outdoor school

I can tell that when it comes to homeschooling, I'm going to be a dreamer. I like thinking of fun things to do, creative and unusual ways to talk about things, and often my ideas get bigger and bigger until they become an all-day project. It will be amazing if we ever get anything done! But since I'm not actually starting homeschool for a while, I settle for big fun activities.

And since my friend amy IS homeschooling, I have to think of ways to get her to cancel class with her kids so she can come and play with me. (If you're a reader of amy's blog, I beg your pardon for seeing these pictures twice).

So my latest plot to convince amy to cancel school was to plan an outdoor school day. The challenge was thinking of enough activities that a 3 year old and a 7 year old could both participate in, but also challenge all kids involved.

Here's how it all ended up:
Meet at the city square at 9:15. Of course, I was late. But not by much. :)

The cast of characters - emma, savannah, alex, samantha and peter. I'm digging the clipboards and totally wished I had one of my own. Note to self: get a clipboard to carry around the house.

The kids liked them too and it made it feel more schoolish. At least I thought so. Too bad I didn't have any eraser caps. Didn't you totally love eraser caps when you were a kid?

First subject: Art.

The idea was to find a shady spot to sit and draw the big statue thing in the middle of the city square. Upon arriving to the square, I realized this would be a problem.

I guess it was closed for maintenance? Well, anyway, we regrouped and found a spot (though not shady) and decided to make the flagpole our focal point. Yes, the lightpole was in the way.
Yes, yes, my diligent students, draw away! Colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, clipboards! Yes, yes, yes!
You could say we, um, drew a crowd. No pun intended. Ha-dee-ha-ha. (Do you see bug visor lady? It's the shiny reflective thing in the middle. I love those things. Seriously, they wear them on their motorbikes so that bugs won't fly in their face. I wouldn't lie about something like that.)
Next: Social studies.

We walked around the square looking for people "at work". Who is working? What jobs are they doing?

We found lawn mower guy...

drink seller lady...
What would you call this? Grout-cleaner woman? Maybe "groundskeeper" sounds more official.
Fish-in-a-bag seller:
Ok, kids - it's 10:30! That means the fountain show comes on! But don't forget the workers you saw! We'll talk about it later!
Math:

Count how many steps to the top of the viewing platform. It's a good thing there were several of us counting, because there were a few discrepancies with the total count. We did not do a recount - it was hot, and I was tired and who wants to reclimb all the steps anyway? - but we think 67 was pretty close.

It was a pretty clear day. Here's the view of the fountain show, the square and the city from the viewing platform. It's actually a very lovely place. Crowded, but very lovely.
On top of the viewing platform, we revisited the social studies subject. We talked about Community Helpers and then discussed what would be different if those people weren't doing their jobs. What could we do to make their jobs easier? What are hard and easy parts of their jobs? I must be a captivating teacher... No, not really. They're just really good kids!
Abby thought it was so interesting she'd suck on her fingers.
After the discussion, we each chose a Community Helper to draw. Emma was hard at work:Language was next, but this one kind of got botched. I had prepared envelopes of money for each kid to buy a little water toy. I was going to have them each ask the vendor how much it was, and then tell them they wanted to buy one...but it didn't exactly work out that way. In any case, they all paid and got their cool water gun thingy.

The science component really just involved goofing around with the water gun, but I sold it to amy as something involving differing water pressure and experimenting and something else. But really it was just playing. Because water is fun. And water guns are even funner.

These water guns function like a giant syringe. Suck up all the water you can...

...and let 'er rip!
By the time science class was over, we were hot and tired. Lunch at McDonalds, with chocolate ice cream cones at the end, finished off the day.

School's out!