Playing School and Natural Learning
The other morning Smiley Girl asked me to play our favorite game - actually games, as in two - the kids version and the grown up version - but to do it her way. I agreed and she proceeded to pull out two board games and thought through how we would play. It didn't take long during actual play to realize that playing both games was a little overwhelming, so we put one away. She ended up creaming me in the game and learned a valuable lesson about how difficult it is to create a new set of rules.
Later in the day both kids decided that we should "play" school. We each had to select two subject to teach to the other two and then Miss E spent time determining a schedule for us, complete with start and end times, building in breaks between classes.
Smiley Girl taught Science by handing us two anatomy books from the shelf and telling us to study them before writing something in our notebooks. We landed on a page that detailed the brain. Did you know that part of the brain called the cerebellum is called that "tree of life" because it resembles a leaf? God's Creation is so amazing!
After Science I was in charge of Math. I choose two stories from the Bedtime Math books to work through. Smiley Girl developed a system for note taking in order to keep track of the information that she would later need to solve the problems. Miss E just rolled her eyes in exaggerated almost pre-teen fashion.
Next came Social Studies. Miss E was in charge and asked us to identify things that we like about living on earth, things that scare us about it and something else, but I can't remember what that was at the moment. It made for a fun discussion.
Onto English. I didn't want to spend the time reading because a good portion of math was done that way. So I opted for writing spelling words on the white board that they had to copy into their notebooks. Miss E had to write them three times to Smiley Girls once. We also took time to discuss the words but and butt. Basically 'but' is "but I am tired of this" and 'butt' is "get off your butt and write your spelling words!" This brought much laughter.
We ended the "school day" in Spanish. Miss E taught us the Spanish word for hello and goodbye. And we reviewed one of the most important phrases in the Spanish language: "Donde este el bano?" (Where is the bathroom?)
I think we forgot about having the Art class that Smiley Girl was supposed to teach us but that's totally fine! We made the schedule!
Once TDM was home, dinner was over and the house picked up, we broke out Ticket to Ride and played for several hours. If you've never played, this game is excellent for building logic and geography skills. We borrowed it from my cousin and all of us have loved playing it this week.
Before bed I pulled a new book off of the shelf to read aloud. "Sadako" is the story of a young girl living in Japan in the decade after the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. Being bed time it made perfect sense that prior to starting Chapter Two we would take time to discuss:
So, that was the day. We fit in math, language arts, science, history, geography and Spanish without ever officially doing school work - with the exception of the time that we were pretending to have school. If I had been in charge of planning a lesson today we never would have covered all of the topics that were covered!
I'm realizing more and more that the happiest times in our house are when the kids are allowed to naturally explore the things that interest them. Most mornings lately we either read a book or play a game together. I might spend time working while they watch tv or play in their room. Questions are answered as they come up. The girls both have responsibilities to take care of each day and are expected to help when asked. Some days we paint. Some days we color. We talk about a lot of different things.
One of Miss E's questions that day was if she is actually a preteen. We googled it right there are determined that she is technically a pre-preteen. Age 11 is where the label traditionally applies but certain websites included the ten year old crowd. Officially one or not, the kid has the eye rolling portion down pat. 😂
Later in the day both kids decided that we should "play" school. We each had to select two subject to teach to the other two and then Miss E spent time determining a schedule for us, complete with start and end times, building in breaks between classes.
Smiley Girl taught Science by handing us two anatomy books from the shelf and telling us to study them before writing something in our notebooks. We landed on a page that detailed the brain. Did you know that part of the brain called the cerebellum is called that "tree of life" because it resembles a leaf? God's Creation is so amazing!
Next came Social Studies. Miss E was in charge and asked us to identify things that we like about living on earth, things that scare us about it and something else, but I can't remember what that was at the moment. It made for a fun discussion.
Onto English. I didn't want to spend the time reading because a good portion of math was done that way. So I opted for writing spelling words on the white board that they had to copy into their notebooks. Miss E had to write them three times to Smiley Girls once. We also took time to discuss the words but and butt. Basically 'but' is "but I am tired of this" and 'butt' is "get off your butt and write your spelling words!" This brought much laughter.
We ended the "school day" in Spanish. Miss E taught us the Spanish word for hello and goodbye. And we reviewed one of the most important phrases in the Spanish language: "Donde este el bano?" (Where is the bathroom?)
I think we forgot about having the Art class that Smiley Girl was supposed to teach us but that's totally fine! We made the schedule!
Once TDM was home, dinner was over and the house picked up, we broke out Ticket to Ride and played for several hours. If you've never played, this game is excellent for building logic and geography skills. We borrowed it from my cousin and all of us have loved playing it this week.
Before bed I pulled a new book off of the shelf to read aloud. "Sadako" is the story of a young girl living in Japan in the decade after the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. Being bed time it made perfect sense that prior to starting Chapter Two we would take time to discuss:
- why the atomic bomb was dropped in the first place
- why the Nazi regime was in place
- why good rulers and leaders are needed
- why we need to pray for people in power
- what is currently happening in Baghdad
- what US Embassies do
So, that was the day. We fit in math, language arts, science, history, geography and Spanish without ever officially doing school work - with the exception of the time that we were pretending to have school. If I had been in charge of planning a lesson today we never would have covered all of the topics that were covered!
I'm realizing more and more that the happiest times in our house are when the kids are allowed to naturally explore the things that interest them. Most mornings lately we either read a book or play a game together. I might spend time working while they watch tv or play in their room. Questions are answered as they come up. The girls both have responsibilities to take care of each day and are expected to help when asked. Some days we paint. Some days we color. We talk about a lot of different things.
One of Miss E's questions that day was if she is actually a preteen. We googled it right there are determined that she is technically a pre-preteen. Age 11 is where the label traditionally applies but certain websites included the ten year old crowd. Officially one or not, the kid has the eye rolling portion down pat. 😂
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