For The Love Of Learning

At the beginning of this school year I had my Teacher's Planning Book all filled, in order, of what each day of our month would hold as far as lessons.  I simply went through each workbook or textbook in order and divided out the chapters in to  weekly and daily lessons.  This year would be a 'no-brainer'! I told myself.  No guessing what to teach, no last minute scrambling for items for projects or experiments.  It was alllll laid out for us. 

Yesterday I finally had to admit to myself that I just need to throw that thing in the garbage.

Most of the time I feel like I am living out the "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" story.  Only my story should be titled "If You Give A Homeschool Mom Inspiration".

I officially fell off the wagon with our literature units for Halloween. 

A few days ago I glanced through our history book and I noticed we are one chapter away from discussing Isaac Newton. To say bells and whistles went off in my brain is an understatement.

Guess what unit we will be focusing on the next 6 weeks or so?  You guessed it...physics!

First, we are using Janice Van Cleve's book as a 'spine'...  http://www.amazon.com/Janice-VanCleaves-Physics-Every-Kid/dp/0471525057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320670219&sr=8-1

I found (stole) some ideas from a unit published on Squidoo http://www.squidoo.com/Inventions-and-Simple-achines-Inclined-Planes-Wedges-and-Physics

As well as lapbook ideas from here   http://www.squidoo.com/physicslapbook

Some fun stuff on physics here http://www.msichicago.org/online-science/simple-machines/activities/simple-machines/


We will be building ALL KINDS of stuff, including a waterwheel  
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Build_a_Plastic_Cup_Waterwheel

Catapults are in our plans as well. 
And a pulley big enough to mount to the swing set and pull each other up with.  :)

We will follow all of this with light, sound and heat studies.  And electricity. Squee!

Can I just tell you how excited I am to be doing all this fun stuff with my kids?  Yeah, I could have just stuck to my preplanned lessons, but where's the fun in that?  I want our lessons to be relevant to something else, in this case, our history lesson with Newton.  I have found when we go 'off the beaten path' and try new and interesting things that we learn so much more and ignite the love of learning.

And the love of learning is what I'm all about.