How We Homeschooled #5

Spider traps, dead mice, and impromptu art history

Quotes of the Week:

N: I know when a weasel is coming to get me.
Me: You do?
N: Yeah, because I have spidey sense.

N: (sees labels being placed in the garden) I want to plant popsicles, too!

N: (explaining his sister babbling) C speaks Spanish sometimes.

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We did stop for Spring Break this week (mostly due to too many breaks at other times; I didn’t want to break our stride), but we did absorb C’s best friend who was on her break from public school.

We started the new 50 states curriculum the kids asked for, and that went very well (except for the literature component, which was delightful to me but a bit above our cohort’s current age level and attention space). Our tea time routine is working rather nicely. The little kids snack first thing in the morning, and we all sit for breakfast around 9 am (second breakfast for my littlest hobbits). These days, we are eating off some lovely china etched with rabbits that I invested in last year, hoping the kids will see their own children eating off them one day and recall joyful childhood memories.

We start with a prayer (currently learning the Hail Holy Queen by singing in Latin and reciting in English), then do a chapter of our read aloud (currently The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary), one Bible story, then work on a memory verse to be recited aloud for Dad at the end of the week prior to the distribution of allowances earned based on chores completed.

In the moment, those memories feel more like the chaos of a warzone than the tranquility I imagine as I plan them. Reflecting back via these weekly reflections serves as a sort of examen in which the joy bubbles up and I can marinate in what went right this week.

So, what went right?

I gave up my garden space inside our fence this year so that now each child has his own garden bed to fill with what he chooses. The kids were very motivated to prepare their beds and plant seeds. I helped by explaining what will grow and how to best plant them.

We left a large metal bowl that we were using to transplant compost out in the garden, and it turned out to be an excellent spider trap. “The spiders are beautiful,” my 3-year-old observed. We examined the spiders at length and had a good conversation about friction before releasing them onto the kale plants that overwintered, having agreed that, as no one likes kale, the spiders are likely to live out their days undisturbed in that corner.

Another garden surprise was the discovery of a dead mouse next to the fence. After a thorough examination, we determined that the cause of death was likely poison or illness, as there were no signs of a violent struggle. We debated the merits of dissection, but ultimately decided that Fred, now so named, should be given a proper burial. He was laid to rest near a large pile of gravel, and there he will remain until curiosity overcomes my 8-year-old and she unearths him to discover how his decomposition is coming along.

Our nature adventure this week was a series of happy misadventures. The family we planned to meet was ill, and our location turned out to be reservation-only as the sign near the locked gate indicated when we arrived. Thankfully, my husband had been able to take the lunch hour to join us, and we enjoyed munching on a picnic of tortilla chips and water and we watched our kids dig in the sand, build forts with fallen branches, and attempt their own petroglyphs with bits of ashen wood they found nearby. The toddler filled his pockets with “my collection,” and now my dryer vent is filled with shells.

Art did not go as planned Friday morning. The children revolted at my suggestion to copy a famous painting. The littles instead chose to create dot marker originals, the 5-year-old coloring in an old pencil sketch and adding what he tells me are rivers of blood. Note to self: audit content of “Saturday morning video games with Dad.”

C, my eldest, did not want to work on a project at all. Instead, we flipped through the art encyclopedia together, naming different periods of art (is that what you call it? periods? schools?) and choosing our favorites to read a bit more. I discovered that I am an impressionist fan (does one capitalize “impressionist”?), preferring Monet and Degas, while my daughter favored the neoclassical styles. Had a great discussion of the etymology of “neoclassical.”

We moved onto gameschooling, the next block of our “Fun Friday” schedule. C and I played through the entire deck of Professor Noggin’s US Geography trivia and she triumphed, beating me by half (though it should be mentioned that she played the level one and was the recipient of copious hints and had the use of a map at her disposal). She then wanted to challenge herself on completing the USA map magnet puzzle without the picture this week, and then took it all apart and asked me to time her. She plans to beat her 8-minute record next week.

We read a bit of a picture book on ponds from the “One Small Square” series. The children each took a rotation on my lap or snuggling close, flitting back and forth between looking at the book’s pictures and building a giant fort of couch cushions in the living room.

The day concluded with the America’s National Parks episode on Yosemite which has the kids surprisingly engaged when compared with other nature series. They are already planning an RV trip so they can climb a giant sequoia.