connection and healing

 

Every year, since 2010, I have chosen a word (or two) for the year. Sometimes I choose well, sometimes I don't. This year, I have chosen Connection and Healing as my words. To go with my word of the year, Lala Bug made a new journal for me (my last one was full) and a new 5-year journal for me. (I have now completed two!) Her handmade journals are stunning and mine are personalized and so special. One of the joys of having creative, skilled, talented big kiddos.

 

 

 

a gift from the sea: a which name? re-post

This post was first written and posted to my original blog, Which Name?, on July 22, 2010. I selected it to re-post now, in the midst of a conversation in a beloved mamas group about our need for alone, restorative time. One mama mentioned this book, I chimed in that I used to re-read it, and I remembered that I had blogged about it. Fourteen years ago(!) I was struck by its relevance and it is still relevant today. What does that mean about a mother's/woman's changing needs (or lack of change) over time? The time of our own lives, but also over the time since this book was written, nearly 70 years ago?

 

July 22, 2010

a gift from the sea

Summer brought a change in pace, activities, time, and energy this year. I've felt a bit pulled in multiple directions, feeling always "on" with my children, craving a vacation. Craving time alone.

I have always felt guilty with this need. After all, I am incredibly fortunate to be home with my children. There are days I send a very reluctant Mike off to work and I am reminded, again, what a gift he is giving me. Although they can be trying (I've given up attempting to keep my house clean this summer. I have been too busy on damage control), our children are also very sweet, are the best of friends, and I am blessed to have the time with them to truly know them.


But it can be tiring, giving of oneself to others without enough personal rejuvenation.

I have carved out time for creating, often with the kids, but I have had little time alone, to just sit and be. What time I have stolen (because truly, it feels as though I am taking time from someone else (my husband?) or something else (sleep, perhaps?) to make it so), I have been reading.

I have just finished A Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.


I have always considered myself a mountain and forest girl first, despite growing up by the ocean, but in recent months, it has been the sea and sand I have been craving for rejuvenation.

I cannot express how perfect this book was for me to read at this time. Set by the ocean, with the ocean as the theme, Lindbergh discusses being a woman. Perhaps what amazed me most is that this book was written in 1955, yet still managed to touch so many pieces of my own life today. How poignantly history is woven into the now. It will probably always be this way in some way.

I want to share with you with some quotes from the book.


"…Today, more of us in America than anywhere else in the world have the luxury of choice between simplicity and complication of life. And for the most part, we, who could choose simplicity, choose complication.”

“Every person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year, some part of each week, and each day. How revolutionary that sounds and how impossible of attainment. To many women, such a program seems quite out of reach.”

“Moon shell…You will remind me that I need to be alone for part of each year, even a week or a few days; and for part of each day, even for an hour or a few minutes in order to keep my core, my center, my island-quality. You will remind me that unless I keep the island-quality intact somewhere within me, I will have little to give my husband, my children, my friends or the world at large.”

“Nothing feeds the center more than creative work, even humble kinds like cooking and sewing. Baking bread, weaving cloth, putting up preserves, teaching and singing to children, must have been far more nourishing than being family chauffeur or shopping at super markets…”

“Evening is the time for conversation. Morning is for mental work…Afternoon is for physical tasks, the out-of-door jobs. But evening is the time for sharing, for communication.”

“What release to write so that one forgets oneself, forgets one’s companion, forgets where one is or what one is going to do next…”

“We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror at its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life, as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom…”

“…each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid.”

“My life…lacks this quality of significance because there is so little empty space. The space is scribbled on; the time has been filled. There are so few empty pages in my engagement pad, or empty hours in the day, or empty rooms in my life in which to stand alone and find myself….it is not merely the trivial that clutters our lives, but the important as well.”

With those words of wisdom, written 55 years ago and still so poignant for me today, I am stepping offline to spend some time at my "island." Each year since I was an infant, my family has spent part of the summer up in the mountains at a lakeside cabin, accessible by boat or foot only, with no power or hot water.

This summer, our lake time begins tomorrow. My mind, body, and soul cannot wait. While not alone, in the lack of space of the small cabin, there is somehow much more space being set in nature, and I am craving that now.

Have a wonderful week. I have some posts scheduled to appear in this space, but I won't be back with you all for a week and a half or so. Be well...

