I finally motivated myself to begin serious lesson planning Saturday morning. I spent around 6 hours laying out an outline for the next 20 lessons and specific instructions for the first week for all subjects. I felt positive about what I had accomplished and excited to start school Monday morning. Sunday morning the stomach virus hit our house.
We spent some time Monday watching an educational video. We also did a little reading for geography and I introduced our new spelling list. Not quite what I had planned.
Tuesday we managed to put in about half a day's worth of school. Mostly things we could do while sitting on the couch. However, by day three I learned something very important. Calvin and Hobbes can teach your kid more in 30 minutes than what they can learn in a full day of structured school!
If you aren't familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, it's a comic strip (see this wikipedia article) about a boy (Calvin) and his stuffed tiger (Hobbes) that only Calvin sees as a real tiger. This comic is not really targeting young kids, but my boys love it. The vocabulary is challenging and the strip itself deals with many deep subjects. So, Wednesday morning I was assaulted by such questions....
"What is pachysandra?"
"Why is this joke funny?" "A man is walking his dog. He says to his dog, "Heel". The dog says, "It takes one to know one."
"What is a grade curve?"
"How do you do this math problem?" "Mr. Jones lives 50 miles away from you. You both leave home at 5:00 and drive toward each other. Mr. Jones travels at 35 mph and you drive at 40 mph. At what time will you pass Mr. Jones?"
And my favorite...."What does anatomically correct mean?"
From this one bit of reading, JT had a botany lesson, a lesson on homonyms, a lesson on statistics, a lesson in Algebra and finally, a biology lesson! Now that's a well rounded education!
When we allow our children to explore their interests and we follow their lead...what wonderful things they can learn. I don't think I could spend every school day like that. We would probably end up neglecting the subjects JT needs the most work on...the ones he doesn't like (COMPOSITION!). But an occassional day without the plan, can really pay off.
Hopefully next time, we don't need to be sick.
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1 comment:
My oldest loves Calvin and Hobbes, too!
I know I could never be an unschooler. My need to be in charge and organized is too great. But, I agree with you. There is something powerful when a child wants to learn something. Those always end up being the best teaching moments.
Now, if I could only figure out how to engender that interest. . .
Annie
learnateveryturn.com
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