Hey there! It’s been awhile since I last wrote here! I’ve been busy as a bee, but lately it has been on my heart to begin writing again.
My husband began working at his new job around the time of my last post! He delivers medical supplies to hospitals for surgeries. It has truly been the biggest blessing for our family in so many ways after a long season of financial struggles – God is so good. However, like most families we are still feeling the burden of inflation & any chance of having “extra” money has been replaced with double the price of Energy Bills each month. That money had to come from somewhere and, unfortunately, that meant we had to put our girls piano lessons on pause.
Luckily, it didn’t take long before I found Hoffman Academy – a FREE, online piano school providing a complete musical education that is put together with short, easy-to-follow videos. Each of my girls have their own profile that keeps track of their progress & where they are in their learning process, which makes all of our lives easier than if we had to constantly remember who left off on which video.
The girls put the video on the computer and play along on our piano. Each day, I have them each complete one video lesson which are typically around 10-15 minutes long. If they are enjoying themselves and would like to complete more than one lesson, they are welcome to do that. It ensures they get their practice time on the piano each day & keeps us on a good rhythm, filling our time wisely.
It is a really great resource for both children and adults alike – anyone who wishes to learn the piano. If you’re a homeschooling mama like I am, there is even a FREE complete curriculum already put together for us with printables and interactive games to make learning music fun.
Hoffman Academy does offer a paid premium option that includes additional lessons and access to their entire library. We currently are using the free option which works just fine for our family. Don’t let money (or lack thereof) be an excuse to hold you back from living your best life & accomplishing all you want. Where there is a will, there is always a way. Happy learning!
Our friend, Mrs. Mary, invited us out to her beautiful property in Indiana today to go on a Homeschool Nature Hike. They are also into the Charlotte Mason lifestyle.
Her property is that of my actual dreams. She has a beautiful farmhouse filled with all vintage and handmade items. It is so cozy, especially this time of year with her fire burning in their fireplace in the living room. It has the sweetest laundry/mud room with beautiful natural sunlight and vintage & natural decor that would make doing laundry feel so peaceful and joyous.
Out back is a huge nature trail through the woods, a barn, a pond with a beautifully crafted gazebo, large garden spaces, so much room for kids to run around and play endlessly outside. Best of all, her son’s family lives next door. That’s exactly what we dream of!!!!
Before our hike, she fed us all lunch and shared her personal Nature Journal with us, then gifted us each our own new nature journal to get started with! That was so sweet & thoughtful of her to do for us. We peaked through the book that she uses as inspiration for how to create a Nature Journal.
She has been doing this for many years and has fond memories recorded from trips she’s taken where she was able to experience the wonders that the Creator has freely given us. I love the idea of looking back years from now with special memories brought flooding back by pages recorded in our Nature Journal. She’ll jot down notes or places she made an entry. She adds poems & words of wisdom in her journal. I love that.
Afterwards, we took a lovely hike through the woods, then came back and let the kids play outside for awhile. They have a great fairy garden that the kids loved. I’ll have to put a lot more work into ours. They have such cool Nature in their own backyard! That is exactly what I long for in our forever home. We left in time to miss the dreaded Friday late afternoon traffic, came home and the girls took time working on their first Nature Journal pages.
All of us really enjoyed finding mushrooms. We spotted several different types while we were out on the trail. I love them so much! There were really big ones & really small ones and the ones we see the most often: Turkey Tails. It’s fascinating how many different varieties there are in just her forest alone!
The mushrooms definitely made it into the Nature Journals. Mrs. Mary told me that she keeps another book of Spore Prints that she makes. I’m really excited to check that out next time we are invited. She also has a Nature Wall like us too!
We tasted Rosehip. It’s very sweet! I liked the way they looked. We learned that Rosehip is often used in tea. I had heard of it before, but had no idea what it looked like or what it was a berry.
