Week 8, Day 1

March 1, 2009

Today begins week 8 of the homeschool journey. I spent a lot time over the weekend reading homeschool blogs and www.mishmashmaggie.com was a God send. Video of their homeschool day was awesome. I got a great idea from this blog on constructing a paper skeletal system. Maggie had video of her and her son putting it together and it just so happens that we are studying the skeletal system as part of our human body unit. We just finished it, and I'll upload a picture shortly. Because JW is so visual and hands-on this was a great project and we had lots of laughs as we were putting it together. It was such a simple idea but remember I'm not very creative so I may have never come up with the idea on my own. Thanks Maggie!

Yesterday we all played Monopoly after church. I sent my husband an email on Friday asking him to stop by our storage unit to get the game because I wanted to play. Now monopoly is one of his favorite games and I would never play with him in the past because I hate it. Well since homeschooling, I realized it is a great teaching tool so now I'm all for it. We had a blast! JW was the banker in addition to playing her own hand. I wanted to grasp her mental math skills. MW (5th grader) had to use her mental math skills as well. I think this game will be a staple in our routine as I want to see their math computation skills increase; not to mention persuasion and negotiation skills are used heavily. It is hard to beat my husband in negotiating real estate. The kids were a little intimidated by our negotiation tactics but they held their own as we tried to make side deals with them for their properties. Of course hubby won but there is always next time.