 

homeschool 2023-2024

 

 

We have entered our 12th year of home learning! 

This year, Brown Mouse is in 10th grade and Lala Bug has moved out of high school and declared her major in apparel design and merchandising.

After expressing interest in heading to a brick and mortar school for the rest of high school (a door we left open by homeschooling through a charter school), lots of conversations, visiting schools, narrowing down choices, and sitting in classrooms, Brown Mouse opted to continue homeschooling. He's got a full load with geometry, physics, English, U.S. history, life skills/transition, P.E., and driver's ed. He is biking (mountain and road), always, and is back in soccer after an injury, playing with the team he has been part of since he was 8. And he will be assistant soccer coaching with the skills coach he began playing with at age 6!

Lala Bug began taking college classes in high school and chose to continue, selecting math, pattern draping, and fashion sketching for this year, majoring in apparel design and merchandising. So far, we have been impressed with the program, the staff, and the disabled student services, and feel lucky to have a solid niche program so close to home. She has continued building skills and making beautiful items (knits, fashion, books, and more) and I am working with her on her small business and entrepreneurial goals. She is also mountain and road biking. 

That is our little nutshell as we propel into this learning year!

 

learning period 3: 2019 - 2020

I am trying to capture each learning period as they happen, which, for our homeschooling arrangement, is a 2-month length of time, August through May. Learning period 3 covered December 2019 and January 2020. The idea of a learning period comes from the charter school that both my kids were in from 2013 onward and just Brown Mouse is part of now. Checking in every two months is doable for me and keeps me on track with both kids. Lala Bug is still homeschooling, but we are independently homeschooling now and she takes a couple classes at a private school, as a part-time student for hybrid-schooling.

Brown Mouse, grade 6:

Math: He is primarily using ALEKS and Key To workbooks for math. 6th grade is when I really backed off and made the year playful with math for his sister and I am keeping it short for him, currently, because I can feel a similar push-back and frustration.

Science: Science is one of his favorite subjects, so we do a lot of playing around with science. Recently, we have really enjoyed exploring science projects from the series of books from DK by Jack Challoner.

Language Arts/English: Brown Mouse is doing a loop of materials to work on different aspects of language arts in short bursts daily. He is using Typing Club, Handwriting Without Tears for Cursive, Editor in Chief, and speech-to-text to more fully get his thoughts in writing. He has also read and is now in a production of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Social studies/history: We are learning American History. Right now, we are in the Civil War time period. Just to be confusing, we are also re-exploring the Middle Ages and Brown Mouse is beginning to work on a research project to go with his Shakespeare class.

Other: 4-H (all outdoors projects this year; hiking, urban farming, and wilderness skills, for which he is the junior leader), karate (new for him), soccer (skills class and pick-up games with his rec team)

Lala Bug, grade 9:

Math: Algebra 1 at the school. She is doing really well in this, despite years of math-hating, but the homework is time and energy consuming for her, I won't lie.

Science: Biology, with lab, at the school. This is my background, but is definitely not a favorite for her. She is currently having to practice note-taking because of this class and that is a challenging skill for her differently wired brain.

Language Arts/English: This year we are covering Shakespeare - comedy and tragedy and also essay reading (and eventually a little more writing).

Social studies/history: American history with the intention of being ready for American Government next school year. Right now, we are in the Civil War time period. We have also been dipping in and out of current events, because so much has been going on politically.

World language: This is generally on hold, although she has been "playing" with DuoLingo for Italian.

Other: 4-H (all outdoors projects now; hiking, urban farming, and wilderness skills, for which she is the teen leader. Unfortunately, she had to drop a life skills project because her academic school class times changed), ballet, coding, fashion/design, knitting. (Soccer is on break for the season.)


What has your kids schooling and education looked like lately?

the 2019 - 2020 learning year

We are gently and reluctantly launching our school year this week. I say reluctantly because we had a very full summer, ending with work happening in our house, throwing things into chaos and leaving me feeling (no, actually being) unprepared. But because of how our school year is framed, it is time to begin.

When we began the school year last year, my oldest, a high needs kiddo, was entering 8th grade. We were really working to determine what the specific high needs were rooted in, with the hope of finding extra support to address them. She knew that she wanted to homeschool high school. I didn't think I wanted to homeschool high school. And so went a year of addressing each of our needs and finding supports.

