We spent a lot more time out in nature and busy with activities and travel this week. So, it's been lighter on “desk” work. This isn't a bad thing at all! As the saying goes - not all classrooms have four walls. When you are learning experientially and following your child's lead, not every day or week will perfectly balance touching upon all core subjects in one particular way.

*It’s not a thing of beauty but this crate filled with books and a small art supply kit is essential for us when homeschooling on the go*

One of the reasons I blog about our studies is to keep track of what we are doing. I think Julie Bogart who wrote Brave Learner came up with the phrase “planning from behind.” (This book is a must-read for all homeschoolers in my view!) Writing down what we have done allows me to look back and reflect and see how I might help my child continue to advance skills that aren't coming up naturally. My son could talk science day and night, so that's easy for us. However, when I notice that we've had a few weeks that are light on math, for example, I'll make an extra effort to plan something that I think will entice him, such as a new math game, a baking project, or simply working more little math “puzzles” into our conversations. Read on to hear about last week's activities, reading, and other homeschool fun.

Magical Moments

Bubble Fun! This giant bubble kit was a great mini-science exploration. We asked questions like - How could we make the bubbles stronger? How big could they get? What makes the colors in the bubbles?

*A leaf skeleton my daughter and I found*

At age 3, my daughter is starting to be more interested and capable of doing some of our “school” activities. This week, she enjoyed doing a scavenger hunt from our freebie pocket nature journal. She also notices letters on objects and tries to identify them. She is trying to count when she sees groups in books so we practice pointing and counting as well as making the numbers with our hands. I find at this age, much of these learning activities come up naturally within our day, so I don't feel a huge burden to structure her learning yet. Though she is CRAZY about sensory bins and I'd love to have a more organized way of rotating toys and putting out a new bin every few days.

Exploring

Flight and Rockets - My kids spent a very long time launching rockets and testing paper fliers in an air tube at our local science museum.

Bridges - This was the subject of my son's engineering class this week. We had a long discussion about bridges, keystones, and static forces at bedtime too.

Museum of Natural and Cultural History - We took a weekend trip to Eugene for a friend’s birthday and spent some of our spare time exploring this museum. My son particularly loved an exhibit that showed how the land of Oregon was shaped through colliding landmasses, volcanoes, and ice to become the landscape we recognize today.

*An exhibit at the museum of natural and cultural history*

Reading

Note: I’ve included affiliate links for the books and games mentioned here. All opinions are my own. If you purchase through my link I get a very small percentage that helps support this small business.

Finished:

Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake - We really loved listening to this audiobook in the car this week while roadschooling.
Rise!: From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou by Bethany Hegedus - This book is truly beautiful. Maya’s story is deep and emotionally charged. This is handled delicately in an age-appropriate manner. The book inspired a thought-provoking discussion about injustice. It also introduces the concept that some children experience very difficult and dangerous situations. Maya’s healing process is profound and kids will learn valuable lessons from her struggles.

Still Reading:

When on Earth: History as You've Never Seen It Before! by DK
Star Stories: Constellation Tales From Around the World by Anita Ganeri and Andy Wilx
Lila and Ecco’s Do It Yourself Comics Club by Willow Dawson

Evening Read Aloud:

Kane Chronicles: Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan - I hadn't been exposed much to Egyptian mythology before so this book has been a great prompt to explore this. My husband and my son have also had a few interesting conversations about etymology following interesting words from the reading.

Read to Self:

My Pet Human by Yasmine Surovec
Sidekicks by Dan Statat
Amulet (Series) by Kazu Kibuishi
I Turned Into a Minecraft Chicken by Wil Zombie

Playing

Proof - The mental math here is still quite tricky for my son. It’s a great game that works for many levels. One of the ways I’ve tried modifying this game to meet him at his level is that when I find an equation first, I’ll give him one of the numbers so he can try and find it.

Lowdown - This game continues to be a winner for practicing addition with the bonus of using negative numbers to add to the challenge.

Pentago - The strategy of this game is amazing. With one twist, a game like tic-tac-toe or connect four becomes a much bigger puzzle.

Making

Painted Rocks - This was a nice diversion for my daughter one day. Yes, I let my 3-year-old daughter use acrylic paint markers. We were outside on our back patio so I wasn’t too worried about drips. The paint markers made it a lot less messy. I had hoped my son would join us, but he wasn’t in the mood. Oh well!

Arrows - My son has started to learn to whittle. The knife he has is similar to this one, with a fixed blade to make it ‘slightly’ safer to use. He particularly enjoys making arrows and wands. This is such an important growth moment to be entrusted to do risky activities like this. He’s learned to maintain a blood bubble and he’s been showing excellent caution with how he holds the knife and what he is whittling.

Ivy Garlands - My daughter was enchanted when the kids in our nature meetup started pulling out invasive ivy and decorating with it.

Comics - We worked more to develop my son's chicken-hero comic story through the writing prompts from Lila and Ecco’s Do It Yourself Comics Club.

Practicing (Math & Literacy)

Cursive - We did some cursive warm-up sheets from Handwriting without Tears. Then, we pulled out a pokemon cursive handwriting book to practice and color while listening to an audiobook. I find this to be a good pairing for my kiddo. That and hot cocoa make handwriting practice a lot more fun.

Typing - We’ve had a journaling practice for a while, where my son reflects back on learning and experiences. Recently, he was interested in starting to type this. It was a slow process, but given his struggles with handwriting, I think this is an important skill to develop and he was eager to do so.

Copywork - My son copied out a quote from Skunk and Badger to close our enjoyment of this book.

Bedtime Math 2 - This week was lighter on math practice so we pulled this book out at bedtime.

Grammar - My son asked me silly questions about when words end in sss. What he meant was possessive plural. So we had a fun and goofy conversation about different examples of this, such as Jones’ and species’

*A binder with a clip and a dry erase board are super helpful for copywork*

Thanks for reading about our homeschool week! I hope you found something interesting to read or explore with your children.

If our hands-on play-based homeschooling approach appeals to you, be sure to check out the curriculum in my store. It’s based on our daily homeschool experience with activities road-tested by my kids and their friends. We research and vet our studies thoroughly to ensure the science is accurate and all resources reflect values of environmental stewardship and social justice.

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