1 day ago
April was quite a slow reading month for me, and because of that this post is rather late. I don't feel like I have a great variety to share this month, but I did enjoy most of the books I read, so that's something!
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Penderwicks On Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall- This is the second book in the Penderwick series (you can read my thought on the first one here). The mother of the Penderwick family died when her girls were young, and in this book Aunt Claire comes and basically forces their father to start dating again. The girls have a hard time with this, especially the oldest sister, Rosalind, and this is the story of how they come to terms with a new phase for their family. I loved the first book in this series and I loved this one just as much - all the characters are delightful, and the situations they find themselves in are charming. I especially like the development of Rosalind's character in this one as she struggles through her feelings about losing her mother, and the way she had to fill the motherly role in their family since then. I will say that Rosalind and the boy she likes decide in this book that they will date when they are 13, which is still a shockingly young age to me, but I still loved it.
Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend - I read the first book in this series (Nevermoor) last month, and overall thought it was quirky and fun, but this book took a darker turn for me. In this book Morrigan Crow starts classes at the Wunderous Society school, and as she gets to know her classmates, more is revealed about how the villain, Ezra Squall, is working in Nevermoor. I mentioned when I reviewed the first book that I was a little unsure about it because I like to be careful about the twisting of archetypes in children's fiction (ie. presenting traditionally evil creature as good, or vice versa) - well, that was much more of a feature of this book. There was a lot of ambiguity about who is good and who is evil in this book, some of the characters and situations are darker, and even some characters who I assume are supposed to be the good guys are really dark and creepy (like the headmistress of the school). There is also more references to sorcery and witchcraft in this book, which I like to avoid since the Bible is very clear that those things are detestable to God. So while the first book came off as more imaginative and quirky, this one was just...darker (how many times am I going to say darker in this review?). I won't be reading the next book.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - Have you ever heard of HeLa cells? HeLa is am "immortal" human cell line that has been important in research for decades now. Well, it turns out the HeLa cells were taken from a woman named Henrietta Lacks, and this book digs into her story. It turns out neither Henrietta nor her family was ever formally informed on how her cells were being used until years later, and consent for research was never obtained. When her children did find out about their mother's cells, it ended up being very traumatizing for them, especially because a lot of the ways her cells have been used in animal/human experiments are very creepy. This book made me think about a lot of things that I never would have otherwise - such as the fact that your tissues and samples can be used in research without you ever knowing it. It brings up a lot of ethical conundrums about whether it is right for medical researchers to claim a right to use your tissues without informing you as the patient/donor. The whole thing was really fascinating, and also rather disturbing and sad. Once I started listening, I couldn't stop - the audiobook was really well done.
Back Over There by Richard Rubin - Rubin wrote one of my favorite book about WW1 so far (The Last Of The Doughboys), and in researching that book he traveled all over France to see the battlefields and memorials of World War One. In the process he met some really fascinating people in the French countryside, and find out more about how much World War One affects their lives even now. This book is a travel log of sorts of Rubin's trips to France. I found it particularly interesting to read about the attitude of the French people toward the American military - they are still so grateful for the role America played in ending that war. Really interesting, but I would recommend reading Last Of The Doughboys first.
I'll be back in a couple weeks with my May books, though I have a feeling it's going to be another slow reading month. What have you all been reading lately?
That's how many days we have left in the school year.
We finished a lot of our core subjects - math, language arts, reading - a week ago, and so these last couple weeks have been dedicated to state history lessons, art, humble science experiments, and numerous read-alouds. Weirdly, all those more fun school subjects end up taking a lot of energy and effort, and even though I've had several blog post ideas in my head for weeks now, I can't seem to muster up the margin or energy to type them up. So a chatty post it is.
Forgive the typos in advance please. I'm tired.
But four more days. Four more days and we'll all be as free as a bird.
Fun With The Grandmas!
Speaking of interesting school activities, the last two Fridays have been dedicated to special school activities with the kids' grandmas.
