There have been a series of posts at the Homeschool Classroom this week about the fact that sometimes, your homeschool just doesn't look like you planned it. You planned to make everything fun - lots of games, field trips, experiments - and instead, it's all textbooks and worksheets... Sometimes, I feel like that. We get bogged down, and there just isn't time or energy for the fun stuff.This week looked like I wanted homeschooling to look though! We did two full days of school work without Crumpet realizing we'd done school. It was lovely. It can't happen all the time, but it's so good and reaffirming when it does!
Math: We worked on a few projects from Family Math for Young Children. This is a great book for teaching math concepts in a fun, "living math" way. I love mixing these games into our day. This week we worked on estimation, and using logical questions to find a hidden button.
We also worked on subtraction using our McRuffy math text. We used jelly beans for our manipulatives and an insane amount of sugar was consumed. However, Crumpet started out yelling "I can't do subtraction! Don't make me!" and finished a short time later as a total master of subtraction. He's got it!
Science: We continue to do experiments from the Scientific American site. This week, we used a variety of bird "beaks" to sample different shaped foods so we could decide which beak was best adapted to each snack. I'm not sure how much Crumpet was paying attention because he was too busy inhaling snacks... But he enjoyed it! Here he is, drinking like a hummingbird:
We also found iron in our breakfast cereal using a magnet. This was more for me, because I was fascinated by the idea, and I thought he'd be bored. He was appropriately impressed that there was metal in his food though!Using a magnifying glass to look at the bits of iron we picked up on the magnet:
We also discovered that the magnet picks up silverware!
And while at the beach, we discovered these odd seeds that were starting to sprout. So we brought them home and planted them. We'll see if anything happens!
Writing: I picked up Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye from the library this week. I was sorry to see that much of the book is devoted to actually creating stories and essays, but there are a few fun exercises to develop letter formation. We used one of these games and had a lot of fun. It will be a good way to steer Crumpet towards writing each day, at least. And the rest of the book may be useful in the future.This week, we also went geocaching, spent time at the pool with friends, played with playdoh and painted. Oh, and, there was no vomiting or screaming about our ears. Phew. A really good week! I hope yours was too!
For more posts about preschool, see Homeschool Creations!
