History At Our House

Last Friday we attended a picnic with my non-homeschooled son's class.  My husband and I just made some pretty major dietary changes, but one of our agreements is that we can eat whatever is being served whenever we are invited anywhere.  So, I ate a hamburger and then tried to be a helpful parent in 104 degrees for two hours.  Even thought I drank a lot of water, I got sick anyway, and spent the rest of the day with a bad blinding headache with nausea.  At one point I couldn't see - everything had a gray film over it.  It was probably mild case of heat exhaustion.  I'm perfectly fine now. We haven't done much homeschooling since that day, and it's been almost a week.  I think I needed a break anyway.

Over the weekend we were busy, so we made some half-hearted attempts at staying with the homeschool program,  but we mostly failed.  This week I've been focused on other areas in our life, so we took Monday and Tuesday off.  On Monday, my son and I prepared a gourmet feast together, so I guess that was sort of an educational experience.  Yesterday, Wednesday, we got into the core subjects but not with our usual enthusiasm.  Today was a bit better.  It's the last day of the school year for our public-schooled son, and the excitement has taken over our day.  But it's all good.  We do not have to work five days each week, we do not have to work seven days.  We do not have to take the summer off.  We do not have to start on time in the fall.  We can stop to rest whenever we need to.  It's a mantra I keep repeating - there is no such thing as "you are doing it wrong."  We are coasting for now, but we'll get back into it again.

Today we checked out History At Our House.

It might be a way to make sure we take care of history lessons.  Classes start in the fall and it's definitely under consideration.

Khan Academy continues to work well for math.  Sequential Spelling is working well, and so are the Comprehensive Curriculum and Scholastic workbooks.

We still use Time's Light Box each week for a current events/social studies exercise.  They offer a weekly slideshow that show much of what is going on in the world.  We sit at the computer with a globe, finding the locations where the photos are taken.

Science remains a bit sticky.  I haven't done a thing to develop the unit studies that I'd like to, (science, state history and government, and art,) and often we watch a documentary for science.  I know that isn't enough.  At some point he's going to need to hit the books and do labs and experiments.

Art is on hold for now too.  Tuesday we went to an art exhibit - it was all of the artwork done by the kids who took the classes offered by the library during spring break.  My son had a piece hanging on the wall.  I may take him to some other art exhibits, but first he needs to learn how to appreciate art.

Sometimes seems like for every amazing, terrific, triumphant day of homeschooling we have one terrible day and a bunch of okay days.  I'm sure I'm exaggerating but regardless of what it is, that one terrific day makes the rest worth it.  It is getting easier.