Standardized testing, homeschool version

Day 1

Me: Do the next problem and mark the correct bubble on your answer sheet.

Dominic (6 yo): Bubble? [Gales of laughter. Falls out of chair.] 

Me: Do the next problem and mark the correct bubble on your answer sheet. 

Dominic: Do this one? 80. 20. Hunh? ... Wait, do what? Oh! 80 *plus* 20. Hmmmm. Let. me. think. [Exaggerated thoughtful face. Taps mouth with pencil. Stares out window...still staring...still staring...blinks.] Oh, hi Mom! Are you still here?

Me: [Pouring margarita] Do the next problem and mark the correct bubble on your answer sheet. 

Dominic: Which one? This one? 80 plus 20? It's 9! Right, Mom? Right? That's right isn't it? I'm so good at this. I'm the best. Can I give you a hug? Are we done?

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Day 2

Me: Look at the pictures in your test book. Choose the picture that shows someone doing a "school rule". Fill in the circle on your answer sheet that goes with the picture of someone following a "school rule". 

Dominic [triumphantly]: This one! (Points at kid punching another kid in the chest.) Ohhh, wait, no. Is it this one? [Points at picture of child tripping another child with an armload of books.] Hmmm....I don't understand what this kid is doing...[indicates picture of child throwing trash in a trash can.] Ummmm.....Mom, what's a "school rule"?

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Day 3

Me: Which of these would you find in a school?

Dominic [Reading options]: Baby!

Me [breastfeeding]: Mark your answer. Good job.

End of year teacher work day

--print assignment books for next year
--watch LB overviews for high school, maybe language arts. Bring laptop and DVDs
--outline all writing assignments for 7th grade and when they fall
--watch Charlotte Mason narration tutorials from Alison.
--Grade end of Year assessments.
--Charlotte Mason book 7 in modern English?
--high school nature study at Weymouth
--summer read aloud list and book list for me
--create discussion questions for books the kids read
--outline prompts for analytic stage (incl 5th sci and religion)

#morningrun

You see yellow fog

slick, inexorable, insinuating;

I see God's fingertips. 

Everywhere I look, soft pools of pine pollen outline puddles in the road and puff as my feet run through the pinestraw. I made it out for a run before noon for once. My thoughts roamed.

Freedom of worship or freedom of religion. Return to fertility hormones. Pinecones, male and female He created them. Natural Law. Balance and false balance. The unexamined life. Pounding the pavement too hard. My knees. I wrote a poem. When will I die? How? Longleaf pines. "Infinite variety" as a trite phrase and a foundation shaking reality. Pink running shoes. Is it a haiku? Counting syllables. Fiddling with my stride. The necessity of nature study. Macbeth's Opinion. Reading Charlotte Mason for real. Michele Quigley. Elizabeth Foss. Pine pollen. First year pine cones. More of the poem. Could the ranger teach high school conifer study? Could we dissect pinecones? With what? Pine pollen in little polka dots on the lake surface.  

This school year I have not been pregnant. My baby is one and was breastfeeding all night until January. We are surviving, but survival mode looks very different from new baby before the new fiscal year, first freshmen in homeschool high school, #7 school aged kid learning to read. But something is lacking.

Of course I know my vices. I know where I am not excelling. These don't need reflection. What I don't know is how to combat my vices, how to overcome bad habits and begin to excel. I think about balance. Of course it is about balance. It is about balance and integrity and faith and getting up again and doing it every day. It's usually about balance. Then I thought of this picture:

It was meant to be funny, but today I think about it seriously. Because it isn't a picture about balance. It's a picture about false balance. The kids jumped so we could look balanced. Now I could take that in a million directions, but this is what I'm focusing on: "me time".

People love to ask a mom with "a lot" of kids, "How do you find 'me time'?" My response for years has been a thoughtful, "I don't think I believe in 'me time'." Because when I was a young mom with young kids, 'me time' made me resentful. It was expensive to hire a sitter or ask Bill to watch the kids for several hours so I could go be self indulgent. (And I pretty much think that if I am doing something for me, it's self indulgent.) And when I got back, I felt angry and fractious instead of renewed the way I was "supposed" to. I gave it up as a concept. I rejected the idea of 'me time'. My life was like this:

But I think I threw out the baby with the bathwater. I never considered that I was doing 'me time' wrong or that it might be different in different seasons of life. Lately I have struggled with my lack of memories. I can not remember chunks of my life. I don't feel this is a result of the sameness of every day, but a side effect of not taking the time to turn short term memories into long term ones. I have been pregnant/nursing/homeschooling/housewifing continuously for years and haven't created spaces for myself to be alone, to reflect on my experiences, to remember. I have been the river rushing forward, not the river leaving its mark on the landscape.

