What Will Today BE?

This morning is off to a beautiful start.  I'm up early, the house is quiet and I baked scones last night!  (This is not a regular or normal thing for me.  The scones were inspired by some particularly delectable conserve that I purchased over the weekend.  It's lavender, blackberry and cabernet!)

As I sipped my coffee and enjoyed my scone, I started thinking about today.  I don't really have anything special planned for our school morning.  We did the Nature Center yesterday.  However, there's something stirring in my brain and it doesn't want to be inside.  Maybe it's as simple as starting our morning with a walk around the neighborhood.  Maybe we take a drive to a park.  I'm not sure yet.

That's part of the joy of homeschooling (which doesn't only take place at home).  I get to invent our day and follow the curiosity of my boys.  They are both very interested in nature and our planet right now.  Soren is fascinated with volcanoes and Kieran wants to know where we are on a map, at all times.  We have a big world map that we can write on, so we drew the path of all of our vacations yesterday.  Then, we drew the path of our upcoming trip to Iceland and Scotland.   I don't think that Kieran fully understands that a map represents the Earth, or our tiny place on it. However, Soren is really getting it and was amazed by how much further we'll be going.  They've never been across an ocean.

Soren also asked a lot of questions about how the map could be flat when the Earth is a sphere.  We talked about the fact that a map is only a flat representation of something spherical.  We also talked about the fact that people used to think the earth WAS ACTUALLY FLAT.  He was blown away by that idea.  We stood on the ground and looked around.  It seems flat.  We can't see the curve of the earth from where we are, so we can understand how people used to think the earth was flat.  Perspective!

I love to see the paradigm shifts happening in their brains!  You can actually see the moment they've internalized a new concept.  Their little faces light up and the wheels start turning.   It's a privilege to be the one who gets to see it, guide it and, hopefully, inspire it!