| The Rhythm of Our Days |
Daily LogIt was so wonderful to have a big plate of steamy buttermilk pancakes this morning, little rivers of butter and syrup soaking around the sausage links. We cleared the table for the first time all week and sat and luxuriated in a quiet morning meal. I'll be soooo glad when this move is over!Most of the conversation dealt with paralysis and the different methods of capital punishment through history. Gross. I made 'em quit before I sat down to eat. :-P They all pitched in together and combed over the back yard, gathering all the outside stuff into one place so next weekend when we load it will be ready. And they did such a fantastic job that Dad took them swimming! He did something different with Firstborn today: set him up as "Group Leader" and taught him how to manage his crew. In typical fashion Firstborn stepped right up and they didn't bicker at all the whole time! When they get home from the pool they'll learn a nastier part of keeping animals. The Finches have been killing their young. We suspected it this morning when one was dead in the bottom of the cage but I confirmed it this afternoon when I caught one of the adults pecking at another in a corner. It's barely surviving. I have it in a box; wasn't sure what else to do. 5:41 PM - Jun. 17, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentDaily LogWe're listening to The Bridge To Terebithia on audio tape in the car this week. I'd forgotten how much I love that story! I love how it portrays the power of learning that comes alive in a mind and how it frees the soul to understand there are greater possibilities in this world, even when our experience is limited.Last night Sunshine had a lesson on measurement with dad; they compared the measurements he took in the new house with the dimensions of our current residence. She spent a good hour or so today creating the neatest sculptures! They are women made of paper, 3 dimensional and totally fabulous. She's also been designing buildings; she has one made like a lipstick tube, one with a water panel across the front facade, and one shaped like a duck. They are really imaginative. She made Dad a Father's Day card full of jokes of her own creation; he's gonna love it. It's like a little book. Firstborn put together a nice Father's Day letter too; it says, "I appreciate you because...." and lists some of the favorite memories he's had this year with dad. I love how thorough he was and that he let me work with him on the spelling. We got some great word practice in! W had had a blast at camp this week. They've done crafts, learned bike safety and rode a course, learned how to properly retire a flag, played games and learned songs; he comes home sweaty and tired and very, very happy. Phat Baby, who seems to be slimming down a bit and might need a new nickname, learned the hard way what "hot" means. He can say a version of "bye" now. He has to be watched very closely with our new chicks, which came yesterday, because he is too rough with them. Those chicks are going to be a lot of fun! The kids love to handle them and play with them and care for them. Hands-on learning at it's best. 7:09 PM - Jun. 16, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentside benefitSomehow morning people came from my womb. Don't know how it happened. Think their dad must have had something to do with it....Anyway, they NEVER sleep in. Until now. 9 am and still everyone isn't up. What changed? A week of cub scout camp and carpooling and then flashlight tag up and down our yard until way late, hootin' and hollerin' with friends. The stuff of dreams come true. 8:54 AM - Jun. 16, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentwhen days run togetherBusy packing, busy Having Summer.The last few days the kids have watched Fly Away Home, the first Lord of the Rings, and I Love Lucy. They built a tee-pee camp down in the hollow and set a racoon trap. W went to cub scout "day camp" in the evening, coming home flushed and excited. I had little boys all over my yard hootin' and hollerin' and being otherwise very picturesque. Firstborn and Sunshine attempted to sleep down in the hollow last night, catching fireflies in jars, eating popcorn, and coming in around 11. It couldn't have been more like something from a book! They've also been incredibly bored and hyper. My goal is to get as much of the packing done as I can this week and then take them out to do stuff M-W of next week. Then I can just finish up the last minute stuff on Thursday, sign the papers on Friday, and get moving on Saturday. I need to get grades done this week for our online umbrella (more on that in another post). I'm thinking we'll take a week to get to know the new neighborhood and house and unpack and then spend some time doing Family Math projects. I've been wanting to dig into that book a bit more. We'll see how it goes. 8:06 AM - Jun. 14, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentDaily LogAh....if Saturday had taken any longer getting here I wouldn't have made it!Firstborn: watched The Cat From Outer Space again and cleaned the kitchen after pancakes. Did a great job too! Loafed around, worked a bit on his sculpture. We took them to the community pool late in the day and he had a blast getting familiar with his dives, jumps, and strokes. That