Rosehip has a lot of medicinal purposes, which is why it is popular in teas. Rosehip can help with joint pain & inflammation, lower blood pressure & cholesterol, and aid in digestion. They help improve eyesight & skin. They are also used to treat bronchitis, coughs, & colds and have a ton of Vitamin A and E so they help strengthen your immune system. They also protect your vascular system. I’m definitely going to have to start incorporating this into our diets more.
Besides tea, they are also used to make jams & jellies, syrup, soup, or a sauce. I’m interested to try those!
There was also so much moss on the trail! I really, really love moss. I loved the way this shaggy type looked growing off of the trees.
Athena also liked the tress with moss & the whispy, twirly branches hanging from some of them.
This cool stuff is called Fan Clubmoss. It was popping up all over the trail! I had never heard of it before, but when I got home I looked it up and found they also have so many medicinal purposes! They treat rashes & wounds, skin infections & chafing, urinary Tract infections, kidney infections, and bladder infections. It can also be used to naturally dye cloths & fabrics. It is so amazing what all Nature is capable of & I absolutely love the way it looks!
Another fascination was the animal skulls along the trail. This was a raccoon. There was a second decomposing raccoon later down the trail that still had some of its furry meat-suit attached (Athena thought it was a monkey) and a teeny tiny bird skull that was so cute!
It will be really neat to watch as their journals become more detailed the more they get into it. I am so excited to begin working in mine. This is something that we will definitely be doing for the rest of our homeschool journey & I’m sure even longer as we will then pass it on to their children when that season of life comes around.
I really love Nature so much & am so happy to be raising children who also love and appreciate Nature as much as I do. Ella really gets so into it each time we go on a Nature Hike. She loves using the PictureThis App to find out the names of different plants she wants to learn more about. I’m happy they would rather be outside exploring Nature & the world around them than choosing to plop down in front of a screen wasting their lives away. There is such a big, beautiful world out there and now we have a new way to document the wonders we come across. So grateful for Mrs. Mary sharing this with us.
This week’s Grace Girls class was on the basics of cupcake decorating. We learned about frosting, how to make & fill piping bags, and how to use the piping bags to frost cupcakes or other desserts.
Our class was led by Mrs. Mandee. She did such a great job teaching the girls (and some of us moms) how to properly frost cupcakes. She prepared a little cupcake tray ahead of time showing different designs you can make using your piping bags.
Everyone was told to bring: a small mixing bowl, a rubber spatula, and a large Mason jar. My wide-mouths are currently being used, so we brought standard size. In the future, I will be using wide-mouth for this.
Mrs. Mandee taught us how to make our piping bags. We take one bag and one tip and place it inside as far as it will go without disrupting the bag. Make a mark using your scissors halfway up your piping tip to indicate where you will be cutting. Push your tip back a little bit, cut at the mark you made, then push tip back down to the end so it is snug in the bag.
The piping bags should look like this when they are ready to be used:
Once they are made, place your piping bag inside the Mason Jar with the ends open around the jar to prepare for filling your piping bag.
This tip to me was a game-changer! I have typically avoided using piping bags in the past because of the mess I would make filling the bag. This prevents a mess! It makes it seriously SO easy!!!
Next, Mrs. Mandee scooped out her Buttercream icing into her mixing bowl and explained that you must whip the frosting really well before placing into your piping bags to make sure you do not get any air bubbles into it.
She shared that at home this is her favorite recipe to make homemade frosting, but because there was a large number of participants, she purchased bulk frosting from Sam’s Club. We went through 80% of the bucket in the class!
To fill our bags we:
1. Stir, stir, stir until as smooth as possible. Add a color, if using.
2. Using a rubber spatula, scoop smooth frosting into the prepared piping bag in your jar.
3. Shake your frosting to the bottom.
4. Twist your bag from the top of the frosting to the end to close it.
When making designs, we want to twist not squeeze the piping bag. We will continue to twist like this all the way down the bag until it is finished.
