Benefits

The weather in our neck of the woods has been a bit frosty this week. Local schools had no classes Tuesday, delays on Wednesday and what will potentially turn into some sort of change of schedule tomorrow as well. Add in the day off on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and it was a less than productive week for most students.

We followed our normal school schedule for the week. Weather plays very little role in our homeschooling days. In fact, we didn't even bother to clear our iced-over driveway until 2 days after the wintry mix had fallen. We had nowhere to go! I can't say how many times I find myself thinking how thankful I am that we school at home and my husband works from home. It just makes life so much less hectic. No need to get up super early on a day with miserable weather to try and clear the driveway just in case the school day is not canceled. No need to stand at a freezing cold bus stop and face the elements. It just feels like the perfect life to me. AND we can do things like this....


A couple weeks ago I was pouring a bit of apple juice for myself. I saw a strange blob-like thing slide into my glass. " How gross!" I thought. Then I ran to get the camera. After taking my 'before' picture, I pulled out a petri dish. (EVERYONE keeps a petri dish lying around for just such a situation, right?) We gave the blob a little more of the no longer appetizing apple juice and put it aside to see what we could grow.



We ended up with a lovely, fuzzy friend. On Tuesday, the boys and I took samples off the original yellowish substance and also some of the fuzzy part. We made microscope slides with our samples and compared the two. Then the boys each wrote out descriptions of the original appearance versus the current appearance. They made drawings of what they saw through the microscope. JT wrote a summary explaining why he thought the two substances were the same and what he thought about their structure. It was a wonderful learning experience. A lovely, unplanned experience that had nothing to do with our current science curriculum. In fact, I'm finding myself straying from our 'plan' more often these days. When learning opportunities arrive, we take them. Some days I worry that this unstructured lifestyle will backfire. That the boys will get to college and have no clue how to study, how to take notes, how to survive. Then I see something like this...

EM received Volume 1 of Cats 101 DVD for Christmas. He has expressed a desire to be a veterinarian when he grows up, so this show is right up his alley. Each episode covers several breeds of cat. After a bit of video on a specific breed, they summarize some of their traits, good and bad. Bullet points are given. I heard the boys watching the show and EM would shout, "JT, get ready...here they come!" I was curious, so I went to see what was up. JT with pencil ready was waiting for those bullet points. When they would come on the TV screen, EM would pause the show so JT could copy them down. They were making a chart to compare the breeds to decide which would make the best pets.

I guess I have no reason to worry about their future study skills.