An Unexpected Education

Yesterday, Isaac had an accident--his eye met the handle of a bike:

We spent the afternoon in the ER. On the way home, I was pondering what an educational experience our emergency turned out to be. Without intending to, Isaac learned all sorts of useful things throughout the afternoon. Some of the things we talked about included:
*The flow of hospital duties: admitting, triage, X-ray, visiting with the doctor and discharge.
*X-rays and why they need them
*We looked at the pediatric trauma chart together while we were waiting for the doctor (nothing else to do!) Isaac was very interested in why the portions of the child's body on the picture on the chart were numbered. We talked about that. We talked about the pediatric pain scale and why doctors need to use this in their assessments.
*We talked about the differnce between stitches and glue applied to a laceration.
*We talked about how important all the different jobs people have are, from admitting, to nursing, to ambulance drivers, to doctors. We talked about how God can use all these different jobs to help us during our emergencies.
*On the way to the car, we got to see the Lifeflight helicopter land. We talked about what Lifeflight does, and why it is important.

ALL of this happened COMPLETELY by accident. Believe me, I wasn't going into this day with the goal of turning it into a field trip. Most of it happened just because Isaac was asking questions and was interested in it, and I wanted to find a way to keep his mind off of his owie!
It amazes me how "school" can happen just about anywhere, and under any circumstances!

Great Find!

I was at Sam's Club last night and found this super cool book for Isaac called "The boys Doodle Book." They have other versions as well--one for girls and one that is generic for everyone.
The book is filled with the beginnings of drawings which are to be completed by the child however they choose.

He was super excited about it and started drawing in it right away. The only down side is that it is hard to keep open while drawing in it because it is such a thick book. So, I think we will take it to Office Depot and have it spiral bound for him.

Our Oak Tree

Our Oak Tree finally has a little bit of spring foliage! So fun to see the photos from a few weeks ago and the transformation it has begun!

We are beginning to do read-aloud chapter books. The one we are currently doing is called "Snow Treasure" which is a true story based on children who saved $9 million worth of their country's gold from the Nazis in WWII by smuggling it out on their sleds.
This summer, we plan to read "My Side of the Mountain"



as well as "Charlotte's Web,"

and "Indian in the Cupboard"

Well, we are finishing up our school year. I have found that the art of homeschooling has much to do with letting go and praying you did a "good enough" job. I know we are only talking kindergarten here, but there are so many foundational things that we did this year. I hope what we learned will serve as a good foundation for the things to come.
I would like to do some fun things with Isaac this summer, including reading a book that would be enjoyable for him. One thought I had was to do the book "My Side of the Mountain," which is a story about a boy surviving in the wilderness. I think that would be of interest to him, and I know there are tons of resources out there that compliment that book.
I will also be getting our workbox system ready to go this summer, as well as reorganizing our homeschooling space to be a little bit more user friendly.