Derek's mom has done an incredible amount of research into his family tree. She is so thorough, and she has traced some branches of his family back to the 11th century. I asked her if she could come up and tell the kids a little more about their ancestors, and also about how she researches geneology. She told us stories of some of the kids' great-great-greats, which include many really fascinating people, and she even printed a little mini-tree for each of my kids showing their all great-great grandparents. The kids were so interested in all of it!
Before she left she demonstrated how she researches a family tree by using my side of the family, and we got a couple names filled in. We looked through census records from 80 years ago, and I watched as the family of one of my grandparents grew from 7 members to 9, and then back to 8 ten years later after one of the names disappeared from the record after a death. I knew about my grandparent's family before, of course, but seeing it there in black and white, connected by a few clicks to my own name on the tree - it made me feel more connected to my heritage. Those were tough times, and I come from people with grit, and seeing it on paper makes me even more grateful for the blessings in my life now.
It was so interesting to see how it works and see names so closely connected my own in the original records, and I am thinking I want to dive into more family tree research myself this summer. I will also be busy recruiting my mom-in-law to come back up soon and tell the kids more stories! It's fascinating to see the amount of detail she has been able to find on the family.
The very next Friday, my mom planned a "field day" for all her grandchildren (all of which are homeschooled). I have a lot of memories of field day when I was a kid (particularly memories of being proud that I beat the boys in the sprints - there is only a small window when that could have happened! I don't run.) I loved the idea of a field day so my kids could have some fun memories of races with their grandma and cousins! Final analysis - huge success. My mom planned a ton of different types of races, the kids loved it, and no one compared or felt bad about any of their placings/ribbons. We had a delicious lunch, explored outside and fed the horses, and visited more while the kids played. It was a great time with the family and a good chance to practice good sportsmanship!
(The dress-up relay race!)
Awana And Rain And Mother's Day
In other news, we also had our last night of Awana a week ago. The kids got all their awards, my mom was able to come to the ceremony, and it's a consensus that we can't wait for it to start up again next year! Derek and I will have to be more strategic about planning date nights over the summer - we became rather spoiled this winter with a free 1.5 hours each week for a dinner date.
We celebrated Mother's Day this last week by seeing Derek's mom for breakfast, and my mom for lunch - before heading home, lounging on the couch, and watching Survivor reruns. (After the kids melted my heart with adorable cards, and gifts which they bought with their own money. Some of which were candy. Some of which we ate while watching Survivor) .
We did have plans for an outing to the zoo on Mother's Day, but the weather ended up being rainy and cold. And what do you know, it snowed again on Monday and Tuesday, making this a near record-long snow season for our state. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it snowed AGAIN before the end of May, so we may smash that record! Doubtful though, since I know for a fact that it has snowed here in June before, but we'll see. I just read an article about the Southwestern states possibly declaring a water shortage emergency for the first time, so let's just say I'm grateful for any snow we get here. No fires this summer please.
Fun Things, Anxiety-Producing Things
The rest of this week will likely be filled with fun and stress mixed together - on Friday I am going on a girl's night with my college friends/book group girls, which will be the first time our group has eaten at a restaurant together in over a year. As I am looking forward to that, I am also anxious for our poor old dog who has a surgery scheduled for Friday.
A couple years ago we discovered a tumor on Harvey's neck, which we briefly grieved about because our vet assured us it was most certainly malignant. I was making mental plans for budgeting in cancer drugs for our faithful hound, but when the results came back the tumor ended up being a benign tumor which usually occurs in cats, completely baffling our vet.
Well, Harvey has another tumor on his leg, which our vet again says is most likely malignant. I am holding out hope that it will end up being another one of the cat-tumors, but on Friday he is getting it removed. It almost physically hurts me to take him to the vet, because big and tough as Harvey looks, he acts like a scared Chihuahua whenever we have to take him in for a checkup. His anxiety gives me anxiety, and then there is more anxiety about the fact that the tumor is right on the join of his back leg and I'm running worst-case scenarios in my mind of the surgery crippling him. Our vet assures us that the risk of that is low, but...I'm just nervous. You dog people understand.
