The First of our Days

Today was homeschool day 7.  We had four days last week and three so far this week.  Josh jokingly said last night, "I think you've done more school days in the last two weeks than you did all of last year."

Okay, he wasn't joking.  Kinda true.

We definitely did more than seven days last year but we never did that many consecutively.  What can I say?  Neither of us were into it.  Not that that's a good excuse on my end, I'm just telling it like it is.

I didn't want to homeschool my kid last year.

But this year I do!

And she does!

And we're loving it.

Last week while working on History, we learned that as the nomads settled into being farmers they used a shaduf to water their crops.

I was showing Sugar the picture:



And trying to explain to her how it worked.  She just looked at me.  I was like, "okay, head outside, we're gonna find some materials and we're going to make a Shaduf ourselves!"  Both girls were stoked.  We put on our flip flops and headed outside.

"Pick up sticks.  Try to find sticks with a Y."  Both girls go in search.

"Now I need a small, smooth rock."

We came inside with our supplies and I needed a few more things.  Hot glue gun, wire, and a piece of material that could hold water (I used an old diaper changing pad).

I realized I was going to need a way to stand our Shaduf up.  Farmers built theirs in the ground.  I didn't have that option.  So, I grabbed a large baby red from our garden, cut it so it had a flat surface and then poked our sticks in.

The girls were watching here and there and coloring and chattering.  Once it was done I had Sugar tell me what it was, why they used it, how they used it, etc.  She loved it!

"Wanna go show Daddy?!" I asked her.

"Yeaaahh!"  and we piled in the van drove half a mile down the road and Sugar worked on her public speaking skills telling all the guys about her Shaduf.

The farmers used a Shaduf to water their crops.  They'd dip a leather sack down into a canal, fill it with water and swing it around to water their crops.

Don't laugh but here's a picture of what we made:

I loved learning that day.  I think she did too.

Today was another great experience.  On day one or two of her language lessons I introduced her to a poem that she's supposed to memorize.  She does not like memorizing anything that is not her idea.  (no clue where she gets this stubbornness)

I've noticed that each day when I review the poem she is totally tuning me out.  Yesterday the consequence for her attitude was to write her name five times and she had to call her dad and tell him about her attitude.  Today I open up the book and I look over at her.

She's slumped.

"Not the caterpillar again."

"Yep, again."  But after I said it I just sat there for a minute.  Trying to figure out how to get her into it.  What would make her want to memorize this poem?  What would make it come alive?

I grabbed a piece of white construction paper and crayons.

"Let's draw the poem!" I said to her, super stoked.

Her eyes lit up for a second and then she says, "I don't know what a caterpillar looks like."  I remembered that we had an Usborne book on Butterflies and Caterpillars.  I grabbed it and we read all about caterpillars.

Brown and furry...  (first line)

She grabbed her brown crayon and made her caterpillar.

Shady leaf or stalk...

Green crayon.

May no toad spy you...

Green crayon again.

Little birds pass by you...

Blue crayon, three birds.

To live again a butterfly...

She looked through the book again, found a Monarch and started to draw one.  Apparently orange and black was too boring because her Monarch has orange, black, green and purple.

After her picture was done she recited the entire poem to me.  I know it isn't a long poem but it was the first time she'd tried and she got it!

Again, we loaded up in the van, went down to Josh's work and even though he wasn't there, I had her recite the poem to one of the guys.  She was a little nervous then and missed a little bit of it but that was fine.

I take her down there because those guys are awesome.  They know what we're doing, they're encouraging and supportive and they love my kids like they're their own.  I also take her down there because I want her to get used to public speaking.

Public speaking usually makes me want to vomit and use the facilities for other reasons.  I'm hopeful that if I start her young she won't have quite the issues I do.  (Lord, help her.)

We finally got our math book (we're using Singapore) so we started that yesterday.  We did the first lesson and today she wanted to do two.  I don't want her overwhelmed but if she wants to do extra, I'm all about it.

Other than a few attitude issues, we're doing really well so far.  Also, Spice (age 3) is soaking up a ton of info and came up to me and told me the definition of a noun.  So cute.  I need to get it on video and show you guys.

How's school going for your fam?  Public, private, home or otherwise.