These pictures are in pretty random order. Lately I feel like our whole lives are in random order (Rob's schedule has been crazy since he's been working nights, so we haven't had any semblance of a regular daily routine for the past 3 weeks! But we've had a lot of fun spending time with Rob on his days off!)
More of Adeline's iPad drawing:
Adeline wanted to learn how to type words. She loves to "do work."
Making shapes with playdough:
The kids love to get into my educational games from when I taught school.
Adeline is very interested in learning how to write words now. She wrote all of this on her own without any help at all! (Bouquet, nap, play, pee)
Watching a youtube video about electricity:
Investigating electricity. Bobby loved taking the fan apart and using tools (I thought it was pretty fun too;).
Making an electricity poster and drawing circuits.
Adeline asked for one of our coffee table books about space so she could study. She drew pictures of what she was "studying."
Rob had a few days off between working nights so we did a lot more fishing! The kids love to hold fish. I still ask Rob to put my bait on and take the fish off the hook if I catch something!
Stylish kids going to the library. Adeline kept asking me to make her a ballerina bun so I finally looked on youtube and learned how to make a sock bun. It is actually pretty easy (probably because Adeline has amazing hair!).
Handsome little guy!
I can totally see how our interests inspire the kids to learn more. I've read a few things about unschooling and I'm really drawn to the idea of it. Sandra Dodd (who writes a lot about unschooling) said "If a parent isn't living an interesting life at all, and can't think of interesting things to do, unschooling isn't going to work very well." Hopefully Rob and I are interesting enough to make it work for our family and I'm really encouraged by Adeline and Bobby's curiosity in what Rob and I enjoy. So, here they are sorting through zinnia seeds with Daddy. This is Rob and Adeline's "thing." Adeline loves to cut beautiful blooming flowers for me, and whenever she see a dead and shriveled one, she cuts it for Daddy so they can find the seeds. I cannot tell you how many dead flowers are laying around our house right now! They also set up an experiment to see which seed would grow faster, one with the seed coat left on, or one with the seed coat off. The results were surprising to us. The one with the seed coat on sprouted a day before the one with no seed coat.
Electricity experiments. We made a little circuit using a flash light and some wires with alligator clips. The kids loved testing different objects to see if they were conductors or insulators.
She found a conductor! (PS...she dressed herself today!)
Bobby was very interested in testing the water and ice. The water was a weak conductor, but got stronger when we added salt. An ice cube did not work.
A paper towel soaked in water made a fun conductor.
"Look Dad, I'm a conductor!" (PS...she did not get shocked--her hair is just crazy like that all the time;)
"Me too!"
The whole reason we decided to study electricity this week is because Adeline wanted to make Christmas light cupcakes from one of my cookbooks. I told her we could, only if we learned all about how Christmas lights work first.
Who needs a fork...or hands, for that matter!
Harvesting sweet potatoes from the yard. Don't they both look so grown up here?
More fishing and flounder catching!
I think one of the main things that is making our homeschooling work so well is that Rob and I are both involved. We both love teaching the kids things and we are making it a part of our lives throughout the whole day. Its a family effort and school is not just done while Rob is at work. The kids don't see either of us as "the teacher." Our role right now in our homeschooling journey is to be the supporters of learning. We encourage their interests, help them organize their experiments, read stories together, help them find library books on what they are learning about, and try to say "yes" as much as possible to anything that could lead to learning. Its been a fun week!