Briefly, I came up with these places where I messed up and should have created those spaces. I should not have allowed kids in the bathroom with me. Not to shower, not while I toileted, not when I was in a state of undress, not even talked to them from the other side of the door. I should have created a prayer time and space at home that they could not intrude in. I should have created a nursing refuge that I used once a day where I only nursed and enjoyed the baby without interruption. I should never have given up quiet time but instead turned it into uninterrupted computer time. I should have created a grading period in the school day. I should have built in teacher workdays every quarter and more. And I should have gone on a walk alone every day.

With those areas of space (perhaps this is what Elizabeth Foss wrote about when she wrote on "wide margins"? I never read what she had to say on that), I would have had opportunities to reflect on the meaning of my life experiences. I could have not only seen the world around me but observed it as I did today. I could have had the safety and peace to think for a while, to see where my thoughts would lead me and enjoy them, to work through intellectual struggles.

My run today have me that space. When I say run, I mean 20 minutes of walking and 2 5-minute wheeze and huff my way down the road. I don't have an answer for what I need to do next. I just needed to take the time to put down what I had come up with so far. To appreciate what today's morning run gave me.

Homeschool Imaginary v. Real

Had a conversation about this just last weekend.  I asked a friend, "How's homeschooling going?"  She quickly peeked around and said, "I just want to make sure no one else is listening....."

My brother seems to have the same sorts of issues as we do.

Easter!

Charles had to narrate the Tortoise and the Hare to me for an end of the year evaluation for Mother of Divine Grace School.  First I read him a very simple version of the story, only about 10 lines long.  This is what he "retold" to me immediately after.  

One day a hare said to a tortoise, "You are so slow.  I think I could beat you in a race on Sunday."  So on Sunday the hare and the tortoise went to Mass with their families.  When they got home, there was a letter from the judge asking them to meet him at 2 o'clock in the woods.

So when they got there at 2 o'clock, the judge was there with a lot of other animals.  So they began the race.  And the hare went faster, and they were trying to go for the biggest tree and back.  And the rabbit got to the biggest tree, and he was tired.  And then he ate his lunch, drank some water and went to sleep.



Thirty minutes later the tortoise arrived, and he did not disturb the rabbit so he could win the race.  So he started back and then the race had only 30 minutes to go on for. So the tortoise did a little bit faster so he could be there earlier.  When he got there, the rabbit was behind him, and the judge said, "Slow and steady wins the race."  And he got the first place cup, and then they went home.

The End.

Pictures speak louder than words

Does anyone else think it looks like the guardian angel is going to push him into the river?

Overheard

"...As long as we don't get sent to Ft. Belvoir.  They have all those homeschoolers with, like, 20 kids and those big vans...."

"A" in Socialization

Anthony with his buddy Augustine (Gus).  

Homeschool recess

Joseph calls this "my puddle"

Poetry Boot Camp

Every day after break time, the kids practice memorizing their poetry. I gently lead them through the poem, teaching memorization, dramatic interpretation, and clarity. Kids who aren't reciting are asked to sit quietly and attentively to learn "polite listening." After a few weeks at most, each child has a whole poem memorized which he then puts into a book of poetry and illustrates himself. And whenever it seems appropriate--while building wood trains for example, someone will prompt a few lines of the poem and everyone will join in as an enthusiastic chorus.







Today Thomas took over teaching while I was playing with the camera.

Substandard is Still Standard

For the first several years of homeschooling, this was my time of year to have a complete crisis of confidence. I was sure I was doing everything wrong, and school came to a screeching halt for about a month. Then I would pick myself up and keep on doing what I had been doing because I didn't know any other way to do it. In the end, I think I was just tired and there was nothing wrong with my curriculum.

Now that I've learned to pace myself better, I spend a little thoughtful time in February to evaluate what my lesson for the year is. I always think there is one important lesson for me to learn, but I have stop long enough to see what it is. School continues to click along as this train of thought chugs in the background.


I've decided that this year my lesson is about quality and how to really achieve it. Not a new thought, but one that needed to be revisited.


