Honor's Homeschooling Year - 2nd Grade

This has been a fun year of dipping our toes into the world of homeschooling, and right now we're gathering Honor's favorite pieces for the evaluator to look at in the next week or so.  So, I figured I'd post some of them here for us to enjoy and remember our awesome year of learning together.

One of her favorite courses of study in History was ancient Egypt, but the middle-ages were not far behind.

She was fascinated by the queens of Egypt, and she loved learning about the feudal system in Europe.  We were able to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art's amazing collection of medieval armor as well as their Egyptian art collection on a field trip with her grandpa one day.

Honor liked Egypt so much that she dressed as Cleopatra for Halloween and had an Egyptian-themed 8th birthday party!

We loved visiting the Phipps Conservatory during the last year and it's nearby neighbor this beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus, which was subsequently removed after much vandalism. (It was created by a Pittsburgh artist.)

We did some fun science experiments (like this pumpkin volcano) and did some tree identification in the fall. We enjoyed such a beautiful weather!

Perfect weather, just right for digging in the pit near our house...from which she returned quite muddy!

Some of the most enjoyable moments were unplanned...

Like when we realized they were flushing the fire hydrants on our street, and since we didn't have to rush off to school, we could play in the stream of water it created.

Or when Honor took to creating anything she could think of out of cardboard and scraps...like this camera that she toted around for a week or so taking pictures of all of her friends!

Piano lessons and trips to farms during the fall to pick sunflowers and apples together as a family.

We truly had an amazing year!  And it's interesting to look back at these pictures now and see how much she has grown in so short a time.

We had a great adventure learning about the American Revolution.  I love this drawing she did of George Washington.  We watched lots of "Liberty's Kids" in the car, and the boys now march around with pop guns talking about being "Americans".  This also lead to our amazing family trip in October to tour the Boston Freedom Trail, Plymouth, and Cape Cod. And unforgettable trip!

Our Christmas & Holidays Around the World unit connected us to friends from different countries and taught us a lot about different cultures and people...and was a fun way to celebrate during December.

We learned about the human body, and now we're learning about minerals and how to write in cursive.  The learning continues.  And while the verdict is still out as to whether she'll continue to homeschool next year, we've certainly enjoyed our year together this year!

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Oath of Office

 

In homeschool this week, I had a really nice time watching the Inauguration with Honor and the little boys.

I was praying my heart out leading up to this week that things would be peaceful.  I really wanted to be able to show my daughter something positive about our country, and my wish was granted.

It was really amazing to show my 8-year old daughter the first ever black, female Vice President being sworn in and to listen to the words full of promise and hope spoken from the stand.

I think working as a journalist in my early career and attending college with people who all thought differently from me ensured that I would be a moderate person politically.

I have amazing memories of covering two Presidential Inaugurations and a National political convention during my time working in the media.  And I have wonderful memories of watching the Inaugurations from home and celebrating with my children, helping them to appreciate what a privilege it is to have a country governed by laws and leaders who rule at the request of the people.

 On Inauguration Day, a friend of mine shared this quote: 

"A presidential inauguration is a civic ceremony that transcends the person being inaugurated.  It is an act of state, not politics.  It's primary purpose is for the president-elect to take the constitutionally required oath of office, and for the people by witnessing it to bind him to that oath." - D. Todd Christofferson

I'm praying for our country as we move into this next chapter.  

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100th Day of Homeschool School Activities

This year, I took the plunge into homeschooling my 2nd grader Honor.  I'm grateful for the chance to spend time with her and help her to continue to grow during this unusual time, with schools opening and closing periodically due to the coronavirus pandemic.  And it was her idea to homeschool, so that made it much easier.

Another thing that has made it easy is that we're using The Good and The Beautiful for our curriculum.  As a mom of 6 kids, this really takes a load off of me to provide all of the content.  But it has been fun to visit museums (of which there are a lot here in Pittsburgh) and even take a big history trip to Boston/Plymouth/Cape Cod this fall.  We also took a virtual trip around the world during December which I'll blog about another time.

Today, we took a break from our regular curriculum and routine to celebrate our 100th day of school, which is not normally a day I pay much attention to, but now that I'm the one doing the teaching, I kind of get why one would use this landmark to celebrate and learn with.

For our first activity, I gave Honor this grid and asked her to find 100 ways to make 100 using addition.  It was fun to see her quickly figure out the pattern.  I like seeing that little light come on inside when she discovers something on her own and I know it's gratifying for her as well.

For the next activity, I gave the kids 100 plastic disposable cups and they went to town building a 100 cup tower.

Other activities included writing what we'll be doing when we turn 100....

Seeing how many things we can do in 100 seconds (such as jumping jacks, counting, abcs, sit-ups, blinks, etc.)...

and counting how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. (It took Honor 76!)

With the marking of day 100, I'm feeling good about how things are going but also wondering what will happen next year. I know Honor would love to spend all day with her friends again....once and if things get back to normal next year.  So, we will see what happens.

Either way, I'm grateful for the opportunity that has opened up to us because of the pandemic.

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