns and find on a map where their kingdoms were. Daniella was in the white crown as King Mendes of Upper Egypt and Dustyn was the king of lower Egypt In the red crown.

Warring kings. (appropriate for siblings to be acting out.) 

King Mendes conquers the lower kingdom.

The two crowns are combined to show that they are now one kingdom.

So there are the highlights of week four in our home school. I am enjoying learning things right along with the kids. I am learning to relax and not push too hard and that I should be prepared with supplies needed well in advance. I want learning to be fun for them, not a chore. I hope I have made more steps toward that goal.