Oddly (or perhaps not), here we are, a year later, having considered a lot of different options (including a 'gap year'). Now, though, we are making last minute decisions for course work and curricula resources as we descend into another homeschool year, with both kids. Both Lala Bug and I have grown in the past year. The growth and the supports we have both received have lead to more mutual understanding and confidence that we can homeschool high school successfully.

The supplies above, the book stack below, and a handful of other fabulous goodies were free for educators (including homeschoolers) at a local reuse shop!

9th grade:
I want to say I can't believe I have a high schooler. I can, because this transition for Lala Bug has been on my mind for 2 years now and integrated into our lives for over a year, but I can't believe how quickly my kids are growing and, honestly, how hard it is to stay on level with them. I am simultaneously trying to keep up with the changing needs as a slow processor, all while not letting my head get away with me in thoughts of "shouldn't we be doing X by now?" Yes, 14 years into parenting, the "shoulds" can still niggle sometimes.

This year, we have planned for Lala Bug to participate in a part time program in a nearby school that serves kids who need extra support. We had additionally planned to begin a new homeschool charter that serves high schoolers, however, part of our last minutes decisions included releasing our spot. I had a difficult time reaching anyone to answer questions, and when I finally did, I had already spoken with a couple other moms whose families use that charter, and we were already coming to the conclusion that, as scary as it is to fly solo for high school, the charter would not be a good fit for us at this point. (If anyone in my everyday life wants to know the details, please just ask when you see me!)

We only just got the draft schedule for the part time program Lala will be attending and the slow, sporadic, unique orientation will be begin this week. She is nervous, as expected, but I am hopeful that this will be a good fit for her, and the blend of homeschooling with some small school supports will be just right.

So, while I am no longer an over-planner, I would have liked to have had all of the information I gained in the past few days, already in place several months ago.

Math: Lala will likely be taking math as one of her part time school program classes. She has also clicked with the teaching and practice style of ALEKS, so she will continue to practice using this program. She will also be doing some business math this year and she has spent quite a bit of time coding during the summer and I expect this will continue and deepen.

English ~ Literature, Language Arts, and Writing: We will be tying together history and literature and will be covering U.S. history (so we can cover government during elections in 2020) through the books we select. We will be using language arts learning guides such as Boomerang (Brave Writer). We will cover some essay writing, as well. In addition, Lala Bug has been using a spelling program to support some of her learning differences and will continue to practice typing.

History/Social Studies: We will be deepening the learning of U.S. history through literature and non-fiction books, biographies, documentaries, field trips, and discussions.

Science: Lala will experience science with lab in the part time school program.

World language: She has been asking to learn Italian for some time, but I think we will have her begin with Spanish, which is an extremely common language where we live.

6th grade:
Brown Mouse is starting 6th grade this year. We are leaving the elementary years behind, something I can't quite believe! He is still with our beloved charter school, for which I am grateful, although the school, on the whole, is going through significant (to us) changes this year, so we are starting the year curious, but less certain. I am hoping to have Brown Mouse undergo an evaluation through our charter school this year, as he has some differences when it comes to writing and spelling, which are signaling a possible subset of dyslexia or some other language processing difference.

Our plans for him this year are loosely Waldorf based, but with more mainstream resources.
Games and exploration: I just want to start by saying that we play games and do physical exploration for every subject that we can. This goes for both kids!

Math: He would like to continue using Teaching Textbooks for math, however I think he is capable of a bit more challenge, so I would like him to do some practice using ALEKS, which our charter school covers.

Language Arts and Writing: We will be doing both of these through literature, specifically Brave Writer style. I suspect the resource specialist will give us additional materials to work specifically on spelling, the mechanics of writing, and typing. I know there will be additional literature that he will join his sister and I with, in reading, as well, and we will tie into history through some Shakespeare. He and Lala are prolific independent readers.

Social Studies: I would like to cover Roman history and Medieval history with him this year. I think there are some enjoyable ways to explore these periods, despite history not being his favorite subject.

Science: This is Brown Mouse's favorite subject. We are going to be doing a lot of hands on learning this year, exploring some ecology, geology, and physics.

I know I haven't named a ton of curriculum resources, but it is because I am going to be pulling materials from a variety of resources, depending on the subject or project. My key tool is my library card. This allows us access to borrow books, audiobooks, ebooks, and DVDs. It gives us free admission to a number of museums, use of language programs, and more. We also have similar benefits through our charter school.

