"We Must Meet Hate With Love." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Last night we watched, If We Had No Moon. Pretty interesting. The whole time we were watching it I thought, Luke must be bored (Isabel had already fallen asleep) a lot of this stuff is probably over his head. After it was over he said he LOVED it. He is really into anything science. Today we made our poster that we will take with us to the Martin Luther King Jr. parade. I glued the Unity Wreath onto some poster board. Then at the bottom wrote "We must meet hate with love." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The kids colored it, drew hearts, etc.

Luke and Isabel wrote in their journals. I especially liked what Luke wrote. His journal start was, "When I am eighteen years old, I will be..." He wrote, "preparing to be a missionary, building robots, studying hard, playing the piano and still making stories." So cute. Luke had a math test while Isabel started a new math lesson. Now Luke is reading and Isabel is listening to books on tape.

Tangible Proof

Everything that Luke and Isabel did today were very unschoolish. -They cleaned out the car. (Lesson on cleanliness AND that mommy gets angry if you leave all of your crap in the car!)

-They helped me make a chocolate pie. (Lesson on following Jello pudding directions. Also good hand eye coordination...seriously, it is easy to forget that we once had to learn how to stir.)

-They worked on their rough draft of the Superhero Comic Book they are making. (Lesson on writing, drawing, imagination, story problems, etc.)

-They rode their scooters outside (P.E., right?)

-Webkinz (okay okay, I know, not ALL of those games are educational.)

-Isabel read Bob Books to me.

-Isabel made a beaded bracelet (Lesson on patterns and more hand eye coordination.)

-Right now they are currently working on the Comic Book rough draft some more.

I know I will feel utterly guilty if I don't at least slip them a Math worksheet tonight. I don't know if I will ever get out of the worksheet-textbook-sit-down-school frame of mind. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with worksheets or sitting down for that matter (textbooks I am not sold on though.) Worksheets are such wonderful tangible proof to the teacher of the students work. Think about it, our car will get messy again, the chocolate pie is already half eaten and I am betting that in a few days the beads from the bracelet will be scattered all over the house. That is mostly why I/we (Joey too) write this blog. So that I can read this a year or years from now and say, "Hey, we DID do school."....tangible proof.

Another Children's Martin Luther King Jr. Book

On Friday we finished our book for Sylvia. Luke and Isabel (alright, I must admit, I was coloring in coloring books too) cut out pictures that they drew or colored, glued them onto construction paper, put them in sheet protectors and in a 1/2 inch notebook. When Sylvia woke up, Luke and Isabel showed her her new book. She loves it. This morning Sylvia had a doctor's appointment. Last night I had gotten Luke and Isabel's "away from home" folders loaded up with their Math worksheets, spelling, a Bob book for Isabel and an article about Pluto being technically not a planet anymore. During the appointment, they both got their math and spelling done and Luke read half of the article and highlighted words he doesn't know the definition of.

When we got home, I read Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream by Jacqueline A. Ball. This book was great. I love the illustrations in the other MLK children's books we have read, but something different about this one, actual photos. Also, this book references www.usconstitution.net/dream.html for the "I Have a Dream" speech in its entirety. On Monday, January 21st (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) at 10:00 am there is going to be an MLK parade downtown. We will be there!