Conversations from the classroom….

Commentary from my first month of homeschooling a preschooler, a kindergartener, and a first grader. Never a dull moment!

We’ve been learning about the planets and their orbits, the earth’s rotation, etc. This morning I heard Bethany (3) “teaching” her dolly: “The earth spins around one time and it’s morning, and then it spins around again and it’s night time, and then it spins around again and it’s Christmas!”

Ashley (6) may be a tiny bit too enthralled with the story of Moses right now. Every time we go somewhere, even to the grocery store, she wants us to stay there and wander around for 40 years.

Hannah (4), reciting the vowels: “A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. *short pause* Why doesn’t Y just decide if it wants to be a vowel or a consonant, instead of switching back and forth all the time?”

Bethany, coloring the picture on her handwriting page: “Mummy, what color are kites?”
Me: “Any color you want!”
Bethany: “But what color are normal kites?”
Me: “Well, kites come in every color, so you can color it however you like.”
Bethany: “But please just tell me what color a normal kite is!”

Morning is so much better than afternoon for doing school with squirrelly little girls. After lunchtime the energy is gone and cooperation/focusing abilities seem to vanish into thin air. Oh, and the girls have some trouble as well.

Bethany, holding a book upside down in front of her: “I can read this, Mummy! It says, ‘Bethany…is…hungry…give…her…ice cream!”

Ashley: “When I get to college, will I have to tell my teachers what my name is? And after I tell them my name, can I tell them that my mummy already taught me everything, and then will they tell me that I can go play?”

Today I choked and then burst out laughing in the middle of Hannah’s prayer at lunchtime when she nonchalantly prayed, “Thank you, God, for this food and for the sunshine…and please turn my water into wine!”

Bethany: “Why does Saturn have rings? Did it get married?”

Ashley, frustrated over a reading exercise: “Mummy, if I don’t follow the rules, then I get in trouble. But if the letters in words don’t follow the rules, then nothing bad happens to them! That’s not fair!”

Hannah: “An asteroid belt is called that because it’s a powerful belt that you can wear to protect you from any asteroids trying to bonk into you!”