Other memberships and services we use (some free, some paid) are: Curiosity Stream, Khan Academy, Brain Pop, our local museums, our local parks district, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Pinterest, other bloggers, and probably more that I am not thinking of!

Extras:
Both kids participate in soccer, dance, and 4-H (which is comprehensive for leadership, teamwork, community service, and more. The kids will be co-leading a project this year.) There is additional interest in mountain biking, golf, piano, and more, and we are working out what our schedule, budget, and other allowances and limitations will be.

This is a year of a lot of change. I think I won't really know how it is going to go until we are in it and settling into a new rhythm. It will involve a lot of driving for me, and probably some park/cafe-schooling for Brown Mouse and me. I am hopeful and finally feeling at ease with the choices we have made as we move into high school.

learning period 1 of 2018-2019

The year before last (how was that so long ago?!), I shared about our homeschool year, one learning period at a time. We homeschool under the branches of a charter school that we love, and the charter follows us in two-month chunks, called learning periods. Learning period 1 was August and September. Here is a little snapshot of the launch of our year!

Nature study weekly; I had planned for Fridays to be our nature study and library day, but several weeks in, although desired and beautiful, it wasn't so smooth. Walking alongside me one week, my wise little guy says to me, "Mamma, what do you think if we do our nature walks on Monday mornings? Maybe they would be better for starting the week." And he was right! It doesn't matter what school or work we human beings head into each week, MOANday mornings tend to be hard. Nature walk has been a much gentler start to the week and we have cherished slower home rhythm on Fridays.

I am realizing that, while I am deeply inspired by Waldorf as my home teaching and parenting foundation, our best flowing "us-school" days are perhaps a little more unit study-like. (That term makes me cringe. I don't know why.) This year, I am using Brave Writer Arrow and Boomerang guides for writing mechanics and grammar, something with which we needed to become a little more consistent. I chose to start us with Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, the 1956 Newbery award winning biographical novel of Nathaniel Bowditch, written by Jean Lee Latham.

I could never have imagined the journey Nat would take us on. We were gripped by his story ("Just one more chapter, Mamma!") and how he quietly, yet deeply affected history. We were then hurled through time, backward from Nat to Galileo and forward from Nat and onto the west coast for The Coast Mappers and a tour of a modern ship, the one my brother works on. This one chapter book had us eagerly chasing math, science, history, writing, and language arts, and had the kids making connections and expressing curiosity and excitement with what they were learning. This is fuel for the homeschooling mama soul.

 Along with our read alouds and all-things-Nat, the kids did regular math lessons, another subject we had become inconsistent with. Brown Mouse is very happily engaged with Teaching Textbooks now. He worked his way through the free trial and into a full membership for the year. Lala Bug has been doing Khan Academy, supplemented with Key To... series practice booklets (which our charter school provides). It feels good to have math anchors without push back. I do think the year that I backed off and made math more about play and living experiences made a huge positive difference in math attitude now.

So much cooking and baking, below. Lala Bug got interested in and immediately skilled in baking cakes in the spring, and we always meal plan and meal prep for the week, so a lot of cooking and baking has been happening around here, particularly with September being full of birthdays.The praise "this is the best cake I have ever had!" is positive feedback Lala Bug has loved hearing, and since we are gluten-free bakers, that was encouraging to me.

Soccer is successfully and joyfully underway, 4-H projects and charter classes are beginning this week, and probably the most meaningful things we are doing right now is going through a series of appointments for the unique needs of one kiddo and health-related challenges I have been having. For this reason, alone, the success of our basic weekly rhythm has been so encouraging to me. We are now moving onward into learning period 2. We are studying chocolate and its origins, the constitution and natural history (both through our charter classes), and excited about the playful learning of 4-H.

I hope your learning year is starting smoothly and joyfully!

lift off, 2018-2019

Hello, September! I blogged about my home learning plans for this year a few weeks ago and we are now underway. We are transitioning in slowly. We have begun some activities already and some have yet to begin. This has been the smoothest start to the (home)school year of the last several. I had to pause to think about that after I wrote it, because it is unexpected, since we have entered this year with far more uncertainty than the past few.