we are missing swim team for the second year in a row is a real kick in the teeth. He made guacamole for me, which was excellent. Sunshine: cleaned her room early and helped with the kitchen. Watched the same movie. Chased a rabbit out of the garden. Split her time in the pool between the big slide and coaxing Phat Baby to get in. W: went with Dad to collect boxes and to Walmart to pick out a tea jug and ear plugs. Got over his fear of the slide in eventual time and had a blast! Phat Baby: would NOT get in the water for neither Dad nor I. Only for Sissy and then had so much fun! Made me want to get him to the ocean so much; I have such cute pictures of the others as toddlers at the beach. Dinner convo involved atoms and molecules and the periodic table of elements. I think it's the first time that topic has come up so it was kind of a conversational precursor. They are winding down this perfect summer evening with barefeet in the hollow as the sun goes down; it will be time to round them up for bed very soon. But not just yet...let's wait for fireflies. 7:25 PM - Jun. 10, 2006 - comments {1} - post commentWatch As Much As You WantA TV day. Normally in the late spring-early fall we don't watch TV during the week. It's just too pretty outside, our favorite shows are on hiatus, and we've book lists to tackle. But this move is kicking my butt. Royally. I think this is the hardest one of the three this year and it's not even out of state! So today I uttered those words. "Go ahead and watch as much as you want."Sesame Street twice. Between the Lions had the "ou" sound today. They watched Cyberchase and Arthur and some neat show with kids and challenges and weird ice cream flavors. They watched Napoleon Dynamite and Sunshine drew a Liger. I think W even had Barney on at one point. It's been a long time since I let Barney be on! I got Firstborn's room cleaned out and turned into our box staging area. Four loads of wash, two on the line and two in the dryer. A big bag of leg quarters cooked, half boiled and half baked so we'd have some easy food to pull from over the next week. I'm switching from cooked breakfasts to cereal until we move. We had salad from the garden tonight. Their puzzles and games are all packed. The art supplies will go closer to the end. There are still a few books out. When W's ears are better I'll take them swimming. 9:35 PM - Jun. 8, 2006 - comments {2} - post commentDaily LogToday they are repaving the road that ends in ours so there are many, many big trucks outside our house! All with a differnet job to do and our little boys are ecstatic about getting watch.Firstborn: what a help he has been to me today! I am struggling with low blood pressure and exhaustion at a very inconvenient time and had to take it easy. He is hanging laundry, making lunch, keeping baby out of mischief, and cleaning up. Sunshine: helped with the baby as well. And spent a long time in her room making geometeric kalidescope pictures with the ruler/protractor set that Grandma sent. Very pretty. She added more to Chapter 1 of her story, and Dad comes in to find Mom kissing the kidnapper.... W: watching those trucks all morning. He seems to be feeling a bit better. Phat Baby: watching those trucks too. The workers get a kick out of seeing the two little guys on the porch more entranced than any movie could make them. He's been working on learning to ride his little scooter; so far he can only go backwards. 12:04 PM - Jun. 7, 2006 - comments {2} - post commentARGH!!! I hate that I can't cut and paste in these fields!!! My friend Sarah has a great blog today about reading. Check it out here.I especially liked the quote in the second paragraph (which I would prefer to paste here but this doesn't seem possible). Taken a little further I think it perfectly sums up what I think is going on with the world of homeschool curriculum providers and the impact it's had on the "movement". Dependance on "programs" is a good thing for the industry. Not necessarily for individuals. 8:49 PM - Jun. 6, 2006 - comments {1} - post commentDaily LogIt's Tuesday and man! What a day! If I were doing a more traditional model of school, even homeschool, and it was during the year, this would be a day when "we didn't get to anything". I would have assumed that between a 2.5 hour doctor's trip, running to the bank and pharmacy and grocery store, down to a friend's home in Knoxville to get boxes, and packing for our third move in a year that the kids did nothing but goof off. Good thing I'm not ;-).Firstborn: woke up and started planning his next read. I can't say enough how much joy this brings to my heart! In the past year, he has easily progressed 3 reading levels. "They" said it would be this way and several times I didn't beleive them. Who are "they"? Those older and wiser moms who told me my leftie, late to read, dyslexic, brilliant boy with the incredible language base would read well when the time was right. He read the whole way to the doctor's and for the first hour of our visit. He analyzed the office cabinets and recommended to the staff that they install better safety locks for toddlers (they had unlocked key locks). He learned how to make fajitas and properly cut an avacado and julienne peppers and onions. Sunshine: she's writing a story. Chapter 1 is called "Captured" and it