Summer session - week 1

This week did not go quite as planned. But then again, I suppose that is the point. I did say "it's summer," right? LOL! Randy was away on the Dominican Republic mission trip until Friday. On the one hand, it was nice having the added structure to our days to a) keep us busy and b) keep the boys from completely driving me crazy. They were much better behaved on the days we had school.

We started off reading our chemistry lesson on Monday. Jimmy & Caleb loved the pictures & can't wait until we can read the next lesson. I posted our very first vocabulary words on brand new cork board (which I am also using to post our morning schedule - brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, exercise, do chores, have school, have lunch, then naps). Our first vocab words are atoms, molecules, and observations. Way cool, huh? Jimmy even gives definitions in his own words, which somewhat mangle the real definition but show that he is learning. Atoms, for example are "the things that gives things their taste." =)

On Tuesday, we had our chemistry experiment. We had three different objects to observe. (Back to the vocab words!) First, we thought about the objects before looking at them. I kept each object hidden until we were finished with this step. Jimmy described them using words (which Mommy Secretary recorded for him) & drew a picture from memory. Then I brought out the object. He compared his memory descriptions & drawing to the real thing. I recorded any new observations & he drew a new picture while looking at it. Jimmy & Caleb got to use toy magnifying glasses for the observe step, which I think was their favorite part. They used those magnifying glasses throughout the rest of the week, too! Our three objects were 1) a Scotch tape dispenser, 2) Cheerios, and 3) Jimmy's harmonica.

The rest of the week gets rather fuzzy. We reviewed the catechism Q&A on Wednesday, read the catechism story & reviewed the Q&A on Thursday, and spent Friday (the time driving loops around the airport waiting for Randy) reviewing the Q&A. I also spent that airport loop driving going over some of the history lesson I had planned, but I didn't really get past creation. The catechism story discussed a little about evolution vs. creationism, which made a great starting point. So instead of talking about creation, the first sin, & the flood, we really kind of stuck with creation vs. evolution. I explained that some people don't believe the Bible & that therefore there are people who believe that God did not create the world. We had a good opportunity to talk about that with a book about dinosaurs that talked about them being extinct millions of years before humans lived. It was a very good discussion, so I'm ok with being off track with this. We'll make it up next week. Really, the main goal I have for the summer is to plot these events on a timeline, which can be done rather quickly. (And, it should be noted, cannot be done in the car while driving around Newark airport.)

All in all, it was a good week. I'm glad that we have our morning schedule to help us get into a comfortable routine (definitely see better behavior from the boys when we stick to the schedule), but I'm also glad that we're not sticking to it when it doesn't make sense.