So not only is there a name for this haphazard way of learning we have around here; we are not the only ones doing things this way.  See?

From 9-3 everyday this past week Sister’s been at horse camp.

The instructors were great. 

The facility was top notch.

The horses had the best dispositions. 

She had a blast.

Throughout the week the campers not only had a chance to ride but they also learned about all sorts of “horse-y” things (parts of horse, types of bits, names of equipment, how to groom a horse, etc.)

Today the girls put on a little show for the parents.  Besides being the youngest, Sister was the only one who hadn’t taken any lessons before camp started.  I was really proud of how hard she worked to catch up.

( I’m not that great with the video setting on my camera but you get the idea.)

Remember this board game by Parker Brothers?

It clearly states on the box “Ages 8+” and yet the board and the little people and the little weapons (especially the little weapons) have fascinated Brother for the couple of years now.  He’s five.  About once every couple of weeks or so he pulls out the board and the people and the weapons and wants to play a round.  Unfortunately, although he is older and can read a little, he is no more ready now to play the actual game with the actual rules than he was at age three when this obsession started.   Sooo, we made up new rules.  Our version has nothing to do with who-done-it but it does use the critical pieces (the weapons).  Here’s how we play.

*Lay out the board with the people in their proper places

*Have the children place the weapons in whatever rooms they like.  One weapon per room.

*Have each player choose the character they’d like to be. (This character’s location will also be their starting point.)

*Remove the character cards from the deck and deal out (face up) the remaining cards making sure that in the end everyone has the same total number of cards. (Any odd cards may be returned to the box.)

*Roll the dice to determine order of play.  Highest # goes first.

*The goal of this new game is to advance your playing piece to every location in your hand by rolling the dice.  The first player to do so is the winner.

A Few Notes:

*Because you want to travel by the most efficient path possible (and it make the goal clearer for  little ones) it is a good idea to arrange your cards (or help little ones arrange theirs) in the order you wish to proceed before play begins.

*After you visit a location or pick up a weapon turn that card over so you (and the other players) will know how close you are to finishing.

*You may only turn over one card per turn.

*If you roll more than you need to enter a room but you enter the room anyway, you forfeit the extra spaces.

*It takes two turns to use a secret passage. One turn to enter a corner room and the next turn to use the passage. Even so, this is sometimes a great way to get to the opposite side of the board.

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Here is a sample hand dealt to Professor Plum:

Since his starting point is next to the Study and the Library it makes the most sense for him to go one of those two places first.

After he visits the Library and the Study, Plum will make his way across the board to the Lounge to pick up the Candlestick. He could, if he wanted to, go through the Hall to get there but it would cost him an extra turn to do so since he cannot enter and exit a room on the same turn.

Finally, in this sample Professor Plum must pick up the Rope and visit the Dining Room but by a strange quirk of fate the Rope is IN the Dining Room.  It will take three turns for our poor Professor to accomplish his tasks. He must enter the Dining Room (turn over that card), exit the Dining Room, and then enter the Dining Room again to pick up the rope (turn over that card).

At this point Professor Plum has completed the round and if he did it before anyone else he is the winner.

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This makes for a much simplified game that most ages can play.  Also, it’s good for short attention spans (mothers and children) because it only lasts about 10 minutes while a typical Clue round is much longer.

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Inspired by this homeschooling mama and encouraged by all the fun they had here, the children and I embarked on a Peeps science adventure

We started by using our senses to simply observe:

Look

Smell

Listen

Taste

and, of course, Touch.

The children recorded the observations in their science journals

Then came the real fun.  What happens if you put a Peep in the sunlight?

  Not much.

What happens if you put a Peep in the oven?

A little bit more.

What happens if you put a Peep in the microwave?

  Awesomeness!

We did other stuff too but after the microwave everything else pretty much fell short on the cool-o-meter.

“Hey kids!  Let’s have a scavenger hunt!”

“Yea!”, “I love scavenger hunts!”

“This is going to be a measuring scavenger hunt.  Okay?”

“Okay”, “Cool”

So I handed them a sheet with the following and gave a little basic instruction on what they were looking for.

FIND SOMETHING THAT IS:

1 - 3 INCHES _____________________

5 - 10 INCHES _____________________

10 - 15 INCHES _____________________

15 - 20 INCHES _____________________

20 - 30 INCHES _____________________

30 - 40 INCHES _____________________

40 - 50 INCHES _____________________

50 - 60 INCHES _____________________

She was to write in what they found and he was to take a picture.  They were over halfway finished and all was going well until he decided to be a typical boy and swing the camera like a lasso over his head and she decided to react like a typical big sister and tell him to stop.  It pretty much deteriorated from there.

Still, I maintain that in some ideal world this could work.

*updated to add a couple of pictures that survived the carnage

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Here is Brother dutifully completing a phonics worksheet.

Here is said worksheet. Not sure what the random gunman at the top has to do with the letter “B” but there you have it.

Each Wednesday, Grandma and Papa bring my niece for an afternoon of play.  The kids do well enough together on their own but today I thought it might be fun to have a project.  Brother’s been learning about cave dwellers and our art book has a great picture of the Lascaux cave paintings.  A quick search turned up this fun art project.

First the making of the mud … I mean, paint.  We collected the dirt ourselves but left the lard making to Crisco.  I’ve been down that road before and it ain’t pretty.

See all those bowls?  You can never have too many shades of brown.

We hung open paper bags in a little alcove outside my front door then had the kids go into their “cave” and start painting.  Technically speaking letting them paint directly on the brick would have been more realistic but the Lascaux paintings have been there for hundreds of years and I wasn’t sure I wanted muddy drawings on my alcove for that long.

Ultimately this experience taught us that although cave paintings may look primitive anyone who can get mud to look like anything other than mud is one heck of an artist.

Lego Attack by Brother

Rock Monster Attack by Sister

Why is stop motion animation so violent?  Peace, Lego people, peace.

Last time we opened boxes from Sonlight I was overwhelmed to say the least.  It seemed like so, so much to cover.  This time Brother joined the ranks of little people to be educated and there arrived even more.  That overwhelmed feeling started to creep in but I reminded myself ~ we don’t have to do it all.  So, like before we’ll take what works, toss what doesn’t and use the tools on our schedule.

It may be worth noting here that last time “our schedule” meant we took a year and a half to complete 9 months of curriculum.  Though in our defense I’ll add that we moved and had a baby during that time.  Ah, c’est la vie.

*This post backdated for chronological reasons.