You know what’s funny? This time last year homeschooling was not on my radar. And yet here I sit, one year later, and I am not only homeschooling but I am enjoying it most days.
When I think about all the things I’ve grown to love and appreciate about homeschooling, the list is long. If I had to pick my most favorite part of homeschooling, I would have to choose the flexibility.
Homeschooling is so flexible! With homeschooling, I can choose when to start and end our year, how many days to homeschool and for how long each day, subjects to cover, materials, field trips, etc. Not that we’ve been healthy enough for a vacation, but we can take one at any time. Heck, homeschooling is so flexible that I could homeschool on vacation if I wanted to do so. Also, if we are having an off day, we can relax and see what happens. I’m often surprised by how creative my kids are on those days, and how much learning happens when we relax and just let it.
One of my favorite homeschoolin’ books. Lisa Rivero is an out-of-the-box thinker and educator.
This morning I had a poorly timed doctor appointment and a bunch of errands that I had to do today. To add to the fun, one member of my party was less than cooperative, making everything take so much longer than it should have. At one point, this child of mine tied his boot laces together and it took forever for my frozen fingers to remedy the situation. As I was struggling to untie the laces, the child attached to the laces was throwing a fit because he was afraid he would never be free again. It was in this moment that I thought to myself, “Self? I have a feeling homeschooling is going to be tricky today.”
These are the photos I text to Schizz during our day. This is not the first time this has happened, folks!
Do you know what? Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and so the public school was not in session. We started our MLK, Jr. Day by reading Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport.
Next, we watched a video on MLK, Jr. and Rosa Parks on BrainPop, Jr.
My kids are obsessed with Moby!
Next, we watched King’s famous I Have a Dream speech on YouTube.
We have watched this speech for several years now but this year I could tell that they were truly getting it. It was very special to witness.
Later in the day, we did some MLK, Jr. activities that I found on Pinterest, combined with an activity in a Brain Quest work book that we have.
Don’t you love Pinterest for homeschooling?? This activity is from www.fun-n-first.blogspot.com
Brain Quest
We also *might* have had an incredibly lazy day, in our jams!
In addition to all the MLK, Jr. activities, we had a snuggle party during which we took turns reading a huge stack of library books aloud, Leo asked to do some math, he practiced piano, and we played a trivia game at dinner. We learned quite a bit on Monday, which was technically a “no school” day.
So, this morning, as I struggled to untie Leo’s frozen boot laces, I had a feeling that we were headed down a bad path. We were at risk for having another off day. I like to think I learn from past mistakes and so, when we returned home this afternoon, I cleared our schedule. The public school kids may have had Monday off, but we had today off.
And do you want to know what? When you relax and let things happen, joyful and genuine learning surprises you. And that’s exactly what happened today.
It all started with Kiwi Crate. Don’t you just love Kiwi Crate? The kids’ grandparents got them a subscription for their birthday. I save them for rainy, sick, or other “off” days and -lately- Leo likes to lead his very own art class using Kiwi Crates. I get to sit back, enjoy a cup of tea, and watch the fun unfold. This month’s Kiwi Crate included a decorate your own cake craft and a decorate your own chef hat and apron craft.
Kiwi Crate is an awesome gift idea. It’s a gift that keeps on giving!
Instructor Leo taught the littlest two poppies how to create their cake and then their hat and apron. There was a lot of giggling and paint was everywhere, but you care less about these things when your kitchen looks like this.
Yummy!
Kiwi Crate always includes ideas to take the crafts one step further and this crate was no different. The kit included tips for creating your own restaurant. The trio collaborated, got creative, and made their very own restaurant: Kids Cookery.
The restaurant had a sign, complete with a logo and art.
There was a menu.
This evening there was a special: cake.
There was cozy seating…
… and adorable restaurant staff.
There were so many courses that I can’t even list them all. I was stuffed, but I always have room for sushi.
I think that the stress of running a restaurant got to the staff because, at one point, there was some drama including a three-year-old tantrum…
… the tantrum caused the restaurant manager to temporarily close the establishment.
But these little restaurant owners were smart enough to reopen and secure payment. They thanked me with after-dinner pickles.
I must say, the cashier was very charismatic. Upon payment, he shouted, “PLEASE COME AGAIN!” And, do you know what? I think I will! I might even go back again tomorrow!
This day was so much more enjoyable than it would have been had I decided to push my homeschool agenda. I’d argue that a fair amount of learning happened, too! I love that we have the flexibility to stop a potentially challenging day in its tracks and have some fun.
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All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.
~Albert Camus
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Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley
Cait co-hosts The Homeschool Sisters Podcast and is co-founder of Raising Poppies, a community for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional children. Cait is also founder of the Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a fantastic community of book-loving parents and the Gameschool Community at My Little Poppies, a vibrant community of gameschoolers.
Cait is a contributing writer for Simple Homeschool and GeekMom. Her work has also appeared on The Huffington Post, The Mighty, and Scary Mommy. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram
and G+.
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Wow! That sounds like a pretty great day!
Thanks, Stacey! Love when we can turn it around before it gets ugly. Yesterday afternoon was not as successful 🙂
I could not agree with you more! Time and flexibility are my favorite parts too. Our Wednesday sounds like your Thursday…I just threw in the towel and we went for a hike instead, and read lots of books. It turned out to be a lovely day. 🙂
Our west coast dopplegangers strike again 🙂 Amazing what a little fresh air and some good books can do, isn’t it?
Hello there! I can’t remember how I found your blog, but I have recently started homeschooling (part time) while my little guy goes to kindergarten 2 days week. While I have been doing stuff with him at home before, it was not until last month that my husband and I decided that we would slowly start taking the steps to homeschool and get ready to do it full time by first grade. I could go on and on as to the many reasons why, but that would take a while. 😉
In any event, I can completely relate to this post and the restaurant pictures are adorable and your captions cracked me up! 🙂
Julie! Can I just say that I am loving your comments? I wanted to respond yesterday but I was home with kids sans hubby and it was pure chaos- crazy busy. Please keep me posted on your story and what you end up doing. Your situation sounds quite similar to ours. I love finding kindred spirits. It’s been the best part of this whole blog thing. I feel more normal 🙂 Thank you SO much for reading!
I love the flexibility too. In our son’s old brick and mortar school when he got sick it was torture trying to catch up. Now we are using an online curriculum. It allows us to work at our own pace so we can get ahead a bit then when the inevitable bad/sick day happens we do other things besides school. It completely relieves the pressure of trying to catch up.
Wendy, thank you for reading and sharing your story. I feel this way, too. It’s so nice to let them rest when they need to and not worry about the work they are missing. This weekend, for example, my husband was working. We did some homeschooling because with the blizzard and my husband off later in the week, I know we won’t get a lot done. So flexible!