There have been days that I've thought, "I can't believe it's only August" with much hysteria displayed all over my face. Other days are blissfully simple yet productive, meaningful and slow. All is well tonight as Down Home Schoolhouse shuts down for the evening for nighttime Peter Rabbit stories. When the house becomes surprisingly quiet, I'm able to reflect on some of the little moments or words uttered that I don't want to forget.
The history curriculum I'm following is assuredly too advanced for them, but I love it. I thoughtfully chose it because I know how much my husband (and his family) enjoy studying history and I wanted to breed the same appreciation in our kids. This will be a program that I will be able to use for years if we continue to homeschool. Even if we do not, it came with a history game that is actually quite difficult on the high school level. Jordan and I play it and we struggle. It's hard, but it's fun, too. Because it can be daunting to sit a preschooler, kindergartner, and a grade one child down at a table with a two year old running circles around it, I try to make it fun for them in some way. Keep their hands busy with coordinating coloring sheets. Crafts. Dramatic read aloud. Anything to allow them to listen to what I'm talking about that day.
Lately, our efforts have been focused on Ancient Egypt. We've studied pyramids, pondered what we might do if we suddenly woke up back then, had an Egyptian themed feast, decoded hieroglyphics and learned to write our names with ancient pictures, and talked about the Nile River.
In our back yard, we have an area of gravel (unfortunately) and the kids love to play in it. They used to pile up their dump trucks with rocks and dirt and ram them into each other as boys do. Now, it stays pretty leveled out so imagine my surprise when I look out the window and see that Kinley had dug out intricately placed ditches and was then filling them with water, making a muddy mess. I leaned my head out the door with, I'm sure, a look of annoyance as he proudly said, "Look, Mom! I made irrigation ditches just like the Egyptians made around the pyramids!"
I bit my tongue because my whole goal with this was to let the children play, to learn through experience. I didn't want some textbook answer for everything. I loved the real life application and the reminder of the role childhood creativity has when they're not plopped in front of an iPad all day. It has been good.
Just today, we discussed The Great Pyramid of Giza. We took a look at the layout of it all and Abel grinned and said, "Ma, when I die will you bury me in the underground chamber? That's cool." Fights then broke out over where the other kids would be buried. Kinley ended up with the king's chamber and Saylor rightly got the queen's chamber while Merit said, "I'll just be with Jesus." Me, too, pal. Me, too.
We also made Egyptian Armbands which they loved!
Up next is mummies. They're gonna love that, too!
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