Bill and I have always made our expectations clear whether for behavior, chores, or schoolwork. I've made written reminders for the kids for how to do their chores and lesson plans for their schoolwork. Expectations for manners or behavior we discuss over the dinner table so everyone is present and we can answer questions. The systems have helped a lot, especially since something or someone else is there to help me remember what the standard is.

But I'm seeing that I have slipped in the "walk behind" whether it is personally checking how well chores were done or grading papers at a set time each day or even getting up and disciplining the 2 year old. I won't bore you with the details of how the "walk behind" happens each day, but I have made some recent improvements. However, the one I will share is the one I consider the biggest improvement. Bill and I have decided to enroll our family in the Mother of Divine Grace School, and I found out today (thank you, John) that we were accepted.

For those who don't know, MODG provides teacher support for those who enroll in their school, and they take new families on a space available basis. We have to use their curriculum, and they will allow us to make approved changes if we want. We enroll as a family each year, and they provide consultations and transcripts among other things.

There are so many reasons why MODG is good for our family and our homeschool, but for now I'm only addressing how it should increase the quality of our school. As background, we have been following the MODG curriculum for the most part since we started the boys in Kindergarten so there should be no major change in how we do business. I expect the school will add two things to improve quality: insight based on experience and impartial accountability.

One thing I have struggled with at times is how to make the kids' education richer. For example, Thomas and Anthony could read all of their history text and readers for the year in a few months, but does that mean I should move them forward faster or provide a wider range of books at this level? Which books? When I've exhausted my trusted lists, I have at times wondered where to turn especially since my pre-reading time is limited as is the budget and shelf space for new books. (Side note: I've very picky about who I let advise me about actual curriculum choices.) Having a consultant will give me a trusted source to turn to with these questions.

This year I have also struggled with how assess how well the kids are doing in some subjects. Now I can ask my friends, and loving souls that they are, I'm sure they would tell me that the kids are all brilliant! But...I need someone impartial to look over the kids' work with me. I need them to tell me whether my instruction is poor or the work is poor. I need them to tell me if I am slacking off in the wrong places or working the kids too hard in others. And I need to know if I am expecting too much of myself when things are tough or too little when things are going smoothly. I see that as the sort of advice only a paid consultant will willingly give.

Bill loves to joke that "substandard is still standard" which is something he heard at work, and I am always equally amused and infuriated by it. I think of it as both a smart joke and a sad commentary of how people set their expectations. But, like any parent, I don't want substandard education to limit my kids. And a quality homeschool education can only be achieved by my action. I have to get off the couch, I have to walk behind the chores, I have to let someone else guide our school. Because I have high standards. :)

Poetry for Boys

My boys love poetry most days, but when it was -5 degrees outside, we decided to spice things up a bit:

Up into the cherry tree,

who should climb but little me....

It works very well to jumprope.
********

And this project finally inspired Charles to finish memorizing The Cow:

He made us cream with all his might, and I made apple tart.

A Typical Homeschool Day--Part 3

It's 7am and you've been dressed and reading in your bedroom for about half an hour. Your prayers are said, your bed is made and the room is neat when you go across the hall to see if your mom is awake. You and all your siblings push to cuddle her on the bed--even if she's out of the shower and dressed already--before heading downstairs en masse.

Since it's your day, the breakfast you asked for, bagels and yogurt fruit smoothies, is served to everyone. Sometime before 8, you've picked up your place and have started on your 2 morning chores, cleaning the downstairs bathroom and unloading the dishwasher. You practice your recorder and piano before heading across the street to where the school kids are playing at the park/bus stop. You chase your friends around, discuss your latest Lego creations, and speculate about the outcome of the Super Bowl before waving goodbye to the bus and heading in for "school" at 9.

You pick a picture book, Crinkleroot's 25 Fish Every Child Should Know, ask to be 2nd, and take a seat next to Mom on the couch. Trying to see around James on her lap and to keep Maria from shoving--quit it!--you listen to some stories. Today you have things to do, so after Cecilia's Caps for Sale, you grab your assignment book and head into the blue room to look at the wall maps.

