Enjoying School

I really like the idea of a routine, but if I'm being completely honest, life just happens at this house, and we do not always function within the routine. For instance, the curriculum that we use for homeschool is set-up for a 5-day school week. Now, you don't have to do it all 5 days, you can set it up however you'd like, but every 5 days things change {memory verses, poems, stories, etc.}. Well, last week we did not have school one day because we had to run some errands, so that meant that we had to finish up Day 5 on Monday this week. The thought of starting Day 1 on Tuesday and always being off on the curriculum each week drove me nuts!! {It's like missing a puzzle piece or only having 25 magnet letters...drives me bananas! I might be a little anal!!} So, I decided we would finish a Davy Crockett Unit Study we had began during the summer.

Jase and Ally were so pumped about continuing this study. It really is a great study and you cover so much in it. We talked about the Pioneer days and what they wore, ate and their weapons. Not only did we learn about Davy Crockett, but talked about his character and traits that we should have as well. We mapped out his life from Tennessee to Washington D.C. to Texas. It is wonderful. And I think at the time it was on sale for $5-6 at this site. Only drawback is that you have to have your computer out to click on the links in the .pdf file and you need to print activities from the file. And the only reason I say drawback about having your computer out, is that I have a 1 year old who is obsessed with cords!! So I either have to run off my battery or fight him over the cord!! Haha! But don't get me wrong, the links in the .pdf are awesome. They provide you with a ton of different websites to gather information for your Unit Study. And video clips as well, and they always nice for the kiddos to watch, to break up some of the table work/reading. I even purchased Disney's Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier DVD from 1955 on Amazon and the kids absolutely love it!! Surprisingly, they will sit through the whole thing!!  

Each unit study she sells is built around your student creating a lapbook. It is basically a folder that stores the different foldables/activities you create during your study that allows you to look back and know exactly what you learned. Below is a picture of the one Jase created for Davy Crockett. And we did not print out even half of the activities to do. 

  

While reading about the Alamo and Davy Crockett's contribution, I continued reading to Jase and the Battle of San Jacinto was mentioned. He learned that at the Battle of San Jacinto is where Sam Houston's troops defeated Santa Anna and the Mexican army, and this paved the way of Texas' independence from Mexico. While talking to him about this, I told him that the Battle of San Jacinto basically happened in our backyard! {I had to explain that analogy a little bit and that it wasn't physically in our backyard, but very close by. He now understands!!} Through this conversation, a light bulb went off in his head and he put two and two together and you could tell that he was understanding. It was really cool to witness! With that said, we picked up Ally from school on Thursday and just had to take a field trip down to the San Jacinto Monument and be on the same ground of the battle!! It started pouring down rain when we pulled up, but we drove around and I read the summary on the all 4 sides of the monument to them and we talked about it. It was a nice unplanned outing and I'm glad we were not in our routine!

After we got back home I asked Ally how school was today and she said it was "perfect." She told me that she didn't cry and had fun! I think she may have cried on Tuesday when another child hit her with a toy. Glad to hear she had a tear free day! And I just love the artwork they bring home from Methodist! So much fun!

I'm glad that we are off to a good start {Pre-k and homeschool} and trusting that the rest of the school year brings many more fun memories.