Make-Up Days Already?!

Yes, folks, we're already playing catch up. We're weeks behind on art lessons, about a week behind on history and science, and who knows how far behind in Latin! And you know what? It doesn't even matter. It's only annoying because we're not evenly behind, so I'm jumping between lesson plans doing what I'd planned for this week in Spelling but last week's History. 

I know a lot of people get bent out of shape if they can't check everything off their to-do list each day and they "fall behind". But behind what? What kids in public schools are doing? Who cares what kids in public schools are doing! Most of them don't even get to learn half the awesome stuff we do and they never finish their textbooks at the end of the year anyway! Behind our own expectations then? Well maybe that's a sign we need to adjust our expectations. It's easy as homeschoolers to try to do too much. And isn't one of the wonderful things about homeschooling the flexibility? We make our own schedule. We piece together our own course of study. We decide which days we school and which days we laze around like unproductive pajama people (which we've been doing quite a lot lately).  So let's be flexible. Let's cut ourselves some slack. We'll get around to everything, it may just be a little slower than we'd planned. And lately I've apparently really needed a break because we've only been doing half days.

So today, to at least get my lessons closer to being all on the same page of the planner, we had a make-up day. We worked on reading a writing, but instead of all our various other subjects we spent the rest of the day working primarily on science and history, which are typically our favorite subjects around here anyway! 

We decorated our salt dough volcano. (Side note: it's really hard to get three wiggly, excited kids all in the frame and facing the camera at the same time!)

We erupted our volcano! That Lego house never stood a chance. Then we watched a YouTube video of lava oozing out of a volcano in Hawaii.

We reviewed our prayers and poems we've been trying to memorize but have been neglecting.

We read about mountains, rivers, and glaciers, did some journaling, and placed a block of ice on a wire shelf in the freezer with a brick on top to see how ice flows. (Hint: it supposedly will seep down between the bars of the wire rack. We'll see tomorrow!)

We read about the Ajanta caves in India and the Buddhist monks who carved out their monasteries and filled them with beautiful frescoes and carvings. We looked at photos of them online. Then we colored pictures for us to touch every day this week to see the effect of many people touching a piece of art over and over and how it can damage the artwork.

Then we planted broccoli in the garden and observed the ants digging out their tunnels after the rain and carrying hundreds of bits of fallen leaf to their hill's opening to carry inside later. Those ants can really carry some huge (well, for an ant!) clumps of dirt!

Then we found some mushrooms, took a walk around the back yard looking for more, talked about how they have gills underneath that make spores, and about where they live. We even found a whole huge colony of small mushrooms and Felix picked a "family" of them, big daddy mushrooms, smaller mommy mushrooms, and tiny baby mushrooms. Then of course we washed our hands very well because I am no backyard forager and don't know if our mushrooms are edible or deadly! 

It was probably the most pleasant, fun, and productive school day we've had in a long time. We're still a little "behind" what I had planned, especially in art. Does that bother me? Not at all. I'm not going to stress about it. We'll adjust and get to it eventually. And sometimes a "make-up day" can be just the energizing, motivating kick in the pants we needed!

My Very First Freebie - A Back to School History Freebie

Today I'm really excited to bring you something I've been working on for a long time - almost a year, in fact, off and on. And, in the spirit of homeschool mommy solidarity, I'm offering it totally free! It's my great big giant master reading list to accompany all four volumes of Story of the World, designed for Grammar Stage grades 1-4. This is something I keep in my curriculum planner for quick reference when I need to know what books to pull from for nightly read-alouds or writing exercises, what it bring to the library with me for reference, and what I check every time I get ready to make a book purchase. It's quick, it's easy, and it's (fairly) thorough. 

Download it here.

Last year, because it was our first year homeschooling, I had not yet discovered the Story of the World Activity Book and all the awesome resources it contained. Published by Peace Hill Press to supplement the study of the Story of the World series by Susan Wise Bauer (author of The Well Trained Mind), the Activity Books contain discussion questions, map work exercises, coloring pages, hands on projects, and loads of extra reading suggestions, all broken down by chapter to make your life easier. It's wonderful and really helps round out our history studies.

But I had not yet discovered that. So last year I did it all myself. All our reading and projects came primarily from other lists I found online, such as Classical House of Learning, IrishMum's excellent resource list on Airskull, and all the various rabbit holes Amazon has to offer. I also pulled from various Pinterest boards and good old fashioned Google searches, as well as projects I had done over the years in school or Girl Scouts, or just came up with on my own. It was a fantastic year and history has been our favorite subject, but it was also a lot of work! A whole lot of work. And keeping up with what books I should hunt down and in what order and from where became a challenge, because I was drawing from so many sources. 

And so my mega-checklist was born, complete with check mark columns for books we already have and books the library already has, so I don't purchase things I can already access. And when I took the plunge and acquired a copy of the Story of the World Activity Books this spring the list grew even bigger! Now it contains suggestions for every single chapter of all four volumes, geared toward Grammar Stage students in grades 1-4. The Activity Books themselves contain more suggested reading than I chose to include because I tried to pare it down to just what would be useful to my kids, who are all 7 and younger. If you're looking for resources for an older child you really must pick up the Activity Book, it is truly an invaluable resource!

I'd recommend only printing the pages for the volume you're currently using and printing it double-sided. For example, we're starting Volume 2 this year, which covers the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and printing on both sides of the page means there are only 4 pages taking up space in my planner or library bag. Far more compact than lugging the whole Story of the World Activity Book to the library with me! And if anyone would prefer an editable spreadsheet version that you can actually check off, just hit the "Contact Me" button and let me know! I'd be happy to email you a copy of the file! 

And a note of caution to the overwhelmed or overachievers: this is NOT intended to be a list to be completed! This is not a "to do" list. Think of it, as one mom said, as a buffet. Pick and choose what looks good to you, what your kids may like, what your library has available, and what you actually have time to read. It's a compilation of sources you can check when you have the time and want to delve deeper. Did we read everything on the a Ancients list last year? Not by a long shot! Did we even read half? Hah! We read maybe 10-15%, and that not even dispersed very evenly. We read most of the suggestions for the Greek chapters, but only a story here or there for Babylon or Assyria. Some chapters I around Christmas I was exhausted and we just read Story of the World and nothing else! Do I feel bad we didn't get through more material? Not even for a moment! So use this as a starting point, a springboard for helping your students really immerse themselves in the world and times you're learning about. Relax and enjoy your homeschool year!

***UPDATE!***

I completely forgot to mention that I decided to add a unit on King Arthur and Arthurian legend between chapters 3 and 4 of SOTW vol. 2! So if you spot the books for chapter 3.5 in the Medieval & Renaissance section, that's where my kids will be studying Arthur. You can do the same, scatter those books in throughout the year, or skip them entirely - it's up to you! But for us, pausing to study Arthur and his knights seemed like a good idea, since SOTW doesn't even mention him. The imagery of the egalitarian Round Table, the sword in the stone, Merlin in all his bearded mystery and power locked away by the sorceress Nimue, the Lady of the Lake holding Excalibur aloft over the waters, and Arthur slain and being carried on the magical barge to Avalon...these are part of the fabric of the Western imagination and something with which I want our kids to be familiar. They're as important (or perhaps even more important) to our culture as Beowulf and Robin Hood.

~ Krystal