Homeschooling is such a blessing. Each day I take so many opportunities to help Ian learn, grow and play. I think there is so much more to school than just sitting at a tdesk doing book work, although for us workbooks are part of our schooling. However schooling for us also includes cooking meals and working with recipes, clearing garden beds and planting seedlings, caring for our dogs, and remembering to play, a lot. Also since we moved three times in the past year, it was easy to make education a simple part of everyday life.
Imaginative play is one of the most fun parts of our day. We go on challenging aventures, where we meet mysterious peopl, battles dragons, fend of sea monsters, and rule the kingdom with fairness and kindness. You can see the kids at ACE had a blast creating their very own Chinese dragon using muslin and markers on the day we talked about the Chinese New Year Celebration. Above you can see all of use sporting the "Olympic" medals we "won" after learning about the winter olympics that were in progress at the time.
As part of our schooling Ian is involved with a variety of outside activities that range depending on the season and his interests. Currently we meet once a week with other at ACE (Athens Cooperative Education) which right now is comprised of a loosely planned activity based on a topic and lots of outdoor play. He also particpates in a fantastic class at the Georgia Botanical Garden called Garden Earth Naturalist Club where he has had the chance to disect owl pellets (see image --->) and make his own personal worm bin.
Right now soccer season is getting going and he's excited about the first game which is tonight. He's glad to play soccer although in all honesty, sometimes things get away from me and I wasn't in time to sign him up for little league this year. It's lucky for me he is such a "go with the flow" sort of kid.
This year we aslo joined a local chapter of the Earth Scouts which is a group based on the principles of the Earth Charter signed by over 80 countries focusing on human rights, the environment, local economies and other important issues of our time. We've been to the local recycling center, created butterflies to add to an exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art which remembers the children from the holocaust, did projects from reclaimed materials, planted seeds to grow a little garden, visited a local alpaca farm, among other things.
Last week he participated in his first big homeschool event last week. Here in Athens there is an event called the Omni Fair which offers homeschoolers the chance to share what they have been learning about or what they are interested in. Ian created a diarama using all of the dinosaurs from his collection. He designed the diasplay and gave me precise instructions about how he wanted it to look.
All in all we've been having a blast this year with or schooling and I just thought I would take a minute and share that with ya'll. So, here's to you for whatever works for your family, whichever methods help your child/children succeed, it's all good.
