Following their leads

Ian mentioned yesterday at the science fair that he wanted to learn how to build a mini- screening plant for next year's science fair.  Since that's what my husband does for a living I pretty much put it all in his lap.  

When my husband got home last night he explained to Ian that there are many steps before you go out and build something and that the first step is drawing up a plan. Ian was intimidated by the thought of drawing but my husband explained that drafting drawing was very different from art drawing.   

He gathered up all the tools and they headed to Ian's room for his first lesson in drafting.  My husband worked with Ian on drawing all the sides of a 3- dimensional object, teaching him about measurements, equivalent fractions, and reducing fractions along the way.  I think my husband was a bit apprehensive about teaching Ian and warned me that he doesn't have a lot of patience.  I warned him that Ian might not enough attention span to keep with it for long without getting frustrated or losing interest. But for now he's very eager to learn and the lesson went really well. 

 Alec spent the night immersed in his new book Warriors.  We went to the author's website to try and figure out what order the books were written in &/or what order to read them in.  There are several book series within this series that all have multiple books.  We discovered that there's something like 48 books in the series.  We also found out that there are two other series too: Survivors and Seekers.  Alec was so excited to discover all that and I jokingly said it might be a long time before we ever see his face again.  He tends to get quite engrossed in his books and particularly loves books that are part of a series.

 Today found them both still at it!  Alec spent most of his morning reading.  He cracks me up as he reads since I always find him in most unusual poses and positions.  We saw him long enough for him to eat breakfast and not long after that he went to his room with the intent of finishing his book. When he came down for lunch he had finished book 1.  As soon as lunch was over, he headed back to his room to start reading book 2.

 Ian went up into his room to try and draw another 3-D shape on his own.  He told me that once he can do that they're going to move onto drawing up plans for a wooden birdhouse that they're going to cut out and assemble.  He's quite excited and I told Ian that since he's doing a lot of measuring with all of his drawings I consider that his math lesson for the day.  He was even more excited about that. 

Ian also asked to do some art today and I readily agreed. It's been so long since we've done art and I've been missing it too.

Ian picked a new picture to try that he saw on Pinterest.  It showed a lake with a tent, campfire, and trees with the water and trees around it.  I gave him minimal input on how to start his painting; reminding him to draw in the horizon lines and the tent and then start with the furthest thing away when painting; background, middle ground, foreground.  After that he was pretty much on his own.

He finished the sky, the grass the mountains, and the first coat on the lake before deciding to call it quits for the day.   It's already looking quite a lot like the original picture so he's very happy and if he's happy, I'm happy!
  

Not a bad start

Evan and I did a quick pass at school this morning and then I gave him the rest of the day off to play with his toys.  He rediscovered Bakugans last night and he's had lots of fun playing with them ever since.

This morning he smacked the sight words; using a large dollar store shower curtain, I wrote out his words in permanent marker and then he went along splatting them with a fly swatter.

When he was finished with that we sat down and read We Are In a Book!  He found it hilarious that elephant and piggy loved the word banana just like the minions in Despicable Me.  He finished off his school day by completing two pages in his Star Wars math book on shapes.  He was happily playing with swords and weapons and running around battling imaginary foes.

I helped Evan make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Ian practiced his karate form once he was done cleaning up the kitchen table and then we all settled down to listen to some more Harry Potter. 

In allowing my kids to lead our homeschool they are deeply interested in what they are learning about.  Their investment ensures that they are giving it their all and I see such deeper understanding and learning taking place.