I was asked this morning about our schooling schedule and curriculum. I eagerly began typing and just as I was getting warmed up, waxing quite poetical on our method of schooling and how well it works for us, in true ironic fashion Marianna burst into tears and I spent the morning reviewing how to Reduce Fractions instead.
That entailed going back to Lesson 16! But you know, I really think she got it this time! She totally missed the section on how to reduce before multiplying or dividing the first go round and working with the ever increasing numbers just stressed her out. Figuring out that it is okay to reduce before even beginning to work the problem flabbergasted her today - "You're kidding! Are you sure it's not cheating?!?" So today we did Math and read "Birches" by Robert Frost. She has also written a chapter by chapter summary of a simple book I had her read for studying Calusa Indians this week and finished a great book on Crustaceans.
Did Spelling happen today? Spanish? Latin?
A Friday Freewrite? Not today, but we hit on each of those things this week. Nature Study I adore, but we rarely actually seem to
sketch in our Notebooks. Do we want to? Yes, both of us talk about it all the time! Just never get around to it as much as we'd like. Marianna even suggested the other day that we stop at a park
every time we go to Key West and sketch something, anything! (we keep our sketchbooks in the car) So I think the desire is there, I guess I just need to apply the brakes!
Nature Study happens all day every day though. The tarpon are back and are they huge! As long as my husband is tall. Little Green Herons must have hatched right before we arrived here, at night they line up in the mangroves alongside our boat. A Barracuda (small - 1ft maybe) likes to hang out right at the edge of the cut into the flats. We see all this as we walk up to the heads here.
There's the non-glamourous part of my day, I suppose! We're constantly trudging up to the shower house for a bathroom break. I estimate it takes 15 minutes minimum and that is without stopping to chat with neighbors, or watch a crab on the wall, or a pelican plunge into the water. Oh my gosh! The other day we rounded the corner in the part of the dock where it is railed and an immature pelican was perched right on the top rail and decided to take off 2 feet in front of us!!! I thought my heart stopped! They are so prehistoric looking, like Pterodactyls . We could feel the wind swoop over us from his wings.
To get back to the question of what we use for school and all, I really try to find things that apply to our life, for instance "school" was put on hold basically in February while Marianna and I were taking
Scuba Lessons, some Math from Saxon was done, but so was a lot of dive table math (which blew my mind for awhile!), lots of reading, we made a few notebook pages and fun games to help with remembering stuff and a
bunch of Science. How your body reacts to pressure, atmospheres above and below water, tides and currents and waves and sea life...and lots of
Art Studies! Last Fall one of our main topics was the State Boater's Safety Course. She passed and can take her own little inflatable out now, once we reinflate it that is! To explore our new location is the topic of school right now. This week is local Indians, next is Pirates, the following is Wreckers! I've found
great field trips for all these topics around town.
So I try to find things that are very applicable to our life and fit the real schooly things around it. We read tons and tons of books, some fast, some slow and thoughtfully, some together as a family, some by herself. I'll ask for a written narration every now and again, but mostly hear a neverending commentary on what she is reading and what she thinks about it. Every single day for years and years now she has written in her diary, one page a day. That is a habit I am so glad I decided was important enough to enforce in the beginning, now she doesn't remember not ever writing in it! I hope she keeps it up forever and ever. It is something I wish I did.
Things we use?
* Saxon Math
* Webster's 1865 Spelling Book
* AVKO Spelling
* Winston Grammar (completed recently)
I cannot think of another thing that is not from the library! Just call us Living Books R Us, I guess!