Cookie Dough And Summer Fun
Finally, as the school year has been winding down, I've been thinking ahead a bit to what kinds of things I want to plan for my kids this summer. Last summer I made a mostly at-home summer bucket list, which was a success, and I would like to plan out some fun activities for the kids again. But, I have to admit, I am tired. Homeschooling will always be worth it for me, and it's incredibly rewarding, but it is also verging on exhausting when we reach May. Like I mentioned last week, we keep a traditional school schedule because I need a break in the summer to rest mentally.
So I will wait to make any fun summer plans until we've had time to reset, but I must mention that I did find this cookie dough recipe book while I was at the library today, which was surprisingly motivating. A few years ago I took the kids to the mall in the summer, and there used to be a cookie dough shop there. I've never been one of those people who likes to eat cookie dough raw, but my kids very much enjoyed the experience of eating uncooked cookies. I am pretty sure that the cookie dough shop went under, but I am thinking this book and our own cookie dough cafe might be an easy place to start for summer fun.
After I rest for a couple weeks.
Four more days...
One of the best things about homeschooling is the ability to make your own school schedule. You get to decide how you spend your time each day, how you want to schedule your week, and even how you want to break up your school year.
I've read so many great posts from other homeschool moms on why they choose to do a year-round homeschool schedule. Usually a year-round schedule is broken up into terms, such as taking six week on/one week off (or whatever break schedule works for your family). There are a lot of great reasons I've heard for managing your homeschool year this way, but our family has chosen to stick with a tradtional school schedule for our homeschool. By traditional schedule, I mean that we do school from (approximately) September through May, and then take the summer months off. I've written a little about this before, but today I wanted to give you a few of my reasons in favor of keeping a traditional school schedule.
1. The weather is nice in the summer.
Where I live, the winter drags on for quite a while, and the most beautiful months we have are...you guessed it...June through August. During those summer months, we want to be outside, enjoying the mountains and our nice weather after a long season of being cooped up indoors. I think this would be a different consideration if we lived in a state where the summer months were unbearably hot - it makes sense to take advantage of whatever time of year the weather is best.
2. I don't want the traditional schools to have a perceived advantage to my kids.
For me as a homeschooling mom, it's important to me not only that my kids know our reasons for homeschooling, but it's also important to convince them that it's better for us (because I really think it is). Because of that, I don't want my kids to look at what their public/private school peers are doing and feel like they are missing out on anything. In our situation, if our family did school in the summer, my kids may end looking longingly at all the kids who have the summers off, wishing they could also be outside enjoying the weather while it's nice (see the first point).
Now, the validity of this point is going to depend on where you live, what your family habits are like, and how you communicate your choices to your kids. I know families who do school all year so they can take off for outdoor adventures in warmer states anytime they'd like, and because they explained those advantages to their kids I don't think they mind at all doing some schoolwork in the summer! There are worthy trade-offs to year-round schooling as well, and I think the important part is communicating the advantages to your family's choice to your kids. For our family, because we don't do multiple trips each year, doing schoolwork during the one time of the year when the weather is comfortable would be burdensome. Its more advantageous for us to leave the summers open to enjoy the nice weather while we have it.
3. Looking forward to the break of summer is motivating for me.
Sometimes when I'm feeling a little worn-down with homeschooling, just knowing that summer is coming and that I'll have all kinds of time to rest is a motivation for me. If there was no summer break to look forward to, I think it would make difficult weeks even harder for me because there would be no real end in sight. Reaching the end of the year gives me a clear point to work toward and keeps us on track.
Some moms can find just as much motivation in doing school for a couple months and then having a couple weeks off, but I find that just having one or two weeks off school doesn't do a lot for my refreshment. This is one of the reasons we don't take a spring break at this time - I'd rather just power through and be done with the school year sooner.
Having the extended time off in the summer allows for deeper refreshment for me as a homeschool mom. I have a big chunk of time to rest from the pressure and work of the school year. Sometimes getting away from the routine allows you to come back to it later with a better attitude. This is the same reason why we take vacations - getting away from regular life allows you to be ready to come back to it with a fresh perspective.
Again, some moms can get both of these advantages with a year-round break schedule, so this is really about knowing yourself and what would be most refreshing to you. For myself, a longer break in the summer is more refreshing than shorter, more frequent breaks year-round.
