This week has been non stop! On top of our normal studies Michael pulled all of the old plants out of the garden and prepared the ground for new ones. He helped choose some vegetables to grow and planted them. He's also watering them everyday and will be doing most or all of the weeding. We both felt that getting outside and getting some fresh air first thing in the morning helps the day off to a better start. He certainly seemed able to sit still more easily afterwards.
This week also was our first time schooling outside of the house. Ean had some conference calls to make from home, so we went to Starbucks to do our school work and have some breakfast. This seemed like a great plan but there were horseflies of some sort flying around the seating area, so we left as soon as he was done with Math. I ended
up reading his music book to him in the parking lot of the pool supply store while the baby napped in her car seat. Each section of the book has a corresponding track on the CD that comes with it, so we listen to those as well. Michael also got to watch the employee do various tests for ph, chlorine, and buffering capacities on the water sample before we left the pool store. Then it was back home to finish up our school work.
Also this week were two skating events for homeschoolers. Yesterday was ice skating on a very nice rink. Michael had a great time despite not knowing how to ice skate. I was amazed at how polite the children were. They made eye contatct, smiled, and generally were just wonderful. Very refreshing. Today was roller skating at a brand new facility and Michael was more in his element. He made friends with two boys around his age and they spent the whole time racing each other. Michael had finished all his written work earlier, and got quite a lot of reading done in the car going to and from the skating rink. We also collected ALL of the library books from the far corners of the house and returned them. We had 29 items checked out!!
The only thing that didn't go well this week was art. Michael enjoyed learning about the art of Egypt, and did well explaining it to me. He did not enjoy making his own art though, so I will need to get more creative in that area. I think clay or other more physical mediums make work best. Otherwise the week has been a great success so far.
I want to be clear, it's a great program. If I was teaching Highschool I'd probably love it. But right now it feels a bit too scheduled and confining for me. This is Michael's last year of elementary school and I want to keep things fun. I don't think we need all the worksheets and scheduled discussions just now. And I hate rushing him through the reading. So we are going to work our way through The Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World: Internet Linked (History Encyclopedias
)
instead. We will still add in additional books from the library, but I will pick ones that look interesting and let him read at his own pace. We will still do map work and time line entries of course. I will probably keep using Map Aids and Writing Aids. Both have worked really well. I am really having him focus on prewriting skills right now, as well as paragraph construction. I think spending more time on this will lead to an easier time teaching the actual writing later on. 