features a young girl who's family gets kidnapped. The kidnapper happens to fall in love with the mother. The shrewd mother leads him on and when he's kissing her, the young girl runs up and stabs him with a knife. No lack of drama in her bones! Tomorrow I'll fix her spelling mistakes and help her rewrite it. Right now she's learning the dangers of getting big foot cuts dirty and the potential for gangrene and amputation. W: what a day for our little lad. One ear just has your regular run-of-the-mill ear infection. The other ear has an un-healed rupture which is grotesquely infected. He has no hearing in it. They gave him the maximum in antibiotic they could give without going to the hosptial: two burning long shots in each thigh, drops, and an oral course. He's got strep throat too. He slept most of the day, but I read a chapter of Pooh and 3 Grimm's Fairy Tales to him. He spent a good amount of time at the table learning how to use a ruler, how to count with it and use it as a straight edge and draw things with it. Thanks to Grandma, who sent a ruler/protractor kit she'd found in storage from long ago. Phat Baby: unexplained fever, plenty of screaming, running through the doctor's hallways, got stung by a bee in between his toes. I think he's glad to be in bed! 8:26 PM - Jun. 6, 2006 - comments {1} - post commentDaily LogThe camp out was a huge success! W even hiked SEVEN miles of the AT without being carried even once! They worked on the the elements for the Outdoorsman badge and from what I hear, completed it.Today: Firstborn: holed up in his room again to finish HP: Chamber of Secrets. He's been incredibly hyper since coming home; I think this is due to the nitrate-rich jerky he ate and all the other preservative-laden camp snacks he had over the weekend. It will take a few days to leave his system. No sense on fighting it too much until he can control himself better. This means he also spent a good deal of time turning summersaults through the hall, climbing the door frame, and burping his ABC's. He spent a long time down in the hollow with Sunshine. Sunshine: spent the day being glad she had brothers home. Played all day. W: he can't hear worth a flip right now; double ear infections. Got the headset out and my stack of CD's and has listened, almost non stop to Frank Sinatra, DC Talk, my Grammy compilations, Michael Card, Alecia Keys, Nina Simone, Chuck Mangione, Vivaldi....he loves comparing them all. Phat Baby: discovered bugs walking and squatted mesmerized for several minutes. Sat like a big boy on the porch swing smearing chocolate chip cookie over his entirety. The day was a cool one, never getting over 75 and spending most of it down in the 60's with white sunshine on the blades of grass and he wanted to be outside every second he was awake. I caught him using a hammer later in the day, not unlike Firstborn did right around the same age, when he had plastic "hammies" stuck through his cargo loops. Need to go buy another plastic tool set. 5:51 PM - Jun. 5, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentSaturday LogI do count every day of the week when gathering records for our portfolio and grade reporting. Part of ignoring the monthly, institution calendar means also ignoring the days of the week. Learning happens all the time.The Firstborn and W are in the Smoky Mountains with Dad and the cubscouts at the Father/Son campout. They hiked part of the Appalacian Trail and are working on stuff for badges. I'm sure I'll get a full report when they get home tomorrow. It's very, VERY quiet around here without them. Sunshine and I have had a day of it. We did a little errand running and necessary shopping and then spent hours this afternoon scrapbooking. This is an incredibly easy way to sneak in handwriting practice and grammar! She journals on every page and practices punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, and handwriting. We worked in the garden and read books and chased and tickled Phat Baby. When he went to bed we scrapbooked some more. She's cleaning her room now, listening to music; one of her very favorite things to do. 8:36 PM - Jun. 3, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentDaily LogBlah.We haven't quite cleaned. We haven't quite played. We haven't quite fought. We aren't quite Ready For the Day. We seem to be waiting. The VIP's played a game of Living Long Ago (with monopoly money as their bank robbery stash) in the back. And then a game of Houdini involving the Firstborn tied to a tree in the front. What must passersby think?! I read two chapters of Pooh to W, involving Christopher Robin spending his mornings Learning and the fantastic game of Pooh Sticks, which everyone really must play at least once in their lives. The Firstborn and Sunshine both wrote impromtu, totally self-motivated thank you letters to Nana, and addressed them, stamped them, and mailed them all by themselves. W worked a puzzle and colored some pictures. And the Firstborn spent those hours in bed reading that I described below. This was Friday's Log, which I forgot to post until Saturday. 