A week in our school

Since homeschooling Jaan is keeping me from writing here as much as I used to, I thought I'd tell you about what we did this last week. I used to write during nap time. Now that's usually my time with Jaan.  We're still not doing much in the way of "real school"--it's really only about an hour a day--but we're thoroughly enjoying what we do.

So, what do we do?  In the morning we (try to) read a Bible story, alternating back and forth between Old and New Testament.  Many days that gets left until bedtime, though.  Raia and Asya listen, too.  Then we head outside.  Outdoor play is still the most important part of all of their education.

Then, in the afternoon while Raia and Asya nap, Jaan and I first look at his calendar and work on memorizing: for now we're learning Psalm 23, a poem and a hymn.  After that we do a Russian reading lesson.  His next lesson is something different every day, a break between reading lessons.  Last we do English reading.

Here's what we did each day this past week during that "something different" lesson: Monday I was sick, so we didn't have school.

Tuesday we made a page for his nature notebook page, working on handwriting (he traced the title), glueing down samples and drawing a little.

On Wednesday we worked on similar pages about birds, finishing up one and starting another.  Jaan drew the cutest woodpecker I've ever seen!

Thursday we read history: Olga in our Russian history book and Columbus in American history.  (It was really fun earlier when we were reading in one book about Leif Erickson and in the other about the Norsemen who first came into Old Rus.)  So far, history days are Jaan's favorite.

Friday Jaan worked on learning to crochet.  He made a beaded bracelet during our school time, and as soon as Raia got up later, he made her another one:

Oh, on Friday I was especially thrilled to see Jaan write a word by himself, spontaneously!  (I haven't really started teaching him to write.) Yes, he left out a letter, but I really didn't even notice that at first. I had pointed out to him the date that we'll be leaving to go on our Thanksgiving trip to see Anna, and I asked him what he wanted to draw there to mark it: "Maybe a train?" He covered up the paper and wrote "leaving"!

Also, he said something really sweet after school on Friday. We had finished, and I was sending him outside to burn off the energy that builds up while he sits at the table. He looked up and said, "Mama, you teach me so well!"

In the evenings we have bedtime stories every night now, and I definitely count that as educational.  Believe it or not, it's new since we've started school; I never could get us organized to read every night before this.  We recently finished the first Pooh book in English and Russian.  Now we're on to Beatrix Potter.

(By the way, this has nothing to do with homeschooling. . . .  Since soon after the last time I wrote, our water has mostly been on during the days.  We're so happy that the scheduled water times didn't last long at all!)