4. Having the summer off allows more time to pursue interests and be bored.
I love giving my kids (and myself) a long enough stretch of open days for them to deeply pursue their own interests without the distraction of schoolwork. Sometimes it's beneficial to dig deeper into an area of study, and while you can certainly do that during the school year, the internal pressure of finishing a curriculum always keeps me from enjoying those rabbit trails. In the summer, we don't have to worry about regular schoolwork and can rabbit-trail to our heart's content without worrying.
I also think it's good for kids (and adults) to have enough time to be bored. Boredom can foster new levels of creativity or allow your brain time to refresh and make connections. When my kids are bored, I've been surprised to find them inventing new games or building forts outside, things they may or may not have enough free time to do during the school year.
5. Summers off give me space to reflect on the bigger picture and make a plan for the next year.
Having time away from our normal schedule in the summer also lets me take a step back from the "trenches" and evaluate the situation more objectively. I do most of my reflecting and planning for the next homeschool year in the summer months. Because the summer is so long it lets me clear my mind and do my planning at a leisurely pace, which is something I personally need to keep my ultimate goals for homeschooling in perspective. Without this time to reset my perspective, I know I would be much more likely to experience homeschool burn out. Usually by the end of the summer, I feel organized and motivated to tackle the new school year.
I know homeschool moms who do year-round school, and others who take a break for the summer as I do. I know moms who start school sooner so they can finish earlier in the spring, and I know moms who start early and end later so they have time for days off in between. One of the greatest thing about homeschooling is being able to think about the needs of your own family and plan your school year for the best advantage to your own lifestyle.
If you homeschool, what does your schedule look like? It's interesting to see how different people choose to organize their years!
When it comes to homeschooling my kids, a huge benefit to me is that the person who has the most influence on them is going to be me - I'm the one who is with them day-in and day-out. I don't have to rely on the teacher lottery and hope they get a good one that will be a positive influence on them - I get to be that influence, along with the other adults that Derek and I allow to play a role in their lives. It's a huge blessing, but also a huge responsibility.
I also watch over what is influencing my kids in other ways, such as the books we read and the movies we watch. I don't let them watch or read just anything, because I want whatever influence their media has over them to be in a positive direction, as much as I can.
I was thinking about this the other day and it occurred to me that I am so careful with the influences that are coming at my kids, but I haven't been so careful with the influences that I've allowed to come at myself for the past several years.
How much have I been influenced by random people on Instagram to do certain things, buy certain things, think certain ways? How much of that influence has been good, and how much has not been so positive? In what subtle ways have social media influencers affected me negatively?
It's an overwhelming thing to think about, and I don't think it's really necessary to dissect everything I've ever done that has been influenced by something I saw online. I'm trying not to do that, but it's difficult not to go there.
For instance, do I really need those new trendy ankle boots I've been eyeing for a couple months? I've put them in my cart multiple times, the cursor hovering over the checkout button, before a take a breath and close the window. I have perfectly fine ankle boots that I like. Who says I need this specific style of shoe? Instagram fashion bloggers?
Or there is that book that I've seen mentioned multiple places that looks interesting. Should I try to grab it right off the presses to keep up with online book friends? Or do I sit it out and wait for my library to come through, even though I'm the 134th person in line for it? Do I really need to read it right away? Is it any less interesting if I read it next year, when Thriftbooks has it for $4, instead of right now for $23? I may not be able to to talk to people online about it when it's popular, but does that actually matter? I guarantee you if it's good, I'll have real-life friends I can convince to read it with me, and that discussion will be richer for being in person.
How many things have I felt like I "had to do" as a mom, just because other moms online were doing it? Things like themed birthday parties or specialized nursery decor. Were those things even worth the money in the end, or would we all have been just as happy with a simpler, cheaper version?
What about politics? How much stress have I allowed into my life over other people's online political discussions, which are almost always fruitless anyway? And even harder to think about, are there things that I should have stood up for that I didn't, because of online pressure? Or are there times where I felt like I "did my part" by merely sharing something on social media, instead of taking the harder but actually impactful step of getting involved in my real life in some way?