1:58 PM - Jun. 2, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentFrom The House At Pooh Corner"And he respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count. "1:56 PM - Jun. 2, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentFound this interesting post while following links of links of links...and maybe she helps me define how I currently view our education style:The post can be found at Amy's Musings: It's a great post that I really want to copy/paste here but I can't get this format to let me do that. What a pain in the hind end. So follow the link. Here's my favorite point from the post: "...education is conversation and wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, I'd like to contemplate the Deuteronomy 6 Method of Education. It means that we read good books and talk about them. It means when my husband found a cocoon yesterday, we examined it and held an impromptu unit study. It means that we talk and tell and practice God's ways from the time they are born. We teach the 3 R's and use the same books you do." 9:41 AM - Jun. 2, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentthe joy of readingFirstborn is holed up in his room, still in his jammies and under the covers, reading The Chamber of Secrets. Brings back old memories of how I'd spend weeks and weeks of summers, reading a whole series of books at a time, and resurfacing only to eat and use the bathroom. Is it really any wonder that my very cells are screaming out for a summer book list and some time to lay around and READ?!9:30 AM - Jun. 2, 2006 - comments {2} - post commentDaily LogIt's thundering, trying to decide if it's going to storm or not. W is napping all the way into dinner time after being out last night at a sleep over. His "gah" got left behind and being carless, I can't go get it. It will probably be a long one tonight. Dad started a new job today and the hours have ticked away slowly. My landlady came over this morning, bearing a lemon pie and 4 jars of green beans and a dozen homegrown eggs. She taught me how to make and can Apple Jelly with the cameo apple juice I canned last fall. I connected with several friends, finished the novel I was reading, and hung a load of wash.Firstborn and Sunshine played outside all morning, playing a favorite role game they call "Living Long Long Ago". They played for hours in the hose. Firstborn read a chapter from one of the Harry Potter books (Chamber of Secrets?). Sunshine drew fashion models. Here comes more thunder. Maybe we'll get a good summer rain. I like the pulse in the air...feels rhythmic. Today held things yesterday didn't, nor the day before. And vise versa. It all feels like balance to me. 5:07 PM - Jun. 1, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentDaily LogFirstborn: looked up words in his newest list in Wordly Wise. He really enjoys this book as long as we take it in little spurts. Vocabulary is one of his "things", ever since he was 3 and learned how to say "dilapidated" and use it correctly in a sentence. Threw an adult or two for a loop! Gave multiplying fractions a shot but quit. I got him a Soapstone carving kit a few years ago from Hearthsong and today we took it out. He's been busy carving a bear for hours. Thinks he might carve Dad a pipe for Father's Day. Finished the day by measuring the windows for new mini blinds and attempting to drill the holes. Didn't quite make it but I appreciated his attempt.Sunshine: did a lesson of Explode the Code 6 and half of her Singapore Math page. I got modeling clay out and she built furniture and cut out shapes with W. W: did a few pages in Go For the Code. Worked with the clay and then hovered over our landlord's shoulder as he put in a new refridgerator in our kitchen. Has been begging me to read him some math (besides living math books from the lists on livingmath.net, I read the Singapore lesson books to him like an oral story. He doesn't do work sheets yet). Read a chapter of Pooh, In Which Tiggers Do Not Climb Trees. Left this afternoon to go spend the night with a friend. Phat Baby: ate clay. Found out the hard way that climbing onto the table and falling backwards, hitting one's head on the highchair on the way down, hurts. I sat and read some picture books with him, trying to teach him how to sit and look at the pages. He licked air plane glue and found it to taste foul (and toxic! Yikes!). He was sooo busy today: into cabinets, climbing on things, screaming through the grocery store with sudden shrieks. He wrapped it all up with a fall down the front stairs and a big egg on the forehead. They all spent a good portion of the afternoon out in lawn chairs in the shade, listening to country music. It's some kind of game they are playing. They watched The Gnome Mobile, another old disney movie with the same children that did Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 12:13 PM - May. 31, 2006 - comments {0} - post commentInto the wee hours of the morn'Noteworthy to me: Firstborn was up for hours last night, calculating how much money he could potentially earn over the next two years. For wage earning he used his current rate of .50/violin practice session (yes, we pay him to practice!) and the cookie selling buisness he's considering. He used a calculator, figured the number of days in a year, sales per day, divided in half to see what it would look like in 5 years, multiplied and added. He did over 3 hours of math and organizing.....um, curriculum free ;-)8:43 AM - May. 31, 2006 - comments {1} - post commentDaily LogFirstborn: watched PBS