Pre-Columbian Societies, Non-Newtonian Fluids, and Natural Building

It's been raining hard and we were on hurricane alert

for a few days. 

Rain or shine, the boy is up and at 'em at 6am,

even though mama sometimes sleeps in until 7.

He's an early riser, no matter what time he goes to bed,

or how gray and cold it is outside.

We're still starting the mornings with guitar practice.

This week, Lu's been learning 

Metallica's Enter Sandman,

Guns 'n' Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine,

and The Beatles' Let It Be.

We've been using DK Eyewitness Books 

as history supplements for three years.

We're currently studying the Ancient Americas.

 Lu loves all the little info bits,

and I like the short-trip-to-the-museum feel of them.

We're usually in the same room when he's reading,

and he frequently stops to say something that starts with:

"MAMA!!! Did you know that......?!?!"

He did a great job on his map of Guatemala.

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

I can't tell you how many times Lu has discovered yet another YouTube tutorial for making some kind of goo/slime substance that is then left in a HUGE tupperware, taking up way too much space in MY refrigerator, which after being played with a couple of times is never to be touched again until MAMA finally tosses it.

But this time, he nailed it.

This blue slime, aka a non-Newtonian fluid (aren't we smart?)

((lol. Well, I sure didn't know what that was until now anyway))

is REALLY AWESOME STUFF.

Lu brought it out a few times that we had (grown-up) friends over.

Everyone was playing with it. It's hypnotic.

And it doesn't even need refrigeration :mama happy:

 

  

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Cha had a group of university students from the U.S. 

come to learn about natural building, 

and Lu got to participate in the construction of this bamboo cabin.

 

Thanks for all the great learning experiences, Life!

Finding Our Flow

One of the things I've come to love most about homeschooling my child, is that we get to change things up however we want, whenever we need to. We can listen to ourselves and to each other, and flow with the situations that life brings forth, as we figure out how to best fulfill our needs and wants, and how to achieve our general well-being.

One thing that was very much lacking for ME last year was my own physical exercise time. And I really needed it. Another thing lacking was "Sanity Time" for both of us. We both have... strong opinions. We spend pretty much all day together. We are fire and water. And we have the ability to drive each other CRAZY if we don't get some Sanity Time.

Being more aware of this, with our now two years of experience, we've started 5th grade with a flow that seems to be working very well for us.

Sanity Time 1:

I wake up at 6am to get my first 40-min workout in (mostly interval training). Lu usually gets himself up before I'm done, and gets himself ready for the day. We make breakfast and eat together. Lu washes the dishes, while I get my coffee break - a very important time for me to review my plan for the day.

1st Period:

We start with some singing, which also usually involves some dancing. Our repertory includes 60's rock, 80's pop, reggae, soul, trova, and salsa. Ideally, we start at 8:00 and go for 30 minutes, to really wake us up and get our blood pumping. Starting our day singing gets us in a good mood.

Then we cuddle up for a read-aloud. Right now we're reading about magicians, and later on in the year, we'll be reading more mythology from around the world.

Sanity Time 2: 

After reading, it's time for writing. 

The assignment is "a few sentences",  

but Lu usually ends up with a paragraph or two.

This also counts as Sanity Time

because it is something he does independently,

while I can check emails or make another coffee.

When he's done,

he reads me what he wrote, and edits along the way.

Then, we do a second edit together.

By now, it's around 9:15 - 

and we're 75 minutes into our school morning.

2nd Period: 

Time for Math.

Our math sessions usually last an hour. Lu works on his own for the review/practice part of it, and then we work on new concepts together. When the work is easier and we finish sooner, we use the rest of the time for online math games.

Sanity Time 3: We both start getting antsy toward the end of Math - 10am-ish. We've been schooling for two hours, and it is most definitely time for a break. For me, it's time for my second workout (something more dancey / cardio). I can't tell you what a difference this has made. I'm more relaxed, more patient, and more creative when I get my mid-morning sweat and stretch. 

For Lu, break time is for pretty much whatever he feels like doing - like going to pick a basket of oranges at our neighbor's house, making yogurt with the yogurt maker his grandmother recently gave us, or working on his clubhouse.

 freshly picked oranges

 making yogurt

 putting down the floor of the clubhouse

At 11am we reconvene.

3rd Period:

Our first mid-morning class will change through the year.

We will learn about religions of the world, 

famous scientists and evolution.

We read, take notes, draw cartoons,

and make posters about what we're learning.

This year, there is a new emphasis on written

and graphic note-taking.

4th Period:

The second mid-morning class alternates between

Physics twice a week, 

and Geography and Typing twice a week.

We're really enjoying the Eureka Physics videos.

Again, lots of note-taking and poster-making

 (weird extended arm pic to get us both in - 

but this is what our Physics class looks like)

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

It's around noon now, and time to make lunch!

Lu wants to be a chef, among other things,

and is always more than happy to help out in the kitchen.

Here he's making his famous salad dressing with

raspberry vinegar and mustard (but the rest is secret...shhh).