I don't know how to answer those questions. What I do know is that since being off Instagram, I'm much more aware of what kind of influences I'm letting into my life. It's just quiet enough in my mind now to see things clearly and make more directed choices.
I have not been as careful with online influences as I should have been. Who we allow to influence us online matters. And the most regret that I have when I consider social media is thinking about the ways I may have allowed certain "influencers" to make me into a less effective version of myself - as a consumer, as a wife, as a mom, as an American. Maybe even as a Christian. It's overwhelming when I think about it too hard.
All I know is that I am so thankful for God's grace in those moments when I get overwhelmed by my own failures. Jesus is my Savior - He paid the penalty for my sin, including the hidden sins of the heart that I've become more aware of through all this extra time to think. And as I pray for Him to make me wiser as to what influences I let in, I know He'll keep showing me the way I should go.
This is the first homeschool year that I haven't had any weekly homeschool obligations outside of the house.
When my oldest was in Kindergarten and first grade we did a community Bible study on Wednesdays. Even though it wasn't technically a homeschool group, lots of homeschool families attended the Bible study, so in a way it provided some homeschool social time for us.
When Wyatt was in 2nd grade, we started a weekly homeschool co-op, and we did that for two years. The first year we did Bible study and co-op, until I discovered that having two obligations during the week was too much for us. Last school year we did only co-op once a week.
Then toward the end of last year I made the decision that we wouldn't be doing co-op or Bible study this year. It ended up being a very good decision for us in this life phase, and I may write more about it in a separate post, but for now, I thought I would write out a few things to consider before jumping into a co-op.
(Our messy school area.)
Some of these points are things that I did think about before we joined our co-op, and some of them are things that I started to consider while we were in our co-op. I had a really great experience with our homeschool co-op, and I loved all the families who were a part of it! I may even consider re-joining at a future date, so I am not writing this post from either a pro-co-op or anti-co-op stance. These are just a few things to think about.
1. Does the co-op have a statement or belief or values? Does it fit with your educational philosophy?
I was blessed that the co-op we were a part of was a solid Christian co-op that shared our values. I cannot imagine being a part of a co-op that didn't consist of families with similar beliefs - because the classes in co-ops are usually taught by the moms, I think a situation where there is no unifying statement of faith or values could get messy very quickly. The second factor to consider is whether your educational philosophy matches up with the co-ops goals. Some co-ops are very focused on one educational philosophy, and if that is not a philosophy you are following, you may have a hard time keeping pace with the work. The co-op I was a part of was a classical co-op, but had a great policy that the moms where still in charge of their own children's education - so if there were aspects of the work I decided not to do, that was fine.
2. How much time away from the house will co-op take? How many days will we be out of the house?
If you are going to commit to something like a co-op, I think you need to carefully consider how much time it will take, and what other things you may have going on during the week. Even though I firmly believe it's fine to occasionally do school on the go, you still need to have a solid amount of time at home for your kids to be able to get their homeschool work done. This was the mistake I made the year I decided to do Bible study and co-op at the same time - I found that for us, we needed more than three days at home in order to make progress on our curriculum. If you are on the go too much, some things are just not gong to get done. If you choose to do a once-a-week co-op, you may end up having to say no to other things.
3. What subjects/classes does the co-op cover? How much homework does the co-op require?
Co-ops are going to vary widely on these two questions - most co-ops do not cover every curriculum subject, and it's helpful to think about what kind of co-op would be most useful for your homeschool. Would you like a co-op that covers some of the core subjects, like math, writing, science, and history? Or would you rather be part of a co-op that covers enrichment subjects and do your own thing for the core subjects? If the co-op does do the core subjects, do you like the curriculum they use? These are all things to think about. Another consideration is how much homework is given for the co-op classes, and whether there are consequences if you decide not to do any of the assignments (ie. how much control are you retaining as the mom). Unfortunately this is one thing you may not be able to know until you start the co-op. If the homework is significant enough that a good chunk of your week is going to be spent getting ready for co-op, I'd encourage you to spend some time considering if you are okay with that.