Finally, Mrs. Mandee demonstrated how to make various designs before it was time to work independently. Then continued to show us new ones throughout our practice time.
We stirred our frosting, filled our piping bags, and practiced getting used to working with our piping bags and making designs on parchment paper.
When we were finished practicing with both size piping tips, we scooped our frosting back into the bowl with our rubber spatula and started the process over. We stirred & refilled our piping bags to get ready to frost our own cupcakes.
I loved seeing the different designs being practiced. Over at Sasha’s table, a mom made an adorable butterfly! She shared that she had previous employment experience at a bakery years ago.
After a lot of practice, it was finally time to frost our own cupcakes! Everyone was given 4 to decorate.
Ella made American flag cupcakes to celebrate America, Veterans, and her birthday (Veteran’s Day).
It was the perfect time for this lesson with her birthday next week. I will definitely be using my new frosting skills on her birthday cake this year! So thankful to learn this lifelong skill!!
I chose to leave mine un-sprinkled, but one of my girls (Mia) decided to practice her sprinkling once we got home. I gotta say, she did a really great job! She used tweezers to line them perfectly around. I think she may have found her new life passion.
Athena had to miss out on this night unfortunately, but we brought her home a piping kit & un-frosted cupcakes so she didn’t have to completely miss out on the activity. I also gave Moses one of mine to decorate too.
We will be doing a second part to this class though, which will be “advanced” cupcake decorating beyond simple frosting. That is a class that we are all really looking forward to!
Our next meeting is our annual potluck Thanksgiving Feast! This is one of our favorite traditions now. We will be spending the next 2 weeks planning & then preparing our dishes. Ella, of course, signed up to bring the turkey again for the second year in a row! It was the biggest hit last year and she was SO proud of herself! That girl will be a pro at cooking up a turkey feast before she even has a family to fix it for!
Any suggestions for what we should bring to our potluck Thanksgiving Feast?! I’d love to hear them!
This week we had our second Grace Girls meeting of the new school year. Our last meeting was learning how to properly set a table.
We started our night out with the devotion reading and a light discussion about what we read in our Bright Lights curriculum.
The meeting was hosted again by Ms. Darla and she taught the girls a lot about Fire Safety.
We learned what to wear and not wear around a fire. You want to wear jeans and short sleeves preferably. No flowy tops, dresses, or skirts. Hair must be secured back safely away from your face or cut short so it doesn’t catch on fire.
The most important question to always ask before building a fire is if it is legal to for a fire to be built there. Certain states have different regulations & seasons when fires are permitted, while other states ban fires all together due to high risk of forest fires.
When choosing a location to build your fire you want to look for:
No overhanging branches
Nothing flammable within 10 feet
The amount of wind the location gets
Is a pit provided? If not, dig one before building a fire to keep it safely secured in one location. It is best to line your pit with rocks.
Next Ms. Darla explained that we only burn wood for fuel. However for tinder & kindling you can use small branches or twigs, pinecone, evergreen branches and needles, pet fur, dryer lint, sawdust, or paper.
The girls worked together to group the wood in piles of large & small, and tinder/kindling in a bucket. She had bags of pinecone she had already collected over time.
Ms. Darla taught the girls different ways to build a fire, and what each kind is called. I had absolutely no idea there were so many different ways to make a fire. I thought it was just one way: build it 😂. The visual designs were really neat & helpful.
The girls then got into groups to pick a type of fire to build. Each group did a really good job!
We then went back around the fire to learn a bit more fire safety before we could get started.
We learned that you NEVER leave a fire unattended, and that you NEVER build a fire without adult permission & supervision.
If you do need to leave your fire for any reason: put it out first using water, covering with dirt or sand, or by spreading it out to reduce the heat.
Next, it was time to build the fire. Sasha really enjoyed this part. She was so adorable carrying the biggest log she could hold over for fuel.
