Thursday, May 8, 2008

Who's On First?

We had the most delightful rendition of carschooling today, on our way to the airport to pick up my sis and BIL. I try to either play games or play books-on-tape in the car, for the very simple reason that it preserves the peace among the small fry. Oh, and it's educational. Yeah, that too.

So we sometimes play "Who Am I?" where I fire at the older two questions like, "I invented the printing press," or "I painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel," or "I won the Battle of Hastings," and they fire back the name (Eliza gets simpler ones). Today's variation: "What Came First?" I'd call out, "The David or the Sistine Chapel?" or "Genghis Khan or Kublai Khan?" or "Henry the Navigator or Christopher Columbus?" and Ian would answer. Eliza would echo. Caroline would occasionally contradict ("NO! THE BLACK PRINCE!") Okay, disclaimer: We don't memorize dates. We don't even do a timeline. We just read a lot, Ian reads a ton of history picture books, and we listen to Story of the World ad nauseum. Sad fact: he was better at this game than I was. He kept grumbling that my questions were easy-easy-lemon-squeezy, but, uh, I was probing the outer limits of my own knowledge. I mean, duh, Edward the Confessor came before William the Conqueror because E. the C. was a Saxon king, and W. the C. was a Norman! Everyone knows that! There were even a couple times when I'd ask him a question to which I didn't really know the answer. Since he was getting them all right (can I enter him as a Jeopardy contestant yet?), I figured I'd just say, "Great!" to whatever he answered! LOL!

It really was fun, even with Caroline blasting away on the harmonica in between rounds. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go verify who came first, Martin Luther or Johannes Gutenberg. Anyone know that off the top?

4 comments:

Tracee said...

You see? This is why you are not allowed to complain about not doing enough homeschooling, blah blah blah. At least one person in your family knew the answers: we'd be spending all day getting frustrated cause nobody would know it w/out looking it up. We're on Our Island Story. Story of the World starts next school year. And isn't Ian supposed to be a grade behind Philip? No more out of you missy, you are doing a superb job! Either that, or I really suck!!! ROFL

Vanessa said...

Um, can you be my history teacher? Or maybe I can be a fly on the wall when you read to the kids. I couldn't answer any of the who comes first questions. You are teaching your children way more than AISD!

Jo said...

Ditto to what Vanessa said! You guys are the perfect proof that home schooled kids are often better educated than public school kids. Keep up the excellent work, Hannah!

Anne said...

I feel guilty that I don't know the answer to your Luther/Gutenberg question right off the top of my head, but Aimee probably would, so we can relate in that area! And it reminds me of the time we were reviewing the "Rulers of England" list earlier in the year - I would say the name of one king, the kids would say the next. It was their turn to say "Ethelbert," but Aimee and Drew were too slow, and Ryan chimed in "Ethelburp!," followed by LOTS of burping sound effects and hysterical laughter... But how many kids know their history that well? Hooray for classical education!