Week Three Begins With Health

Welcome to week three!


I did one of my middle of the night shopping trips last night. I have to do that once in a while. Driving down nearly empty roads with the music cranked up to a level sure to cause hearing impairment someday, windows down just far enough to take in remainders of the sweet summer air, and arriving at a store where it looks virtually abandoned instead of crowded are all among my preferred ways of going shopping. While there, I found a ginormous box of 120 Crayola crayons. Pretty sure ginormous isn't a word, but clearly that's not stopping me from using it. The kids were pretty stoked this morning when they found that sitting on their study table.

I also gifted them with a copy of the First Human Body Encyclopedia from the DK First Reference Series. It is a colorful, detailed, beautiful hardcover book that does a great job of introducing some real biology and health to younger children. It's perfect for the homeschooling family because it goes beyond the very basics of various body systems and supplements any curriculum nicely. I give this 5/5 stars and would highly recommend it. However, if you cringe at anything that is not in cartoon-only form or want your children to believe that the stork brings babies, it's probably best to skip this one. If, on the other hand, you're pretty up front about things, you're sure to love this encyclopedia as much as we do.


Another little gem in our homeschool lineup this week is a National Geographic magazine my husband picked up from the store the other day. I won't tell you how much it cost, and I actually didn't want to know because he was expressing such disbelief over it himself, but he had this burning urge to tell me it was over $15. Hmm. Apparently I felt the same burning urge, because now you know. I dealt with it by shrugging and calling it curriculum enhancement. After I flipped through the pages, I realized it was an absolutely perfect companion to our history lessons right now, as it is filled with wildlife from the various continents and we are studying the continents in both K and 2. And uh, it's not like I'm exactly in any position to be shocked at the cost of a magazine anyhow, even if it hadn't proven to be the most perfectly-timed issue of National Geographic ever.

Our current goal is plowing through the Kindergarten Math as soon as possible. Little G was quite disappointed when he had to go over shapes and colors this morning, concepts he mastered before age 3, while R was doing these:

I printed an extra copy for G to enjoy on his own. He got them all correct. No surprise there.

In non-academic news, I've been throwing around the idea of family game night for some time, but it never seems to actually happen. I'm a bit disappointed in myself about that. My previous excuse was that traditional school ate all of our free time and left us with barely enough for sleep and washing. That is clearly not a problem now, as we have our evenings to ourselves and are no longer rushed between homework, bathtime, and earlier bedtimes. Baths can be taken earlier, bedtime is an hour later than when we did traditional school, and homework is non-existent. Except for when, you know, they ask to do school work during off hours (and they often do, because they love it!). So, game night. We're going to do that. And I am blogging about it here and now to hold myself to it!