 (notice the smiley face tomato and cucumber salad)

Sanity Time 4:

After lunch, we each take an hour to do our own thing.

Lu gets some screen time during this time,

which means permission to get on his email,

or use a design program.

I pretty much do the same, but with coffee :)

5th Period:

At around 2pm, we get back together for 

History three times a week,

and Art twice a week.

These are longer classes. Sometimes up to two hours.

6th and Last Period:

At around 4pm, it's time to wrap things up and get some Khan math practice for about 20 minutes.

At 5:30pm Lu comes back in, after playing outside for about an hour, for chapter-book reading. Right now he's reading the Narnia series, Prince Caspian, and he plans to read all the books this year.

Then it's time for dinner-making, shower-taking, eating, and hanging out with Cha who's back from work. We might watch an episode of something together, or Lu might watch something on his own with dessert, before washing the dinner dishes and getting ready for bed.

So, as you can see, we had six class periods, and four Sanity Times. Almost one for one, and it is well worth it. I can't go for more than two activities without a break, so how should I expect a child to?

Our "school day" runs from 8am-4:30pm, which is a long school day by normal standards, but we have lots of breathing space in between, and that's what works best for us. 

And that is pretty much our day for now. In February things will change when our art school starts up again, taking four half-days a week of our schedule. Our year will vary between the two: one month just us, two months with art school activities and lots of socialization with other kids. 

So, flow. 

It's important to feel it out and find the one that feels right.

And really, I don't know anymore, if we adapt our homeschool to life, or if we adapt life to our homeschool... but it has to fit, like the perfect pair of jeans - not too loose, not too tight.

Just right.

Oh, The Places We Go!

We visited the Coral Reef.

We learned about rituals in Ancient Egypt
(with some fried plantains).

We went back to Khan,

and I think Lu is ready this time.

As I mentioned in a recent post, we're going to slow down on the math front - as far as learning new concepts goes. Lu had already used Khan, but he reached a point where it suddenly got too difficult, and the videos just went right over his head. But with everything he's learned in the last seven months - since he last tried Khan - and with a stronger grasp on English, he was ready to try again and has already earned several badges this week.

I'm not a big fan of the scratch pad, and would rather Lu used paper, 

but... whatever... he likes it because it's all hi-techy I guess.

At first he was kind of annoyed at having to do all the "easy stuff" again, but we talked about mastery, and he agreed that practice was necessary. 

Now, I'm no math expert, but I think Khan is best to start using after a person already understands negative numbers. So, around 5th grade. But that's just our experience, I've heard of people using it successfully with younger children. We started last year when Lu was 8, and it seemed perfect for a while, but like I said - it suddenly got way too difficult for him.

Back to the places we go...

We also went out to the backyard 

to practice poetry recitation 

with a friend from Youth Group.

They are going to recite a poem together

in a couple of weeks.

 It's a very sweet poem in Spanish

about the wind and a cloud playing together.

We went all over the world to look at different birds

with BBC's The Life of Birds series,

and we took a basket of jocotes with us -

our local fruit that is now ripe for the picking.

(I'll get some pics of the actual picking next week)

We went to the jungle

with Human Planet: Jungles

a series we are very much enjoying.

We finished up our tour of Europe.

Lu now knows the location and capital of each country, and has these self-made posters with all the flags and information on language and population for easy reference (the flags were his idea btw - it's not something I would have him do), as well as Europe's rivers and mountains.

We got on a slave ship and landed in Jamaica

where we learned the words to Bob Marley's

Redemption Song,

which gave us lots to think about

and talk about.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind. 

*    *    *    *    *

So, as you can see, we get around.

 

A Clean Desk and Pineapple and Randomness

After almost two months of "half-day school", 

we're supposed to be getting back on track with

our full-day schedule.

But our engines are warming up slowly, 

and we're not quite in gear yet.

A good step in the right direction was 

getting Lu's desk organized. 

 It was covered in stuff during the break, 

and is just now useable again.

He's almost finished reading

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths

which he's absolutely loved.

 We've been doing a lot of singing,

which is my favorite way to start the day.

We choose a song, find it in our music library or on YouTube, google the lyrics, copy and paste to our Word document for songs, and voilá - music class.

(and vocabulary, spelling, reading, computer skills...)

In math, we've been learning about the coordinate plane -

I was a quite disappointed in MEP

when I saw this:

 I hate it when educational resources have references to

disney movies and transnational brands.

Nevertheless, it is an excellent resource, and it's free.

  

Lu has been great about chopping fruit 

for our mid-morning snack.

For Youth Group, as a Creative Writing assignment,

he was given a poem to memorize, illustrate, and recite.

Lu's really been enjoying these Brain Games 

from the same site we use for geography.

 And here's Lu multi-tasking...

 helping make lunch and reading.

We still haven't started our afternoon history lessons back up. And after going from the Big Bang all the way through the Persian Empire this year, I'm seriously considering postponing Ancient Greece for next year. 

So instead of history,  Lu's been doing random stuff like

picking up some more guitar lessons on the YouTube.

Randomness is good.