A look at what’s been going on in our homeschool this week…
What’s Been Inspiring Me
This week I’ve been inspired by Brave Writer’s One Thing Principle, which is about creating the conditions to invite in inspiration, and finding the time to follow it up.
Here’s what I took away from the One Thing Principle podcast:
(1) When you’re inspired by an idea for a homeschooling project, plan for it by putting a date in the diary two weeks from today. That gives you time to get in any supplies and prepare.
(2) Be open to putting aside routine tasks (yes, even maths and English) on that day, to give yourselves the time to create a fun and memorable learning experience.
Simple but effective!
Most Fun We Had This Week
The most fun we had this week was definitely making butter, “gangnam style”! (I love how my autocorrect wants to say “gingham style”.)
History
We began a mini-unit on China in the Middle Ages – so much fun!. First we reviewed what we learned about Ancient China last year Then we started to look at some Chinese inventions. C(9) was inspired to make an animated film about the invention of gunpowder.
Maths
We’re enjoying our short break from Life of Fred to practice times tables on Mathletics – they have some great multiplication songs. Well, they’re great the first six times you hear them. 😐
We’ve also dipped into the Maths Made Easy workbooks to look at some concepts on the UK National Curriculum that haven’t yet been covered in Life of Fred.
It’s so reassuring to realise how quickly the children catch onto new ideas when they learn them in a relaxed, one-to-one setting – concepts that might be worked on for weeks in school. I think Life of Fred has helped C and J develop a “maths is fun” attitude, which makes everything else so much easier.
Art
For this week’s Art Lab For Kids project I bought a mixed bouquet for us to draw with soft pastels.
As soon as she saw the flowers, C plucked out the rose in delight and asked me to photograph her so she could draw herself with it. She’s been drawing lots of portraits since I put a box of skin-coloured pencils in our art area. I love successful strewing!
What have been the highlights of your week?
We’re appreciatively linking up here:
Weekly Wrap-Up @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Collage Friday @ Homegrown Learners
It’s A Wrap @ Hammock Tracks
Yes, I Was There Too @ More2Les
Looks like a lot of fun!!
It was! thanks for visiting, Amanda.
When I took my daughter out of school (in 2nd grade) she despised math. She refused to do math. I tried Singapore, Aleks, workbooks, and no math! Nothing worked until I found Life of Fred. She is in 5th grade now and we just finished Dogs. She looks forward to reading the story to me and it has led to so many interesting investigations on constellations, obligate carnivores and state maps.
We also have to work on fact practice!
We tried Singapore too! And Math Mammoth, and living maths. Nothing lasted like Fred has. We love all the extra bits too – we often find ourselves discussing obligate carnivores!
I love the life of Fred books. They are wonderful. I enjoyed seeing your week.
Blessings, Dawn
Thank you for taking the time to say hello, Dawn. Blessings, Lucinda
Thank you so much for visiting my blog recently and stopping to say hello! I really appreciated that. I am sorry it has taken me so long to visit you. Well, actually I have visited a few times before, but I’ve always been running and haven’t stopped. I should slow down and so things properly!
I have loved reading your posts. Your daughter’s art reminds me so much of what my Sophie likes to do. She draws loads of portraits, trying to make them look realistic. She was so delighted when I gave her some flesh coloured pencils. The right equipment can lead to wonderful creations!
Oh thank you so much, Sue. You and your family have been a huge inspiration to me over the last year, thanks to your blog.
Yes I’m loving discovering all sorts of art materials I never knew existed. We got some “kneaded erasers” through the post yesterday – we’re looking forward to seeing what fun we can have with THEM (whatever exactly they may be)!
I just found your blog from the linkup at Homegrown Learners. Wonderful to see a peek at your family’s week! You’ve inspired me to actually make time to pull out the pastels with my children this week. Thank you!
Thank you for stopping by, Tristan. Yes I think we’re going to do more with the pastels this week, they are such a pleasure to create with!
What a great looking week! You have quite the little artist on your hands – impressive!!
Thanks for the link up. Love your picture -haha!!
Thanks Leslie – I’ll pass on your compliment to Cordie 🙂
One of the reasons I love your “Yes, I was there too” idea is that you get to see the person behind the writing – and the sillier the pose, the better, in my opinion!
Wow, what a great week. I love the self portrait!
Thanks Mary – Cordie is very appreciative of all the nice comments about her picture!