week in school

We had a great week homeschooling this week. I am so glad we decided to do this. It is much easier than I thought. We have a more relaxing morning and afternoon because the kids aren't rushed or tired, and we get to do fun activities together. We also finish by lunch time and have the rest of the day free.

This week was our first spanish class with other homeschoolers. I'm the teacher and I thought it went pretty well....except for Joaquin's antics. He sees a chance and takes it. We started learning the parts of the body and some greetings, then we read a beautiful book called Isabel's House of Butterflies about the Monarch butterfly's migration to Mexico. I know the butterflies don't have to do with parts of the body, but I thought we'd try to learn some things about different countries where spanish is spoken. We finished with a snack face...a bagel with cream cheese, grape ears, m&m eyes and nose, pecan hair and an apple mouth.

They started music again at church. They are both in the same class this year, and Mrs. K is great with them. After that, we went to bilingual family story time at a local library. They read one page at a time in English, then in Spanish. I must say I was shocked by the spanish reader. She had a hard time reading some of the words and even asked me how to pronounce things! (There were only two families there). So I had an idea...I think I'll ask a closer library if I could volunteer to do this. I would love it if our area had more bilingual activities to offer.

Thursday, Juan Pablo was off so I got to go to Joy Circle at church without the kids and then we all went to the Children's Museum. Our Science Museum family passes are good at both places this month. The kids could have stayed there all day. They milked a cow, dug for dinos, played ambulance drivers, and built things. My favorite part is their outdoor area. They have amazing instruments for you to play, a little water area and a sand pit. Juan Pablo and I just sat out there enjoying the evening, and it's so peaceful, you just forget you are in the middle of the city. There weren't many kids there, of course. We were actually the last ones to leave....they came in and turned the lights out on Joaquin and I playing puppet show.




Friday, we read a great math book called Sort It Out. It's about a pack rat that collects things, then sorts them into different groups. So we did that around the house, then we even sorted our snack and learned there are many ways to sort things.



After we finished Friday, we went to the park. I was determined to use what I had learned in Joy Circle of not rushing the kids. They must have played down by the shore, collecting shells and stepping on rocks for over an hour. When they were ready, we moved on to a nature walk through the woods. It was a great afternoon, and now we'll have to figure out what to do with all those shells.