In the last two weeks, we’ve had three awesome field trips (to the
Aquarium of the Pacific, and
La Brea Tar Pits, and the
Discovery Cube), so we got a little behind on our regular schoolwork and are still playing catch-up going into next week. I normally wouldn’t pack so much into such a short time frame, but we wanted to join our homeschool group at the aquarium. Then we had free admission to the tar pits because of our membership to the natural history museum over the last year, and we wanted to be sure to visit before it expired at the end of the month. And finally Ian was having a fun day at Disney’s California Adventure performing with his handchime choir (and of course, just enjoying the park), so I took the other kids to the Discovery Cube that day, where we became members so our whole family can go back anytime we want over the next two years.
I have to admit, I had to battle the side of me that just wants to get through all our work and force myself to be okay with getting behind. Since we aren’t doing a formal science curriculum this year, however, I was glad for chance to let the kids explore and learn on their own during those three days, and they all really were wonderful experiences. Luckily I scheduled a catch-up week in February when I wrote out my lesson plans for the year, so we should be back on track soon.
Here’s what we’ve been doing over the last two weeks in between all the fun:
History
In From Sea to Shining Sea for Young Readers we read about the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Marshall. It was a great week for talking about the different branches of the government, and the boys watched two Learn Our History videos, one about the the Supreme Court, and one about the President. Ian also watched President Trump’s Inauguration with me and we had some good discussion about the practical side of changing Presidents.
Then we started reading about the War of 1812. I want to be able to spend some time focusing on the Star-Spangled Banner, so I didn’t rush through these chapters. We’ll probably spend at least another week on this war, as I have some picture books I want to read to help it come more alive.
Biography
The boys read two books on one of my favorite Christian workers: George Müller: Does Money Grow on Trees? and George Müller: Faith to Feed Ten Thousand.
The rest of our time was spent trying to squeeze in our usual work and enjoying our latest read-aloud,
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks. We got a little behind in our writing assignments from
All Things Fun and Fascinating, but hopefully we’ll catch up in the next few weeks!
Related
