Thursday, January 9, 2014

Relaxing into the New Year & Our Homeschool Life

I love fresh starts but I think I'll love this one the most. Why? Because it's void of expectations.

Like everyone, we have our amazing homeschooling days and the "other" kind when I find myself wondering what I've gotten us into. In an attempt to increase our chances for a good day, I started really paying attention to what was going on.

Every single bad day could be traced back to an expectation that I had for the day which wasn't being met; making me frustrated, effecting my behavior and theirs. The reality is that I don't want our days to look like public school classrooms. I don't want to miss spontaneous opportunities for learning because they conflict with our plan. I want learning to become an organic part of our life. I want each day's start & finish times to be blurred out so that learning is just part of our existence. (On a side note, I find that this is what naturally happens. The challenge is how to limit the influence of the schedule of my children's friends who do go to public school.)

The problem is that reducing my expectations usually equals increasing the amount of time we need to accomplish things. The only problem with that is when it creates conflict with appointments. Well, that seems easy enough. I'll just do what everyone says they want to do and slow.our. lives.down. I'm going to concentrate on "Weekly Goals" rather than daily. I'm probably the last homeschooling mother to figure this out but oh well, better late than never.

 So our first day started like all of our first days, with Flying Wish Papers (we get ours from The Stone Buddha - a great treasure of a store found in Silverton, OR).


The kids love this so much! They write their wishes on the paper, crumple it up, then press it flat and roll it into a tube. Magically, when you light it, the paper takes flight right before it finishes burning.

We're off to a great start getting out and enjoying nature in the morning. Getting to burn off some steam and spend some time staring at things that only God made does wonders for getting our day off to a great start for the kids and even more so I think, for me.


We've also added a new member to our family. We've one more to pick up next week and then our bunny family will be complete.

This little girl is named "Boomer" has been a great addition... so far. She is a bit spunky so I'm hoping she settles down a bit with age. My 5 year old is her owner and is taking the job seriously and hasn't stopped smiling in days.



2014 is off to a better start than we've seen in years at our house. Here's hoping it continues. Happy New Year!

1 comment:

  1. Oh, my five year old daughter would love a Boomer companion! Her cousin has one and it is the sweetest little bunny rabbit. I look forward to visiting more often.
    xo Jules

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