Learning by accident

This is what a homeschool house looks like. I had manage to get both the front room and the back room tidy and then I saw the stairs. They were using the broom to "paint" the walls. Not sure why I even bother most days!

We're moving along through grade 1 and some days are better than others. Last week we had a couple of nice experiences. We were at the beach on Monday morning waiting for our other "Beach Moms" to show up for our Monday morning swim and we started to dig a sand castle since the beach was thickly lined with Portuguese Man-O-Wars and the girls were not interested in risking it. While we were digging we found a long thread and as we pulled it out and brushed it off we discovered it was a necklace. So we continued to dig and found a bobby pin and a toothbrush. As a result I was able to remind Hannah what we had learned from our History CD's (Story of the World-Ancient Times, so awesome!!) about archeology and looking for artifacts and what could we tell about who had been here before us. We managed to chat about how the area would need to be marked off into sections so when we come back we know where we left off and where items were found. We also talked about the tools used by archeologists and how careful they had to be with what they found and where. Hands on is when she really makes the connections.

Hannah is also enjoying drawing and writing. She is constantly writing and drawing on everything and I do my best not to think about all the trees that are dying for her art. Seriously we have given her a block of computer paper and said go to town and she is! After listening to "The Greeks" (Story of the World) she started drawing Cyclops. Men Cyclops, women Cyclops, families of Cyclops. Our current favorite movies is Disney's Princess and The Frog, the main character is working hard to open her own restaurant so the other morning Hannah started creating breakfast menus and listing all the possible options we had. I've also taken advantage of the story being set in New Orleans to talk a little bit about jazz music, Hurricane Katrina and American geography. Its amazing what creeps into their little minds when they're not expecting it.