I haven't given any updates lately, but rest assured, school is still going strong. There are no slackers in this house. Well, maybe one, but not the five-year-old.
Oh, wow. My first post where I can say "five-year-old." THAT'S crazy. It's strange how you can only truly appreciate how quickly time goes by when you have children and don't really want it to go by that fast.
By the way, I am not really sure how to write five year old. Is it five-year old, or five-year-old? What do dashes signify anyway? So I keep writing it both ways, hoping someone will comment and say, "hey, here's how you should be writing it. And you call yourself a teacher?" Ok, probably no one I know would include that last part, but they might, just might, think it.
But actually, I don't really call myself a teacher. I don't feel like a teacher. Even though I am, in fact, teaching. And learning. But I have a classroom of one, so I don't know if that really qualifies me to be a teacher. Oh, wait, a classroom of two. I forgot Ellie. That Ellie, she is a model student. Always raising her hand, listens so well, never interrupts. She is delightful. And always smiling.
So where was I?
Thirty-three is going to be a tough year, folks. We're less than a month into it, and my mind is already starting to leave me.
SCHOOL. This post will be about school, despite my random attempts to make it otherwise.
Last week we learned about the letter M, and all about the moon. I didn't take as many pictures last week as I would have liked to, mainly because I was Crazy Birthday Prep Mom. And I was My Son is Going to Be Sick Forever Mom, so it threw my whole week off. But despite all that, we had a fun week. We made a little model of the solar system, we talked about the phases of the moon and charted the phases over the week, we looked at the stars, we made a spaceship and journeyed to the moon (Christian joined us on this one), and, Ansley's personal favorite, a moon rock hunt. The last one was so simple, but Ansley wanted to do it over and over again. During our school time, we gathered rocks from the yard and Ansley painted them flourescent pink (her choice).
After they dried, we put glow in the dark stickers on them, and then waited until dark to have our moon rock hunt. This literally made Ansley's whole week.
This week we are learning about the letter L and also about leaves (slash trees). We have gone on many leaf searches throughout the neighborhood, done leaf rubbings, talked about the different parts of a leaf, why they change color, counted leaves, identified different types of trees, and we have a small green plant for our experiment this week. We talked about how God gives the plant everything it needs to survive, as long as it remains in the plant. But there was one leaf who did not believe that, so he set out on his own. (I plucked the leaf from the plant.) All week, we are checking on our leaf to see what will happen because he has decided he doesn't need the plant. Then we talked about how the plant is like God and the leaf is like someone who thinks he doesn't need God. I wonder what will happen to the leaf? I ask Ansley. She is sad for the leaf though, who is starting to turn brown and wither.
Our days are not perfect. They don't always go exactly as planned, or with the least amount of attitude possible. One day last week, Ansley kept interrupting as I was speaking. I asked her to please not interrupt when the teacher was talking. I AM THE BOSS OF YOU, I say. I'm kidding, I didn't really say that. I just left it at not interrupting me, the teacher.
To which Ansley responds, "That wouldn't happen in REGULAR school. The teacher wouldn't speak like that to her students."
And I said "ACTUALLY, that is exactly what would happen in REGULAR school if a student kept interrupting. And furthermore, that student would probably get sent to the PRINCIPAL'S office!"
Ansley's eyes get wide and she says, sort of under her breath, "It's a good thing we don't have one of THOSE."
I smile, and say "Oh, but we do."
We have had no problems with interrupting since then.
We also had some sewing lessons this week. Ansley was really good with the needle, and was concentrating so hard! It was a lot of hand sewing, and she got a little tired of it, but she was very pleased with the end result, and I like to think is learning the joy of making things yourself.
Here is my view every day when I teach now. A new student has joined us. I've always thought, and will continue to think (and maybe make a reality), that the ideal homeschool situation would involve several other families that you would rotate with and you would take turns having all the school-aged kids once a week or once a month or whatever worked out, teaching something that you were good at. My area would be art. I would be ALL ABOUT some cool craft or fun activity. So I need to find a math friend, a music friend, a science friend and a sporty friend and then my ideal homeschool would be all set. I'm SO close.
But I guess for now we'll be sticking with Ansley and Ellie.
Ansley doing some leaf rubbings. She thought this was cool.
(She does get a bath; that is a new body sticker on her arm.)
For now, I am very pleased with our decision to homeschool. It has gone extremely well, and I really could not have asked for a better student than Ansley. At the end of the day, this is how both of us feel about it:
And the principal of our school? He is very pleased as well.
