On our slower days at home, we've been settling into a bit more school work here and there. Most recently we've been focusing on Math (board games, Noble Knights of Knowledge kit that uses story-telling and creative play around knights and castles to explain all sorts of math concepts - all the kids are loving this!), and some worksheets to figure out the nitty-gritty about things like factoring numbers and fractions and such. Kea is also working on memorizing her multiplication tables - she has the easiest ones figured out, so we'll bounce back and forth counting by 8's or 6's or what have you while we do other things) and History (we're using Story of the World and then branching out to compliment it with library books and movies and projects. We've started from the beginning so that Tiegan can be involved, so although we're completely immersed in Egypt right now, Kea has become fascinated with Ancient Greece, and as she rightly points out, we've been reading about Egypt with HER for years:-) so she's been reading ahead about Greek gods and goddesses, and joining us for the fun projects. Like map work and recreating a topical map of the Nile River, and building houses out of cardboard to look like Egyptian houses - perfect for Playmobile play!)
I have a couple of books talking about a more Waldorf-inspired curriculum for each of the grades, and often use those as a jumping off spot. I love a lot of the ideas, and wish we could do so many of the projects, but lately I'm noticing that it is VERY difficult to give the girls the attention they need with Ryland at my heels! I often read about these moms who have a 'quiet activity' basket that younger siblings pull out while the older siblings work on their school work. It would only have to be for a short time, as in theory the older kids need a lot of one-on-one to get set up and going, but then could do a lot of the work on their own. I've set aside a huge list of things for Ryland to work on, including new playdough, lacing cards, various kits designed for his age, a rice table, 'washing dishes' with bubbles and cool utensils, having a mid-day bath, an art easel or chalk board, drawing, maze books, his own workbooks, etc etc etc. The problem is, he doesn't want to do any of that while I'm focusing attention on his sisters. Finally one day I was feeling so frustrated that I resorted to setting him up in my room with a movie to give us an hour, and was VERY careful to pick a young show that his sisters wouldn't want to watch (like Sesame Street or Mr. Dress-Up) In theory this could have been so good, but there were protests about how unfair this was, and all of a sudden Sesame Street started to seem oh-so-appealing to the older two!!!!!!!!
And so, I muddle along. Some days I copy extra maps and try to include him in on the work. Though then that usually inspires much whining and crying on his part as it's too hard and he can't do it, etc. To which I tell him that he doesn't have to, he's welcome to go play, but that doesn't sound fun either!!!! I've been persevering throughout the past couple of weeks, though, and more recently we're settling into more of a routine - some moments he's happy playing playmobile, we gain another few moments when he gets serious about painting and counting toilet paper rolls......
And then finally, we found a project that entertained him for a couple of hours each morning........the all important work of separating corn from rice! This is serious work, and endlessly fascinating apparently! And so many methods to try out:-) I don't know if this will be our long-term solution, but for now it's awesome!!!!!!
