Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Date Night/ a homeschooling Mom's thoughts


Last night was a big formal reception for the end of the convention that Mike has been attending. He and I got to dress up for a free night on the town (truly free except for the gas, unlike the stay in the hotel the other night). The kids had a fun night sleeping at their friends' house. It was a very grown up evening with a cocktail hour, filet minion (I have no idea how to spell that), and even a band. It was a Beatles tribute band and they were awesome! So what does one think about on night like that? Sitting there listening to the music, I was thinking about the curriculum for our upcoming school year. Jonathan and Madi will be studying 1850-Modern times. It is looking like a hard year with a lot of information about world politics etc, but I am so excited about the "social studies" of those years. First what was life like during the Civil War, but then later the turn of the Century forward. I can't wait to use books, movies, and music to help us learn about the different decades. Like Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life for the 30's and the Beatles etc for the 60's. I have these idealic (is that a word) pictures in my head about family stories from all of my beloved older relatives that have now passed away, and in my head they fit right along beside movies and stories about those same times (like when my parents' were growing up and Leave it to Beaver). My grandparents' first date for example was going to see Pinocchio (my grandfather thought it was pronounced Pin OC io)...we will watch that and imagine what it was like for Mugga and Papa when we get to studying the early 40's. I'm sure in the coming year there will be many posts about those "good old days" as we are learning them. I am also pretty sure most of our understanding of that time period will revolve around our knowledge of our what life was like for real people during those times (in other words more about what WWII was like for Papa (or Molly's Dad in the American Girl books) and less about the actual causes of it. We loosely follow a curriculum, but we learn an aweful lot!

6 comments:

Tiffany said...

Idyllic is the word you are looking for I think. I can't wait to hear all about what you are studying next year. There are so many great books that you guys can read to go along with it! That's funny that that is what was on your mind last night--us homeschooling moms never get a break! When we are not homeschooling, we are thinking about homeschooling.

ann marie said...

I would love to have seen your happy face too! Are you like me though and you just hate having your photo taken? It's funny the things that cross our minds when we are out on date nights. It is hard to NOT think and talk about the kids. And when we say we won't we do anyway. Well, really what else is there to talk about, politics? Oh that would be funny. I'm going to do that next time I go out with Greg.

Cheryl said...

I don't know... politics is a scary topic this year!

crispy said...

Date night and homeschool thoughts shouldn't be in the same night. Date night is for luuuvin'. =)

Glad you were able to spend the night with your hubby.

Randi Sue said...

Only a homeschool mom can understand why you thought about curriculum. It does sound like a fun year.

But, it is fun to do something different for a change.

Glad you had a good time.

Steph C. said...

I'm with you Chewhi.
Julie, you are doing as usual, such a great job homeschooling.
WHAT is wrong with ME??????? :)