The girls did a really good job building the fire. They even decorated it with pinecone and evergreen, draping kindling along the top and sides to make it pretty. It definitely was the prettiest fire I’ve ever seen!
Ms. Darla taught the girls about different tools needed to start a fire. She taught them about using fire starters and how they are important tools to pack when camping. She also taught things we could use if we don’t have Firestarter handy. She taught about the different size lighters and what each is good for. She also taught that when handling fire, we always use leather gloves to protect our hands.
For liability reasons, Ms. Darla lit the fire for the girls. They did such a great job building it! It burned really, really well and evenly. It was so beautiful and cozy – a perfect way to welcome in the start of cold nights here in Ohio.
The girls hung out for awhile, running around playing Ghost in the Graveyard together – another fun & spooky way to welcome in the season changing to Fall. They swung in the tree-swing and caught up with friends, while Mom’s got a chance to catch up with each other too.
Once the embers were hot enough, Ms. Darla began getting the fire ready for cooking while the girls went to the table under the light to start making their campfire Pizzas.
Once they were finished assembling their campfire Pizzas, Ms. Darla put them carefully on her makeshift oven set up.
She used fire grates, with racks on top of those. She then placed a baking sheet on top of the racks, and used a disposable baking pan lid as a cover to trap heat. Once the lid was on, she placed a smaller secondary disposable lid on top and filled it with hot embers to add heat coming from under, around, and above.
Once the Pizzas were finished cooking, she carefully removed them from heat and transferred to each girls paper plate. Ella said it was the best pizza she’d ever had, and that’s a big compliment coming from someone who doesn’t typically enjoy pizza.
This was such an awesome experience for the girls! I really wish I had a group like this when I was little – it really would have set me up for homemaking success later in life and taught me really necessary skills for living as an adult. I’m grateful to have it now with my own girls though – it’s even better together than it would have been on my own as a child. I’m grateful for the strong mother & daughter relationship foundation we are building. I really appreciate these classes and feel like I learn so much with them! The girls are always very excited to go.
Grace Girls is back in session for the new academic year! This makes our third year attending Grace Girls! Our first meeting was last night & the girls learned How to Set a Table.
Grace Girls is sort of like an etiquette class where homeschooled girls get together to both socialize and learn how to grow up to be Proverbs 31 Women (aka homemakers). They have so far learned knife cutting & Kitchen safety skills, how to preserve fresh vegetables from the garden, how to plan meals, how to host a fall feast, how & when to start a meal train cooking for someone in need (elderly or sick neighbor, a family who welcomed a new baby, new family moved in, a death in the family, etc.), how to make corn husk dolls, and how to hand sew, mend, & embroider clothes. My girls have mentioned to me how grateful they are to learn these skills & how useful the classes have been for them.
Homemaking is something I had to teach myself starting from the very, very basics. I did not have a homemaking mother growing up. I am very grateful to be able to pass these skills on to my children while also still constantly learning new things myself.
Ms. Darla hosted our meeting. She taught the girls different ways to properly set a table. She worked on a tray, placing different styles, layers, & color schemes together.
She taught us that the most important parts to setting a table are consistency & making our guests feel welcome & wanted, rather than overwhelmed & intimidated.
She had different learning stations set up for the girls to take turns at so that no one space was too overcrowded.
Ella really enjoyed learning how to fold napkins at the first station. I particularly liked her napkin with the flower pocket. I would like to start setting our own table napkins that way for fancy meals & gatherings. It is so beautiful & will be an interesting way to use our flowers from our garden.
Mia loved picking flowers & putting together mini bouquets for table settings. I have never thought to do miniature personal bouquets for each guest, but I love that idea for future gatherings too. It especially sounds nice for a breakfast or brunch gathering.
At the second station, the girls each took turns setting their own place settings using fancy dishes. They enjoyed creating color schemes with the dishes, napkins, & placemats. Sasha had a lovely time arranging her favorite dishes – they were so much fancier than ours at home.