Starting with your memory work, you review the capitals of the US states, Canadian provinces, and a few Central American countries. Quickly you recite the 5 important dates in US history you know, learn a new one, and turn to your flashcards of Latin and Greek roots. You love these so you do them all, even though you only have to do 15, and then hand the box to your brother. You are almost done memorizing "Children's Hour" by Longfellow, and you ask for a piece of fruit while you sit at the table and try to get the last few stanzas down. Maybe next week it'll finally be in your poetry book ready to be illustrated because Mom said she picked a new poem about snakes for you. It's 10:30.

Fifteen minutes of play and chasing the baby out of the legos will probably stretch into 30 until Mom says, "Anthony! Thomas is ready to watch the math movie." You wanted to do grammar with her, but the little guys need her. You manage to understand what the man on the movie is teaching over the noise (you are good at math, luckily) and take all your table work with you when you sit down. Two pages of math, 2 pages of cursive practice, and spelling copywork later, you sit on the couch to read your Bible story and a history chapter (but knowing you, you'll read 3). You'll want Mom to help you finish your work now, but it's lunchtime and she's cooking. Then she has to put the littles to bed, so you know you have some time to play.

At 1 the house is quiet, and you read a book for 1/2 hour. Then you and Thomas decide to create your own version of chess involving 3 chess boards. Around 2 o'clock Cecilia has finally fallen asleep so you go into the office and narrate the Bible story you read while Mom types it into the computer. When Thomas finishes his narration, the three of you cuddle on the couch and review a grammar lesson orally, answer the history questions, discuss the newest chapter in your catechism and review all the old chapters to see if you have them memorized. It's not quite 3, and your work is done.

4:30--Finally! The school bus is here, and you put away your book, grab a snack and play with your friends for a few hours. After dinner, you shower and ask mom to read you a book or to play some cards. At 8, after you've said your prayers and figured out where Cecilia put your new library book, you read for 1/2 hour. Just as you and Thomas are all tucked in and starting to get into a deep conversation about Bionicles, you hear a door squeak. DADDY!

A thunder of feet running down the stairs and screeching voices and jumping children all attack Daddy at once. You ask for a Lifesaver, his special treat to children who remember to ask how his day was, and wait at the toy box at the bottom of the stairs. Daddy pretends to be a red line metro train and carries you from Shady Grove to Glenmont (bed). Bionicles behind you, you and Thomas whisper about tomorrow's plans until you fall asleep.

A Typical Homeschool Day--Part 2

Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.-- W. B. Yeats

Once Bill agreed to let me educate the kids at home, the next step was to choose a curriculum to use. I would love to say that our choice was the product of thorough research and prayer, but it wasn't. It was mostly due to self-awareness and grace. I knew what I had liked about my own education. I loved reading, but the reading had to be a quality story about something real, not churned out pap with an obvious moral. (I would now call this the difference between a "living book" like Freedom Summer and a "junk food" book like Dora the Explorer Makes a Friend.) Grace came in the form of a homeschooling acquaintance who invited me into her home to pick up some catalogs. She told me about her curriculum and gave me some information to start me on my journey.

What ended up being more important, however, was her hospitality. She had originally only intended to hand me the catalogs, but instead she invited me and the 4 kids in to lunch. Her home was not clean, but it was orderly and hospitable and full of 6 loving, well-behaved kids, and I recognized that it was the sort of home I wanted for our family. This home truly sold me on homeschooling, and in my bleak moments, it still does. Jodie's description "lots of really good books and poetry...flexible...not required to enroll their school but you can if you want to...solid Catholic foundation" sold me on the curriculum.

The curriculum which she uses, and we use too, is called Mother of Divine Grace and is a Catholic classical curriculum created by Laura Berquist. Reading Mrs. Berquist's Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum, I recognized that the foundations of the classical style appealed to me--especially the living books part, and her recommendations of how to teach a classically designed curriculum are intelligent and do not neglect that Heaven is the final end for Man. I have to also admit that knowing that my brother John uses this curriculum and knows Mrs. Berquist personally and respects her makes me even more confident about it.

We are currently in the grammatical stage or pre-grammatical stage with all the kids. At this stage the curriculum emphasizes that the tools for education are knowledge of faith and fluency in mathematics, language, and memory. The day to day subjects we cover--based on the syllabi from Mother of Divine Grace--emphasize those skills specifically.

