Dragons: A Day in Our Homeschool

Today was definitely one of our most enjoyable days of homeschooling so far. I feel that I'm getting a better understanding of the kids' learning styles and needs as the days go by, and figuring out how to best tailor our schooling to fit our family.

AJ's being in such a drastically better frame of mind the last few days has made a huge difference for the whole household. With Baby E still feeling better too, and M&M so enthusiastic about learning, today was our ideal typical school day.

#############

Yesterday was officially the first day of our Asia study, but since we had the appointment with the therapist we didn't do much. We did Bible and math in the morning and then my mom and sister read with the kids (or supervised the kids reading) a book or two about China while we were at the appointment. We've had a large collection of library books about China sitting around for several days. The kids have mostly just been picking them up to read on their own.

Each day this week we'll study various animals, historical figures or missionaries relating to China, as well as continuing to learn about the geography and culture in general. At least one day we'll spend time learning about the Great Wall of China.

This morning after breakfast and morning routines, I read a Bible story to all three kids while they colored. We're currently reading through the life of Abraham, so the kids have been working a bit each morning on coloring a scene from Abraham's life. After the story, we worked on the kids' AWANA verses for a few minutes. Bible usually takes us between 5 and 15 minutes, but sometimes the kids talk me into reading more than one story and it takes longer.

Then Baby E entertained herself (mostly playing with water in the bathroom) while I spent a few minutes helping the big girls with math. The goal is for them each to spend about 15 minutes a day on math, but since I can only help one of them at a time it usually takes a bit longer. M&M often begs to do more than one day's worth, but I try not to let them work for more than 20-30 minutes on math even if they want to. I don't want them to get burned out on desk time or writing before we've done two subjects. :)

AJ had been dragging or complaining, especially about the writing part, so I was letting her do more of it orally or just picking a few problems from each set to have her do. The last couple of days, though, she's been much more interested in and enthusiastic about doing her workbook and seems to be having an easier time with it.

After math the kids decided they would rather color than play outside in the wet weather. I let them relax for a few minutes, and then while they continued coloring I gave them a brief introduction to Asia and China.

We briefly discussed some basic facts about China, including its poulation density, the long history of its culture, and the large variety of climates, geography and altitudes in the country. We found China on the map and compared its size to some of the nearby countries. I showed them how to write the name of the capital city, Beijing. They thought that was hilarious, for some reason.

Then I let the kids take a break while I prepared a snack. Today I cut up a Dragon Fruit. We love trying unusual new foods, especially fruits and vegetables. That bright red and green fruit calling to me from the grocery store display had been too interesting-looking to resist on my last shopping trip.

It was as enticing inside as it was outside: bright magenta, with little black seeds. It didn't taste bad, either--a bit bland, but slightly sweet. The texture reminded me of something between an avocado and a kiwi fruit, and it had an almost melony tropical taste.

As we were eating the dragon fruit and guessing how it got its name, AJ said, "Hey, I'll bet this fruit is from China! Dragons are very important to the Chinese. They believe they are real and that they bring good luck. Dragons are a big part of Chinese culture. I'll bet they would LOVE this fruit."

It wasn't quite what I had in mind for the day, but we simply had to look up the fruit and find out if it grew in China. We read about the fruit on the laptop while Baby E nursed.

Sure enough, Southern China is one of the places dragon fruit grows. So we spent some time reading about dragon fruit, finding pictures of the various varieties and learning how it grows. We even found out how it got its name (it looks like a dragon when growing on the plant). Then AJ and M&M drew pictures of the dragon fruit and wrote sentences about it while Baby E played with blocks and looked at books.





The dragon fruit projects went into their three-ring notebooks along with the printouts of the Asia and China maps we'll be using and making notes on for this unit.

For lunch, we had egg salad sandwiches with dill and dandelion greens. (OK, I was the only one who actually ate the dandelion greens, but they were good on my sandwich.)*

While we ate, AJ informed us all that Chinese people eat a lot of eggs and that some Chinese people keep chickens. M&M said that since many Chinese people eat a lot of rice, she thought Baby E would have done well if she was born in China. We discussed ideas for what foods we might want to cook when we make a Chinese meal at the end of our China study, and decided to pay attention to what other foods are mentioned in the books we read about China.

