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.

We have been winding down our school year around here. We have completed our curriculuum for the year, so I am trying to find ways to use up the rest of the school year. Unfortunately, school has taken a major backburner this week to a ton of other things I have going on...busy, busy, busy.
Isaac mostly needs practice reading, so I have been having him read out loud to me while I am working on things.
I recently changed my blog title to better reflect my philosophy on home education...my priority is relationship with my children, and finding joy in that relationship, while homeschooling. What a joy and blessing it is to have my babies with me all day every day!

Spring study

I have recently stumbled upon a great resource for nature study resources here
We used some of the free downloadable worksheets to do a nature study today.
Isaac had to identify four signs of spring and record them on his worksheet. He noticed the grass turning green, the plants starting to grow, the buds coming on the trees and the sound of birds chirping.


Then we talked about the three primary types of clouds, and he identified that the clouds in the sky today were cumulus. We recorded today's weather information.

Lastly, we began our seasonal tree study of the Oak tree in our backyard. We saw that the buds are just starting to form, and are a bit behind the buds on the tree in our front yard. We will take another photo of this tree in a few weeks and compare them.

I have been praying for awhile now for a verse that I could "claim" for homeschooling my boys. There were a few I had heard here and there that I liked, but they just didn't seem like quite the right verse. Then, a couple of nights ago at my women's Bible study, we happened to be reading this verse (for a reason that was completely undrelated to homeschooling), and it JUMPED off the page at me. I really feel like this is it: Isaiah 54:13-14
"All your sons will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children's peace.
In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you."
This verse touches me deeply on two levels. First is the obvious--I so wish my sons to be taught by the Lord through me. Secondly, so many of the world events happening right now disturb me. This verse does something to just put my spirit at ease.
Thank you Heavenly Father for your promises!

Pinecone birdfeeders

This year, we have used "My Father's World" for kindergarten. Its an OK program, but there are several things I have not liked about it, so we won't be using it next year.
This week, we are on the letter "Q for Quail", so we are trying to do as many bird-related activities as possible. Today we finished up on our peanut butter-sunflower seed-pine cone-bird feeders. And yes, those would be gloves on my hates-to-get-his-hands-dirty-or-sticky son.

Mommy was too lazy to hang them up in the yard, so we set them out on a table. The squirrels promptly went into a feeding frenzy

So we had to get out the binoculars to watch them


side note: It is not customary for me to allow my two year old to be in a diaper only on the deck in early April in North Dakota.
Then, we got a bang out of watching each other with the binoculars instead.

Dollar Store Finds

I love the Dollar store for homeschooling stuff! I hadn't found anything new there recently, but today I went in and they had gotten a new shipment of school things. I got several posters, some writing books, workbooks and games. Some of these things will be workbox items for next year. Graham will also be a lot more involved in our school activities next year, and will have his own set of workboxes. He needs some big help on colors especially. I found a really nice Sesame Street colors workbook that I think will be helpful and some color flashcards.
Here's a side note: Sometimes the most effective things are the easiest things, and also the things we don't think of! I got this idea from a homeschooling blog the other day and did it today with Isaac and it was very effective: take picture cards (most of us have something like this in our homeschooling stash), and letters (I used foam letters that came with the "My Father's World" curriculuum and have them spell out what is on the picture card. DUH. Seriously--did I need to read a blog to come up with that? But, its somthing I hadn't thought to do, and obviously needed help coming up with. He enjoyed working with the letters hands on, and got every single one correct (even the ones with digraphs--we have been focusing on those lately)!