The math can wait.
The handwriting can wait.
The phonics can wait.
The spelling can wait.
The history can wait.
Wednesday began like any other typical homeschool day. The kids were gathered around our table, each working on respective tasks. Chloe on math. Grace spelling. Hannah at writing class. And I was working with Brennan. We just finished doing a page of phonics, when I turned to the next suggestion in our curriculum. It was about water -- it gave a few suggestions of books to read and how to talk about the water cycle. I asked him, "do you want to do a rain experiment?" Of course, there was an immediate shout of joy, and just as quickly he jumped to my side. So we made rain on the stove -- following this "amazing" experiment.
Boil water. Fill a cookie sheet or 8x8 pan with ice cubes. Remove boiling water, place pan of ice on top of pan of boiling water. Remove after one minute, and then lift pan filled with ice up. Check out the condensation underneath and wait for the rain to fall.
That's it. And he was hooked. Question after question after question. So we made a rain gauge. I simply took the empty ICE Sparkling Water (from last night's expedition with Chloe), cut off the top, marked it every inch and half-inch, and nailed it to a post. Then Brennan and I bundled up and pounded it into the dirt flower pot on our deck --visible from the kitchen. More questions.
So I kept running. I found books, and we read about the water cycle. I searched and located the Magic School Bus Waterworks episode. Which led to him watching another episode on weather. By this time Caleb and Grace joined in (which worked out great because I was making lunch). Then after lunch he was drawing pictures of how water moves. Questions. He was curious. He wanted to see the radar. And check the rain gauge. And make rain. Again.
I could have drawn a diagram when we were doing the lesson. I could have told him about the water cycle. I could have told him that we'll talk about that tomorrow. But, what if he lost interest by then? What if the moment of running was right now? I didn't want to lose it. So I let go of the schedule. I pushed my checklist aside, and added science and water-cycle and weather to it. That was our new plan. For today. Because I know that we'll catch up on the math, the spelling, the writing, the history, the phonics, and all of that tomorrow. In fact, we'll probably be running with one of those subjects soon. Today it was science.
There are many walking days - when it's time to run - we're off.
