The Hope Springs Eternal Schoolhouse

Casey started third grade today.  We were a little nervous letting him ride his bike to school this morning.

But he said he was ready, so we stifled our overprotective urges.  A child has to grow wings at some point and you just have to let them fly.

He made it to school about 30 seconds later.

We counted once around the driveway as P.E., laughed at our little joke, and headed upstairs to start Day One of Homeschool.

There's our school resource officer standing at the top of the steps.  Honestly, he's not that scary unless you think running straight at your car's front grille while you are driving into the driveway, or once you've stopped, jumping up and pawing at your driver's side window, is scary.  And although he will thoroughly investigate a bag of garbage you sit outside the front door until the next time you can get down the front steps to the garbage can, I can't get him to reveal the source of his fleas.

In all honesty, I was not sure how our first homeschooling morning was going to go this morning.  I was prepared -- I had the Base 10 set out and number discs made and knew exactly what we were going to do for each subject.  But I had no idea how quickly or slowly we would move through subjects and I was clueless as to how Casey would react to  . . . well, pretty much everything.

We started with math.

Those amongst you with a wagering nature should probably place bets now on how many more mornings I will actually make Casey wet down and comb his hair.

Or wear pants.

Casey made a robot with his Base 10 set -- but only after we used it for the lesson.  Do you see the workbook opposite Casey, on the other side of the Base 10 robot?  That saved me when Mace came in before it was time for him to go off to PreK4 and wanted to go to school with Casey.  Mace traced squares and triangles as Casey and I worked through math, so that by the time we took Mace to school, we were ready for history.

Casey read his history lesson in the car on the way to Mace's school, so when we got back we were ready for review questions and narration.  Unfortunately, however, after we got home Casey could not seem to recall why King Charles wanted the pope to declare him Holy Roman Emperor, so next time, maybe I'll turn off the radio in the car while he's reading.

After history, we dissected the periodic table and built some atoms.  The science kit we are using is a Little Professor Science Kit and comes from the Academy of Science for Kids in Lutz, Fl.  Each experiment or activity in the kit is precisely labeled and we had a blast putting together our atoms with the correct number of protons, neutrons and electrons (the electrons glow in the dark -- to remind you  -- they're electric!  Boogie-woogie-woogie!  Don't feel bad, Casey didn't catch the Electric Slide reference, either.).

After science, we moved on to grammar and spelling, both of which were a bit of a letdown after all that running in and out of the master bedroom closet to see the electrons glow, let me tell you.  But we muddled through and then took a break before hitting Latin.

Latin was a short lesson today.  Do you know what the word "toga" is in Latin? It's toga.  See? Latin's going to be a breeze.   We also spent a few minutes reviewing our Latin and Greek root cards that I purchased at the convention.  We had a good time with the cards -- they are going to be great for spelling and building vocabulary.  Not that Casey's large vocabulary isn't troublesome enough already  . . .  a few days ago he told me that he had "plausible deniability" -- and used the phrase correctly.  When I asked him where he had picked up the term, he told me Candace used it on Phineas and Ferb. This is why we prefer Phineas and Ferb to SpongeBob Stupidpants.

After reading Don Quixote (a junior version) for half an hour, it was noon, and therefore time to fetch Mace from school.  We were done with third grade by noon today.  Isn't that lovely?  I have read somewhere that the homeschool day is not done until someone cries -- but no one cried today, thank goodness.

Unless you count that minor breakdown high up on the ropes course at MOSI this afternoon.  But that is fodder for another post altogether and since it did not take place during actual school time this morning, I don't think I have to count it.