Monday, January 9, 2006

Saturday School-- am I mean or what?!

Yup, you saw that correctly...we school on Saturday's!  Am I a meany-mommy or what?!


 


One of the things I LOVE about homeschooling is that we schedule "school" around our life instead of our life around school. 


 


Dh's schedule is different every single week so there is no steady, predictable schedule in our house.  When dh is actually home, we like to spend time with him and enjoy activities around the house (like yardwork or kicking around the soccerball) as well as special outings (like golf or bowling).


 


This situation is not exactly conducive to having lessons 5 or even 4 days a week, especially when you couple that with our precious Chunky-Monkey (1yo) literally climbing all over the house!  So we have lessons every single day we can to make up for the lazy days, sick days, dh-is-home days and any other one-of-those-days that seems to pop up.  And when a true vacation or fun day comes around (read: FIELD TRIP!), we can do it guilt free!!!


 


This past Saturday was a very easy, light day of school. 


 


We practiced our handwriting and art by making thank you cards for the plethora of Christmas gifts the kids got (and I'm sorry for any family members who don't get a card...I can encourage them to write several thank you's but I'm not a miracle worker in getting them to write a dozen!).


 


For science, we planted narcissus and amaryllis bulbs.  One for each kid and they will be keeping track of the progress each day as well as being responsible for the care and watering of these (hopefully) beautiful white flowers!   They were fascinated with the thought of these hard bulbs turning into flowers.  One of them already had roots growing down from the bottom and the shoot growing up (side effect of being bought at 75% off two weeks after Christmas).


 


For geography, we spent some time looking at the map and finding the various places that dh was travelling to over the weekend.  We talked about North and South America and how the closer to the equator you get, the warmer it generally is.


 


We ended with an additional chapter from our read-aloud Dolphin Treasure and looked up information and video clips about dolphins on the National Geographic Kids website.  They made the connection (all on their own) that both dolphins and people are mammals. 


 


I just love these easy light-learning days!  Not only is it real hands-on (as in they will remember) learning for the kids but it fosters a closeness with my children that I truly cherish.  They are little for only so long...it really is like you blink and they grow up...well, at least most days anyway!

8 comments:

TNMOMTO5BLESSINGS said...

You've got a perfect plan.

We don't scholl on Saturdays but we work around dads schedule since we to like to spend time with him.

Be blessed,

Maria

eyecorn said...

As a fellow "mean mom", I had to post a comment! Your Saturday sounds like fun. DD is doing an amaryllis bulb right now...it's almost all the way open (I'll blog a photo). It has been so much fun. I love flowers, but we had never done any type of indoor bulb...we'll certainly do it again. I hope your boys enjoy it as much as my DD does. While you were on Natl. Geographic site, did you see the coloring pages?

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/archive/

You reminded me, we have to get thank you notes done!!!

Have a great day!

Michelle

Beth said...

Thanks for sharing your day! We've had "Saturday school" many times. My hubby's work schedule has been forever changing for years since he's in sales, and so has to meet everyone else's schedules... But now, the lines just blur between "school" and "not school" times so much due to my kids' picking up schoolish things to do so often on their own (reading, writing, etc.) that I don't sweat it too much anymore... ;-)

Thanks for your comment over at my blog. You're such an encouragement, I always love hearing from you.

Janne said...

You mean mommy! We do a lot of Saturday schooling too. :) That's when our field trips are!

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mominpa said...

What a mean mom!! LOL


No, my dh works crazy days too...so we do the same...not Sundays though, I draw the line... Sounds like a great day!!

Col323 said...

Blessed with flexiblity!

Family time is more important than

school time anyway. Kid and dad time

is a top priority in our home. When hubby emerges from

the basement, we stop and spend time with him.

School stuff will be there! :)

RainyDayMichele said...

Funny you should be blogging about Saturday school as my 9 year old just VOLUNTEERED to do school today!! Of course, he had an alterior motive....his ps friends are out of school on Monday and he wants to be out, too. :o) Smart cookie, that one.