How we homeschooled today #34
Reptiles, space, living in a barrel
Yesterday my son bought a set of toy reptiles, so last night I wrote some characteristics of reptiles on the blackboard. Today the children read them, and I read aloud some more detail from The Natural History Book. We also matched up his toys with photographs of the real thing in the book. I showed them photos from the latest National Geographic of endangered reptiles that are hunted and killed for meat.
We read about Alexander the Great from a recent Classical Wisdom Kids post, and found NW India on the map (the furthest extent of his empire). The children liked hearing about Diogenes, a philosopher admired by Alexander, who lived in a barrel.
Diogenes in his barrel A page each from our Jolly Phonics workbooks, and Multiplication by Heart.
Independent reading (especially Norse Myths, which my son has read from cover to cover and started all over again.)
My daughter and I read some pages from a science magazine, Whizz Pop Bang. I bought the space issue as a one-off just to give it a try.
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We talked about the longest day, and I told them the hours of daylight today compared to 21st December (16h38 and 7h49!). We made a sort-of sundial using a stick and some chalk on the patio, adding a new chalk line every hour. (This was extremely easy and a really good way to see how shadows fall differently as the day progresses.)
Greeking Out podcast and Stig of the Dump audiobook
My daughter went to Beavers/Tiger Cubs. My son spent ages looking at this cube book about space (which belongs to his sister so he was taking the opportunity while she was out of the house!). We played in the garden and played with some geometric shapes (if we didn’t already have a different set I’d use these).
Bedtime stories: The Cat in the Hat, Cats Ahoy, and The Adventures of Spider: West African Folktales.
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