More thoughts about homeschool
Today Katie Beth raced through the math curriculum that was supposed to take at least an hour. Each day is supposed to take 30-60 minutes and she always spends about 10 minutes on it. I've started combining days together. She is going to be disappointed when she gets to real school and discovers she can't just go to the next day's lesson when she finishes early! Our plan is to teach her how to make each assignment more challenging, so that she does not get bored and raise hell in the classroom.
We also, perhaps unwisely, named the playgroup "recess." Now she eagerly asks for recess every day, and I'm like oh boy...when she goes to school she will not be too happy by 15-30 minutes of recess. Our recess is 1-2 hours.
On the other hand, maybe she'll be happy to have recess indoors when it is freezing cold!
Science, math and phonics are going great. Art too. And she is really enjoying practicing writing by writing letters to people. But she will not write creatively to save her life. I have tried so many things. I know she can make up stories. She makes them up with her toys all the time! But she won't write fiction. I gave birth to an...accountant. Maybe a scientist.
She's working on the most elaborate science fair project...this was her idea. She wanted to know whether hand sanitizer actually works. (Her theory is that it doesn't, that soap and water is better.) So first she took samples all over the house to put on agar plates to find out what the dirtiest things in the house are and grew the bacteria to find out it's teeth, the sink drain and MY KEYBOARD OMG. Then she labeled six more agar plates - touched my keyboard and the sink drain with her fingers, touched an agar plate, then washed her hands, then touched another agar plate - so that she could compare to see which one works best. She's tried soap and water, hand sanitizer, and just water. Now we are growing the bacteria from all that. The science project is due by Saturday...the bacteria will be grown by...Saturday. Did I mention I have to film all this and put together a video to send in? It's an Outschool project. We watched other kids' videos. One kid dissolved an egg shell. Another kid made a volcano. She could have picked something easy..."But Mommy, you said I had to think of something I wanted to find out!"
Pandemic for the win, right? Inspiring scientists and would-be scientists everywhere!
I just hope the bacteria grows in time!
We also, perhaps unwisely, named the playgroup "recess." Now she eagerly asks for recess every day, and I'm like oh boy...when she goes to school she will not be too happy by 15-30 minutes of recess. Our recess is 1-2 hours.
On the other hand, maybe she'll be happy to have recess indoors when it is freezing cold!
Science, math and phonics are going great. Art too. And she is really enjoying practicing writing by writing letters to people. But she will not write creatively to save her life. I have tried so many things. I know she can make up stories. She makes them up with her toys all the time! But she won't write fiction. I gave birth to an...accountant. Maybe a scientist.
She's working on the most elaborate science fair project...this was her idea. She wanted to know whether hand sanitizer actually works. (Her theory is that it doesn't, that soap and water is better.) So first she took samples all over the house to put on agar plates to find out what the dirtiest things in the house are and grew the bacteria to find out it's teeth, the sink drain and MY KEYBOARD OMG. Then she labeled six more agar plates - touched my keyboard and the sink drain with her fingers, touched an agar plate, then washed her hands, then touched another agar plate - so that she could compare to see which one works best. She's tried soap and water, hand sanitizer, and just water. Now we are growing the bacteria from all that. The science project is due by Saturday...the bacteria will be grown by...Saturday. Did I mention I have to film all this and put together a video to send in? It's an Outschool project. We watched other kids' videos. One kid dissolved an egg shell. Another kid made a volcano. She could have picked something easy..."But Mommy, you said I had to think of something I wanted to find out!"
Pandemic for the win, right? Inspiring scientists and would-be scientists everywhere!
I just hope the bacteria grows in time!