One of the very best things about doing homeschool is being able to let the kids fly with the ideas that they fancy. Somehow, in the push to get math done and filling days with interesting science facts, they get ideas in their heads that are just their own.
Ada has been on a role the last week or so with her type writer and a few unexpected surprises. She's been using her artistic talents and her writing skills to combine for an experience worth cultivating. Even if it's not the activity we'd encourage, at least we can encourage the skills, the authenticity, and the drive it took to follow through, among other things... It drives home just how much she needs time with her Mom. What she has been creating is something she has asked to do with me. I guess it's a round-about way of her working for what she wants. The first thing she created with her typewriter and her artistic abilities was a tattoo parlor...
Influenced by Avatar the last airbender, she let each of her siblings choose numerous personalized tattoos and followed through by creating them with gel pens on their bodies.
There was a lot of thought that went into this elaborate plan, none of it influenced by a parent. And while it was unexpected and shocking, it was also adorable and hilarious as each one of my children excitedly told me about the tattoo they chose.
She even created an order on her type writer, complete with empty spaces, underscored for date of birth and what kind of tattoo they ordered. For example Nahuel asked for, among other things, a dragon sprawled across his back and a baseball on his chest.
The other hoodlum with an agenda this week was Lalo.
First, he's been obsessing over building forts. It's been hard lesson that he must clean up after his mess. He and Astor have commandeered an old entertainment center into a hideout, lined with pillows and perfect for watching movies. Leonardo has enjoyed his time with his Papa reading books and learning more about letters and shapes. He practices writing his name and the word of the day, but on this particular day the book Papa read him was about drawing a cat out of simple shapes.
Lalo has also an obsession this week with his building tools. Consisting of screws, bolts, and pins that connect together with the use of a special screwdriver. He just loves to use the tools to put all the little pieces together. Just like the reading, he still hasn't started to organize all of it info end forms, but he loved the process, which instills a lot of trust in the process.
Finally, tonight he had a brilliant idea that he wanted to create a party. He prepared the snacks (apples and corn chips), drinks (milk and a nearly empty jug of orange juice), decorations (a half broken string of Christmas lights), and a game (limbo with Christmas lights). Total success, even if it came too close to bed time. It took him all afternoon to prepare...
For science we watched a video about how volcanic activity creates land mass formations. The subject matter wasn't anything new, but in this case what was interesting and helpful was how each kid watched, enthralled, wondering aloud about the rock formations in the documentary. Listening to their commentary you'd know that a visit to a real volcano has to be planned ASAP. Astor made the observations that the Lava mixed with the water formed Greenland and explained it in detail to Papa.