While Mother of Divine Grace tells me what to teach, I have found that the Catholic Charlotte Mason approach described in Elizabeth Foss' book Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home and the ongoing discussions at the 4Real boards have given me the example of how. They have given me a view inside the houses of many other faith-filled, often times large, homeschool families so I can see what homeschooling can look like on a day to day, season to season, Holy Day to Holy Day basis. Last summer when I went to hear her speak, I was very happy to hear Laura Berquist say that she didn't think there is any difference between her approach to education and the Charlotte Mason method Mrs. Foss uses and which is based on Charolotte Mason's 20 principles.

And so it is while keeping all of these principles and examples in mind that I construct our day to day learning environment and schedule. Before I move on to what a typical homeschool day looks like at our house, I want to make a few notes. First, if it sounds like this was all my idea, it was. Until fairly recently, Bill's engagement in homeschooling has been skeptical, supportive and minimal. I totally appreciate that since it has given me room to grow to where I am now when he is starting to take a more active interest. My ideas are better developed now. Second, while I have many lofty, faith-based and intellectual reasons to homeschool, in the end it boils down to the fact that I love it and it's working. That's why we're doing what we do.

A Typical Homeschool Day--Part I

Back when I started this blog, I thought it would be nice to describe a typical school day, but there were other, more interesting, picture-related things to share, so I left that thought for another time--like now. From January to Easter our family life is generally very quiet with very few events to record so these thoughts won't be competing with cute pictures.

Why homeschool?

"Right now our family is in a state of crisis. We are defined at least in part by what we do not have. We do not have our house, we do not have our baby, we do not have the books and materials we have accumulated over several years. Nothing is status quo right now. …The ideal Charlotte Mason education and the ideal Charlotte Mason educator seem as far away as the moon. So once again, what is our goal in homeschooling? …if we are homeschooling our children because we want to raise saints, we can take comfort in the fact that God blesses us in our deprivations as well as in our abundances…. A family is uniquely suited to sanctify its members- That’s why I am homeschooling. Because I want our family to meet in heaven someday, and I think we have a better shot at it if we journey together as much as possible."

--Willa Ryan on living with her family 3 hours from home to be near her infant son who was awaiting a liver transplant

When I started to think about describing a typical homeschool day, I realized that it wouldn't be as meaningful without understanding our curriculum. And to know why we chose the curriculum we use, you would need to understand why we homeschool to begin with.

I think most people think that homeschoolers are opting out of the school system as a reaction against something they perceive being wrong with it. I think in the beginning that was true for me, but it hasn't been a primary reason--or really even a consideration beyond hearing something bad and thinking, "I'm glad we don't have to deal with that."--for a long time. Instead, I have come to wonder if there is some reason that I should put the kids in a traditional setting, i.e., is there something essential that they are missing by being at home? What is the goal of education?

You might think that the goal of education is to assure someone of getting a good job so they can have a secure future. But is having a good job the point of our life? What is a secure future?

Willa, a woman I know online, and Laura Berquist who is the designer of our curriculum reminded me that a secure future is only found in the next world. The Baltimore Catechism says that "God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next." I agree, and therefore think that everything I or Bill or the children do should be ordered toward achieving those ends. (Not everything is, but that is our goal.) I believe it is easier to make our journey's goal of Heaven clear by having the children learning at home. Just from rereading what I've shared since I started this blog has shown me how integrated our faith is into our day to day lives. Our faith is essential, more important than anything else, and the kids are guaranteed to live it at home. And I believe they get it in a better way than they could in public or even Catholic schools.

I also believe they can still get an education which will enable them to get good jobs in this world and be socially functional human beings too. And those beliefs then lead me to wonder what style of education is best....

National Shrine

Today we took a family trip to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. I chose the mosaic art study because since the kids went to the Basilica 2 years ago, they have wanted to go back, and much of the Basilica is covered in amazing mosaics. The delay worked in our favor, though, because last March we studied Vietnam when Bill went on a week-long trip there with his MBA program, and a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of La Vang (scroll down for the story of this vision) was recently completed at the Basilica. This chapel is just outside the Crypt Church.

The first picture is taken outside the chapel while Anthony (left) and Thomas pose inside. Maria is inside in front of the altar, and Cecilia wanted to show off the decorative floor. (Charles isn't anywhere near the chapel; insead he wanted his picture near an angel outside the men's room.) The mosaic on the right depicts the Mary comforting the people suffering and hiding in the wild jungle of La Vang. Anthony is praying near the mosaic on the left showing the 118 Vietnamese Martyrs. I'm sorry that you can not see the beautiful bright blue ceiling with lighted stars. The entire chapel is breathtaking.

