September Update

We have officially completed three weeks of homeschooling. Overall, it is going really well. I am grateful I just have three days a week to plan for because the planning is definitely a bit more time consuming than I originally thought. The other good news is that LB is really enjoying the community school he is attending two days a week. They have had great weather and the kids spend ALL DAY outside. It is truly amazing what the staff has done to make outside school a possibility. 

I want to document a few of my favorite memories from the first few weeks.

*On the first day of school, I told him we would be using Khan Academy for a few weeks to review some 4th grade math. He protested and said he didn't need a review. I reminded him that we hadn't done much math all summer so it would be a good idea to review and usually that is what they do at school too. He paused for a minute and then said with a straight face, "You will be hearing from my lawyer." Where does he get this stuff? It's the first day of homeschool and I am already getting sued. It's never dull around here. Thankfully, he pulled back on the lawsuit and was fine with tackling the review units. I am also really glad we did that because he was mostly cruising along and then last week when we got to a long division unit he froze. He was a pro at long division last year but clearly those summer months do create some dust because he needed to be reminded of the steps. Once he got a few problems under his belt he was all set!

*I mentioned in a previous post that each week we are studying a new country. He is picking the countries ahead of time and he is choosing them based on his favorite soccer players. The second week we did Argentina in honor of Leo Messi. One of things I have done is print out maps of all the continents and as he we start a country he colors it in on the map. I handed him the map for South American and he gave me a strange look like I was doing something wrong. He looked at the map and then looked at me in total amazement. He said, "I never knew Argentina was in South America. I always thought it was in Europe. I can't believe Messi had to travel across the ocean to play soccer." Last year he read a biography on Messi so I was glad to see him drawing from information he knew from the book. It was fun to see his shock in learning the correct continent. Here is a picture of his Argentina page. He drew a picture of Messi on the back along with a few facts about him.

*Speaking of the country project, I was really proud of how I was able to work it into several other subjects this past week. We did Brazil (soccer player - Pele). As I was reading some articles about Brazil to get ready for the week, I got the idea to have him learn more about tropical rainforests. Thankfully, one of my favorite websites, Flocabulary, had a lesson on the rainforests. I love Flocabulary. It uses rap to improve vocabulary and teach content knowledge about a variety of subjects, like rainforests. So I was able to use their vocabulary words for the week and we used rainforest words for his weekly spelling list as well. Ezra enjoys watching the rap and he doesn't mind playing the games and doing the quiz because there is still music playing and the beat changes when you get a certain number of questions right. He learned words like ecosystem, species and deforestation. We also played Brazil bingo this week which was fun. The cards had items like soccer, the flag, the sun, carnival, toucans, monkeys, etc. I'm hoping I can do something similar as we move through other countries.

*I really love our routine of walking the dog in the morning before we start school. It is nice to move our bodies a bit and get some fresh air before we start school. I hope we can continue it even when it gets cold. The other day we were walking and saw several deer, which isn't unusual as we see them in our neighborhood pretty frequently, but we saw a buck, which is unusual! LB was super excited. That same morning we were walking behind his old school and saw a huge bird. Initially we thought it was a hawk but now think it was a falcon. There were two of them actually and they seemed to be fighting with the crows. It was quite the event. LB gets excited about seeing new birds and these were huge. We watched them for a long time. I was grateful that we could just take that time to watch the birds. We didn't have to rush anywhere. We could just be. What a gift. Speaking of gifts. If this could happen on November 3rd I wouldn't ask for anything ever again. One of our neighbors has this awesome sign in their yard. We smile every time we walk by. VOTE.