School days

The day started off way too early today, since the kids had a sleepover last night.  They decided they wanted to play a game of Brainopoly.  They had a great time, and they have no idea how much they learned.  I was cooking and eavesdropping, so I know they learned a lot.

Another sneaky way I get them to use their brains is to leave a puzzle out on the desk.  Sometimes I'll start putting a few pieces together to get them inspired.  Sarah is a real sucker for the puzzle station.  Here she is, putting together a puzzle map of the United States.  She's having fun, but she's learning a lot of geography.  (By the way, as she was putting on her gray pants and shirt, she said, "I'm dressing up as a cloud today!")

Then we went to one of our favorite places: the Children's Discovery Museum.  They're working together to lift the earth!

My new favorite picture.  She just watched her ball get sucked down into the whirling vortex, and she thought it was amazing!

He spent almost an hour building a water transportation system that channeled the water where he wanted it to go.

Working together at the pizza place.  They can do this for as long as I keep ordering pizzas.

The pizza place ran out of ingredients, so Noah had to go to the local market for more supplies.  Sarah moonlighted as the cashier.  They did some math, but of course, they weren't aware of it.

 Then we had music...

physical education....

and of course art.

In drama class, Sarah made up a song and dance about a cat, while Noah was in charge of backdrops, lighting, sound, and curtains.

There was only one other kid in the whole museum, so the poor thing had to be subjected to Sarah's interview.

They also recruited her for a puppet show.  Noah was very much into the puppetry, because he could hide behind the stage and make the puppets talk.  Sarah didn't like as much, because she wasn't onstage herself.

They had some architecture and geology classes where they made houses out of marshmallows and toothpicks and then tested their structural soundness on the shaking earthquake board.

I'm constantly debating with myself about how structured their education needs to be.  In my heart, I'm a proponent of unschooling (letting them discover things on their own, based on their interests and motivation, instead of forcing it on them).  I believe it's the best way to learn.  But in my head, I'm not convinced they'll pick up math on their own without huge gaps in the foundation.  So I use a curriculum for math, and they don't like it (neither do I).  It's important to me to teach them how to spell too, so we use a different curriculum for that, and we don't like it either.  I think they need to learn diligence, self-control, discipline, focus, and routine, so I make them do math and spelling every day (ok, almost every day).  We also do Bible and reading every day, but there's a lot of time where they're just free.

 I don't care if they learn to write in cursive or not.  Sarah said she wanted to learn, so I got her a book, and she works on it for fun.  It's just another form of art for her.

That's the most important thing I want them to learn!