How We Homeschooled Today #75
More Yellowstone, more audiobooks, and the invention of millions and billions
(My children are 5 and 7.)
The colds are still with us so it’s been another quiet day. This morning we all read in bed (The Wild Robot, Henry and Ribsy, and Middlemarch for me). Later there were more audiobooks (Rainforests and Animal Kingdom), and more Yellowstone. My son asked if it is autumn all around the world so we talked about why it isn’t.
This afternoon we went to a park with an autumn picnic (hot chocolate and cake), and the children played in the fresh air for 2 hours while I read more Middlemarch. On the way there and back we did some very cursory nature study, identifying trees from fallen leaves and fruit. Back at home, my daughter made some ‘Ninja scrolls’ to put in her new Ninjago box that we made out of a Lego magazine, which involved lots of tiny neat handwriting and spelling (not that I mentioned this to her).
At teatime I read another favourite Little House chapter—the one where Mr Scott nearly suffocates while digging the well. We talked about why this was possible, how the candle showed whether or not it was safe, and what gases might have collected at the bottom of the well. Then my son asked if Laura and Mary’s family knew about numbers, so we talked about the invention of maths and how it was initially used for keeping track of tax and trade—counting stuff. Then he asked if they knew about numbers like a billion, so we talked about how the earliest mathematicians wouldn’t have needed millions and billions, and I looked up when these terms date from. I said that ‘a million’ had been around in English since the 14th century, which led on to a discussion of why the 14th century refers to the 1300s. All in all I felt it was a fairly educational tea!
Bedtime reading: See Inside Oceans, Ribsy, The Wild Robot.
I might take a break from the daily post tomorrow. If you don’t hear from me, you can assume we’re all still sneezing.
Pen Pal Exchange
If your child would like a pen pal, leave a comment or e-mail me with their age and home country. I’ve had a specific request for a child aged about 8, from a Christian family outside the UK. If you fit the bill I’d love to hear from you!
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I’m really enjoying your notes! Am trying to do the same of documenting our homeschool days. Weird but I’m about to start on Middlemarch too! It’s next after my current book. And we are also on a slow recovery of respiratory issues (covid in our case). Lots of coincidences!