The third station was to set a Christmas themed table. I love the use of real pine needles & pinecones. That is so beautiful & festive. I’ll have to remember that for our own Christmas dinner!
Ms. Darla rented every book her library currently had on table setting, napkin folding, and hosting for the girls to look through to pick their favorite tables. She asked the girls what meals & what seasons the tables were set for. I took some photos from different books that I plan to use at my own home!
Of course we had to check our her beehives while we were there because we have plans to add our own to our home next year! Luckily, Ms. Darla also teaches homeschool families about beekeeping & honey extraction, so I’ll be able to get off to a good start!
We had a really fun time at last night’s meeting & we left feeling like we learned a lot. I love that each of my girls who attended found their own special talent to bring to homemaking & future gatherings. Ella found a way to make her love for origami useful at the table using napkins, Mia’s love for plants & nature brings creativity + beauty to the table’s decor and ambiance, & Sasha’s love for creating a beautiful space for each person she loves will be useful for setting each place at the table. Each person’s talents come together to create a magical gathering & after all, the most important part of the table is togetherness.
My week started with an email from our town’s public school that we used to attend letting me know that a threat of violence was made against our school and every student & their mom. A former student threatened to shoot up the school on September 22.
This news reassured me that I made the right decision in pulling my children out of traditional school. I’m sure I sounded crazy as can be explaining myself away in the beginning days of being enrolled. “I’m not going to worry each day I drop them off if it will be the last time I see them.” Not even a month into the traditional school year and there has already been a shooting threat. How long until the threat doesn’t happen before the action? I’m not willing to find out.
This is what a typical morning looks like for us. The girls eat breakfast, do their morning jobs (brush teeth, brush hair, get dressed, etc) & chores. Once we finish those tasks, they sit down at the table or their school desks to work on their individual work baskets until I’m ready to do our together reading. Moses lives on his own terms 😂.
Our first field trip this week was to A&M Apple Orchard. It was a bit of a drive, but totally worth it. Each girl got to fill a bag of apples for only $5 each.
They picked different apples they wanted. We got a nice variety. Ella wanted yellow apples for a health spell she’s working on.
Ella had a lot of fun climbing the trees to get the apples from the tops.
Moses loved walking around and testing all the apples (which we were allowed to do!) He couldn’t believe the amount of apples everywhere he looked! He was so excited!
We made out like bandits with our apples! So excited to make apple snacks and desserts this week!
The first recipe we made was Cinnamon Applesauce. Since we are planning to make several other apple desserts this week, we decided to use all of our very small apples for the applesauce so they could still get used up.
We peeled them, sliced them, & put them in the slow cooker with some big shakes of cinnamon, a little sugar, & 1/2 cup water.
It was delicious 😋! The kids agreed that anything homemade tastes better than storebought. This was even better though because they went the extra mile and picked these apples themselves!
Since Fall began this week, we pulled out our seasons cookbooks & planned some yummy fall recipes to cook together this week to celebrate & welcome fall.
For the children, we use the book, At The Farmers Market with Kids. It teaches the children what fruits/veggies are available seasonally & has simple recipes that they are able to make using those seasonal produce items.
The first meal we made to welcome in Fall was Butternut Squash Pasta. It had pasta, butternut squash, spinach, minced garlic, and onion + salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, & toasted pine nuts. Super easy weeknight meal. I thought it was great, the kids wouldn’t pick it again. They do better with Butternut Squash Macaroni & Cheese.
Of course we had to examine the Butternut Squash from the inside out before eating it.
I gave them each a slice with seeds to examine with their senses & pick apart.
We went to Friday Connections with our homeschool friends and took a kid-led hike through the woods of French Park.
Ella kept a list of all the different plants she identified using the app, Picture This.
It’s a very neat app. You take a picture of any plant and it gives you the name and information about each plant. You will learn if it is poisonous or not, if it attracts any birds or bugs, along with any poetry or art it has been mentioned in.
