Adventures...: So far

Here are some things I've been learning about school for our family:

1. Lapbooks are time-consuming, both for me and the kids. And, I don't really like having such a long ongoing project. I just want to get it done! Also, I don't think I love the format. Mini books are too small for Z to write well in. And the complicated folds are just more than I want to do. I think in the future, if we do more lapbooks (I already told Z we would do one for Little House in the Big Woods, and L is currently working on an alphabet lapbook), I'm going to adapt them to work for us, and make them much shorter. I do really like the idea of it, and I'm tempted by all the fun free ones out there, but I'm not sure the educational value for my kids is worth it.

2. L wants something to do while I'm working with Z. However, he doesn't always like what I have for him to do. He does pretty well playing on his own, but I think now he's wanting a little more "school" but without any of the directions to follow. Hmm. So I think I need give him a stack of paper and other supplies, and come up with some ideas that he can start with. He does really like to get creative and do his own thing. He makes his own "pop-up" books, which consist of drawings with little pieces of paper glued on. I think I also need to set aside some time for just him when I can read him some books and sit down with him to work on something. During school time that is. So maybe when Z is working on her math, since she's pretty independent with that.

3. I need to slow down a bit, and not worry about getting every history and science book in. We've been working on weather (and doing a weather lapbook, pics coming soon) and I checked out every "Let's Read and Find out about Science" book related to weather. We were also reading "Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane" and looking at our science encyclopedias. These were great books, but I think in the future, I can limit it to two or so.

For History we've finally started The Mystery of History. We skipped the first several chapters because we didn't love how they presented the information. So I guess I'm just now finding out how it will go. But I can already tell that I want to get every good book in! I definitely need to limit it. I've already checked out a bunch of good Egypt books, so I should probably take my own advice and just choose two or three. My plan for notebooking is that for each topic we have a paper printed out with a little picture on it and space for a drawing, where Z can write down some of the things she's learned. From what I've seen so far, and it makes sense, this is just too much for her. Formulating the thoughts to put down is probably enough. If she also has to execute handwriting and figure out spelling, it becomes a big ugly chore. I'm thinking about writing it down for her, but I'm not sure about this yet. I'm resistant to the idea of her history notebook filled with my handwriting. One thing we tried was having her dictate to me, I write it down, then she copies it in her handwriting. So I may keep going with that and see if that works.

I'm sure I'll be learning more and tweaking more in the future. Like, I really want to get some nature hikes in, and we just haven't done it yet. I need to figure out how to do that.