One of our greatest blessings over the course of our short homeschool journey has been that we have not had to go it alone. We are so very grateful to be able to homeschool with several very dear friends from church. One of those friends is....
Juju!
I am convinced that Juju is one of God's greatest works. Ever. There really are no words to describe the joy this one child can bring into any one person's life in a matter of seconds. She is like a modern day Pollyanna combined with the Tasmanian Devil (in the way that she is a ball of energy, not that she will eat any thing in site).
We are very excited that, this year, Merrick and Juju are in the same Classical Conversations "class." I don't know what we would do without Juju. Merrick's bond with her is such a natural one. Their friendship is so simple and pure and fun.
Last week, we invited Juju and her family (her mom is a very dear friend of mine and her little brother is just slightly younger than the twins!) to come homeschool with us for the day. We had such fun going over the CC memory work together and reading a book about Africa (we're studying ancient Africa in CC). We also took turns acting out verbs (thinking, flying, singing). Then, we went downstairs and had lunch on plates that looked like African animals. We made hot cocoa with "zebra" marshmallows that I just happened to see at the store the night before (marshmallows with chocolate stripes). We talked a bit about the zebra.
Then, we decided to make play-doh replicas of the earth in order to show it's layers (core, mantle, crust). As we added each play-doh layer, I would read a bit about it in a library book. After we made all the different layers, we decided to karate chop them down the middle...
Just kidding. We used a knife.
The kids enjoyed seeing the different layers in the middle.
We also used an Oreo cookie, some chocolate syrup, and an M&M to show the earth's layers. I love using our lunches and snacks as a way to reinforce what we're learning.
After lunch, we used paper plates and markers to make an African necklace. Sawyer refused to be a part of the pic below.
Lastly, we went upstairs and let Merrick and Juju finish out their math and phonics independently. This, of course, wasn't really the best idea. They were both a little too excited to be homeschooling together to focus. Next time, we'll finish out these subjects before meeting together.
We just love Juju and her family. We feel like we are partners on this journey, which is more of a blessing than I could ever put into words. The day after this meeting, I texted Juju's mom and told her - ten years from now, we will look back on days like this as the most precious ever.
