How we homeschooled today #41

Beavers, ketchup, hundreds of snails

• My son did some work in his Jolly Phonics book. He found writing ‘s’ really tricky, so I made him a big S (filling a whole page) to draw over and over again. His sister liked the idea and asked for a Z for herself.

• A few weeks ago I started a reading record with my son. My daughter was hugely resistant but this morning she decided she wanted one too. She began retelling a Norse myth to me, in huge detail. After scribing five pages for her but only getting half way through the story we decided to take a break!

• We watched a video/webcam of beavers that have been reintroduced at a National Trust site, and talked about the similarities between reintroducing wolves at Yellowstone and beavers in the UK.

• We got out the height chart and measured them both, and compared their heights to the length of a beaver.

• They played an imaginary game while I got lunch ready.

• Before we ate we did Multiplication by Heart, which was a large number of cards today, and I read aloud from our Encyclopedia of World History about the Vikings. (We are slowly transitioning from a focus on the ancient world to the Middle Ages, as per The Well-Trained Mind.)

  

• At lunch my daughter asked why Heinz tomato ketchup says ‘grown not made’, and I said it was because they wanted customers to focus on the fresh natural tomatoes and not the huge industrial processes. We watched a video showing the ketchup-production process which we all found fascinating. It was so good we watched it again at teatime, as well as this one which gives more information. Did you know that Heinz ketchup has a maximum speed of 0.028 mph?

• After TV I remembered to instigate quiet time (I also reminded them before TV that we would be doing quiet time afterwards). They managed half an hour and I read two chapters of my new book! Imagine my delight!

• Kapla planks, Lego and an imaginary game.

• My daughter wanted to do some maths on Khan Academy, but it turned out that 4pm isn’t a great time for maths. Instead she had a look at the space videos, which are designed for Middle School children but were just about accessible with some explanations from me.

• Both children helped me make pizza dough.

• Lots of playing in the garden with friends and collecting literally hundreds of snails that had come out in the rain. This was revolting.

• Bedtime stories: Pokemon annual. (URGH)

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