Love Homeschooling Moments
While some days in the homeschooling life devolve in battles of the wills to get simple things done, I had a number of "this is why I love homeschooling" experiences this week:

Relationship building: One day Bug offered to lead Goose's lessons. Goose thought this was a brilliant idea! Bug read her their favorite counting book, then supervised her completing a collage for her letter of the week. Besides watching the sweetness of the big sister/little sister interactions, this came me some solid one-on-one time with Monkey, who was thrilled to have me all to herself for a little while. I know this sounds weird as a bonding activity, but I spent most of that time teaching her how to unload the clean dishes from the dishwasher. She was extremely proud of being able to genuinely help by learning a new "grown up" skill.

Freedom and flexibility: Thursday morning started off with a big disappointment for the girls that I was powerless to fix. What I could do though was ditch the normal routine and come up with a plan B that we all really enjoyed: After an early lunch, we each packed an "artistic bag" and headed to a local art museum location we haven't visited yet. Monkey currently wants to be an artist when she grows up, so I suggested she do as many artist do and bring a clipboard, paper, and drawing tools to copy the artwork or find inspiration in the museum's garden. She loved this idea! And of course, her sisters wanted in on the fun too. Goose brought her camera, Bug couldn't decide so she brought coloring materials and a camera, and I brought my notebook and pen.While the gallery itself was between temporary exhibits, it hardly mattered. This location features a formal rose garden, a shaded rhododendron garden with winding pebble paths, a duck pond (complete with territorial goose; we hissed back and he wisely realized he was going to lose that fight), and several courtyards with permanent statuary, lovely plants, a fountain, and fun painted tiles.

We decided to settle in the rose garden for a while, and the girls had a blast admiring the flowers and discovering all the discreet stone animals among the rose bushes. Monkey and Bug found good spots at separate bistro tables and set to work on their drawings, while Goose went snap happy all over the garden. At some point Monkey told me she "needed some time with just God" and asked to go to the opposite end of the garden and for me to please keep Goose from following her. I was happy to help, and Monkey seemed to come back much refreshed by a little solitude and personal devotional time. It was an afternoon well spent!

little artists hard at work

All-in-one learning: I love it when something the girls are spontaneously interested in pulls together so many skills from academic subjects, and we have a great time doing it! This week it all started with The Moon Might be Milk, one of our library books this week. First, we enjoyed the story about a little girl and some animals speculating about what foods the moon might be made of (literature), then at the entourage's request we also discussed what the moon, stars, and sun are really made of (science). At the end the book includes the recipe for Granny's sugar moon cookies, which the girls asked if we could make. I agreed on two conditions: they get all their chores done (it was cleaning day) and they had to read the recipe themselves. It's amazing what a trio of little girls can accomplish with the right motivation! Monkey and Bug worked together to read the recipe (reading) and figure out the measurements (math: measuring & fractions). Even Goose got to help out by dumping things in (fine motor skills) and by accomplishing occasional tasks like "We need a tablespoon. That's the biggest spoon in that box. Can you find the biggest spoon?" (math: comparisons). Just being able to exactly follow the instructions given is a good math and science skill, not to mention all the life skills they got to practice: how to set the oven temperature, how to use an electric mixer, how to crack eggs, etc.

How Science Happens
At this stage "science" isn't a subject that happens in a curriculum sort of way, so it doesn't get much specific focus here, but that doesn't mean the girls are clueless on the topic. Here are a few ways science happened in our house this week:

• Monkey rediscovered and was enthralled by a field guide of rocks and minerals. I spent a long time reading her the names of different samples throughout the book as well as reading and explaining the sections "The Earth" (describing different layers, plate tectonics, earthquakes, and how mountains are formed) and "The Rock Cycle" (explaining how elements and minerals are processed in the Earth to become different kinds of rocks).
• Bug inquired about how we get honey (she knew bees made it, but who's the middle man? what's the process?). I gave her a quick explanation of the top of my head, and later we found a How It's Made episode that went into details.
• Monkey decided she wanted to do a research paper about monkeys for her writing lesson one day. This meant reading up on monkeys in the Animal Encyclopedia, then, of course, getting sidetracked by the moles on the opposite page and learning all about them too.
• All three girls noticed and closely examined the various stages of calla lilies outside our front door--at one point we had new buds, fully bloomed lilies, and wilting lilies all on the same plant. Similar things were noted as we reveled in the many varieties of flowers at the art museum gardens later in the week.
• We also had discussions about what the moon and sun are actually made of after reading The Moon Might Be Milk. Monkey and Bug were highly disappointed in the little girl's grandmother when she never explained what the moon's really made of and left the girl thinking it was a sugar cookie.
• Our making the moon cookies should also be considered an early foray into experimenting since we followed the process described and confirmed the hypothesis--the recipe does make yummy cookies that look like the moon!
• Segueing nicely from our baking experience, the girls asked to watch an episode of The Magic School Bus, and we found one that delved into the chemistry involved in baking.
• After a reading of Doctor DeSoto, we discussed which animals Dr. DeSoto would or would not treat based on their diet and whether or not they actually had teeth.

Things like this come up all the time as the girls explore the world around them and ask a constant stream of questions, and of course, when one girl asks the others are always listening in too.

History . . .  Well, the Fictional Parts Anyway
So, I'll confess, my own interest in the ancient Greeks we're studying is mostly in the ancient Greek mythology, and these little girls didn't fall far from the tree. We did read several sections in our library book Ancient Greece Revealed that deal with historical fact: archaeological evidence of the really ancient Greek civilizations then the revival around 1200 BC, what the Parthenon looked like and what it was for, the Olympics, what Greek warships were like and how a naval battle would have gone down, and what Greek theater was like.

Mostly though, we read lots of the Greeks' fiction: Aesop's fables, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and descriptions of mythological monsters both in books and online. On Friday night we even let the girls watch Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters with me. Daddy and I watched it several nights earlier, and I made sure the girls had heard of all the mythical creatures involved and knew something of their traditional back stories. Of course, my literary analysis brain kicked in, and the girls and I compared the "Jason and the Golden Fleece" story to the "Percy and the Golden Fleece" story.

One of the girls' favorite parts of our history studies this week, though, was putting on our own little Greek play. We chose one of Aesop's fables ("The Lion and the Mouse"), they figured out who would be which character (Bug was the Lion, Monkey was the Hunter, Goose was the Mouse, and I was the Chorus and read all the parts), they each made a paper plate mask to represent their character, and finally we put on the show! So much fun!

Miss Independence
This week before the big girls' jujitsu class, a tearful Monkey said she was just too tired and could we please tuck her in to bed and not have her go to class today. We agreed, and the poor girl really did stay in bed for the next two and a half hours! (I guess the poor girl really needed her rest, and I am so thankful she's self-aware enough to make the request!) This of course, left Bug attending class solo. There are very few instances in which Monkey and Bug have done anything separately, and she was anxious about it. She and Daddy talked about how she probably didn't really want to miss out on something as fun as jujitsu class just because she was a scared. It proved to be quite the confidence building activity for her! She successfully partnered with someone not her sister (and made a new friend!) and was the only student in her class to successfully sneak up on her instructor during one of the activities. She came home excited about the class, and even suggested to Monkey that sometimes they should be partners with other kids in the class instead of just each other.

Three Rs
Goose: counting to 20, the letter I

Bug: math (telling time, place value, fractions, multiple-digit addition, skip counting), reading (Dot, I Broke My Trunk!, cookie recipe, composing sentences with paper words), writing (note to Grandma, Bible quizzing, random word list--she asks me how to spell whatever words she's interested in writing)

Monkey: math (telling time, place value, fractions, single-digit addition, introduced multiple-digit addition), reading (easy reader, I Broke My Trunk!, cookie recipe, sort rhyming paper words), writing (note to Grandma, research paper about monkeys, random word list)

Library Day
Our schedule this week required that we visit the library a couple of days early, and therefore not at storytime this week. The girls thoroughly enjoyed having the children's section to themselves for a change and had a great time playing with the building toys and a set of bumble bee puppets that were added recently. As a result, I ended up picking out most of the books this time:
I Broke My Trunk!
Little Bear's Friend
Whistle for Willie
Mirette on the High Wire
Dog Number One, Dog Number Ten
Doctor DeSoto
The Moon Might Be Milk