The past couple of weeks were spent, again, in a hotel. This afternoon we head back to PA, stopping halfway in Youngstown, OH to spend the night.
The next five weekends will be spent driving, driving, driving. Last night Mama called asking how stressed we were going to be and until when, I told her February. I ask her why she was asking and where they were planning on taking us/sending us. They’re bringing us to Legoland, California in October 2005!!! The kids are so excited. So I’m using this as more motivation for them to do well with school stuff.
They’ve been really diligent with their studies lately, though. I think it also helps that we’re in a hotel, where we have a limited set of books. At home where there’s so much sometimes it’s hard to focus on just a few things, and focus on them well.
Here we’ve made great progress with art (though no hands-on activities — will have to wait until we get home or maybe even after the move, when I intend to invest in 3 more *real* easels for the kids — we’ve only got one right now — and one for me…)…. yesterday they spent a good half hour exploring the MOMA kids’ site.
We’ve also made excellent progress the past couple of months on our history spine — Kingfisher. This week when we get back, we’ll be celebrating MLK Day with a bunch of readings (the books will be waiting for us at the library when we come home!), plus some Southern dishes…. there should also be a bunch of packages waiting for us — our World War 1 and World War 2 living books! I can’t wait. I think we’ve gone wide enough for now, time to go deep….
Handwriting lessons have been satisfying too — ever since Migi asked me if he could switch to cursive, Paco hasn’t been resistant at all to his writing practice. I guess having a buddy motivates him.
And Math has been going exceptionally well — I guess we’re doing really good considering the busy lives we’re leading right now! This is the one thing I’ve found about being busy; the longer my list is of things to get accomplished, the more I get things done.
Now that Migi has several lessons a day and not just reading and writing, Paco is more inclined to concentrate on what he needs to do. Besides, they want to use the computer and the rule is no computer until all work is done. So far so good.
We are looking forward to moving here — and going back to our regular jaunts to the museum, science center, zoo, etc. I am *dying* to take them to a Mozart symphony — which we did have access to in PA, but just didn’t have the time for.
As for Aisa, she’s being very industrious about catching up. I called her on the fact that we allow her to go online for an hour each night, when her lessons are only half done. It wasn’t really fair that she got to do that when her brothers are required to finish their lessons before having any fun-computer time. Blogging and writing and doing their Spanish lessons on the computer, of course, are counted as “lesson time”.
Funny Migi, he’s getting creative with this “real learning” stuff — he’s getting the point! Two days in a row he found a PBS show and a Discovery channel show (these are the days I wish I had cable; am seriously considering finally getting it, but only with the condition that we’re only watching certain channels at certain times in the day, or maybe just taping stuff for future viewing)…. and he asked me if they would count as science. And how serendipitous that we should find a PBS show that discussed chemistry, where they did the exact experiment we performed (with Dad’s help) the night before — dropping a liver into some hydrogen peroxide and reigniting a splint! They thought it was the neatest thing. What’s even cooler is that the PBS show gave all the nitty-gritty details about chemical reactions, etc. that even I didn’t go into.
So now we’re determined to finish this book, and not use another one until we’ve completed it. Science has been my Waterloo for the longest time, and I owe it to the kids to make a change. This year we’re not giving up until we get there. My next project is to get them science kits in February.
All in all, not a bad beginning to the year. Life could be simpler and less hectic, but we’ve accomplished much too and had fun along the way.
Hmmm…. maybe for Aisa’s history I’ll send her to Fort Santiago and other historical places in the Philippines — talk about getting some real education in!
Originally posted at eclectichomeschooler.stefoodie.net.
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