Learning at Home

With the start of a new school year for the rest of the world (or so it seems), lots of people have been asking me how homeschooling is going and if we’ve started again.  We actually homeschool year-round, so there’s not really a start and end date.  But, this summer being one filled with all things baby, we definitely took a little break and we’ve only been back at it for a month now.  And what a WONDERFUL month it’s been.  I love, love, love, love, love, love, LOVE homeschooling!  I love having my kids with me all day.  I love that I don’t have to miss any of their awesome discoveries or learning moments.  I love that they are sheltered and protected here at home for the little time I am able to fend off the world before they insist on growing up and out.  I love that they can do math with Dan in the evenings.  I love that Karsten is here soaking up all this learning, being prompted and schooled by his eager-to-help older brothers.  I love that Anders can read to me while I nurse Oskar.  I love that we can move at our own pace, both in what we learn and how we learn.  I love that we seem to have established a rhythm, a flow.  And when we aren’t doing school (like on the weekends), the boys actually miss that schedule.  I love that our curricula is an eclectic mish mash of field trips, projects, activities, games, and yes, even the occasional workbook.  I love that my kids teach me new things every day.  I just do SO love this crazy course the Lord has put us on.

Okay, ending gush-fest now.

In the pictures below you’ll see our Great Wall of China that we started a few weeks ago.  We’ve been working on it here and there as we learn all about China.  Do you know why the Great Wall of China was built in a serpentine fashion?  It was because the Chinese of the time were extremely superstitious (most especially the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, who commissioned the wall), and they believed that demons could only walk in a straight line, so if a demon was presented with a serpentine barrier, it would not be able to cross it.  Random, huh?  Anyway, we’ve been studying Giant Panda’s (let me introduce you to the Panda Cam at NatGeo Kids - this thing is child GOLD), watching China documentaries on Netflix (I highly recommend Wild China. It’s stunning!), using Google Translate to figure out the Chinese characters for our names and then paint them ourselves, reading The Story About Ping and doing some of the fun FIAR activities associated with it, and taking field trips like our excursion to feed the ducks at Sand Lake in Kit Carson Park.

Great Wall of China

 

Writing names in Chinese.  (Hey, by the way, I don’t read Chinese, so if you do and you have the urge to laugh at any of these, just remember it’s all Google Translate’s fault.)  :D

 

Panda Studies

 

Buoyancy and Density

 

Feeding Duckies with Friends (more from this fun excursion later)

Homeschooling is so great, people!  It’s like I’ve stumbled upon the world’s best kept secret, so here I am letting you in on it . . . HOMESCHOOLING ROCKS!!