Perhaps we were itching for rhythm or maybe just a good read aloud. Perhaps the smooth start has had more to do with my attitude about how I truly want this year to be or the fact that we had just come home from a deeply connected, nature filled week away. Regardless, the last two weeks have been a nice blend of gentle main lesson work and time to pursue interests. We began the year with some gifts, annual porch photos (heart tug), and a simple rhythm of weekly nature study, daily read aloud (Carry On, Mr. Bowditch...a beautifully written blend of history, science, and math), language arts work (Arrow guide from Brave Writer), and math. (We have transitioned to mostly online materials for math and are trying Teaching Textbooks through a a free trial. It looks like we might have one kiddo using Teaching Textbooks and one using Khan Academy this year.)

 Checking out Teaching Textbooks. And yes, that is corn on the floor in the background. Brown Mouse loves to drive his big trucks through it, playing that it is gravel. What you can't see is the laundry on the floor beyond that, waiting to be folded.

One of my biggest observations is that I have noticed almost no complaining about this rhythm so far, and both kids are more articulate about what they would enjoy and what would help them be more organized. I needed to see and feel this success and growth.  We love homeschooling, we choose it, it is a gift and privilege, but there are days/weeks/months/years when it is hard.

I am sharing some photos here, from our first couple of weeks. Those of you on Instagram might recognize a few of these, but I haven't shared them here. (You can request to follow me @nicolacreativelightless if you are an IG user.)

Over the next few weeks, we will have a clunky ramp up to our full schedule for the fall and early winter. Soccer games will begin and consume weekends, we have a differently wired kiddo undergoing some assessments to help us offer unique support, 4-H projects will begin, and charter school classes will begin.

I am looking forward to a happy year ahead. Regardless of how and where your kids are learning, I hope the shift into the new school year goes well for you all.

p.s. My friend, Amber of Hearth Magic, is hosting a free autumn blog series called Coming Home, starting tomorrow. I am honored to be one of the contributors. You can sign up to receive the series here.

planning: 2018-2019

I find myself somewhere I have never been before. Okay, I realize that is a ridiculous statement, given that each moment we live, we are living freshly, never having lived it before, but as I sit down to write about my planning this year, it looks and feels different for one very distinct reason.

We don't currently know if we will be homeschooling next year (see this post), and if we are, whether it will be one or both kids. So, as I enter this year, I feel different; uncertain, anxious to catch up, sentimental about the past, and (in an attempt to focus on something slightly more positive) determined to not get lost in the details this year, but instead focus in a playful way on the skills I think are essential and on exploring and taking advantage of the freedom of schedule that we have as home learners.

(I wrote about the path ahead back in January. Six months later, I have more information, but the only way in which I feel we are closer to a decision is to accept that we may not know which path until next year, when we take the first step. This post isn't about that. Does anyone want me to write more about that?)

I have spent some time the last few weeks thinking about the year ahead. For portability and ease of editing, I used Evernote for my planning. I can customize it to suit me and this year and I inserted a photo of my kiddos right at the top of my planning page, to keep them at the forefront.

As I thought about the year, I wrote a list of questions to consider as I think about my days with these two amazing, growing people.

How do I want our days to feel? (See the list below, explained in this linked post.)
What have we been doing well?
What can I remove?
What do I want to add?
Where are we struggling? What's hard?
What do we love?
What do we value? (I want to prioritize this!)
What are the strengths and weaknesses? How can I teach to strengths while addressing weaknesses?

I now have a loose plan in place, a good list of resources I can reach for, and an idea of the things I would most like to focus on. I will talk to the kids about my thoughts, but I need a framework for myself, and the truth is, my kids never have too much to say about what they are eager to learn. When we touch on something that sparks enthusiasm for them, it is clear. I want time in my plan to be able to pause and explore those interests. Our roots are still Waldorf-ish, but we have woven it into our own tapestry; our Us-school.

This year, we will still be part of our homeschool charter. My kiddos will do the weekly classes and activities, but due to a resource center move, I don't know if there will be additional classes they can participate in. (Lala Bug did math the last year or two.) Our family will continue to participate in 4-H, with Lala Bug co-leading a project. We will continue in our American Girl club (picking back up with the Civil War era) and to start the year, both kids will be in soccer.

As always, read aloud, games, the library, crafting and building, and nature study are also a key part of our homeschool. In addition, I want to pick back up on our Waldorfish Weekly Art class.

