Tales of a Homeschool Nothing ~ Week 5 ~ Attentiveness, Sound, Ears, & Nature

OK, so we are 5 weeks into the school year.....(wow, already?)....& I finally feel like things went decent this week. I was able to stick to our schedule (at least for the most part) & I didn't have to cry, scream, & beg to get anything accomplished.

We started our 4 week unit on paying attention with the ear & sound. We tried several different experiments on how sound works. I REALLLLLLY had planned to make a model of the ear. Oops, we couldn't find all of the materials & ran out of  time. I will get that accomplished before we are done - ah, the glory of flexibility!

We also started talking about Helen Keller & Annie Sullivan. Hopefully, after we finish a few books, we will be able to see The Miracle Worker.

Attentiveness: watching close enough to notice details & listening long enough to hear all the facts

Interesting tidbit of information ~ your ears "pop" in order to keep them from actually popping!

We also did our first nature study for this school year. My kids always love this because (to them) we pick a place & go "hang out" in nature. There aren't any rules or any real plans, but we do take our nature notebooks & collection jars - just in case we find something really cool.

For this week's nature study, we went to the park. After we ate a picnic lunch & played on the playground, we walked around & enjoyed the beautiful weather. The kids found different objects that caught their attention to study, inspect, or draw. Austin found a little red flower that, much to everyone's delight, could swear its color onto paper. Then of course, they wanted to play in the creek. As we walked along the banks, we were able to discuss erosion, floods, drought, & how flowing water is cleaner than stagnant water.

All in all, it was a good week......except for the attack of the Zoey Monster. Wednesday ended up being hot enough to play in the water. The kids took advantage of the warmth & broke out the redneck slip n slide

(plastic yellow slide propped up on our back yard bank & a water hose - sometimes we even make a "pool" at the bottom out of black plastic). Well, Zoey wanted to play too & attacked  jumped on welcomed Makenzie at the bottom of the slide. Thankfully Austin was there to save the day.

On a side note...I learned something this week. I should NEVER behave in a way that I wouldn't allow my children to behave. I'm supposed to be teaching them, right? Well, it turns out that they are usually teaching me as well.