Time for the Sunday Sweep (day late and dollar short this time)! Favorite resources that fueled our curiosity this past week.
We did something kinda crazy this week: we ditched all our school books. Ironically, I wanted to do a crash course in responsibility, and chucking math and art and science and history and even Jewish studies was a necessary part of that. I mentioned awhile back that I wanted to begin incorporating character study and training into our regular school routine. Well, hand in hand with that was the desire to incorporate real world skills, as well. Cleaning the bathroom, making a meal, sweeping the floor to my satisfaction and even taking an efficient shower...these were all things that I have recently been frustrated that none of the kids have chipped in to help out with - but that I realized are skills that must be purposefully built.
It was a great week. We practiced all those skills and more. I took the time to visually list the expectations that I have of them and then to carefully teach and reteach how those things needed to be done. Here are some resources I used to make it happen:
Bonus: Responsibility Station
So, after scouring the web for a solution that would allow my kids to take ownership their tasks, I decided on this:
Here's the link to the full system: https://orgjunkie.com/2011/09/responsibility-station-for-kids-available-now.html
Sadly, they don't make this system anymore, but I was able to tweak it and make one of our own that can accommodate all of my busy bees.
Curriculum Extras: Character First and Meaningful Mama
Obviously, with all of the emphasis on life skills, it was a perfect opportunity to start our character curriculum. We started with the trait of responsibility and there were two main sites I used to grab ideas:
https://meaningfulmama.com/tag/responsibility
Jodi, over at Meaningfulmama has great ideas for helping to build responsibility - from picture book lists to games like carry-the-egg. We used different ones every day.
http://characterfirsteducation.com/c/curriculum-detail/1848080
Character First brought back a lot of childhood memories. These are the same songs and stories that I grew up with. There's lots to love here. And now we all have "Responsi-billy-billy-billity" stuck in our heads.
After we hit it hard for a few mornings, everyone was craving something a little more interesting that scrubbing the toilet, so we broke down and watched:
Documentary of the Week: NOVA Vikings Unearthed
We are just on the cusp of really diving into the age of Vikings, so it wasn't the subject matter that snagged me on this one. It was Dan.
Dan Snow is one of our favorite history presenters. He finds such interesting angles and side stories and he always finds ways to get in there are get his hands dirty, cranking up the weight on a working trebuchet, mixing mud for mortar to be used in building a medieval castle, shoveling piles of manure the likes of which daily faced the Normans as they waited for a chance to cross the Channel.
This episode the NOVA series features Dan Snow as just one of the presenters. It gave a short overview of the Viking expansion as traders and raiders and culminated in a jaw-dropping satellite / infrared imaging innovation that allowed for the discovery of a Viking settlement in southeastern Newfoundland. Super cool. We got a heavy dose of science along with our spoonful of history this week. Check out the trailer and you can see the full episode on Netflix.
Don't forget to peek at my Instagram to see what awesome books we enjoyed this week. Got a favorite resource that fueled your curiosity this week? Leave a comment and point me in the right direction!
#Homeschool #Homeschooling #History #Characterschool #Responsibility #lifeskills #Vikings #Nova #kidschores
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Great job, Jessie!