We had plans to go camping this weekend. Unfortunately, the Red Tent goddesses smiled down on me, hard, and I thought it best that I, being major bear bait on Sunday, have the family go on without me while I stay at home and get a few homeschool related tasks put to bed. For example, I wanted to make both Edie and Kale painting smocks that actually fit, firm up our schedule, pour through the many inspiring Waldorf books we have resting on our colour-coded bookshelf (strangely, they all seem to reside in the yellow section!). Plus, I wanted to surprise the kids with an Autumn nature table and fall books nestled in their book basket.
Might I add it was pretty trippy to be in the house all alone for 24 hours? First time in seven years! I survived on smoothies and lattes, netflixs playing various chick flicks on my laptop while I sewed, and loads of talking to myself without the kids thinking I'm trying to engage with them. Unhealthy? Perhaps. But man I got lots done without having to worry about dishes or bedtimes and that crazy lady talking to herself business seemed to have propelled me to work faster and practice my foreign accents.
The peruse through the Waldorf book collection and Donna's curriculum I'm following really got me excited about the rhythm we intend to follow to flow through the task of learning to read, print and exploring math this home school year. We're not going to be adhering to this too rigidly of course but enough so that the structure will be clearly established bringing predictability and progress through the curriculum though allowing flexibility to veer off when this thing called life deems it necessary at times. So far, what I've come up with this is this:
6:00 Mama wakes up; meditates and yogas
6:30 Milk Miss Daisy
7:00 Breakfast is made and served by Dada while Mama gets to work on shop/blog stuff
9:00 Household chores (Monday vaccum, Tuesday laundry, etc)
9:30 Walk to mailbox
10:15 Morning verse then main lesson (form drawing for the first couple of weeks)
11:15 Kids frolic while I get lunch ready
11:45 Drop off Kale to Craig's office so they can hang while Edie and I do Lesson A (recorder for the first bit) together, undisturbed
12:15 Craig and Kale join us back in the house for lunch. After that, Mama tea time, kid quiet time until...
1:30 Read Aloud. I read the kids a chapter from a book while cuddling on the couch. We're going to start off with Winnie the Pooh!
2:00 Lesson B (Handwork - Yippee! For this we are going to learn how to knit. Tomorrow we are off to a friend's sheep farm to see her ewes, score some fleece which we will wash, card, dye, spin and learn to knit from!)
3:00 Closing verse and schools done for the day :)
Nerdy enough for ya? I have to admit I've always been the hugest back to school nerd around. Even back in my teens when it was probably more appropriate to call it 'Back to Skipping School'. So one fall schedule, one and a half smocks, two lattes and a green smoothie later, I thought it best to leave my sweet and crafty loft nest (ooo, Loft Nest Monster! Changing post title now), get some fresh Valley air and hop on my trusty cruiser, Prozac, to take a quick jump in the river. And brace myself for jumping into this adventure called Grade One! Back to school nerds unite! Do you have some kind of homeschooling plan, or unplan, laid out?