4. What kind of commitments does the co-op require from the moms?
For most co-ops, the moms are the ones teaching different classes, and if you are going to be part of the co-op, you have to be prepared to put some time into teaching a class as well. Make sure you are aware of how many classes you will have to help with or teach, and how much at-home preparation time and expense that will require.
Most organized co-ops also have a fee to join the co-op, and ultimately this is a good thing, because the co-op can pay for the shared class materials this way. If there is no defined fee (or even if there is) you'll want to find out what kinds of things you may have to pay for yourself during the school year. Make sure you know all the commitments up front, because co-ops are usually very reliant on every family doing their part in order to run smoothly.
5. Will participating in this co-op enhance the things that are important to our family, or take time or energy away from those things?
This question actually sums up my other four points - this is the question at the core. Before joining a co-op, I'd carefully consider the level of energy your family has in this stage of your life, the activities your family likes to do, the curricula you most want to use, and the values that are important to you, and make sure that participating in the co-op will work with those things and not against them. A co-op can be a really good and wonderful thing, but even wonderful things can take time away from the most important things.
For my family, we ended up taking a step back from our co-op ultimately for this last reason. I realized that after participating for two years, I needed a little more flexibility at this stage in our homeschool journey. At the time I had multiple preschool kids, and not having that flexibility to miss co-op when we had a rough week or one of the kids didn't sleep was really difficult during that phase.
If we had a week that left me drained of energy, just keeping up with the work for co-op was the best I could do, and some of the enrichments subjects I really wanted to incorporate were the things that were dropped. The last year of co-op I realized that we were just not getting to some subjects or books that I had slotted for the school year because of my internal pressure to keep up with the work we were doing at co-op. Though our co-op was wonderful overall, and no one put any intentional pressure on us, I decided we needed to step back for a bit so I could sort through what sorts of things were most important for our own family's homeschool, and make sure I was leaving space for those things.
Before last fall, I had never really had a year in our homeschool journey where I was intentional about how we would use each day, what we would spend our time on. I had too many outside activities that took my time and energy away from homeschooling (Bible study, MOPS, co-op), and those activities dictated how I needed to use some of our time at home. I decided I needed to cut everything out for a year so we could find out own rhythm for homeschooling.
That's what this year has been for us. We haven't had any regular activities that occur during the school day, leaving the entire week open for me to structure in the way that is best for our family. Because of our wide-open schedule, we have finally been able to commit more time to some of the subjects that were falling through the cracks before.
I've also been much more relaxed with the kids on our core subjects, because I know if we are having a rough time one day, the lack of things on our calendar give us the ability to catch up later in the week. That's a flexibility I find we need right now with preschoolers and young elementary kids who can't do their lessons on their own. As my kids grow and become more independent and responsible with their core subjects, we may find that we have room for a co-op again.
Have you ever been a part of a homeschool co-op? How did you find a balance between your co-op and the rest of your school week?
This week I thought I would take a cue from Michelle and share some photos of the week with you. One bad thing - maybe the only bad thing - about being off of Instagram is that I can't easily share the little things we are up to - the things that don't seem worthy of a whole blog post end up getting lost. I like the way Michelle has been sharing snippets of daily life on Fridays, and so I'm stealing her idea! Maybe it'll become a weekly occurrence. (I'm at least shooting for once a month.)
-We had out-of-town family to visit recently, and we ate Mexican food and then went on a hike. Gramie happened to know a lot about the history of the buildings in this particular area, so you can bet I counted it as a field trip! It was so nice to see our East Coast family - we always have such great conversations with Derek's brother and sister-in-law, and it had me itching for a visit out there again.
-We went out for a visit to our friends ranch a couple weekends ago! We enjoy taking the kids on day-trips like this, and I love catching up with these particular friends from my childhood. They make it so interesting for the kids as well, and it's a cool experience for them to get to see how a real ranch works! There were adorable lambs born the night before we went, and the kids loved feeding them. My friends were also quite impressed with how far my five little kids rolled that huge hay bail!