This very beautiful butterfly also landed on Ella. Such beautiful colors, like our own little Ukrainian sign from the universe.
We collected cool nature we found in this cute little bag.
And checked some of it out under the microscope.
Once we got home, we took out all of our nature we collected to see what we got!
We used construction paper & contact paper to make these cute window-scapes of our nature we collected to finally replace our summer tissue-paper kites with.
Overall, it has been a great week! Oddly enough though, our week ended just as it began. Another report of a shooter, this one turning out to be a “hoax.”
Not sure why or how children’s safety is considered funny to anyone, but I for one am really freaking glad that I don’t have to worry out of my mind about whether my kids are safe each day or not. So freaking grateful.
This really was the best decision I could have made. It’s been amazing getting to know my children on a level that I wouldn’t be able to with them in school. I love finding projects to do with them and watch their faces light up as they begin to understand new things. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
These last two weeks have been a bit of a change-up. I love Charlotte Mason, but I need a bit more focus. I still love her philosophy and will be using her method, but I found a year of homeschool themes and I am going to be using those weekly themes to better organize our time. Last week our theme was Farms.
We read books about farms. I was able to go through our BOB Books & beginner readers and pick out Farm themed books. Having a theme made it easier to pick Sasha & Athena’s morning/individual baskets.
We went to Chrisholm Historic Farmstead. This was our first time there. They offer many free learning days for Homeschool Families. I liked being able to plan a field trip that went along with our theme. It felt like it had more of a purpose than just a random outing. We also read this week’s chapter of Charlotte’s Web on the way to the Farm which seemed fitting.
We do try to stick to free outings or free return outings (Pay for a yearly pass once for a year of free trips, ie. Glenwood Gardens, Zoo, Museum, Hamilton Co. Parks, etc.) To minimize costs. We also pack our own lunches & reusable waterbottles (or refill cups for specific places) to cut costs.
There was a fun “playscape” for the kids to play on.
We learned that fruits produce seeds (including eggplant, cucumber, & peppers- all of which we previously grouped in the vegetable category) & vegetables are edible plants that don’t have seeds (carrots, radishes, potatoes).
We enjoyed hanging out with the different animals.
We also learned that windmills were used to pump water & practiced pumping it to fill the animals water tub.
Here are some of the other classes they offer during September & October:
We also attended Grace Girls which is a group of homeschooled girls who meet up to learn skills, make friends & build strong mother/daughter relationships.
This month we are learning how to hand-sew. We learned the running stitch, the back stitch, and the blanket stitch this night. Ella & Mia also sewed their own tissue holders.
Ella is REALLY interested in sewing now, so I will have to keep my eye out for some vintage patterns for her at the thrift to get her started.
Sasha made these number counters for her math project this week. I really love how they turned out. I printed out the numbers, laminated them, and punched a whole in each one. We then fed a pipe cleaner through and Sasha counted the number of beads for each number. It kept her busy for awhile and she had a lot of fun doing it.
Each girl also made their own Abacus using the Smithsonian Math Maker Lab book that we rented from our local library.
We also made patterns out of fruit & counted our patterns before eating them for a snack.
The girls killed a wasp that got into the house then examined it.
The last couple weeks have had some obstacles & struggles in both schooling & home life, but overall I really do love homeschooling.
I have loved going on field trips with the kids. That was the biggest thing for me. It devastated me that I couldn’t participate in school events or field trips. I couldn’t be a room mom. Looking back on the photos of our field trips remind me why I wanted to do this in the first place. Having these experiences with my kids and learning alongside them is life changing.
I’ve enjoyed learning with them, being able to fully take in what we are reading (even if I have to read it three times to figure out what is being asked of me 🤪).
