How we homeschooled today #21
Gladiators, India, and dessert
First thing, my son read more Time Chronicles, and my daughter played with a Brio Builder System set (these are not made anymore but you can find them second hand. They’re lovely little building sets for children 3-6).
My daughter did some handwriting work, both children worked in their Adding and Subtracting books, and both did Multiplication by Heart.
Then my daughter snuggled in a nest on the floor and listened to an hour of The Jungle Book. My son somehow managed to read to himself in the same room. One story going in through the ears, and another going in through the eyes, would drive me mad, but it didn’t seem to bother him. We only pay for Audible when there’s a half price offer, but I find it so good I am tempted to pay full price. In the UK there seems to be a half price deal now.)
More Kapla planks
We did more of the gladiator activity from Classical Wisdom Kids, (thank you Home Ed Resources Newsletter), finding names for the many different types of gladiator, and making cardboard swords.
More audio: Katherine Rundell’s Into The Jungle (origin stories for Kipling’s characters).
After lunch we continued the Indian theme by going into the garden and reading several stories from the Usborne Illustrated Stories from India, followed by a story of Gilgamesh from An Illustrated Treasury of Myths and Legends (I suggest not for the smallest or most sensitive children because the illustrations can be a bit scary). We talked about similarities with the Greek myths, and my son corrected my pronunciation of ‘Utnapishtim’ having heard it on Greeking Out…
While my daughter was at Beaver Scouts/Tiger Cubs my son and I played a seemingly endless game of WW2 top trumps using these cards.
At tea time I gave the children my patented method for remembering the difference between desert and dessert - you can always have two helpings of dessert. And they decided that tomorrow they want to learn about deserts and the people who live in them.
Short bedtime stories: Superworm and The Blue Balloon.
