Hanna’s Homeschool

Hanna has been doing some really neat things in her homeschool lately.  I’ve had a lot of fun learning alongside her. 

Writing is an area that Hanna struggles with learning and I struggle with teaching.  I happened across a 9 week creative writing course several weeks ago.  I was excited to have her begin it and hoping she would share my enthusiasm.  She was reluctant that it would be fun, but after a couple assignments she was as convinced as I was!

So far our most fun was an assignment using the five senses to add details and create a picture in the reader’s mind.  I gave her 3 items—a jingle bell, a piece of chocolate and a cotton ball.  She had to fill out a sensory chart about each item and I banned her from using certain words so she would use that big vocabulary she’s gotten from reading a bazillion books!

Another fun thing we did for sensory details/senses was…I blindfolded Hanna and took her into a dark room.  I sat her down in a chair and left the blindfold on the whole time.  In the room I had rainforest noises playing (I used one of those sleep machines).  After a minute or so I put a small piece of a dessert in her mouth.  We just happened to be studying South Africa this same week so it was Malva (cake) Bread Pudding.  After she had time to taste it I turned on a fan, slow at first and then it got stronger and stronger.  I switched the machine from rainforest to thunderstorm noises.  I left it like this for another minute or two, then slowed the fan again till it was off and switched the machine back to rainforest.  I misted the air with a tropical spray we had on hand.  Finally, I turned everything off, took off the blindfold and asked her to go fill out another sensory detail chart as best she could remember from all she’d just experienced.  Her assignment was to write some sort of piece using her sensory chart about ‘where she had been’.  She did a super job and we both thought this was an awesome assignment.

In Science she made a cool DNA double helix.

She and I made a cell model cake together.  This was fun and we enjoyed making it.

She’s been doing great school work in all of her subjects.  We’ve gone over what she has left to finish up for 7th grade to end, and summer break to begin.  She is really hoping to be done the second week of June before she heads off to youth girls’ camp. 

We have been having a lot of fun in our homeschool and I am just so thankful I am blessed to be on this journey alongside my beautiful, sweet children.