Today's Lessons

Josie's mood improved so much after vigorous exercise. We added some deep breathing, led by Jake, and some stretching. Once again we did the Bear, the Inchworm, the dreaded Russian Hop, the impossible Frog Sit, the Crabwalk, the Ape walk, and the Tortoise and Hare. The only exercise I can't do is the wheelbarrow. I tried Josie on my right foot and Jake on my left. There was a lot of stumbling and hooting, then a big crash.

We studied a bit more about the brain today, especially the associative parts of the brain. They control our language and communication. I talked with them about how a baby's cry really tells us very little, and how good it is that we have language as we get older so that we can express precisely what we need. The associative part of the brain also helps us to communicate our culture to our children. We talked about what centers of the brain we were using while we did our reading and our exercising.

There was also a bit of discussion about why humans are so highly evolved. The book we were reading theorized that humans became so advanced because they had to use their brains to survive in difficult environments like the African savanna. That our brains needed to become more complex in order to craft tools, hunt and find food and protect ourselves from predators. I thought about this a minute and wondered then why so many animals with much smaller brains and bodies as vulnerable as ours have managed to survive for so many millions of years without developing human intelligence. Meerkats, giraffes, zebras, etc. have survived just fine on the savanna without tools or spoken language. I told the kids that we were smart because God made us that way. That we love in a way that animals don't (might be an exception here for dogs, being that they come straight from heaven), that the reason we are so smart is that we're made to share that love. That perhaps we are not animals at all, but something different.

Then we worked on our word searches. It was a very short schooling session today, but I think there will be days that they are open to learning more.

Next week we're going with some friends to Atlanta to see the "Body" exhibit.

Reading and Comprehension, physical education, science, handwriting.