"The only thing consistent is change!" - Heraclitus, greek philosopher
Isn't THAT the truth. I know only last week I told you how Ashton turned down the opportunity to re-join Ethan in doing the upper level guide, Preparing Hearts for His Glory, but as of this week...they are combined again. Since the boys are away from home twice each week doing classes at Circle Christian School, leaving us only 3 days to get everything else accomplished, it only made sense to try and consolidate as much as possible....for my sanity, and theirs.
I talked with Ashton, he agreed, and I even boxed up his old curriculum and sold it that day on the internet, and shipped it so their would be NO turning back. I knew that it would lengthen Ashton's day (something he REALLY need to work on...building endurance), but it would also shorten Ethan's day because he wouldn't be waiting on me so much doing separate things with Ashton. Now their history, science, Bible, Storytime, Geography, Timeline, Research and Art are all done together!!!
Yeah for me.
Tuesday was our first day combining. The morning went great. Ashton was excited about jumping in with the hands-on activities. Here Ashton is adding water to the clay map Ethan created the week before of the Mesopotamia Area. Ethan was responsible for creating the "Ice cube" glaciers near the top Black Sea!
The later part of the morning didn't go quite as smoothly as I had planned. Ashton needed to work on some copywork, and lets just say that a 3 minute project turned into tears, loss of privileges and something that was drawn out for over an hour.
Once we got over the drama, we decided to run some errands. The Winter Park Village has these great man-sized chess and checker board games for anyone to play. The area was empty and the boys challenged each other to a friendly game of chess!
Later, Ashton asked if he was able to earn back his video game time that he lost after the mornings copywork fiasco. Normally I don't allow any "earning back" privileges, however on this occasion I chose to because I wanted to prove a point.
I told him that if he wanted to do the 2nd half of the copywork (which he would have had to complete during the next school day anyway) with a cheerful heart and neatly, he could earn his time back. Wouldn't you know it? Guess who sat down joyfully and eagerly, busted out the copywork, neatly, and in 5 minutes flat? No tears, no frustration, not drawn out for an hour. He brought the work to me, so excited to show me what a good job he did. And he did do a good job. I pointed out the difference an attitude makes.
Sure enough, we got underway with school today and what a difference. Not perfect but miraculously better! I complimented and praised Ashton. Asked him how he was enjoying the day...he concurred and told me that he's had a heart change. Bingo.
Working together, as we had in the past, has been great for my soul at the very least. I enjoy the conversations we can have together, and not with just one of my children.
For science we are studying different climates and regions. This unit is on the desert. The boys had to conduct an experiment on how the cactus stays cool in the hot desert. How does it's shape and spines help keep it cool?
They each molded a cactus out of playdoh, and used chopped up toothpicks as its spines. Once complete we turned all the lights out, closed the curtains and shined a flashlight (sun) down on the cactus. They observed the spines casting shadows down on the cactus itself, therefore creating a form of shade from the harsh sun.
These were crazy looking...not sure if we were going for authentic cactus, or green killer martian types! LOL
Overall it was a great day and looking forward to tomorrow with anticipation of what their curriculum will have us doing next. I'm sure it'll be hands on and FUN!
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