special on The Bonus March, which sparked a discussion with dad about the GI Bill, of which we've been beneficiaries. Spent much time contemplating how to create a trick gum that seems to be peppermint but really tastes like liver. Had a friend over for the afternoon, found a snake, and shot plastic bb's at just about everything in the yard and woods.Sunshine: Read to me various picture books and When You Give A Mouse a Cookie. We spent some time talking about the differences between "sign" and "sing"; both my older two struggle with letter reversals and have been late to read. She helped me mix up a batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. W: spent time going over a book about shapes and textures with Phat Baby and I. He's a bit over that level but he "taught" little brother and I'm sure it reinforced what he already knew. He has been a big helper today, making my bed for me, stirring the iced tea, and vacuuming the floor. He even went and got the got the screwdriver set up for me so when he told me that he'd sucked up so many big things I'd be all ready to clean it out ;-). They all had a long conversation on the front porch with our neighbor, an adult man who walks his dog and who they call "Racoon". He is much taken with the fact that they are so outdoorsy and imaginative. While Phat Baby napped and the Firstborn and his buddy shot bb's at one another, I read The House At Pooh Corner to Sunshine and W, chapter 2, In Which Tigger Comes For Breakfast and chapter 3, In Which A Search Is Organized and Piglet Nearly Meets the Heffalump Again. And dear Pooh, if the illustration by Ernest H. Shepard is any indication, it was thirteen pots of honey, rather than fourteen. We counted. They all watched The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, an old disney movie with a very young Kurt Russel. I folded two loads of laundry from the line, one load from the basket, and got another out on the line to dry in the sun. Two loaves of bread baked, this time with double the yeast in attempt to get better loaves with this freshly milled wheat a friend gave me to play with. The front flower bed weeded while Phat Baby played in the grass, and I cut the front yard lawn before Dad came and mowed the back. We finished the night with cookies warm from the oven (I waited to bake the dough until the house cooled down) and Little House on the Praire. We made it through chapter 3 just fine and halfway through chapter 4 before we had a typical problem with boys, the citronella candle, the appeal of fire, and the inabilty to not interrupt. 10:49 AM - May. 30, 2006 - comments {2} - post commentSo What Have I Got Against Being Called a Homeschooler?I am one. At least, in the sense that my kids don't go away from home to a separate institution to do the bulk of thier learning. As a distinction from public and private schoolers, it's adequate. But over the years the term has also taken on it's own nuance.At differing times, saying the word can conjure up assorted images. Some might imagine a school room, complete with flag and chalkboard. That was the first example of homeschooling I saw, back at the tender age of 14, but by the time I started my oldest with Kindergarten level work, I'd abandoned the little school room idea. We spent our days in the nursery/playroom, working with lego blocks and counting bears, reading picture books, painting First Thanksgiving scenes to hang on the wall. That room was also where my laundry was and our computer. We lived in there. Some might imagine Text Books, kids hunched over paper with pencil in hand, answering summary questions. I looked at those kinds of curriculums....they had so many parts. Some of my friends used them and thus entered the vision of "planning". As in "I've got so much planning to do." Planning consisted of cutting out little colored paper parts, poster charts, organizing supplies. It attracted the side of me that romanticized my own Kindergarten classroom experience. I gave it a shot. Within the first two weeks I'd lost a set of flashcards. My little boy was daydreaming. And we had a new saying, something I could commisserate with other moms about, "I have such a hard time getting him to do school!" Curriculum Fairs....ah...those blissful convention halls of jean jumpers and fresh books! This is home turf for Homeschoolers. I especially liked the days when the local news would come out and interview us, part freak show, partly an effort to prove we were just like everyone else. Maybe with a better edge though. Amid the smell of homebaked bread and the chatter of excited women, some out of the house for the first time in weeks, I found books about Charlotte Mason. Relaxed Learning. And Sonlight's little-but-wordy ads in magazines got my attention rather than my disdain for the first time. Here was an interesting approach! Living books! (Check that CM quality on the list). And... a Teacher's Guide. No more cutting little parts and flashcards. No more games. Workbooks for the gritty writing stuff but the rest of it was cozy time on the couch. I joined the forums and found a pack of comrades. All of it planned out. The first week I lost my voice. At least my baby napped long enough to get the list done. I started hearing a new refrain though. "We're so behind". (For more on my thoughts of being