Self- Guided Schoolwork; Relying on my Boys to Teach Themselves

I love that I can rely on my boys to teach themselves!

We had a super busy morning and I knew we wouldn't have a lot of time to sit down and work together on school.  I told the boys I wanted them to do some schoolwork and pretty much left it at that.

They all picked out a science video called Really Wild Animals; Animals of North America to watch.  They piled onto Ian's bed to watch the movie.  I loved that they were watching something educational and all getting along!

The older boys took their math minutes with Alec starting on his 8 times tables.  Ian then worked on a multiplication page in his book that was "so easy!"

Evan wanted me to sit with him while he re-read me P is for Pancakes and then worked on an alphabet dot- to- dot page.  I thought that would be too simple for him but he made a few mistakes and sang the alphabet song quite a few times through.  He then declared himself done with school and since he had been counting and asking us all subtraction problems all morning long I agreed.

Alec told me he didn't have any schoolwork to do today since he did 6 or 8 math pages last Friday and wont need to do anymore until Monday.  He also reminded me that he read (and finished) his chapter book in the car while we were running errands.

I asked him if he'd like to try "writing" a story or sentence with our new word tiles, but after a few minutes of working with them and getting frustrated he decided to pull out his book and finish writing his peacock story.  Once he was done he read the whole story out loud to us all with a title and everything!

When Ian was done with his math page he played with the word tiles for a bit and made up a silly sentence.  I asked him why there were different colored words and if he could substitute blue tiles for other blue tiles. He found that he could and told me that all the blue tiles were nouns.  Then we made up some REALLY silly sentences. 

We finished our day snuggled on the couch reading the first two chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Once we were done reading the younger boys wanted to play Harry Potter on the Wii while I cooked lunch.  They had all picked out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Macaroni and Cheese for lunch while we were at the store and I had offered to cook it for them.  They did such a great job getting ready so quickly this morning and helping while out shopping and cleaning the house that I thought they deserved a little treat. 

It was a nice day out and so I coerced the boys into taking a walk in the woods.  We scouted some areas to re-visit next week and get some more sticks and saplings for our fort.  We stumbled upon a snake, saw some "new" swamp and marsh areas we never noticed before, and enjoyed the fresh air. 

The snake blends right in with all the leaves; Alec almost stepped on it!

We ended our night with karate classes and a karate graduation.  Alec got his next belt which makes him an intermediate karate student and no longer a beginner.

We now have to buy him sparring gear and attend a few more classes.  Honestly, I dread this, but since the boy loves it so much I can't deny him.  I always thought I'd be a soccer mom; instead I'm a karate mom.

 And, I couldn't be prouder (of all my boys!).