I let the kids play for a few minutes again after lunch, and then we all snuggled up together on the couch to read. Each of the three girls picked out a book for us to read. M&M read aloud the book (My First Chinese New Year) that Baby E picked, AJ read a picture book (In the Snow) about Chinese writing that M&M picked, and I read the book (A Child's Day in a Chinese City) that AJ chose. Between the three books we ended up briefly discussing Chinese food, culture, religion, and language. We even touched on the government and the one-child policy.

The girls were especially fascinated by the Chinese calligraphy and Mandarin pronunciation of various words. They decided that they wanted to try writing in Chinese themselves. On their own, just for fun, they spent some time practicing writing Chinese figures and labeling them with the English translations while Baby E nursed again.

Normally school might have been over for the day by that point. But since we needed to take last week's geography and explorer books back to the library, we ended up discussing and reviewing them while we gathered them together.

They remembered such great stuff that I realized I should be writing some of this down. So I got a pen and paper and had each of the girls pick one of the explorers they studied and tell me what they remembered learning. With just a few questions to jog their memory, both girls remembered great details about their favorite explorers. I wrote them down, then we looked over the papers and made a few minor revisions to the organization and wording. Each girl ended up with a great little page to add to her notebook.

I sent the girls to play for a while, trying to encourage them to do something active. They did go outside momentarily, but came back in when it started hailing.

Then it was time for quiet time. The girls are allowed to play, read or do whatever they like as long as they are quiet and in their designated rooms during quiet time. Lately they've been reading books from several series--their recent favorites being The Boxcar Children, the Three Cousins Detective Club, and the Magic Attic series.

Today AJ chose a chapter book about a Chinese child (Little Pear) and a book about science experiments. M&M took along a book about China and Two Hundred Pennies (a fabulous OOP book by Catherine Wooley about a little boy saving his money to buy a model train). Baby E read books in bed for a while and then came to find me and nursed to sleep.

A few minutes ago I told the girls that their hour of quiet time was up. They merely switched to reading different books in different rooms when told it was time to get up. :)

As soon as I hit post I'll go down and cut up a cucumber from the garden for a snack, then start working on dinner. The leg of lamb in the crock pot should be just about done; I just have to decide what to serve with it. I think I'll do something with cauliflower and potatoes (two family favorites), and serve green peas and/or some sauteed leafy green garden vegetables on the side.

DH will get home from work right around dinner time. He usually plays with the girls while I finish getting food on the table. Then we'll all eat dinner together. If there's time we might all play a game afterwards, or just let the kids play while we clean up the kitchen or whatever. Then it will be time for the bedtime routine--chores, baths, stories, devotions, etc.

Last night DH took Baby E out for her turn at a "date" with Daddy. AJ and M&M thought about having me take them out somewhere, but then decided that they wanted me to play a game with them at home (they're really loving Apples to Apples Junior the last few days) and have a pretend ballet dance (complete with beautiful dresses and tiaras) before bed.

And that's what our life looks like on one of the gloriously normal days. :)

[Edited to add: When DH got home, all three girls couldn't wait to tell him what a great day we had. Even AJ agreed that "school was really good today," and M&M pronounced it "so, so much fun!"]


* We discussed it and decided that it would be best to stick to just eliminating dairy products for 6 weeks, as the doctor recommended. If in a few weeks it seems indicated to try something else like eliminating wheat or gluten, we'll discuss that with the doctor.

We won't, of course, force AJ to eat bread if she doesn't want to. She only made a one-time comment that she thought bread was hurting her tummy and hasn't mentioned it again. There are always plenty of gluten-free options in the house, but we're not going to attempt a strict gluten-free trial at this time. AJ was fine with the suggestion of not going gluten-free right now and has been eating bread happily today.