Jumped Right In

A new year and a fresh start. I am feeling somewhat recharged after our official winter break so we jumped right back into the pool. I added a new feature to our school day. Current Events. I realized that my kids were missing out on the thrill of reading the newspaper. Both my husband and I read the news online. I refuse to watch the news because I do not enjoy all that negativity. We do talk about current events but I realized there is a lot going on that they really are not aware of. Some of that is good but at the same time they need to be well rounded individuals. So, today when I took our pooch out for his morning constitutional I headed to the newspaper kiosk and purchased the paper.

I will admit, the newspaper was greeted with very little enthusiasm. Little Miss M was excited to read the lifestyle section. I explained that the subject is current events. She needed to choose an article from either world news or local news and write a short summary on what she read. That went over like a lead balloon. However, she did it. For a first attempt at summarizing a news article she did okay.

Other subjects Little Miss covered today: Math-fractions. Grammar-Possessive nouns. History-she started the age of enlightenment. She read a bit in the Usbourne Internet Linked Encyclopedia. In there was a blurb about Galileo and his telescope. I then asked her if she remembered looking through his telescope when we were at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. She did. I pointed out that this is the telescope they are talking about. Her eyes lit up and she said "That is really cool". She got to a coloring page on Galileo and learn a bit more about his telescope. She also looked up Discovery in the dictionary and copied the definitions. Critical Thinking-Descriptive comparisons. She ended her official day with independent reading.

Mister B-he was slightly more enthused about the newspaper assignment but not by much. He also covered Math-Metric system plus review of fractions. Grammar-Interjections. Literature: Rhyme in Poetry. History: he started a unit on 17th Century art and literature. He also ended with independent reading.

All in all, a full day and a good start to the new year.