Because we school through a charter, we have to turn in monthly work samples for each child in 5 core subjects. At home, we can do these in any way, using any philosophy that suits us.

Math: I have used Making Math Meaningful teacher guides (for grades 1-5 and for middle school) to help me decide what to cover as I set up a Khan Academy classroom for each of my kiddos. We will be doing geometry through art this year and I am starting the year off with a block on chocolate, which is designed as a math block, although we will dip into geography and cultures as well.

Science: We will be having a weekly nature day again this year, using Exploring Nature with Children as a guide. We will also do some home experiments, journaling, and use Mystery Science again. I would like to focus on health/anatomy/physiology, botany, and some physics this year. A recent post from Carrie of The Parenting Passageway has me thinking how to explore oceanography, as well.

Social Studies: We will be using the library a lot for this subject. We will cover some ancient myths for Brown Mouse and American history (south and north) for both kids. (Primarily Lala Bug, but our American Girl kid club covers quite a lot of U.S. history, too, for both kids.)

Writing and Language Arts: I am putting these two together, because I am choosing some Brave Writer Arrow guides and writing projects this year. Because we have some dyslexic-like challenges, I am considering using a phonics and spelling support, as well, but I have yet to decide how I am going to blend this all together. Writing will allow the kids to practice print, cursive, and typing this year.

I have been grateful again this year for the Plan it Out course and community from Waldorf-Inspired Learning. (I joined as the first group over a year ago and her planning style suits me very well.) I also continue to dip in and out of Waldorf Essentials TFW. (I have been a lifetime member for 6 years.)

Perhaps this sounds like a lot to you. Perhaps it sounds like we have gaps. We ebb and flow (we don't do everything all the time) and as unexpected opportunities arise, we like to add in.

Are you a homeschooler who is planning? What is that looking like for you?

summer reading 2018

My summer priority reading

Every summer since they were little, my kids have participated in our city library's summer reading program. They love to do it, are eager to sign up, and it seems to be mostly for the thrill of checking off the days. Always, the kids earn a free book and a packet of coupons for things like a free ice cream at a local creamery. Several years in a row, Lala Bug won an additional special prize, so those years, we got to go on a ferry ride, as well. This year, it is clear the program has had an overhaul. I don't know what the ending prize will be, but they still earn a free book. Now they are entered to win an iPad (wowza) and upon signing up, got to choose tickets to a baseball game! I think some kids are less motivated to read than mine are. Our weekly library day is quite important to the guys!

''If I get to them' reading

I am relaxing into reading time during the summer, too. I posted my list last summer and I got through some, not all of the stack, so this summer, I have made a few stacks. My priority stack (and I am half way through two of those books), my 'if I get to them' stack, my lesson planning books, and I will certainly read some fiction that I will pick up along the way.

 

 Lesson planning materials

What are you reading?

2017-2018: nearly mid-year

As I wrote the post title 'nearly mid-year,' I gave myself a mini panic attack. The truth is, I have been struggling with anxiety for awhile now, but this fall, it has been significantly worse. The roots run deep and are varied, but one small piece is that I am homeschooling growing children, time doesn't stand still, and I have been mentally thinking forward toward what is coming next and behind at what we haven't done. The transition between elementary teaching and high school planning has felt, well...short.


We had a full and productive fall, our home learning has been beautiful, and smoother, especially as I embrace our version of Waldorf-inspired at home. You won't see tons of main lesson drawings here, or consistent form drawing, but you will see lots of stories, art and creativity, singing, and movement. Our Us-schooling makes for a happier, motley mix of activities, using a motley mix of resources.

I wish I had carved out more time to blog learning period-by-learning period again this year, as I did last year. (Our homeschool charter uses learning periods that cover 2 months at a time, and last year I blogged about what we had done each of those learning periods before moving into the next period.) We have done so much! I didn't capture it that way, though. So...here are some things we have done since my last post update.

We spent a lot of time on math and science during late autumn. The kids wanted to participate in our homeschool group's math and science fair and quickly chose to work together on a project about fire. Fire has been fresh in their minds and relevant to them as their Grannie was evacuated from the intense and destructive fires in Northern California. We also explored Mystery Science activities and Lala Bug's weekly math class meant that we were all playing with math very consistently.

