Week 2 is done!!! It was a full week too at that! It seems like it is always a full week since the whole FUN-SCHOOLING thing started. Fun-school is a term coined by Sarah Janisse Brown the Thinking Tree author who I truly adore. It can look a bit different for every family and this is a week in the life of my kiddos. What does fun-school look like for my kids? Well we do nature science every week. Why? Because the girls love it. They love that time going outside looking at trees. leaves, clouds, bugs and whatever else they come up with. They really like coloring outside as well.
By the time they come in they are pretty relaxed and cheerful and ready to move on to whatever it is that comes next. Even at 12 and 13 they still need to get the wiggles out so to speak. Yes my kids have a say in what they learn to a big degree, yes they have a say on where they do school as well. They may start at the table and end up on the floor! I have been asked before how do you ever expect your kids to know how to act in public and I can honestly say I have never had an issue. My children are kind, loving, respectful and helpful.
Well we had our first week and no one had a nervous breakdown! Yay for that!! We are easing our way in to a full schedule so we didn't hit on everything this week. Hopefully when we do no one has a nervous breakdown! Sadly, Fox was attacked and bitten by a dog Monday evening so his week was very limited. No major damage done just plenty of pain and anger towards a neighbor who knew her dog was aggressive and let it loose anyway.
The girls had a blast using the new Nature Study book by The Thinking Tree. I fell in love with these books almost two years ago and we still use them heavily in our school. I also love Sarah and her thoughts on education for kids! Her ideas are truly wonderful and child led. They have changed everything in our school!
We also started our Author Basket this week for literature. We are studying Shakespeare and some of his plays and such. My goal with this basket is to introduce an author every two months or so to the kids. I found some fun things for this author as well! Magnetic words, paper puppets, coloring book and even mad libs!
I am sure by now anyone who actually reads my blog knows I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE fan of The Thinking Tree. I really enjoy the authors ideas on teaching kids, letting them have some say in their learning and just about every other idea she has offered! She has personally answered a ton of e-mail from me answering questions about everything from learning issues to pet care! She knows my kids names and I just cannot begin to tell you how amazing and hands on she is with her customers. Not too mention her kindness!
So when she shared her latest idea all about baskets I jumped on that! The idea is to take a topic or maybe a subject and make a basket out of it. Now everyone does their own thing. Quite a few people have baskets for every subject. I have chosen to make baskets for a few extras. I plan to blog about them all and this one is The Author Basket. It will change every month or so. Basically when I notice my kiddos being bored with it. We started out with the most amazing play write ever! The Bard himself, Shakespeare!
Now I have always loved Shakespeare. I have always loved books. I truly hope to instill that into my kiddos. I also want them to read many different things not just what they see on the TV. So I collected some Shakespeare items and put together a little basket! Now your baskets can be anything. They can be boxes, baskets whatever you choose. I scored this big blue one at Big Lots after Easter with 90% off it was less than a buck! So win win in my eyes!
