Fun with Fire

The homeschooling honeymoon has worn off in our house. We started with enthusiastic interest for each new task and rapt attention to every topic I presented has faded into a mostly comfortable rhythm and routine where some days are better than others. The announcement of school time is met some days with resistance and requests for more time to play rather than a dash for the school room. We still have days where the girls can't wait to get started, but they are less frequent than when we began. I imagine this is normal whether your child is in public, private or home schooled. (And if it's not, I'm not sure I want you to tell me!) We push through the tough days and get our lessons accomplished, sometimes saving some work for the next day when minds and attitudes are refreshed. In the last week or so, boundaries have been tested, interest has been short, and truthfully, my patience has been thin. While I consider it a huge blessing to stay home with my kids and teach them, it is not always easy. I think we all needed a break and a reminder of some of those fun first days. We got just that yesterday. 

I had decided to take a break from our normal curriculum and do a couple of days on community helpers and safety. I gathered some books from the library and printed off some coloring pages, but other than that I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do. After the girls' gymnastics lessons, I decided to stop by our local fire station, and they were gracious enough to give us a personal tour. The girls had a blast looking at and climbing in the fire truck.



They were given junior firefighter hats and badges as well as coloring books and temporary tattoos. Cora, who is normally quite shy around adults and strangers, shocked me by asking several of her own questions. She was so interested in how the truck worked and what their job entailed.


 The girls were able to see the lights and our tour guide allowed Cora to sound the siren on the truck. When we had exhausted our questions and taken a few photos, it was time to go but neither of them were ready.

Once we got home, I made a huge bowl of popcorn (a favorite snack but something I usually save for after dinner or special movies) and we headed up to the school room. There we read some books on fire safety, including a cute narrative called No Dragons for Tea. The girls colored in the book from the fire station, worked on some early reading skills with a firefighter matching game (thank you Pinterest) and did some copy work with fire safety words.
 We did some role playing games where I set off the smoke detector and they pretended to crawl under the smoke to the door, check the doorknob for heat, stop, drop and roll when their clothes caught fire, and crawl outside then call 9-1-1. I'm pretty sure they would have done that repeatedly all day. 

When we were done inside, Cora "suited up" and we headed to the backyard where she took the hose and pretended to be a firefighter putting out our house fire. 

While we may not have accomplished as much work as we normally do, there was not one complaint or argument all day. The girls learned some important life skills, Cora came out of her shell asking her own questions to the firefighter, and most importantly we all had a lot of fun. It was exactly the "break" we all needed, and I am inspired to plan more fun days like this into our regular curriculum.