One of our consistent anchors has been a weekly nature study or exploration. We have one spot we visit regularly, but we happily take detours when something seasonally magical comes our way, like over-wintering ladybugs or a super (Wolf) moon and spring tides with an  >8 foot change between high and low tides. When not pulled by unique events, we explored fungus, lichen, moss, winter solstice, and more.

The holidays flew by. We took a break from our main lessons during part of December. It was much needed, but the grounding feeling of rhythm has been missed, and so we made a slow re-entry last week and dive back into year-long and into new activities this week. I am taking some deep breaths as transitions are always a little hard....

Happy learning and living to you all!

planning 2017-2018, part 2

I started blogging about my planning for this coming year in part 1, linked here.

Shortly after I did so, we went up to the lake for a week. This was the perfect break from the draw of the computer for planning (which can lead to wonderful, positive connection and information, but also, for me, over-researching, self-doubt, questioning 'Do I have enough? Do I need that book too?').  Worry and overwhelm are tendencies I will always have to work hard to manage, so I just have to stop and be quiet sometimes, so as not to over-plan. Follow through can be hard for me, too, so not over-planning is important for many reasons. (I am melancholic-sanguine. Either that or highly sensitive with ADD! Probably all, actually.)

The week was the perfect chance to just be with my own thoughts, to watch and be with my family, to sink into some books, to journal, and to draw.

One of my take-aways from Jean Miller's Plan It Out class was how to make art more doable in our homeschool. Jean talks about the Lively Arts of Waldorf education. They are key to bringing the lessons alive to children, but I had lost some of them (or never had them well established) and I have a child for whom creating is extremely important and who has had very few requests. (Knitting together, learning to draw, and learning Italian.)

So I spent some time drawing. If I don't ever do it, I won't ever get better, right? And if I don't ever model it, it will be hard to encourage us along, right? Earlier in the year, I had said I planned to draw something, anything, daily, but I haven't stuck to that goal, so this felt satisfying.

 

And I spent some time reading. I can now highly recommend Spelling by Hand by Jeremy Hermann and Let's Play Math by Denise Gaskins.

Spelling by Hand is a short, quick read. I thought it 'read' a bit stilted, almost like a translation of Rudolf Steiner, although the author is a young American. It had some very simple, linear, clear ideas of how to teach spelling in short lessons that are active and build upon each other. While he discussed what to cover in each grade, he didn't dwell on grade, in the event children aren't at grade level. We have some special challenges here, so spelling is something that we need to actively work on now. (It was not a priority before, as we were dealing with higher needs.) I am looking forward to putting his ideas into action.

Let's Play Math is a book I am reading as part of an online homeschool group that discusses math. There has been much resistance to math in our home, leaving me frustrated, tentative, and worried. However, I shifted gears this past year, set expectations differently and brought math more playfully, and I notice an increase in skill and willingness to come along on the math trails with me. I am half way through this book and it is excellent. I love the way she discusses math as a series of questions to answer (curiosity!), not a formula to apply. She discusses playing with math, hands-on math, reading math, the history and culture of math. It has been an encouraging and inspiring read so far.

Home again, Lala Bug pulled out the magazines and started collaging. She asked us to join her. Why, yes, please! I used to create a 'Dream Garden' or 'Vision Board' each year or so, inspired completely by an online class I took from Erin Goodman of Exhale. Return to Center. (I don't think she is writing or doing this type of work anymore. She is amazing and works now as a Reverend.) My collage is made, roughly using a 3x3 grid (you can find this by searching 'vision board' on Google or Pinterest) and magazine cut-outs to create a personal visual of what I want for the year ahead.

I am also considering a paid online art course. I have felt that art is something we can learn if we just do it regularly, but perhaps a motivation and some tips would be valuable and the consistency could be good. So I tested out the sample lesson from Waldorfish, and am considering their package of lessons. I am still deciding because of cost, but I enjoyed the lesson and loved the comments the kids gave me about my results. I will have them try it out, too.

More planning to do, but I am on hold now as I wait for more information from our charter school, 4-H, and therapists, and as I consider what is essential for us right now. The kids have camp, so I am heading into a week of tasks from a long list I have made for myself...reading, errands, more decluttering, and some self-care/pampering.

I'll be back again with a post that shares a little more about what I plan to teach this year and resources I plan to use. Until then...

52: 27

52 weeks of photos. A special moment during the week of July 2, 2017