-Just a couple outfit pictures from my main opportunity to "dress up" (as in, not in sweats) - that would be Awana nights! My kids are in a perfect sweet spot right now, where all five of them can be in Awana at the same time, and you can bet we are taking advantage of this chance for weekly date nights! When Wyatt gets old enough to age out of the program I'll probably volunteer, but we have to take our opportunities while we have them. I'm trying to be cognizant of what kinds of pictures I share of my kids on here, but I wish I could show you their outfits for "Decades Night" at Awana - the girls were 80's, the boys were 50's. They all looked ridiculously adorable.
-A certain little child of mine turned 7 years old! He asked for a mountain bike and a Woody doll from Toy Story, and was so excited when his wish came true.
-Four of my kids gathered around the laptop for an art tutorial on a Friday Fun-day (Clyde was gone on his birthday shopping day with grandma). Gwen in particular has an artistic bent and has been asking me non-stop for drawing lessons. For now, online lessons will have to do.
-It has snowed a few times in the last couple weeks, after almost summer-like weather. The only time I have trouble with snow is typically in the spring, when we are teased with lovely weather and then hit with another storm - however, this last bit of snow has not bothered me at all. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the knowledge that summer is coming fast and the moisture will be so good for our grass. I think I also am feeling the freshness of spring anew this year, even snowy springs, after we were all locked down last April. I resolved last year to never complain about a normal spring again, mud and all, and so far my resolution has held. It also helps that in April and May snow melts off so fast. We got some drippy icicles in our trees the other day that were so pretty, but I had a hard time capturing them.
-On days when I can't make it to the gym, sometimes I do a quick walk to the mailbox instead, and the last couple times this crazy dog has been following me. I tried to make sure he was locked inside before leaving last time, but when I finally reached the mailbox, closed it and turned around, who do you think I saw? He used to be quite the dog about town in our old neighborhood, and we had to keep him on a collar to make sure he didn't roam, but in his old age he doesn't want to leave our sides. When we are home, he never goes farther than our driveway. When I go to the mailbox, he has to tag along.
Not pictured:
-Derek got a new job this month! He is still in accounting, but a more interesting version of accounting for him. He's excited about attacking a new challenge, and I'm excited that (for now at least) he still gets to work mostly from home. Having him home this last year has been a huge blessing - it has allowed us more family time together since he no longer has to commute, and it has actually made homeschooling easier, because when certain children are getting too distracted I can send them in to work with dad (which works in focusing them like a charm). It is also not lost on me how lucky we are that Derek has been able to work through everything that happened in 2020. I know that working situations have been so hard for so many people.
-April has been such a busy month in that we have been able to spend so much time with people we care about. We had a great Easter with my family, we got to see Derek's family, and we've had several dinners with various good friends. I've also been able to schedule some visits with our homeschool social group, and park days with individual friends. It's been a really busy month! It doesn't appear to be slowing down - Wyatt informed me that he has a busy couple weeks ahead with several events at church he would like to attend. When I contrast last April with this April, I am just so pleased with the difference. People are starting to relax with the arrival of the vaccine, and so much feels normal again.
Normal is a gift. I'm very satisfied with normal.
I hope you all have had a beautifully normal month too, friends - comment and tell me what you've been up to!
A pencil is scratching on paper, and numbers are being muttered under her breath. Occasionally she stops and asks me to clarify what she's supposed to be doing, but as I sit here waiting for my girl to finish a practice math test, I think this is as good a time as any to work on a homeschool-related post.
When I write about homeschooling, I occasionally get some good questions in the comments that inspire a whole other blog post, and that is what is happening today. Q&A posts are in the works for the next week or two. If you are ever curious about how I do something homeschool-related (or not homeschool-related, for that matter), now's your chance to ask! I will try to answer with a corresponding post in a prompt(ish) manner.
Here's the first question.
So I think you mentioned that Fridays are fun, does that mean you generally do the more academic subject 4 days a week?
Yes, I decided last year that we would assign one day a week to be our "fun day"! The way this came about is a long story. When I first started schooling my kids it took a lot of time to get our schoolwork done - for no other reason than that Wyatt and I weren't used to sitting down to do lessons. It took me a while to get into a daily rhythm I could stick to, and it took my kids a while to learn to focus and finish their lessons quickly. For the first year or two, it was all we could do to get through the basics, and I had no energy left for some more enriching and fun subjects.
