Dinner at Adele’s-On-Canton with Margie, my bride of 42 years, Sarah, Jonathan, Grayson, Isabella, Ellison, Jackson, and Jacob Sawyer.
Batik Painting
Inspired by Glitter Bombers, we did a fun art project this week: batiking shirts and canvas bags.
Inspired by Glitter Bombers, we did a fun art project this week: batiking shirts and canvas bags.
I’m a planner. There’s just something about making plans and checking boxes that really gets me going. I also love to teach, to see those lightbulbs go off when a curiosity is satisfied. Trouble is, when you are homeschooling multiple kids, things don’t always, or often, go as planned. Even with the best intentions, we can squash our children’s natural learning potential in favor of completing a curriculum or following a standard.
Here is a slice of my life from 4 years ago.
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Of the things that happen every day, some are little, some much bigger, some take effort, some come with ease. There are countless little and big things that happen each day. Here are some pics and videos that we can remember them by. Every day is a gift.
Sometimes I find myself jealous of the social media posts of other moms of young kids. The fancy themed baskets and fresh treats to celebrate the seasons, the child-free workouts or lunches with friends. But until you have made Rice Krispie monsters with 4 kids “helping”, you really haven’t lived.
I wonder sometimes what I would do with my time if my kids were in school and not sharing my same square foot for 15 hours a day then sharing my bed all night.
I have to admit- I am a bit of a curriculum junkie. There’s just something about choosing a program, figuring out how it works, and planning it out that is cathartic for me. However, sometimes the best laid plans are just that- plans. And that’s OK.
I’m a huge proponent of open-ended play and child-led learning. We love art for the process just as much for the final product.
This year I found a super-fun theme based art curriculum. This month we are learning all about tide pools and doing art projects that reinforce our learning. Today we read about oyster catchers, read some tide pool poetry, copied our favorite poem, and made our own oyster catcher art.
We are two weeks into our homeschool year. We pretty much go year round taking breaks whenever we feel like it, but we like to start back with a loose routine and celebrate the end of one year and the start of another. Kids and I talked about their goals for the year, what they are interested in, and how we want our days to go.