behind, see this). That little list was getting week by week more like a mountain I couldn't climb. My baby didn't nap well? We didn't get to it all. My boy hated the story? I hated the story? The guilt piled up. But school is suposed to be a drugery right? Home or Public, was I expecting too much? We went a few years like that. Then, I did the unthinkable. I just used the books we wanted to, when we wanted to, still uncertain of my own abilty to put together a decent list alone. We still used the calendar. I hid how much we did or didn't do. I joined in the homeschooling chatter where we all had problems finding curriculum that fit, all felt behind, all struggled with burn out, all had messy kitchens and high laundry piles. I grieved for my younger ones, that they didn't get that side by side time with my that my oldest did. I figured it was unavoidable. I think that was the year I heard about unschooling. First reaction: heresy! How was anyone going to convince me that if I let my kids choose their own way, that they wouldn't spend the entire day on computer games? I joined a large unschooling yahoolist. Ouch. It still smarts. The woman who runs it, while doing a great job of asking tough questions and pushing people out of their boxes to find the answers, is very strident. She also, as I learned quickly as a newbie not able to develop as fast as she thought I should, can be rude. She ran me off. Fortunately, while I was "talking the talk" with my latest group, I'd stopped forcing my kids to do just about anything, as an experiment. Bless thier Classical Education father, he was going crazy! But the kids only played computer games for 2-3 days. I started really paying attention to thier play....they did so much. For a few neurotic weeks (my own detox) I kept lists, so I could "prove" it in their record keeping portfolios. And oddly, thanks to Sandra Dodd, I'd done some learning myself. Through watching my kids, I trusted that we could loosen up. And, from her, I knew I didn't want the unschooling label. That label to me, conjures up the rebellious motorcycle crowd of the movement, sometimes just rebelling to show they can. My kids were happier and they were learning; I wasn't burnt out and a real miracle occurred. In the down time, without all the external pressure, my son had FINALLY learned to read and discovered multiplication. I had all the proof I needed. So what did I do? I did my laundry. We moved out of state. We joined a new co-op and stepped up our socialization nearly ten fold. I cooked for my family and took them to the park. I started to read to them again. Last winter I threw out all my packaged curriuclum or gave it away. My kids quit complaining about "doing school", even though they still sat down for math, handwriting, and grammar. We still love the Classical view of the Trivium, but we knew we needed a Living Education. And I looked hard at that label. Homeschooler. It seemed to define me and not all at the same time. We are MUCH more than homeschoolers. But like the label implies, it often is all we can get done. Because when we are doing it in a box, we no longer have time for the other stuff like being a wife, tending to the ones too small to give written work to, caring for our homes, being women. We are parts and our parts are anemic. So, I hate the label because it puts me back into a box. I chose to avoid institutionalized education because I wanted something different. I wanted my kids to learn and grow beside me, no matter their birth order. I wanted them to have an intact childhood rather than premature adulthood. I want them to have a broad experience because that is what the world is. Adults aren't segregated into peer groups and we don't spend our days with made up deadlines and projects that have no bearing on what we are really trying to get accomplished. That "Homeschooler" label gives an impression that is incompatible with a Whole Life. We're now stuck in the murky little spot of what to call ourselves. I'm going with Family for now. I'm a Mother to this Family. The proof in the pudding is that I haven't been burnt out in a very long time and my kids don't think learning is a drudgery. Good enough for now. 9:07 AM - May. 30, 2006 - comments {1} - post comment
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DescriptionLabels don't fit. Not 'homeschooler", not "unschooler" not "classical educator". We are a family. We learn, we play, we read, we fight, we laugh, we struggle, and we discover together. We shun the calendar and packaged curriculum. You won't find a "teacher's guide" with a schedule making me it's slave within these walls. What you will find is a group of people, sometimes rough around the edges, digging in the dirt to grow things, reading books to expand our minds, paint up to our elbows, chickens in the yard, something simmering on the stove, and maybe tea on the front porch....this is a record of The Rhythm of Our Days. Living, Learning, Laughing, and Loving. Home User Profile Archives Recent Entries - I'm MOVING!!! - Really like this idea.... - Breezy Easy - need a second cup..... - Times Links • Living Deliberately • Living Math • Our Area's Cooperative • The Bonny Glen • Every Waking Hour • Live and Learn • Bravewriter Lifestyle Friends |
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