In the midst of sore throats, stomach flu, and a broken wing…
(Our caique, Storm, fractured his collarbone when he flew into a dresser. He was completely miserable until he chewed the bandage off next morning. After that, we kept him on pain meds and his wing has healed up nicely despite not having the extra support.)
…Princess, Zard, Sunshine, and Squish and I have pushed forward, bravely accomplishing what no one has done before: the Christensen family homeschool… a.k.a. SpikeSchool.
This name is in honor of our beloved beardy, Spike, who stirs in us feelings of love, loyalty, and affection. And awe, for his gusto in snapping up monstrous, wriggling superworms. We can tackle anything if Spike can handle a belly full of nasties and not get indigestion.
On top of the basic language arts, math, and piano skills, we’re studying the ancients and biology (animals, plants… science the ancients might have known), so many of our activities this month have centered on discovery.
We had an archaeological dig to uncover an alien society (one that eats birdseed and happens to play Phineas and Ferb DS games)…
carved scarab beetles from soap…
harvested crops of peppers, caterpillars, pillbugs, preying mantises, and toads from the garden…
(and a giant thistle and millipede…)
ate delish shellfish…
(Did you know lobsters have a brain the size of a grasshopper?? My dh announced this fact as we were eating its lovely meat. It was difficult to continue thinking of it as ‘lovely meat’ and not as ‘boiled grasshopper’ after that. Let me tell you, the pan stank like it even after washing it three times.)
and learned some basic lessons on plumbing when the disposal broke.
Despite all the umph it takes to get lessons planned and life started every morning, I am so happy to spend this time every day with my kids. It is completely worth it to see them laughing and learning, and to know that they have this time in their lives set apart from everything else to hang together. I, at least, am treasuring every moment of it.
