how we support life-long learners
We had a busy day in school yesterday: besides celebrating Elijah, we had to do some actual school work! After a fashion. See, sometimes when homeschoolers do school it's not totally clear what the learning objectives are. But looking back on the day, I think I can recreate them...
As part of their Narnia book study the bigger kids made tissue-paper stained glass art, an assignment which was actually quite a challenge. For two reasons, actually: because they had to follow exacting directions, and because the work involved cutting little details out of card stock with an exacto knife. There were some moments of extreme frustration, but in the end they all finished. They learned perseverance.
While that was going on I was reading with the smaller kids about how people make maple syrup. We talked about plant circulation, and about evaporation, and about pancakes. Then we boiled some syrup until it reached 240°F, at which point we poured it onto bowls of snow to make maple taffy. We learned that boiled syrup is very sticky, and also delicious—except to Elijah, who continues to not like it. Oh well, he still had fun anyway. How can you not, at a school like ours?!