Wordless Wednesday

It's been a crazy, busy couple of weeks for our family. I found out this afternoon that our little county fair was in town and decided to go for the evening. The kids had a blast, of course.

Here are the pics:

 Sam's first carousel ride!!!

Hermit crabs... we may have to get another schoolroom pet!

Sam's first cotton candy experience!  He wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

Tomorrow?  A trip to the outlet mall!  The itinerary includes stops at the following outlets:  Bath & Body Works, Gap, Baby Gap, Gymboree, Carter's, Osh Kosh, Converse and Stride Rite!

In the Meantime....

Here's some photos of various activities that we've been doing while I've been writing this unit:

We studied the 5 senses.  Here's Jake getting ready for a taste test, predicting sounds and using his sight to search in his Leapfrog Tag book.

 Yard sales are always sources of inspiration for our studies.  Jake picked up this Skeleton for 50 cents one day, so we came home and learned all about our skeletons, of course.  By the way... I love this book:  A Book about Your Skeleton.

You've heard of chocolate addiction, right?  Well... we did chocolate addition!

Sam love homeschooling too!

Sam celebrated his 1st birthday last week.  We spent the day in Chattanooga at the Tennessee Aquarium!  Of course, we took the opportunity to learn about fresh and saltwater sea creatures first.

 

We had an amazing day!

Trusting my Child

Part of my philosophy (and that of Mary Hood and Mary Griffith) is to trust your children to learn and discover on their own, without set curricula, strict schedules, classrooms or text books.  If your child is interested in a particular subject, he or she is more likely to retain what is learned.  Not to mention, it's more fun this way and easier on everyone involved.  You in turn, become more of a facilitator than a teacher or lecturer.  We've been testing the waters on this and it's been working for us!  Consider the following example:

One morning, I suggested that Jake check out one of the new, large map books that I had recently purchased at a garage sale (of course).  He opened to a map of North America.  He wasn't that into it, as you can probably tell from the pic below.  He was able to point out Georgia and Florida, but then, he turned and asked, "Mommy, where's Egypt?"

YES!  A spark!  (One little spark, can light your fancy.  Your mind sees more than what your eyes see.... Sorry, can't wait to go to Disney World in November!)

Anyway... great opportunity for learning, right?  I explained to Jacob that Egypt is on another continent and that we'd have to pull out the other map book.  Upon doing so, and turning to Africa, he lit up and wanted to hear more!

So we talked about Egypt and the continent of Africa and the other countries that you can find there.  Before I knew it, we had a "Stynx" sitting near our map of Africa and a very proud boy, pointing out where Egypt can be found on the map!

I had no lesson plan or course of action.  This is just the natural progression of what transpired when we pulled out a book.  Oh, and Jake's fascination with Egypt?  Well, his Grandma Shirley gave him a huge Egyptian Playmobil pyramid playset and a sphinx for Christmas and additional sets for his birthday.  He spent the rest of the day playing with them. And... VBS starts next week and the theme?  EGYPT!

Side Note - Try buying your kids some toys that don't light up, make noise, move on their own or have a screen.  Get some toys that will peak their curiosity, make them use the precious brains that God gave them and help their imagination take flight!  (Imagination... Imagination.. oops, there I go again.  Sorry.  Love Figment!)


Trusting my child, his natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge has been working for us so far... I'll keep ya posted!