When Learning Comes Alive

Every year around this time, I find myself getting the homeschool blahs.  Stuck in a rut, bored, and oh, so tired.  Whether or not you too are on a homeschooling endeavor, I'm certain you can relate.  Wintertime (even one as mild as this one has been!!), can do that to you. 

And, every year around this time, I start reevaluating my goals and methods, trying to determine what must stay and what must GO.  After all, change can be good, right?  It's one of God's most wonderful blessings to us.  The freedom to problem solve and to infuse change into our routines every so often. 

As an educator, I absolutely thrill to the idea that learning can come alive to my children.  History stories that leap off the pages of stale textbooks, science experiments that make us stand in wonder of our Creator God, and even Latin lessons that cause us to better understand and appreciate our mother tongue.  The backbone of the education that we have strived to give our children is inherently classical, yet with a flare of an eclectic mixture of fun thrown in.

Here is a look at some of the ways we've attempted to make learning come alive to our kids the past few weeks, despite the wintertime blahs.....



A sick day doesn't necessarily equal no school!  Here the kids are creating their own inventions after reading about famous inventors of the 1800 and 1900's.





Jackson, busy working on his "invention" also. :)

 

The finished product - a robotic dog for kids who are allergic to dogs.  Can you tell what they are hoping for??



Jackson, fishing for ABC's.





Breaking out the shaving cream to work on our memory work.  So fun!





Practicing skip counting....



And letters...for little ones. :)

And this is what happens when you turn your back for a minute to unload the dishawasher while the kids are happily oocupied finger painting with shaving cream. :)

Took a little break to play in the snow.  Not much of it this year.....have to take advantage while we can!

Edible fractions....

Sophia wants to be just like the big kids!



History comes to life....here are my kids wrangling up some cattle and building a fort out of sticks in our backyard.  Can't believe this February weather!!



Laura Ingalls Wilder

And a random cowboy. :)

Taking a little break for some reading.  Currently, a couple titles we're reading are, The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and a biography of Gladys Aylward.

Here we are at the Valley Forge Visitors Center on President's Day.



Yeah, it sounded great in theory, but in reality it was super-crowded and the kids were more interested in stick-fighting. Oh well. :)

 


In CC this year, the kids are learning about the periodic table. Here are the first twelve elements.  Red jimmies = protons, blue jimmies = electrons, and the chocolate chips = neutrons.  Super fun...and yummy. :)







Some of us helped more than others. :)

 



 

So, there you have it!  A handful of things to balance out the monotony of a normal school day.  This week?  We're heading to the city to see the Philadelphia orchestra!!  Love learning right alongside of my kids!

Kirsten