weekly happenings
Something that has always been hard for me is the "in-between" of starting and finishing a project. I'm a big ideas person, and I also have very little trouble with follow-through, but it's just the living with the messiness of something in-progress that is difficult for me.
Which, I mean, HOMESCHOOLING. Hello! Biggest "in-progress" project of my life!
Other collected, somewhat tangential, but I-keep-this-blog-for-myself-so-who-cares thoughts:
-my friend PJ was explaining his building process for laying out the front patio area of the Quaker Meetinghouse where we attend meeting together: he had built the stone patio that leads up to a new First Day School addition to the Meetinghouse the year prior, but had yet to build actual steps up to it on the side where the grade sharply dropped, leaving a funkily high drop that kids have loved jumping off of lately. He explained, "the Japanese never just build a garden path, but they wait until the grass has yellowed and deadened in the areas where people seem naturally to walk, and THEN place stones there. That's pretty much what I've done here, is wait to see what would be most useful, really-- I've waited to let the steps tell me where and whether they should be built". I find that philosophy so useful in applying to homeschooling, too. Or even just in structuring one's day! I'm naturally the sort who likes to have things laid out and planned ahead of, and then to plan contingency plans on top of that. But it is really beautiful to plan for a few days to just BE, and then to see if one can use that natural unfolding as a scaffold for other days, so that each day is organized in a really natural but useful way.
-related to the above, that's how I've been using some deschooling time in making adjustments to how our homeschool days should flow. When to begin our formal sit-down work? When to do MATH? (Historically the trickiest subject for us).
-I am the sort of human and mother who really needs to take a shower every single day. I do not function well without feeling clean! Our first year of homeschooling, I thus prioritized The Shower, thinking that if I could grab one before the homeschool day began, I'd be in the right frame of mind and have it out of the way, and we could proceed in our magical homeschool endeavors. It never really worked that way. I don't know if this is true for anyone else with a handful of very small children and babies, but it is a battle getting into the shower! What would happen, then, is that showering would take far longer than expected, or I'd feel rushed, and then our homeschool day wouldn't start quite as soon or as calmly as desired.... So, this time, I've found myself teaching morning lessons in my pajamas, nursing coffee (and often nursing the toddler as well!). It works well to get the day going early, around 7:30 am, while we have energy and momentum and before MJ gets sidetracked by all the Various Projects. After Language Arts and Handwriting, I have found that popping on an episode of Cosmic Kids Yoga is a good break/distraction while I then shower. And then we head straight into Math at 9:30ish, finishing before lunch and leaving time for readalouds. We have lunch, I lay down with the toddler and sometimes sneak in a nap, or personal reading, or (as now) writing, while the older kids work on quiet projects. Today, I think MJ is re-reading her Fancy Nancy mystery series and finishing making a board game we'll play later this afternoon. OP is playing with toy cars in his room. Toddler is napping for now, and when he wakes up and "quiet time" is over, we'll head into History, reading a bit of Story of the World and coloring maps. We'll play the math game MJ and I prepared earlier, which I wish I could attach a photo of! (Related: we are planning on upgrade our phones in the next month, so hopefully I'll have plenty of pictures to add to this space instead of yammering on in words!) Then violin lessons for the older two.
-this week, we've had a lovely schmorgasbord of: History (reading Story of the World Vol. 1, mapping the Fertile Crescent, exploring prehistoric art by making "cave art" handprints, looking up corresponding entries in our Kingfisher and Usborne encyclopedias, watching the Magic School Bus Archaeology episode); Language Arts (Learning Language Arts Through Literature, the Red Book, is new for us and has been a fantastic way to structure continued phonics, spelling, and grammar work with quality reading selections); Math (we used Math-u-See back in Kindergarten, switched to Math Mammoth, and are now again using Math Mammoth with some Miquon thrown in; I find that plenty of time to play with cuisinare rods, scales, clocks, money, etc., providing a stuffed mammoth as mascot, and using Cosmic Kids yoga as a stretching break, has really helped keep motivation up. It's still not a favorite subject, but we are learning); plenttttttty of tantrums from the 19-month old, coffee for me, and using the 100 board and moveable alphabet for the 4 year old.
-I have realized that it is okay to take learning slowly. MJ isn't doing as many math pages per day as I'd like. But what is happening is that she's learning, she's not burnt out, and her brain has far more opportunity for growth than if I pushed her to be more productive. It is really easy to slip into trying to be as ruthlessly efficient as possible, to add more lessons and more pages and more subjects in order to prove that homeschooling is superior to brick-and-mortar. But I don't think homeschooling's strength lies in it's efficiency, though it CAN be more efficient. It's in the operating mode being inherently more relaxed, joyful, and deep. We can explore subjects in a truly engaged way, where we're fully present and there to learn. I'm so grateful for that!
The days are exceptionally crazy. I'm exhausted (and really thinking I need to night wean FH. haha!) It's hard to shut off the "thinking about homeschooling, reading about homeschooling, homeschool planning, etc etc" mode. For that, I'm making good on my promise to myself to squeeze in time for personal reading, rest, playing board games with B when the kids are in bed, going on walks, and other forms of basic self-care. I am also finding so much value in using this blogging space to both record what we do in our homeschool, but also to debrief and unpack what's working and what's not. Really hoping to stick with it (and secretly make our presentation to our homeschool evaluator that much easier as well)!
