Realism

My original plan was to start my blog last Monday, make daily entries for a week, then send out the blog link. That way, there would be some stuff to read. As you can (don't) see, that plan didn't go so well. So, here's what we've been up to. The school stuff I ordered came in and we've settled on a schedule that works for us. Basically, mornings are language arts, math and piano practice. After lunch and a break, we do social studies, science and art. This works well because the language and math are structured and I know how much we need to do each day and in the morning we have the most momentum. Then we eat and play and finish up with work that is not as structured. Since I couldn't find a curriculum I like in social studies and science, I am using the library and some online resources to go through topics. For science we are picking a climate(starting with the Temperate Forest) and learning about the plants, animals and weather there. Then we can use the globe and blank maps to find the where these climates exist in the world. Depending on the interest level we can spend more or less time on an area. As for history, I wanted to do U.S. history and not much was available. So we are using the library and websites to learn (we are starting with Native Americans). As for art much of what we'll do will be tied into what we are learning. I still like to use the Ed Emberly books to practice drawing. I also been working at helping the kids do more for themselves. While this can be messy and SLOW, I am hoping it will payoff in the future. We'll see how it goes!