I'm reading Julie Bogart's wonderful book, The Brave Learner. It's full of creative ideas to make your homeschool more inspiring and fun!
One of the things Julie suggests is to make a monthly narrative sketch of a day in your homeschool. The goal is to open your eyes to the learning that is happening all the time, even apart from the official "school" moments.
Julie writes,
"In homeschooling, we get to dump summary judgment of school work. But with what do we replace it? You can reassure yourself that your children are learning, and you can pay better attention to their struggles and strengths, if you shift how you assess. I recommend writing a narrative sketch of a single twenty-four hour day in your homeschool each month. Because homeschool is not confined to six hours of instruction, it's important to jot down the events and conversations that occur even when "school" is not in session. You'll discover that your children are learning all the time - and from more sources than you realized."So with this in mind, here's my account of what we were up to yesterday.
As usual, I left for work before the kids were awake. They had a dentist appointment this morning, so Nick ran them through the morning routine and caught a bus to the dentist's office. No cavities, hooray! While they were in the dentist's chair, both kids watched Lilo & Stitch, which reminds me I promised to request the DVD from the library for them.
From there they bused home in the pouring rain, stopping at the grocery store on the way back. A kind woman took pity at my two kiddos huddling under their father's arms at the bus stop and stopped her car to give them an umbrella. Joyous Mary Poppins reenactment ensued :)
On my way home from work, Nick texted me: "Moses wants to know who killed JFK and why." Apparently Moses remembered a story about JFK that our driver shared on the Boston Duck Boat tour (I had completely forgotten this!) and wanted to know more. Since I was stopping at the library on my way home from work to drop off our returns and pick up our holds, I made sure to pick up two books about JFK from the children's room.
When I arrived home everyone was busily putting the groceries away. I settled in to read two chapters from Who Was John F. Kennedy? We learned what the F stands for in JFK and what Sr. and Jr. at the end of names means. We also learned that JFK's birthday was tomorrow and that if he were still alive he would be 102 years old.
By now it was time to get Moses ready for his piano lesson. He's working on Alouette and a simple version of the hymn, Christ Arose. We loaded up the car and dropped him off with his teacher; meanwhile Abigail, Nick and I waited at a nearby cafe. Abigail and I shared a delicious Berry Pavlova with fresh blackberries and honey ice cream. I got to read a few pages of my current book while Nick, Abigail and her stuffed Cheetah played a few rounds of ping pong.
Nick dropped us back off at home on his way to an evening training for his continuing education as a therapist. At home Abigail quickly raced through her daily math worksheet, practicing writing the numbers 6 and 7, and then settled in to watch the movie of the Secret Garden, a book we just finished and celebrated with our monthly homeschool book club.
Moses steadily worked his way through his Saxon math worksheet, a speed drill, and a phonics lesson. Then he happily joined Abigail for the movie.
By now it was getting very close to bedtime so we had a simple dinner of macaroni and cheese and grapes and then snuggled up with our read alouds. I read Abigail several pages of Calvin & Hobbes, her current favorite. Calvin's mischievous adventures get her laughing like nothing else :)
For Moses's story we read the picture book, Jack's Path of Courage: The Life of John F. Kennedy. Moses was very interested in Kennedy's heroism in the Navy, swimming miles while towing an injured crew member after his Navy patrol boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. We decided to look for some video of Kennedy's speeches as President and maybe use some of his more famous lines as part of our copywork.
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