Steppin' Out

Today was the first full blown day of school. We had reading, spelling, writing, math (the boys got to work on "number bond using M&M's... good call on my part!), and history. We will work violin tonight. I was so pleased that Asa and Addison are loving history. The Story Of The World is so well written. Today's lesson was "How Do We Know What Happened?". Instead of just explaining how civilizations leave behind artifacts for us to learn from, the book reads like a story of a family who lived in a village along the river. The mom dropped a pot, the dad's knife blade broke in the field, and the little boy was playing with a toy clay ox and cart. It told the story of how they had to move when their was a drought... and the things they left behind were covered with mud and dirt and then grass. It went on to tell a story of a man who found the grass field and discovered there was a village there long ago. I was floored at how well this way of teaching worked for them. They were fascinated! They drew pictures of things in the story and had a totally complete concept of archeology and how we learn about the past. Success!

After our lessons today, I took the boys and their friend, Ethan, to a home-school art class! Today we learned about Alexander Calder, an American sculptor. He used a lot of wire in his art and was the inventor of the mobile. The kids made wire fish... and it was a hit! It was a little tricky to twist the wire around, but with a little help, they were able to make it work. Here are the boys with their sculptures!