How We Homeschooled Today #64

Breakfast in the garden, biographies, and 50 minutes of work.

(If you’re new here, my daughter is 7 and my son is 5.)

Still in a heatwave. We had grand plans to go to all the museums this week once the schools were back but wouldn’t yet be out on school trips, but it’s so hot that we’re staying at home.

• The children went into the garden first thing, with rucksacks and ‘hiking sticks’ and their breakfast.

• At 9.30 I brought them in for work. Out of interest I timed it. In 40 minutes:

  • My daughter did a spelling and her Jolly Phonics daily page

  • My son traced a little more of Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf

  • We all did French

  • and Ancient Greek

• Then a break for a snack

• For their maths activity today they both chose Khan Academy, with each child doing 10 minutes of good quality work.

• Lots of play, including water pistols with friends in the garden this afternoon/evening.

• And at the hottest part of the day, when we were all a bit listless and tired and grumpy, I read aloud 8 books from the Little People, Big Dreams series, and several pages of the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Our World, a science encyclopedia I borrowed from the library after seeing it recommended in The Well-Trained Mind. Probably slightly too simple for us now but would be a great first science book. We also looked through all the library books we have at the moment and chose a small number to have out over the next few days. Otherwise the quantity is too overwhelming and the books don’t get read.

  

  Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, 1932, by Georgia O’Keefe, who we read about in a Little People, Big Dreams book today.

• Bedtime reading: lots, including Crusaders and Jack Beechwhistle and the Rise of the Hairy Horror.

Tune in tomorrow, to find out how we cope with The Heatwave: Day 3.

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Pen pals

If your child would like a pen pal, leave a comment or send me an e-mail with their age and home country, and I’ll get in touch with a match.

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