Our homeschooling pace is set to the beat of whichever drum we choose to beat from day-to-day. Life is varying and unpredictable. There are appointments, and gatherings, museum trips, and nature adventures to fit in. It seems that anytime I sketch out a cute little schedule and hold a family meeting to roll out the new routine, it just never sticks. It typically causes frustration and a lack of productivity.
What does work for us, is a day built around the ‘have-tos’, padded with connection, and a little bit of personal time added as needed. That seems to be the ideal ‘schedule’ for us.
Lately, the bulk of our learning time is happening on a one-on-one meeting. This allows for Maggie or Ezra to run ‘Ira School’, while the other child has some sit down time with me to work on developing skills. Ezra is excited to learn how to read, and so most of our time together is spent playing reading games and tackling poems, which he seems to enjoy both reading and memorizing.
Maggie and I typically work on math problems involving elaborate tales of pirates, cookies, and mermaids, and we’ve also been pouring some extra TLC towards spelling.
Ira, at age two, has a variety of activities offered to him including water colour painting, stickers, riding bikes, and reading stories, in partnership with an older sibling.
Most of our other subjects are being explored through novel studies… afternoons find us poured onto the couch with tea and muffins, reading aloud, as well as through something we call project time which involves a personal study of a topic the kids are excited about….currently, earth science, geology, and stem projects are taking up a lot of focus.
The remaining hours before Papa Bear arrives home are for our own agendas, which for me, typically means laundry folding and something for my own personal growth or relaxation. I just finished up a couple of great books, one for entertainment and the other for growing my mom-skills.The plethora of household chores fits into this groove as well, but it’s thoroughly less fun to write about…perhaps that will be another post!
Christmas Magic
When my hands first connected with my partner’s face, back when we were just kids really, my world, previously encrusted with cynicism and boredom, suddenly
Homeschooling Update
Our homeschooling pace is set to the beat of whichever drum we choose to beat from day-to-day. Life is varying and unpredictable. There are appointments,
Beeswax Leaves & Thanksgiving Beauty
once dry, they will last for a number of months, colour and all
Out of our bubble
It’s so easy to feel useless when it comes to creating political change. We live in an area where my vote will most certainly be
You Were Made
You were made for hand-holding and for adventuring, for oat pancake stacks and trips to the stars
You were made for questioning, for queries both elementary and abstract
You were made for laughter and for sorrow
You were made for joie de vivre
And Just Like That, It’s Fall
I’m reminded that we don’t need anything except time. Time to read, time to play, time to blend a simple life with learning, the way we do all the days of the year.
