I still do not have the whole "homeschooling" thing figured out. I still experiment with different so-called methods. However, I am sure that learning should be something that a kid (or anyone) wants to do. It should be exciting, it should be interesting, it should be fun. Turning learning into drudgery is pointless. It does not have to be boring! It does not have to seem like work! It does not have to be hard! It does not have to be something we force ourselves to do!
Kids naturally want to learn. No, they do not usually want to write the definition of a noun or a verb or even a tadpole. But they may want to observe tadpoles! Maybe they do not want to create a geography lapbook, but modeling landforms with play dough sounds fun! We know our kids. We know what interests them. And if something doesn't interest them, maybe we can make it interesting! Or just move on. We can always move on.
Side note: The kids have been spending more of their birthday money (from Aunt Jamie). Taven bought a water gun, bubbles, and a pretend table saw.
We went to the Arboretum to check out what spring is looking like. It's looking good! Not quite in full swing yet. There is a lot of planting going on and the next few weeks should be awesome! We will go back soon.
Taven fell pretty bad and skinned his chest and knee.
Here he is trying to smile.
The kids thought these flowers looked like old-timey phones.
Bluebonnets! We are heading out of town this weekend to search for more...
His knee is still bothering him.
Still looking at his knee...
Matching their shirts to flowers.
This was our favorite flower. Naia named it the candy cane flower.
Back home.
Who wants to bring the eggs in by the chicken coop door? That would be boring.
Who wants to bring the eggs in by the chicken coop door? That would be boring.
Eaden received science kits and a frog to dissect from Grandma for her birthday!
Muscles.
Now that is learning at its best! No one complained, everyone was interested, everyone wanted to know what every part of the frog was called!
I personally enjoy lapbooks. I think they are fun to make and fun to look over when finished. However, they involve a lot of writing which most kids (especially young ones) do not particularly like. We picked up some fallen flowers from the Arboretum and brought them home to study. I drew this flower and Eaden colored it. She then wrote the terms and I wrote the definitions. No drudgery for her. We then read the information together.
We also watched a youtube video on pollination simultaneously.
And we are eagerly awaiting our caterpillars metamorphosis. The kids have decided they would like to release them at the arboretum. They ate through the paper disk at the top of the jar. Because they are supposed to hang from this paper when they turn into chrysalides I took it out and replaced it with a coffee filter.
Remember our Book of Questions? It is still going strong. The latest question is "Is Atlantis Real?" I started looking up information online and preparing to show them a National Geographic video Finding Atlantis when I found out they were referring to the waterpark Atlantis. Oh well. They are now actually interested in the real Atlantis lol. But is there a real Atlantis?....