Then the next year we joined a co-op, which we did for two years. With co-op taking up a whole day of the week, not to mention some of the things we had to do to get ready for co-op during the week, and we still didn't have much energy left for the "extra" subjects I really wanted to include. Things like music appreciation, Shakespeare, in-depth nature study, and science experiments happened very rarely, if at all.
I am very attracted to the Charlotte Mason and classical models of education (though I would describe our style as eclectic), and in both of those there is an emphasis on giving your children beautiful things to ponder, a "feast", if you will. We had no time for that sort of thing for the first several years of our homeschool, and it's one thing I was very dissatisfied with.
Last year, when we decided to quit our co-op, I realized that this was my chance to organize our homeschool in my own way, and I immediately remembered once hearing about doing a "Friday Fun-day". The truth is, it is still difficult to work in the beautiful extras on the same days that we are knee-deep in the "essential" subjects, especially when I have three (soon to be four) kids who need my help with some or all of their lessons. If we are going to have any time for what I deem "the fun stuff", I need to be really intentional about making it happen, and Friday Fun-day is the way I am doing that.
The way we make this work is by planning out our core subjects so that they can be accomplished in only a four-day work week during the school year. So I sat down with our math and reading and writing curricula at the start of the year to figure out how I needed to make that happen. For math, we had some wiggle room built into the number of lessons, so as long as we did four lessons per week, we'd be on track to finish in May. For our reading/phonics the curriculum only required two or three lessons a week. For writing/language arts, the curriculum we use has such short lessons, it is not a burden to double up one day a week to leave our Fridays free. And history and science we accomplish in 2-4 days a week anyway, depending on what we are studying.
Our Friday Fun-days are then free to get a little creative! Our favorite things to do are:
-Go on a nature hike. I have a ton of fun nature study resources, and this is our chance to use them. I mentioned some of our favorite nature study resources in this post.
-Do some music/composer study. I started out on this by using Kristi Hill's free music appreciation lessons - she has several on her website and in the archives of her blog posts, if you are willing to dig a little, and you can also sign up for her free "Music Lesson Monday" emails, which we have used on Fridays. We do "musical sketching", as Kristi recommends, and then read the information or story that goes along with the piece of music. My kids have learned to recognize different pieces of classic music from these lessons, and we actually signed up for one of her courses this spring. My kids seem to really enjoy it.
-Do an art/drawing tutorial. We like Art For Kids Hub on YouTube, and I have recently found some more nature-study focused tutorials for us to work through this spring. I have at least one art-oriented child, and learning to draw and paint is something she really wants to do. Friday Fun-days leaves us some space for that.
-Science experiments. When we do science during the week, it's mainly reading and notebooking activities, and we save the science experiments for Fridays! We went through Apologia Botany last fall, and this spring we are working through a few concepts from Building Foundations Of Scientific Understanding, which has really simple but effective science activities and experiment ideas.
-History read-alouds. This is something we have managed to incorporate during the week, but if I want to catch up, Friday is the day to do it! There are so many great historical chapter books and picture books, which I think is the best way to spark an interest in history for kids!
-See friends. It's important for homeschool kids to have opportunities to see their friends too, as every homeschool mom everywhere is reminded of by family members, grocery store clerks, and every random passerby (I'm not even really kidding). So we see friends frequently, and though we are pretty flexible with our schedule, playdates especially fit well on Fridays. If we can turn the visit into a field trip, even better!
Is having a weekly fun-day something we will do forever? Unfortunately, if my own homeschool experience is any guide, probably not. I know that when I was a homeschool student, as I got into my high school years my workload increased, and it would have certainly been more difficult to set aside a day each week for hands-on learning and extras. Which is all the more reason why I want to make time for a fun-day right now. Setting aside a day dedicated to subjects we may not normally include is one way I can keep our homeschool fun, give my kids opportunities to explore new things, and create memories with them that I hope will produce warm, fond feelings when they think back on it someday.
I'm going to hang onto our fun-days as long as I can!
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