April 18th

Today is coop day, aka we don't do a lot of schoolwork day.

crystal tree

8 yo made a sink and a robot in Destruction, light saber is in progress. 6 yo did math with even/odd numbers. In experiments, one came home with crystal-growing tree and another with green hands and density bottle. Then in Egypt they made obelisks with symbols. 8 you explained how Egyptians thought that gods communicated with them through obelisks and he was not sure that we should be bringing them home. After all the Greek mythology, I'm surprised at his degree of sensitivity.

Since it had been raining and we felt quite done by lunchtime, I only wrote down a few things, just Judaics. 6 yo did Lama; it took him about 45 minutes to complete a bunch on sentences. He also melted down in science class when he was asked to write. At least today he just took his time instead of screaming.

We finished the perek with 8 yo. He made sure that we're doing it the "light" way, but he breezed through the pesukim. He understood some of them as he was reading them. He said that he didn't realize that Moav is our cousin. He also noted on the source of the name. And he also sent me to check what Rashi had to say about all of this. I think we are Rashi-ready here.

Then we made challah dough, with oats, wheat germ and whole wheat flour. I'm a bit worried that this time I outdid myself and nobody will eat it.

By this point the rain had stopped, so we went outside to plant. I have been composting and we just mixed it with store-bought soil and some sand. The plants we got came in biodegradable pots, so the boys took turns snipping off the plastic, ripping the pots into pieces and placing the seedlings into soil. The watering was probably the favorite part. We also planted some impatients, which led to jokes.

After we washed off the mud, the boys settled down with books. But then 8 yo got up on his own to practice drumming. We have an ongoing dialogue about how you need to practice hard things to become good at them, how practice takes time and how things look easy but are difficult to do. He has been a bit disillusioned, since he expected that as long as he has access to drums, he'll make up amazing tunes. I was hesitant myself, as I am not planning on pushing him to drum. However, I am quite happy that he decided to practice on his own. I  have seen quite an improvement since Sunday and I do hope that he'll get encouraged by his success.