The neighbour kids are all at school, so we're starting into our school year too. I'm so excited about what we've got planned for this year.

Now that the girls are starting Grade 1 and Grade 4, it feels like a I have 2 real school age children. MsE is finally starting to enjoy workbooks and activities that don't just "look" like play to her. Last year I really had to hide the learning for her. MsC doesn't protest "school" much now, although I often have to bring her back to the table to finish something after she wanders off.

We kept math and language arts going over the summer, so adding in just one more thing at a time has made a "full" school day pretty painless for both of us. I'm also not above bribing the girls with electronics to get the work done at this point. After our morning work is done, they can play Prodigy for 30 minutes. Prodigy is is a math practice game which uses algorithms to give math problems right where they're at; it also gives me detailed reports of their strenghts and challenges. The girls just consider that one all in fun.

I made our dining room into an obvious school space. We already had out giant map on the wall. I added 6 shelving cubes for the girls. They each have one cubby where they can grab their schoolbooks themselves and then one cubby below for putting loose paper when complete. Before I've always handed the kids the work I wanted them to do. This gives them more control over what they want to do when. For example, at the moment MsE has a few different math workbooks and MsC has a number of Language Arts workbook choices. I set myself up with 9 shelving cubes holding my texts, supplies and homeschooling records. It's right behind where I sit at the table so it's ideal.

Some of the things we've got planned:

SCIENCE: Jonathan is starting Planted Fish Tanks with girls. They've been watching how to videos to figure out how to plant live aquatic plants and design their fish tanks. Our house has been filling up with fish tanks and aquatic supplies. There's also much discussion about what the best types of fish are.

Along with our marine biology unit, we're planning to visit the Aquarium and go snorkelling in the ocean. We're practicing in the pool first.

I'm doing Nature Journaling with the girls. MsE blew me away with her first journal entry. We caught a gecko in the bathroom and took the opportunity to study it before we let it go on the patio. I love her little drawing and she had so much to say about it.

Of course we'll fit some experiments and such in too. The girls tried out different slime recipes the other day with a friend. I even picked up a book that ties Science to Minecraft (the girls favorite Nintendo game).

SOCIAL STUDIES: I choose a book called History Quest to use as our spine this year. Using a spine means we will use this book as the launching off point for most of our learning this year. History Quest: Early Times tells the story of early humans from the Paleolithic Era to the Fall of Rome. It covers at least 19 different civilizations.

Looks like I got my copy just in time, because I see the publisher is back ordered at least a month due to demand. Homeschooling sounds like a much more mainstream option in these COVID times.  

In our first week of lessons, while listening to the story daily, the girls coloured a pictures from the era and glued them in their notebooks. MsC copied out some notes, while MsE dictated to me something she remembered.

I then paired it with the same era in our Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories - A Children's History of Art by Michael Bird which is also very story based, but with lovely illustrations. (If you click the link above, it's a walk through of our Art History book). We read it's first two stories and then turned our bathroom into our Mystic Paleolithic Cave for week with our own cave painting - which was an activity from The Science and History Project Book. We'll likely do a bunch of writing activities related to where we are in History Quest, in addition to weaving in related science activities, art, geography (mapping), etc., and field trips to the museums or cultural areas in Singapore.

I'm hoping the Indian holiday of Deepvali, which is a big deal in Singapore, will line up with when we reach India in the book. We'll also visit the Indian Heritage Museum then, read Indian Folk Tales, see if we can remember any of the Hindi words we learned last year, and obviously eat Prata (Indian Flat Bread).

Despite having so many ideas, I'm trying to only plan a few weeks out at a time. We're having so much fun that MsC keeps asking us to read more and I actually got 4 days of activities that I planned done in 4 days - something that almost never happens. I usually over estimate what we could possibly get done.

And this is only the beginning.