Saturday School-- am I mean or what?!

Yup, you saw that correctly...we school on Saturday's!  Am I a meany-mommy or what?!

 

One of the things I LOVE about homeschooling is that we schedule "school" around our life instead of our life around school. 

 

Dh's schedule is different every single week so there is no steady, predictable schedule in our house.  When dh is actually home, we like to spend time with him and enjoy activities around the house (like yardwork or kicking around the soccerball) as well as special outings (like golf or bowling).

 

This situation is not exactly conducive to having lessons 5 or even 4 days a week, especially when you couple that with our precious Chunky-Monkey (1yo) literally climbing all over the house!  So we have lessons every single day we can to make up for the lazy days, sick days, dh-is-home days and any other one-of-those-days that seems to pop up.  And when a true vacation or fun day comes around (read: FIELD TRIP!), we can do it guilt free!!!

 

This past Saturday was a very easy, light day of school. 

 

We practiced our handwriting and art by making thank you cards for the plethora of Christmas gifts the kids got (and I'm sorry for any family members who don't get a card...I can encourage them to write several thank you's but I'm not a miracle worker in getting them to write a dozen!).

 

For science, we planted narcissus and amaryllis bulbs.  One for each kid and they will be keeping track of the progress each day as well as being responsible for the care and watering of these (hopefully) beautiful white flowers!   They were fascinated with the thought of these hard bulbs turning into flowers.  One of them already had roots growing down from the bottom and the shoot growing up (side effect of being bought at 75% off two weeks after Christmas).

 

For geography, we spent some time looking at the map and finding the various places that dh was travelling to over the weekend.  We talked about North and South America and how the closer to the equator you get, the warmer it generally is.

 

We ended with an additional chapter from our read-aloud Dolphin Treasure and looked up information and video clips about dolphins on the National Geographic Kids website.  They made the connection (all on their own) that both dolphins and people are mammals. 

 

I just love these easy light-learning days!  Not only is it real hands-on (as in they will remember) learning for the kids but it fosters a closeness with my children that I truly cherish.  They are little for only so long...it really is like you blink and they grow up...well, at least most days anyway!