"Attractive" Day

I think we're on a roll of noon-time school so I just went with that today. I put Greyson in bed for a nap and then whipped out the books. Cameron was entirely irked that I did not give him any warning and just said, "It's time to do school now." He was so pouty that he wouldn't participate in the strange little chant in OPGTR that was supposed to make us remember the /oi/ sound. Roy the boy has a toy. Oh joy! He left me chanting and clapping by myself while giving me a look that I thought only teenagers were capable of. I said "Fine, you don't want to participate with me then do it yourself. Go ahead, read." And with that I plopped the book down in his lap. LOL. He didn't like that at all. I decided to give him another chance and while he still didn't say the chant in anymore than a mumble on our second try, he did read the lesson better than I've ever heard him do. I really think we've crossed a hump here. Yeah!!

Math was more money. For some reason he kept subtracting while counting today. While adding three quarters and a dime he would say "25, 50, 75, 65" and it really took him a while for him to realize what he was doing. Can you imagine if there was a coin that took value away from the rest? LOL, what a thought.

Next was Science and I had gotten a couple library books on magnets for us. We read the Let's Read and Find Out one and it described how to make needles into magnets and then how to make a compass with that needle and a bowl of water. So we did. Cameron was the first to make his needle magnetic. I was last, lol. I don't know what was wrong with my technique but I could not get it to work! I think I was just using too long of strokes when rubbing the needle on the magnet but boy was that humbling! Then we got a bowl of water and found north with our magnets. It was quite fun. Our needle magnets started losing power pretty quickly though and so then the kids just started fishing them out of the water with magnets on strings while I read our second magnet book by Simply Science.

So that was two great experiment days this week! I'm glad that I never planned on having one day as "experiment day" or anything like that. I like it when our stuff just happens spontaneously. Which reminds me, I've been reading a lot of talk lately on message boards about people instilling more Charlotte Mason into their Classical schools. I was intrigued because I have several friends who designate themselves as "partially CM" and I could never get through the wordy descriptions to find out exactly what that means. I mean, I think I have a feeling what it means but I could never get through a Charlotte Mason article - even with modern translations, lol. Anyway, reading through those posts and seeing how people have adapted their Classical studies to be more CM, I realize that that's already how I've adapted our school! We do short lessons. We spend time outside - not exactly nature studies but we are definitely students of our world. Gee, look at this bug. I wonder what animal made these tracks? We read books to learn, not textbooks for the most part. Well, we do have a textbook for science but we always follow it up with real books. I've felt guilty about slacking on memory work, but I realize that that's CM too! No lists to memorize, just an occasional poem. I try to ask for their best work too, though not perfection. Not yet. Maybe someday.

Anyway, our homeschool is all about learning without anyone being miserable, lol. If I'm lucky we'll even end up with that elusive "love of learning." I don't care how we label ourselves - I actually like Relaxed Classical - but it's reassuring to see droves of people moving to what we have been doing all along. ;)

(P.S. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. I think I found an OB: local and female! I see her on Tuesday but the office already passed the biggest test - no problem if I have to bring the kids along! Yeah!)