I’m figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Our schooling hasn’t been typical from the start. Ella only went to Kindergarten for half the year because of the world shutting down so I took up unschooling at home. First grade for her was weird because it was mostly at home but sometimes (2 days a week when in person at school, me teaching at home from their syllabus or Zoom meetings with a teacher. Second grade (Ella) & Kindergarten (Mia) were the only full year they attended school outside the home. I mostly have been homeschooling this whole time, unofficially. Somehow being “official” just feels different. Like if I mess up it’s all on my hands now. I just need to learn to relax and have faith in myself. We are doing just fine.
I’m a bit later getting this posted than I had hoped to since tomorrow is Friday & it’s already time to prepare another photo dump. I’m attempting to keep track of our weekly outings here & memorable moments or activities we do.
We took a trip to the Blue Ash Nature Park. They have a little story walk provided by the library. The kids played for a couple hours on the various playgrounds as well as the woods. We did a very light, child-led hike.
This is one of my favorite photos from our individual work time. It has been really nice sitting around the table together reading & learning.
I love being able to go back and re-learn with the kids. My parents gave me a really great educational opportunity and I threw it away at the time. I am blessed to be able to take this second chance, and realize how important it is to not mess it up again.
We took a field trip to the Cincinnati Zoo. I learned that the animals at our zoo are there for rehabilitation purposes and/or are totally incapable of living in the wild due to an injury or other issue, so they are being helped rather than caged prisoners.
I printed out Explorer Packs for the kids to fill out. It consisted of a scavenger hunt to check off animals we saw, an A to Z fill out types of animals we saw/read about at each habitat, a report about the favorite animal we saw, and a page to draw a picture of our trip. I loved bringing that to keep them focused, do our school work at the zoo, and have fun searching out knowledge rather than skipping over it just to see the animals.
Ella’s favorite animal is a Manatee. We loved watching them bounce up and down.
When we came home, the girls sat at the table and did their favorite animal reports. They used some of the Nature books I bought for our curriculum to find more facts about their favorite animal to write in their reports.
This trip to the zoo was definitely different than other trips we have taken in the past and I loved it. I’m really excited to take another trip back soon & see the other sections of the zoo we didn’t visit that day.
We went down to Lunken Airport to see, touch, and learn about historic airplanes- specifically military ones. We saw one fly & land. It was very loud (which bothers Sasha quite a bit) and the kids & I did not find this subject interesting, but it was an experience nonetheless. We skipped out on this trip pretty quickly & headed to the library instead.
They did get to stand on an airplane which was pretty cool.
We are really enjoying homeschool so far. We are still figuring out what works for us and what doesn’t, but the nice thing is we are allowed to adjust our days for what works best for our family.
Ella really enjoys insects a lot. She found a dead bumblebee and was asking lots of questions about them & inspecting it.
I scored this awesome poster that really adds to our Living Education Atmosphere.
Typically we just do school on the weekdays, but honestly education never ends & sometimes events are limited to the weekends. This Sunday, we went to the Ukrainian Festival & watched Ukrainian dancing, listened to Ukrainian music, planned on eating (pierogies sold out FAST & only meat options were left), & shopped for some items. I signed up to join the Ukrainian Women’s League of America.
We were supposed to see Shakespeare in the Park this Saturday, but we were rained out. We still had our picnic at the park, checked out the nature center (sad to learn it is still mostly shut down since covid with no plans to re-open at this time, and played on the outdoor playground.
Ella found a cicada which made her very happy. Cicadas are her favorite insect.
We went to the library for Family Storytime. It’s mostly geared toward the three younger kids, but the older kids still enjoy it too. They mostly go for the tech time after crafting & to pick out new books though. I enjoy picking up new cookbooks to try new recipes.
For math one day we made a “Hungry Adding Robot” that Mia picked from a math book we picked out at the library this week. We love our library trips. The kids had a lot of fun picking out projects for us to do over the course of this “term.” We also had a lot of fun making this.
I really love that we are able to do the activities together as a family, but the big girls still have their own individual work to do too.