Which, I mean, HOMESCHOOLING. Hello! Biggest "in-progress" project of my life!
Other collected, somewhat tangential, but I-keep-this-blog-for-myself-so-who-cares thoughts:
-my friend PJ was explaining his building process for laying out the front patio area of the Quaker Meetinghouse where we attend meeting together: he had built the stone patio that leads up to a new First Day School addition to the Meetinghouse the year prior, but had yet to build actual steps up to it on the side where the grade sharply dropped, leaving a funkily high drop that kids have loved jumping off of lately. He explained, "the Japanese never just build a garden path, but they wait until the grass has yellowed and deadened in the areas where people seem naturally to walk, and THEN place stones there. That's pretty much what I've done here, is wait to see what would be most useful, really-- I've waited to let the steps tell me where and whether they should be built". I find that philosophy so useful in applying to homeschooling, too. Or even just in structuring one's day! I'm naturally the sort who likes to have things laid out and planned ahead of, and then to plan contingency plans on top of that. But it is really beautiful to plan for a few days to just BE, and then to see if one can use that natural unfolding as a scaffold for other days, so that each day is organized in a really natural but useful way.
-related to the above, that's how I've been using some deschooling time in making adjustments to how our homeschool days should flow. When to begin our formal sit-down work? When to do MATH? (Historically the trickiest subject for us).
-I am the sort of human and mother who really needs to take a shower every single day. I do not function well without feeling clean! Our first year of homeschooling, I thus prioritized The Shower, thinking that if I could grab one before the homeschool day began, I'd be in the right frame of mind and have it out of the way, and we could proceed in our magical homeschool endeavors. It never really worked that way. I don't know if this is true for anyone else with a handful of very small children and babies, but it is a battle getting into the shower! What would happen, then, is that showering would take far longer than expected, or I'd feel rushed, and then our homeschool day wouldn't start quite as soon or as calmly as desired.... So, this time, I've found myself teaching morning lessons in my pajamas, nursing coffee (and often nursing the toddler as well!). It works well to get the day going early, around 7:30 am, while we have energy and momentum and before MJ gets sidetracked by all the Various Projects. After Language Arts and Handwriting, I have found that popping on an episode of Cosmic Kids Yoga is a good break/distraction while I then shower. And then we head straight into Math at 9:30ish, finishing before lunch and leaving time for readalouds. We have lunch, I lay down with the toddler and sometimes sneak in a nap, or personal reading, or (as now) writing, while the older kids work on quiet projects. Today, I think MJ is re-reading her Fancy Nancy mystery series and finishing making a board game we'll play later this afternoon. OP is playing with toy cars in his room. Toddler is napping for now, and when he wakes up and "quiet time" is over, we'll head into History, reading a bit of Story of the World and coloring maps. We'll play the math game MJ and I prepared earlier, which I wish I could attach a photo of! (Related: we are planning on upgrade our phones in the next month, so hopefully I'll have plenty of pictures to add to this space instead of yammering on in words!) Then violin lessons for the older two.
-this week, we've had a lovely schmorgasbord of: History (reading Story of the World Vol. 1, mapping the Fertile Crescent, exploring prehistoric art by making "cave art" handprints, looking up corresponding entries in our Kingfisher and Usborne encyclopedias, watching the Magic School Bus Archaeology episode); Language Arts (Learning Language Arts Through Literature, the Red Book, is new for us and has been a fantastic way to structure continued phonics, spelling, and grammar work with quality reading selections); Math (we used Math-u-See back in Kindergarten, switched to Math Mammoth, and are now again using Math Mammoth with some Miquon thrown in; I find that plenty of time to play with cuisinare rods, scales, clocks, money, etc., providing a stuffed mammoth as mascot, and using Cosmic Kids yoga as a stretching break, has really helped keep motivation up. It's still not a favorite subject, but we are learning); plenttttttty of tantrums from the 19-month old, coffee for me, and using the 100 board and moveable alphabet for the 4 year old.
-I have realized that it is okay to take learning slowly. MJ isn't doing as many math pages per day as I'd like. But what is happening is that she's learning, she's not burnt out, and her brain has far more opportunity for growth than if I pushed her to be more productive. It is really easy to slip into trying to be as ruthlessly efficient as possible, to add more lessons and more pages and more subjects in order to prove that homeschooling is superior to brick-and-mortar. But I don't think homeschooling's strength lies in it's efficiency, though it CAN be more efficient. It's in the operating mode being inherently more relaxed, joyful, and deep. We can explore subjects in a truly engaged way, where we're fully present and there to learn. I'm so grateful for that!
The days are exceptionally crazy. I'm exhausted (and really thinking I need to night wean FH. haha!) It's hard to shut off the "thinking about homeschooling, reading about homeschooling, homeschool planning, etc etc" mode. For that, I'm making good on my promise to myself to squeeze in time for personal reading, rest, playing board games with B when the kids are in bed, going on walks, and other forms of basic self-care. I am also finding so much value in using this blogging space to both record what we do in our homeschool, but also to debrief and unpack what's working and what's not. Really hoping to stick with it (and secretly make our presentation to our homeschool evaluator that much easier as well)!
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