Scheduling and structure.

We decided to do school today in a slightly different way. We have been very structured and working very hard on the basics so far this year and we toyed with the idea of taking a fall break. Because of doctor's appointments and errands we had this week, it seemed natural to take the last 3 days off but everything seems to go downhill if we don't have any structure at all. The youngest wants to play video games all the time, there is more fighting and it drives me crazy. We may just have to do modified "school" year round because that provides some kind of structure and we seem to need it.

Today, I required them to do the first 4 things on their regular lists, which include brushing their teeth, exercising, picking up in the living room and reading and we did 2 activities out of the Konos book. For their exercise today, instead of doing the usual sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks, etc., they asked to go outside. I okayed it and I haven't seen them since, except when they occasionally run by the window. One reason we started homeschooling was so that the kids could have more time to be kids and they are getting that today.

One of our activities today was to do observation and experiments to see what we could find out about gummy bears. It turns out that they do not float, don't bounce well, however, it is a lot of fun to melt them in the oven. We made charts and observation sheets. While the kids were exploring the differences between gummy bears and pecans (pecans don't melt and do float, for example) I decided to take a quick shower. When I came out, the kids informed me that there was a gummy bear stuck in the toaster. I guess I asked for that one, eh?

Anyway, we talked a bit about the scientific method, making hypotheses, recording observations, comparing, making charts, melting points, floating and sinking, transparent, translucent and opaque and how to open the bottom of the toaster to get things out. Who knew you could learn so much from a 50 cent bag of Gummy Bears?