Some Body

I had been teaching Simone science by having her do copywork.  I would give her sentences about what elements, atoms, molecules and body tissue were and she would have to copy them in her own handwriting.  But once I got into human organs,  I realized that copywork was not going to help her remember the their functionality as much as this game Somebody that I had seen in the Rainbow Resources catalog.

Now even Max is learning about the digestive system!  It seems to be working because this morning Simone told me that her gummy bear almost went down her trachea instead of her esophagus.  

Homeschool Shortcut

One of the cool things about homeschooling more than one kid is that the younger ones absorb what the older ones are learning.  Max has an advanced vocabulary for a 5-year-old.  They were watching Shrek and some humans were reacting (badly) to the sight of the title ogre.  Max exclaimed, "Man, those guys are horrified!"

Another cool thing is that the older kid can teach the  younger for you!  Part of Simone's spelling is to put the spelling tiles in alphabetic order.  She already knows how to do that quickly so she took it on herself to "teach" Max his letters!  She pretended she was the teacher and worked with him to put the letters in order.  When he got stuck as to what was next, she would prompt him to sing the ABC song with her to retrieve the answer.

She was so excited about teaching Max that she wrote a lesson plan book right after.  It consisted of only two pages, but that was enough because Max was done with being the student.