For science one day we made Nature Journals to collect various nature the girls find. Each “journal” has 4 paper bags to fill with things they find interesting on our nature walks. We can use our Nature Anatomy books to identify new nature we haven’t seen before.
Today we took a field trip to Highfield Discovery Garden. The story in the garden today was Dragons Love Tacos & they got to pick Taco Topping Veggies from the garden. They got tomatoes, peppers, and radishes. They remembered that radishes were mentioned last week in The Tail of Peter Rabbit.
They played on the tree house playground & in the garden, spent time exploring in the nature center, picked a book each in the little library, and put on a puppet show. We also packed a picnic lunch to share in the garden Cafe. Moses really liked watching the trains go around the tree house tracks.
Overall we had a really good week. We completed all our group & individual work we had planned. Time to make dinner & get ready for Ella’s first volleyball game!
It is time for me to play a little game I like to call “is it poop or is it nature?” I zig zag the yard picking up any poops that it was too dark to see in the early morning hours. Although, I’ve learned that if I see a poop outside of my pattern I must break it to get that poop first because they are huskies + they are puppies, & they will run through it or roll over it.
I have come to love this routine. I love the couple hours I get to spend outside alone with the pups before the kids wake up. Time I used to spend immediately focused on housework, as soon as my eyes opened.
I quit smoking cigarettes a little over four years ago. I had smoked them heavily since I was thirteen. I thought they helped me clear my head. I thought they helped me relax. I thought that it was because of not smoking that I was constantly on edge, constantly irritated.
Then I got these mornings back. I realized it wasn’t the lack of cigarettes. It was the lack of nature first thing in the morning, lack of relaxing in the crisp morning air hitting my cheeks before the world woke up listening to the sounds of nature. We aren’t meant to be cooped up inside like prisoners; children or adults.
Over the past month that we have had that these pups, I’ve done a lot of life reflecting during my alone time outside with them. I’ve re-evaluated what my priorities are. I have a clear vision of the path in front of my family & feel unity as a family. I have found a lot more peace & patience both in my soul & way I behave. I’ve learned to start letting go of my controlling ways. I’ve found confidence in myself & my parenting. Most of all, I’ve found real happiness for the first time in a long time.
I’ve noticed how much more well-behaved my children have been over the summer when their bodies can get proper rest, nutrition, nature, & attention. They are able to wake individually & come out to the day as they are ready, not at once like a prison. I’m not rushing them through every step of the day. I’m spending real time with them- not rushed interactions between duties, rushing to get the next task crossed off before I am out of time. I get to really know them as individuals, not as a group.
I’m really excited to be able to learn again, alongside my children. I am excited for how far they will get to go, at their pace. They will no longer be limited to only learning a dictated syllabus in a certain time frame. The world is their classroom, & my curriculum is pretty damn impressive, too.
I am excited to experience life again. No more living like a clockwork robot, living the same miserable day over & over on loop. I’m grateful that I get to spend what little time I have with them while I have them home with me, before they begin lives of their own. “The years are short, but the days are long” really is true, isn’t it? I’m excited to get to accompany my children on field trips- something I wasn’t allowed to do (on the VERY limited amount of) at traditional school due to the mistakes I made in my past, ten years ago. Something I wouldn’t have the chance of doing even if I could because I have small children who I wouldn’t be able to bring. Now no one has to miss out.
I’m grateful for the huge amount of support I’ve received from almost every single person I’ve talked to- even strangers who don’t know me at all. This wasn’t an overnight decision- I’ve been planning for years, I just never had the confidence to take the plunge. I didn’t think I was smart enough, enough in general, to teach my children anything until I was told that I have already been homeschooling my children since birth, I just wasn’t taking the credit for it. I don’t have to be “smart enough,” I GET to learn next to them. I get the chance to learn all of the things I didn’t pay enough attention to the first time + MORE, and I could not be more excited.
From Heroin to Housewife 