Saturday 5 May 2012

Down in the dumps

Between our colder than normal weather and the empty house following 10 days of company (hubby was also home during those 10 days), we were a little bit down in the dumps all this week.

I wanted to get immediately back into the swing of formal lessons, but none of us had the energy or focus to do so so we declared a science day to get us out of our funk!  The children are entering a robotics contest at our Space and Science Centre, so they were hard at work all day designing and building components for their robots.




 Reece went off on a "rabbit trail" to study more about electricity.  He had a very specific robot design in his head and it required lights, so he needed to learn how to power them.  Out came the books on electricity and magnetism, some batteries, wire, bulbs and tools...


...and this would be the aftermath of 4 hours of self directed, sustained study and experimenting with electricity and current.  Some of the books were a tad above Reece's reading level, so his little brain got a major workout deciphering and decoding some big words.  He was MOTIVATED to figure it out because he REALLY wanted to learn how to get his lights powered up.  So much frustration and failure in those 4 hours, but in the end, so much learned.

I think days like these are the reason why I keep on home schooling in spite of it's challenges.  The power of an inquisitive mind hard at work is a magnificent sight to behold. 



 While the children worked, I assisted as required and wrote a few letters to pen pals in Australia.  Soup simmered on the stove to use up the weekend leftovers.  Broth and meat from the roast chicken dinner, spinach rescued from the crisper before it wilted, cooked barley from a leftover side dish...  a delicious lunch for a cold and cloudy day ~ so full of nutrition to restore us after a busy morning of experimenting.



At long last, the weather has broken.  I was finally able to get some cold hardy seedlings into the soil today.


Kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, radish and chard.   

The peas are soaking and will go in tomorrow.



The "teenagers" watched with interest...  at about 8 weeks, they are full of mischief!

4 comments:

  1. Your teenagers look like two roosters and a hen.
    I thought this post was very nice and enjoyed seeing how your kids used their time. Homeschooling is definitely worth it!

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  2. LOL, yes that's what we thought too! :)

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  3. I love it! To have the freedom to let you child just take off with a topic, to learn and to stretch their mind -- that's a wonderful reason to homeschool. That's one reason I plan to homeschool.

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  4. Yes, Rachael, it really is a huge benefit. I'm not "anti" public education, but it is awfully hard to learn in this manner in a brick and mortar school. I have total respect for teachers ~ I've never been so personally stretched and challenged myself since I started home educating my kids and I can't imagine how hard it would be to teach a class full of children every day! 3 cheers for teachers!!!!!!!

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