A week in the life of homeschoolers - Lots of hands on learning

We had a wonderful first year of homeschool. We learned lots of amazing things, we had tears, we changed our homeschooling method several times, we ditched the schedule, we added more field trips, we created special memories, we learned about learning styles and we had fun together.  I love it that my kids now ask to homeschool, EVEN on the weekends. We are still going to be learning throughout the summer so my "A week in the life of homeschoolers" posts will continue. One thing I will be changing is that my weekly posts will no longer have the weeks listed I was only doing that for our first year.

I have also started video taping a little bit of our field trips so if you want to view and keep up with the videos subscribe to our Field Trip YouTube Channel.

Monday was the same old same old speech, a few quick errands and soccer. Before soccer though we hopped online to take a class from Founders Academy on The Pledge of Allegiance. We also made some yummy peach and mango smoothies.

Gwyn saying the Pledge of Allegiance along with Mrs. Schott. We hook the laptop up to the TV and do our live online classes that way.

Tuesday the kids and I went to Fernbank one last time before our membership expired. As always we had so much fun. We learned about animals, orphaned orangutans, injured animals, dinosaurs and more. We also had a discussion of why the Big Bang Theory is not how we believe the world started. We checked out the Roses at the Fernbank Garden and then headed to the Science center. We walked through Fernbank Forest and saw a Palliated Woodpecker (boy are they big), a Copperhead, Frog, Tadpole and Turtle. Love educational hands on days like this.

Wednesday we went to the Atlanta Zoo with some wonderful homeschool friends. We learned all sorts of things and got to see the Gorillas and Orangutans eat. We got to see the many zoo babies and boy have they all gotten so big. We also learned about carnivorous plants.

Thursday we traveled back in time to the 1450's at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. We had such a blast. Both the kids and I learned some interesting things. We attended three shows birds of prey, instruments or the Renaissance and a jousting tournament. We attended a couple of demonstrations on weaving and glass blowing. The kids learned how glass is made which totally amazed them. They got to pet sheep, goats, geese and a Scottish Highlands cow. Gwyn was fascinated by a 4 horned sheep so she asked the attendant why he had 4 horns. The gentleman explained that it was a Jacob Sheep. And that they can actually have anywhere from 2-6 horns. And in Parrots of the Caribbean they got to meet an African Grey, Cockatoos, Macaws and a Kookaburra up close. When we were leaving one of the vendors cracked open an oyster to show us a cultured pearl. While he was cracking it open he explained to the kids how pearls are made and they were shocked to find out that pearls also come from sand. The nice vendor gave the pearl to me because I mentioned it was my birthstone and he gave Gwyn the shells.

Friday we started a science experiment, did a little bit of gardening and crafting. We also worked on the activity pages that the GA Renaissance Fair provides to educators.

Saturday we got up early to take Daddy to work. Then we headed to the soccer field. Gwyn had a tough time at soccer due to the heat and her competitive spirit. A couple of the girls didn't show up leaving them short of players so the girls had to play the entire 30-45 minute game. Some of the girls on the team were not participating so the other team was scoring lots of goals which made Gwyn very upset. It was a great time to explain a very important lesson. Gwyn took a short break from the game so I could explain to her that winning is not all that matters. That as long as she was having fun and trying her best that was all that mattered. It was also a great time to discuss perseverance which is one of our We Choose Virtues character traits. After soccer we went to a fun FREE event at a local park called Touch A Truck. The kids got to touch all kinds of cool trucks. They also got to ta\lk to the men and women that drive them. We saw police cars and motoercycles, ambulaces, firetrucks, limos, garbage ttrucks, buses and more. We learned that Waffle House has an RV that they use when they go to do disaster relief. We also learned all about the EPA and what they do. Gwyns favorite part though was meeting a police dog and asking the police officer lots of questions. Rowyns favorite part was the safety house where there was real smoke. They learned how important it is to crawl on the ground during a fire.

Sunday Gwyn was begging to do homeschool so we worked on our field trip binder and tracked the growth of our plants. Gwyn also started her Circle C Journey Through Learning Lapbook on Andi's Pony Trouble. And Rowyn colored and worked on his A,B,C's.

I hope you find these resources useful. If you ever have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or email me. Also be sure to follow my FB page where I post FreeBEEs daily.

Thanks for stopping by.