So today started out bad. I think we all have a case of the Mondays, hardcore. I had a plan. I had Math, Language, History, & Science all laid out. We wound up cutting the Math lessons in half, they just couldn’t concentrate this morning. Forget Reading, no one wants to do that right now. Talk to the Geek, find out he is currently obsessed with Wookiepedia right now. So, we’re flexible, instead of reading more of our Magic Treehouse book, how about blogging about Asajj Ventress instead? (I’d link it, but he hasn’t actually done this yet.) Ok, compromise reached, lets move on – History. We started off by looking at the globe to find the area where the fertile crescent is, but got sidetracked by questions about China, the great wall, and why the time there is so different. A quick lesson on geography & some science abt the Earth’s rotation – complete with flashlight experiment example – and we got back on track with our reading about Ancient Egypt and Sumerians and the first writings. Except, the whole time I’m trying to read, the little 2 are too busy chasing each other under the table and giggling. Then, half way through the reading for today, GeekBoy looks up and says, “You know what Mom? If I was in Episode 1…” I’d had it. No one was listening! I sent them all out back till I could calm down.
Then a friend called. And we found a Cicada on the hood of the car (it’s dead), so we checked it out and listened to the sounds the ones in the trees were making. We spent some time watering the Japanese Holly which are quickly dying, and they played with the hose, watered the grass & each other, then rinsed off the cars. GeekBoy caught a cricket. Then we checked out our Nile River Model and discovered the grass was already growing! Indiana Jones came out to take a ride down the Nile.
We came back inside, and sent thePinkDiva to her room to cool off in front of her fan. (she overheats easy!) As the boys ran out back to play light sabre fights, and Diva was cooling off, I looked at our board and the little lightbulb over my head suddenly clicked on.
Ok, so we didn’t talk about Ancient Egypt or make tablets. But we did talk about geography and Ancient China. And we talked about the continents and Ancient Rome (because they used to rule all of Europe) and Persia, and lots of other stuff. I’d say we did a fairly good job covering history for today.
Ok, so we didn’t open a book and read about the moon (Geekboy’s book) or muscles(Diva & Bigboy’s book). But we learned about cicadas. We observed crickets, we did some gardening, and used those aforementioned muscles to run all over the yard! Look, that was science and PE all wrapped up in one nice package.
GeekBoy wanted a boat to float down the Nile river, so we made one out of grass – look! Arts and crafts! But! While looking for suitable blades of grass, we noticed the ones full of seeds. Don’t look now, but I think that might qualify as more science.
By then, PinkDiva was ready to exit her room, so I struck a deal. Read a few words from your Hooked on Phonics book, and we will call it a day. After demonstrating that she really knows way more then she lets on by blowing through two pages of -it, -ig, & -id words, she moved on to critical thinking (played a game on the Wii). Meanwhile the boys, who were back inside, started a wrestling match in the living room that would rival most WWE appearances. They called it play-fighting, I called it PE.
So, I changed the board to reflect what we had done, then checked it all off & called it a day. Although, GeekBoy does still owe me a blog post about Asajj Ventress.