We Interrupt This Program

One of the most fabulous things about homeschooling is being able to tailor the program to exactly what each individual child needs. Some days that means we need to stop what we are doing and work on something totally different.

For example, with my 12yo, we actually use a combination of two different curricula for math. He LOVES Life of Fred, and actually doesn't fight me to do math as much. He doesn't love the math, but the story and the way the book is written. There are also limited problems each day. However, sometimes we get to a topic where he just needs a little more practice. That is when we pull out the Saxon Math and practice for a few days, or sometimes longer. Saxon Math is a great curriculum, he just does not love ALL the repetitiveness and many, many problems. Therefore, the combination of the two seems to work the best for him.

This brings me to the challenge of the day. My 8yo is still at a tender age where he is not ready to handle all the information in current events. I do not watch the news in my house, and only discuss with them what I think they are ready to handle. I read my news from multiple sources, so as to try to get the full story and find out what all sides think on an issue. I had not discussed with them the tsunami or the situation in Japan at all. However, my parents were over for lunch yesterday. My dad brought up the tsunami as a topic of conversation. The 12yo was very curious and wanted more information. That's great. We discussed this with him and answered all his questions. After lunch, the 8yo went to his room and was crying. I had no idea what was wrong. It took me quite some time to get him calmed down enough for him to tell me what the problem was. He was scared that a tsunami was going to destroy America. It took me about half an hour to explain thing to him. I thought he understood and was fine after that. Around 8:30pm, he came into my room and said, "I will not be able to sleep. I think a tsunami will destroy America at night." Sometimes it is a very good thing to be obsessed with science. I just happen to have "Our Planet Earth" and "Our Weather and Waters" that I picked up from the Creation Museum when we were there a couple years ago. I knew I wanted to do them someday with the boys, but we hadn't got to them yet. Well, today's the day. We have been studying Swimming Creatures. We interrupt our regularly scheduled swimming creatures lesson to break into studying geology and weather. I'm thinking a trip to the beach may be required to fully study the waves too.