Awhile ago we were knee deep in school and I was overcome with delight. Delight in what in what we were doing... delight in my children... delight in the books we were reading. I wanted to share with you a little bit of what we do and what I love.
1. I absolutely love our science. The kids are totally engaged and we are all learning new things. We are studying the human body this year. Every week we create a model of whatever we are studying and then read a section from The Way We Work by David Macaulay and whatever fun books we've found at the library. This book on skinned knees was super fun, you'll never look at pus the same again, and if your kids are like mine they will talk about macrophages eating and dying and pus all the time. My kids beg for science, they would like to do it everyday.
2. This year Malaki is doing the Primary Arts of Languge (PAL) Reading and writing (published by Institute for Excellence in Writing). For the last two years we have done everything possible to help Malaki with his phonics and reading. When I came across this program I just knew it would be perfect for him, the Phonetic Farm, the games and the the blend of whole language and phonics as been a great combination for him.
3. The word of the day.... rocks! The kids love hearing the word of the day first thing in the morning and we write it in our class journal. its fun to watch and listen to them try to use it. We use the dictionary.com widget on my phone, which is on the front page of my phone so its the first thing we see.
Benji's journal post also brings delight. If you can read it in this picture you will notice his sense of humor shining through.. created by Benji, directed by Benji, wrote by Benji.
4. I love the opportunity to pour great words from great authors into my kids. We start school by reading together and writing in our journal. This year we are reading Our Country's Founders by William J. Bennett. It is great for discussion, vocabulary and as well as history. I firmly believe that one of the ways to make the classics digestable for kids is to introduce them and keep introducing them. The more the classics are read and discussed, the less they feel like a foreign language.
5. The mess!!! I've tried every which way to make school an organized neat affair, the dilemma is that I'm the one teaching and I'm neither organized or neat. But I love that somehow the mess on the table is a description of where we've been and where we are going. And when its all said and done for the day we put it all back in its containers and the crate so that we can make a mess tomorrow.
love it!!!! We are loving school all over again. Can't wait to sit and talk and talk and talk with you and Ghena about it all!
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