Leave the kids in charge?!

It's only October but the kids are getting burnt out on our curriculum for school so I said okay then, you plan a school day for yourself.  They thought that was a great idea.  But then I included some guidelines.  They must cover all school subjects (Lang. Arts/reading, math, science, history, art, music and some kind of physical activity).  One last thing, it needs to be at grade level.  It's not a day full of super easy work.  They were still up for it.  They both made their list of school plans for today.  There was no moaning and groaning about getting to work this morning.  If all goes well maybe we will throw more days like this into our schedule. 

We also changed it from a "school day" to a "learning day" after a discussion on Tuesday about how learning doesn't stop at the end of a "school day".  Learning doesn't stop during summer break.  Learning doesn't stop once you finish "school".  Learning happens every day of your whole life.  So instead of a school day we are enjoying some planned learning time.

Here is Lili's learning plan for the day... 
*math with cereal (addition/subtraction/multiplication/division with the use of cereal as our hands on manipulative)
*art- watercolor painting (Art is by far her favorite subject)


















*reading- reading a couple library books.
*math/measurement/fractions- baking muffins (measuring ingredients and reading a recipe)
*history - with my help she went through old family photos.  Family history sounds like it may be a good topic for our history detour.  I am looking for an online program for making a family tree.
*science - snoop through the kitchen for experiments.  Lili asked what she could use to make something explode.  Since I am not up for explosions indoors I went for a slightly smaller scale of an explosion and gave her baking soda and a bottle of vinegar.  Her and Gabi decided to add food coloring and I slipped a large plate under their experimentation cups to catch the "explosion".  Although we have done this kind of thing before with baking soda and vinegar they were still excited and impressed with their colorful foaming results.  After a couple colorful rounds we cleaned up.
*Physical Ed. - jumping on the couch, playing freeze dance and chase the cats around.
*Building with geometric foam blocks - last minute this was changed to building with Legos


Here is Gabi's learning plan for the day...
*math with cereal (addition/subtraction/and we threw in a little intro to multiplication and division, she can handle it).  She was quite proud that she could divide with her cereal.  She grasped the concept once she saw it done with the cereal.
*art - painting (art is her favorite also)

*creating and building with play-doh














*math/measurements/fractions - baking cupcakes (Gabi LOVES cupcakes and is always talking about the bakery she will open when she is older.)
*math mat floor game - We have numbers 1-20 written on large pieces of paper and cardboard.  We spread them out on the floor and I call out math problems while they jump to the correct answer.  Lili's math problems are a little tougher but they take turns so playing with both at once works well.
*science - snooping for experiment ingredients with Lili.  Her science for the day was the same, written above.
*physical ed - jumping on the couch and playing freeze dance
*building with foam blocks - she also changed this to Legos and from there set up a whole town of Littlest Pet Shop and continued with her imaginative play for the rest of the afternoon. 

Our day went really well.  Gabi even cleaned up after herself without complaining which is a big deal for her.  I think we're on to something.  :)



Here are Lili's banana muffins dusted with confectioners sugar.  Yes we are missing two muffins.  We had to do a little taste test. 

These are Gabi's vanilla cupcakes with her favorite cream cheese frosting.  Lili and I helped decorate a few of them.