Blue Pancakes

My pink and green waffles inspired Kirsi and she insisted on making blue pancakes Wednesday. She had decided that the day after St. Patrick's Day was a day that you had to wear blue...or be pinched.

She loves to cook, and especially to do on her own. As you can see, she likes making the pancakes all different sizes, and sometimes shapes. I have had to come to grips with the messes she leaves behind. They are getting smaller as she is learning to clean up better after herself. She can pretty much make pancakes from start to finish all by herself. I think that is pretty great for an eight year old!

Big Brain Academy

We just bought a really fun game for the Wii. It is called Big Brain Academy. Well, it looks fun. I haven't actually played it. I'm afraid my children will beat me and I will lose all their respect. How can I expect them to let me teach them if they find out that they are smarter than I am?

Anyway, the kids love it! There are 15 mini-games within Big Brain Academy divided into five categories:

Identify

Memorize
Analyze

Compute

Visualize

It is really fast paced, so you have to be sharp! Nathan excels at the computing and analyzing. Kirsi is a pro at the memorizing. They both increased "the weight of their brain" within the first hour of play time. One of the greatest things about this game is that it is easy enough for Kirsi, yet challenging enough for Nathan. They both have PLENTY of room to grow with it! It is a game I can feel good about letting my kids play. Love that!

A Typical Day

A typical day at the Grace household goes like this...

Get up and have prayer with Dad

Watch Wacky Races and Time Warp Trio

Eat breakfast

Read scriptures

Shower

Explore interests, read, etc. (school)

Chores

Play with friends

Dinner

Evening chores

Family scripture and prayer

Free time

Journals

Bedtime

Today Kirsi made a bed for Sammy (our cockapoo). She was definitely more excited about it than he was! She also worked on her jewelry. She and I have both been learning how to make jewelry. I bought a great book at Barnes and Noble to inspire us.The necklace Kirsi madeThe necklace I made for Kirsi I caught her reading on her own today too! I was so thrilled. She seems to be enjoying a new series we found called Vet Volunteers by Laurie Halse Anderson. She almost read the whole book today. Is it better for our children to read A LOT of what they enjoy (as long as it is appropriate) or slowly struggle through what WE think they ought to read? Kirsi also spent some time on the computer today. I have accumulated a LONG list of kid-friendly/educational websites that the kids are free to explore as much as they want. Kirsi played some memory games, looked up science experiments and learned some new games to play outside with the neighbor kids.

Nathan is definitely more focused than Kirsi. He can spend the whole day doing one thing. Kirsi needs to be constantly switching things up. Today Nathan researched on the Internet about his favorite cars. He is doing that most of the time. He is always working on a Power Point or chart or comparison list or something similar to display his knowledge about his favorite cars. He spent a lot of time playing Wii Music too. He really has amazing rhythm. Who would have thought? He loves the drums! Nathan read a lot today too. He just finished Tennis Shoes Adventure Series books one and two by Chris Heimerdinger (thank you Nicole!). He just started a new book called Code Orange by Caroline B. Cooney. He's on chapter 15! I guess he's enjoying it. It was Nathan's week to plan and conduct Family Home Evening so he worked on his lesson too. It was on prayer. He did a great job and bore a wonderful testimony about prayer.

For chores today the kids separated laundry, unloaded dishes, cleaned their bedrooms and took out the small trashes in the house. I only had to ask once today! They are getting pretty good at knowing what is expected and following through. I'll talk about our incentive program in another post.

We had a great day!

Learning should be as natural as breathing...

I am starting this blog more for myself than anyone else. Life is learning. I believe that I was not a good match for public schools. I hated school, and therefore hated learning and never pursued it on my own. In college I took the classes that seemed "fun" and skipped anything of real substance. I don't want that for my kids. I want them to learn how to learn. I don't care if Kirsi knows her times tables by the time she is nine. Does she love to read? Does she love to try new things? Does she love to explore her art? These are an example of the things that matter to me.

Since I started home schooling my kids, my desire to learn has been rekindled. Learning is fun! I never knew. I didn't like being "tested" and "critiqued" and "graded." I got good grades, but it wasn't because I was learning. It was because I did my homework and studied for tests. After my assignments were done, my brain deleted the information.

My kids are soaking up what they are learning because they are learning how, when and what they want. They still do math, history, science, English, etc...but it is in a way that matches their learning style at a pace that matches their attention span. This makes sense to me. I know every family can't school this way, but it is perfect for us. We have never been happier!

On this blog I'm going to make a record of the activities the kids are involved in and what they are learning along the way. Most of their activities are very informal. We welcome any comments and suggestions from friends and family!