Doing what they Love

I wish I could list all these great things we accomplished this week for a weekly report. But I have to admit it was mostly just more of the same. My kids are working through their different programs and reading a lot of books but honestly I don't see the joy of learning in their eyes until they get to do the fun stuff or the things that they love.

 Henry has always been more physical. Not that he can't do the usually reading, writing, and arithmatic. He just really loves doing things.  He is always asking for some more time outside riding bikes, or skating, and when he is inside he is tumbling all the time. He is trying to walk on his hands or doing flips onto pillows. So his passion is really Gymnastics. He really wishes he could go to his gymnastics class everyday.

Practicing strength moves on the parallel bars

Henry is determined to do a front flip so his instructor is helping he figure out how to do it safely.

Round offs off the mat.

Walking backward on the beam.

Sophie loves being creative. She made up a Harry Potter Monopoly game this week and the kids had fun playing that a few times. She also really loves her pottery class. Not every pot she attempts is successful but she still enjoys the class and wants to take the next section of the class now that this one if finishing.

Sophie is very proud of these bowls. She painted them with a pheonix on the bottom. 

Ian's passion is for Legos. The mindstorms is always drawing his attention. He can build and rebuilt that robot every moment of the day and not get bored. Henry is often trying to get him to go out and ride bikes or scooters or even jump rope and Ian would rather stay inside and build his robots. He is still working on programming them well. But with time he will get better and better at it.

This is a fork lift he built awhile ago. He has also made a printer and a number of other robots in the last few weeks.

Molly just has a passion for all things girly. She wants to dress up, play dolls, have tea parties and read books about princesses.

So while we do do enough academics to get through our requirements I have to say the kids only do those things because they "have to".  Infact I use that reasoning with Henry often. If I don't have work to put in his portfolio to show we have done math or writing or science then he doesn't get to have his Gymnastic class which the charter school pays for. He understands this and gets his work done but he still doesn't get a thrill for adding up a stack of numbers or from writing yet another sentence with an adjective and an adverb in it.  Ian knows the legos don't get to come out until the daily school subjects are covered and finished. Sophie tries really hard to add artwork and creativity into everything she does but she is always happiest when she is finally given freedom to do as she wishes.

I am glad my kids are learning to get their work done first before they get to play but I really wish they loved school work more. It would make my job a little easier and I wouldn't feel quite so much like a drill sergeant.