Science and Art Finale

Wrapped up the formal part of the study today with roast chicken dinner and a cake which the boys made. They used berries as their tessarae make a mosaic American flag for the decoration. We had a quick anatomy lesson before serving the chicken (everyone asked for the feet, of course). After dinner, the boys pulled out our microscope to check out the giblets and the inside of the bones. No one seemed grossed out about eating our study topic which I appreciated because eating chicken in any form makes me quite green.

We still have some smaller activities planned--maybe we'll do some Science Fridays--and 3 mosaic field trips to the Basilica, the Islamic Center, and the Dumbarton Gardens.

Learning Notes--Science and Art Week

Day 3--Lots of mistakes today. I wasn't prepared enough with our human body models. Also, I wanted to do too much, so instead of putting something off until later, I tried to multitask. Stupid stupid stupid to try to read picture books while kids are coloring and cutting.

Then we ran off to the local panadaria y carneceria (Mexican bakery and butcher) to see what they had for Dia de los Muertos. The answer: nothing since it isn't until Nov. 2. Duh. They didn't have chicken feet either, sigh, but fortunately they did have beef tongues (only $11.20 for a tongue I was told after assuring the man we were not interested in buying one but only wanted to look at the taste buds...). Another unexpected benefit was that we had our John Lithgow CD on in the car and have sung Skin multiple times a day since. Forgot to point out the tripe to the kids, and we were doing digestive system. Dang.

Day 4--Much better. First of all we cuddled on the loveseat and read books for 1 1/2 hours. Then we worked on completing the human body models, and since I had done mine last night, it went very smoothly. Maria, after we read St. Valentine, spent the rest of the morning drawing mosaics. Her assessment: it's harder to draw a mosaic than it looks.

Day 5--Started the morning with a cuddle and many fine books again. I had 2 Dia de los Muertos books, plus some new human body books. We touched on the nervous system after reading the book Now One Foot, Now the Other by Tomie de Paola. The kids loved the reading time and were fully attentive as we glued paper mosaics and made one last human body model to show how muscles work. I like the larger skeleton model best, but the boys thought this was pretty neat too. I'm still hoping for chicken feet at a different butcher today.

Science and Art Week--Day 2

This morning we started by curling up on the loveseat, talking, and looking at book about mosaics. Then the kids browsed the gallery at the back of the book, laughing when we got to the shish kebob mosaic, to get ideas for their own artwork. Golden moment: Anthony pointed out that the perspective in one mosaic reminded him of how Cezanne changed perspective within a piece to draw your eye across the entire work. (They have learned something!)

They took out pattern blocks and used different colors of background paper (to simulate different colors of grout) and designed their own mosaics. Cecilia used mosaic magnets. Maria, who is also sick with croup and only halfway doing school, stayed absorbed with the blocks the rest of the morning. Her dream is of a school day of only art.

To segue back to our Human Body study I showed the boys some pictures of the bone mosaics in the crypt below Santa Maria della Concezione in Rome. I don’t think they are proper mosaics really, but they are pretty cool. Sadly though, nothing could make our study of bones less dry after the excitement of designing their own artwork in a new style, and it was tough to keep their attention. Dem Bones by Bob Barner came to my rescue, at least halfway engaging them so we could look at the more educational but un-singable Visual Dictionary of Human Anatomy.

Learning Notes--Science and Art Week

This week we have set aside our regular curriculum for unit studies in art and science. When I plan a unit study, I choose a topic and then free associate books, projects, games, and field trips to come up with a plan that is book heavy, project heavy, mom- and learning-intensive, and fun. Based on the 3rd grade science suggestions in What Your Third Grader Should Know, I chose the Human Body for our science topic. Since Cecilia had a trip to the doc this morning (diagnosis: croup), our art study of mosaics will begin tomorrow.
Day 1--Today we colored and built a skeleton using the patterns in the book The Body Book, Ferbys, and brads. Even though the kids don't seem to enjoy coloring in general, they enthusiastically worked on the project all day long. They asked lots of questions, and we discussed the body as we worked. When it was time to break for lunch, they watched School House Rock! and cut out their skeletons. The Science Rock section of the DVD has some great songs about the body. In fact all 5 of the older kids asked where on the skeleton you would find the villi ("In through the villi which look a little sill-i!"). I broke it to them gently that the small intestine (not a part of the skeleton) will be a part of our lesson on Wednesday.