"Rocking," they say? Dilara said, "He's dancing because he is happy!" I think she is right!--Lydia | |
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http://www.raisinglifelonglearners.com/4-simple-ways-to-fit-science-into-your-day-2/
"When we separate all of our curriculum out into isolated subjects, we lose one of the biggest advantages that homeschooling gives us. We lose the chance to show our children that learning is everywhere and that it’s interconnected." On Saturday, Dilara's dad took her to a special event! That is a rare treat for her! Usually her dad does soccer league, supper, Chick-fil-a, and Saturday breakfast. I always get so excited and really brag on him when he does something unusual like he did this past weekend. He has taken her to the zoo, to the Aquarium restaurant, and I'm not sure what else. Dilara told me she wrote a beautiful "A" with a real quill pen! I need to buy her one of her own and make pokeberry ink someday! She also said she saw guns and Indian stuff. Here is a video from the event a couple of years ago: I took Dilara to a Halloween Party last night. She was Rainbow Dash, I was Boudica. We invited Ciara from her school, and it was fun.
Dilara's dad just bought an Adventure Science Center Premium membership, which included 1 guest per visit, which will make it really nice since Dilara's older sister and brother don't enjoy spending hours doing the same things Dilara does. We almost went to the ASC today, but we did other things instead. She had her last soccer game today, and her Dad took her to that, and then to the pizza party. I went there to pick her up. We went by the Warner Parks Nature Center afterwards. I felt quite ill today, but It was beautiful outside, and I had to get out anyway to pick up paw paw seeds that a lady who works for Warner Parks saved for me. I missed the email she sent me last month saying that they were ready for me, and since Dilara has been in school and we don't spend 2 days a week on the other side of town (where her Dad lives), we haven't been there in a while. Today we got paw paw seeds, and dogwood seeds and we got some persimmon seeds a little while back. We will experiment and see what happens. When we went to the Music and Molasses Festival last week, we were offered Tulip Poplar seedlings that the Master Gardeners were giving away, but I declined. I am trying to focus more on edible landscaping. We still want some more fruit trees. Dilara has been asking for a cherry tree for 2 years. I'd also like an apple tree. Our 3 in 1 Pear Tree is doing well, I think, but I think I picked the pears too late this year...they had that kind of grainy texture, but we are learning a little every year. We will spend a lot of time this winter (more if she is homeschooled, less time will be available if she is still in public school), planning out yard and garden projects for next year and working through a course on permaculture. We never got our rain barrels set up this past year like I wanted to. We need to make a level, raised platform for them to sit on. When we were at Warner Parks, we checked in on their organic garden. We need to be putting our garden to bed soon. The fish ponds were grown over with vegetation. It is interesting to notice how different it looks at different times of the year. I pushed myself to go on the "storywalk" with Dilara on the short trail they have for kids. Then we went to the outside play area that we rarely visit, because it is usually too sunny. It was perfectly shaded around 3 in the afternoon today. They had a huge pile of dirt that some kids had dug a hole in and were pouring water the hole and calling it a "volcano". Dilara slipped and got muddy when she climbed up it to pour water in. After I got the mud washed off her, we went into the Nature Center and she worked on puzzles. The puzzle drawer was quite a jumble, but she did a good job of putting it in better order. After we got home, I noticed some pokeberries an told her we should make some ink soon. Before I knew it, she had picked a handful of berries and juice was oozing from around her fingers. I didn't feel like starting a messy project, but I gave her a tea strainer, a spoon, and a jar so she could mash the berries without staining her hands. I knew she would be interested in ink, since she was so interested in writing with a feather quill pen last weekend and the Tennessee History Festival with her Dad. She is working on some art at the moment. She found a gray crayon called "timberwolf" on the ground at the park. She commented on how it was a compound word, and she wants to draw a picture of a wolf in the forest. Even when I am sick, I expose Dilara to a lot of rich learning experiences. I told her Dad that I do more with her when I am sick than he does on a regular day. We always have more activities we want to do than time to do them in. She has a good life.--Lydia Here are some pictures of things Dilara has come up with on her own, without any prodding from me. Most people probably overlook what is going on here, but a trained teacher, like me, will have a great appreciation for what lies beneath the surface.--Lydia
Dilara did this on her own. It is a 'shammy towel' from the dollar tree she wanted to use for art. she first cut a hole, then she used the negative space as a mouth for a jack-o-lantern. People who haven't had training like I have may not realize how wonderful this is. When I took a workshop years ago in Germany at a conference for early childhood educators, I heard the suggestion to cut holes in paper and let the kids draw around them, and they could use the parts that were cut out in other ways.
-"Word Bus"- We were working on spelling bee practice. Dilara's spelling is way behind her reading. Anyway, I had written some 'oo' words to refresh her memory. She thought it was a 'u' word. Just now, she looked at the board and said, 'that looks like a word bus.' I asked her what she meant and this is what she did. I asked her if she learned this from school, and she said, 'No.' She does watch 'Word World' and she practiced using letters to make pictures at her CC GeoDraw camp. I was just amazed how she looked at a vertical list of words--good, book, look, took--and saw a picture in two of them when she looked at them together. That took a LOT of imagination. She is interested in constellations, too---and I can see why, after this. It takes a lot of imagination to fill in the gaps to see "Orion" or "The Big Bear" in the sky, but if she can see a bus in these two words, I expect she can see pictures in the sky, too. She did a longer report about her day, but the video upload failed. Dilara doesn't often come home with so many wonderful things to share with me. At art class, the teacher showed a real (dead) starfish, and some real (dead) coral and a real (dead) pufferfish/blowfish. They were talking about patterns. Dilara loves patterns and all kinds of nature study. We have quite a collection of items at home, includfing shells, a starfish, rocks, feathers, etc. And the Nature Center at Edwin Warner Parks has a HUGE array of such things, and even has microscopes! We haven't got a working microscope at the moment in our homeschool. I have one, but the bulb has burned out and I don't know how to get another one the right size. I think that particular model has been discontinued. Dilara got to be line leader and got some special recognition for being the birthday girl. I took cupcakes and goody bags for her classmates at lunchtime and they all enthusiastically sang "Happy Birthday" to Dilara. I think it was the best school day ever. Dilara's dad said he couldn't come, but he paid for the cupcakes and goody bags (about $30). I need to make a strawberry cake and put her musical "Magical Birthday Candle" in it when we have a birthday party with family....hopefully tomorrow. It is hard to get everyone's schedules together during the school year. Every year is the "best birthday ever!" I thought her birthdays were better when her father chose to spend them with us, as family, and her second birthday when she got to spend it with her father's sister, and her family as well as me and my brother and m I love this little girl and her attitude!---Lydia |
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