Another year of NOT going to school

Today is the first day back to school for many children in my area. With living kiddie corner from a school we see the daily activity, the coming and going of a hundred or so of little children.  My Facebook has been covered with first day of school pictures and most of them look completely adorable.Wearing new clothes with a new haircut, ready to head off on a new adventure.
My boys looked nothing like that today.

They are clothed in the same old clothes. Well the older two are , lil is rejecting clothes today ( he had at least a shirt on earlier ) There are no new back packs or pencils. There honestly is nothing new or special about today. They have watched a bit of TV, played lego and read some books. Later they will have lunch and do something that interests them.  Later this week we will get together with some other home learners and have a picnic in the park. The children will play and run and laugh. 

Sure this year will be different Bug is in Grade 2 and Bobo is in kindergarten. Which pretty much means I have doubled my reporting work load but that is about it for change. We will continue our daily lives in a fairly relaxed fashion and life will go on.

The School Quandary

Every year I go through this same issue. I try to figure out what will be the best options for my kids with their schooling lives. Now granted to them we really don't do much but I stress and wonder if it is all worth it. Now I'm not talking about putting them into a brick and mortar school but I am talking about what program we want to be enrolled with.
We happen to live in a fantastic province for homeschooling, and there are so many options. I have really enjoyed our unschooling ways but there are so many schools that require a bit more reporting and in turn give you more classes and other options free of charge. I still would get my funding plus the classes. This is where my quandry sits as I would love for the boys to have more options to do things, but do I want to sacrifice what I know works for our family for maybe classes the kids would enjoy?

This quandary leaves me often wondering what we need as a family and what really works for us. We need activities that keep us feeding our souls. We need to do things that cause us less stress not more. We need down time and time to connect. We need to be able to have flexibility to enjoy our lives.
Yes the boys need to learn, but they do that with the constant push of work books.  Could we do more some days sure. The boys do, do more than I plan for them. They learn in ways that amaze me some days. Sure there are things that their skills need to develop more on. You know what though so do I. I make spelling mistakes, I don't read as often as I should and I get other facts mixed up. ( not always my finest moments) But learning to grow from mistakes are important. You can't always be right.
So I will probably continue with my quandry for a few ore weeks. I will check out other local schools but I honestly doubt I will end up changing. What works for us last year will work this year. Also I really don't need extra stress with the baby on the way.

Time to Learn?!??

As the leaves change and people being to think of Back to School.

I had a bit of an odd question today. A family member asked is Bobo was excited to get to start learning. I was momentarily confused and thrown off. You see Bobo starts kindergarten this year, but seeing as we homeschool it's not like he is off on some major adventure.  Sure this year there will be a few new books for him, but he got those last year. Sure he will be in a few different classes but he attended some last year as well. Really I think the only difference is he will be in Beavers this year and maybe 1-2 other classes that he wasn't old enough for last year.  The the extra funding and reporting for me which really isn't something that will be noticed by him.


So it go me thinking a bit. How many other people think that learning starts once they enter into formal schooling. Not that anything we do is really formal, but that aside. Bobo has been learning since he was born just like everyone else. Now he is a bit more methodical than his older brother. He likes activities that he sits and quietly focuses on a task. He like to write, read and play with lego. He is a thinker, he likes to process the world going on around him. Lets be honest he is really pretty much done with the requirements of kindergarten in the province, Bug saw to that over the last year.

Bobo will continue life as pretty much the same he will talk to our Learning Consultant over the year and tell her about the things he does. He will play and enjoy life. Sure we will read and he might just start doing it more himself but I'm not worried. See I know he is learning I know there is no start or end time to the wonders of his little brain. He is still be just who he is, my sweet, quirky, opinionated little guy. He'll learn and what he doesn't learn today he will learn tomorrow.

More than just building blocks

Blocks are wonderful things. The boys spend a fair amount of time building things. When they are working with the blocks they are learning so much more.

The belly also needed a picture. 19 weeks

As they are building the are developing so many skills for life. Spatial awareness, hand eye coordination and more things that I'm not even sure about. The thing is when they just look like they are playing, they are doing so much more. Remember a child's work is their play. 

Slowing down to trusting speed

It has been an interesting few months. With changing distance learning programs I am really getting to see more of my son and who he is. I see a child who is very interested in life and knowing more. I see a child who likes to explore the world from the highest vantage point that he can reach. I see a child who has no problem introducing himself to a new person and starting a conversation.

Bug is an amazing little guy, I knew this before, I see more of it now. While as his parent I still have a level of expectations for him and I do get caught up in them at times. I am learning to slow down my level of parental involvement to trusting speed. Once I trust my son it is amazing how much he is capable of. When he knows that I trust him he knows that he can trust himself as well. Trust is really a excellent teaching tool.

He knows that I trust him to do things and he trusts that I will help him if he needs it.  He trusts that I will be understanding and respectful of his learning. If he needs me I am there but I will not invade his learning with tests and quizzes of knowledge. It is amazing what a person can do when they are releases of unneeded pressure.

In the younger years learning is accumulative. it all builds on each other. Simply put, you have to know your numbers before you can do math or your letters before you can read and spell. It is all very simplistic and easy to do. You can not start teaching a child times tables and expect them to understand when they do not understand what numbers are.

Now some people will wonder how you can just go about letting the child do as they want. They must learn something! Teach them as much as they can in their young formative years. If you don't they will be doomed doomed forever! That I guess works for some people, but I want my child to learn how to learn. I think knowing how to find out information. And believe it or not it works. Bug wants to explore the world.

Trust is an amazing thing to give your child and far to often we don't trust any more. We are slowing down and we are letting things flow. Allowing them to realize how capable they are is so much easier than forcing them to learning everything that they may ever need in their life. Slow down, trust, it will come.

Recycling for seedlling

This year we decided to be a bit more thrifty with planting our seedlings for the garden. We had a ton of egg cartons so we figured why buy a bunch of little pucks with unknown dirt when we can DIY it. Here is what we did

First take some egg cartons and cute them to fit in your trays

Add dirt

Have super cute kids help out with planting. 

 Pose for some photo ops

Water cover and wait

Splatter Art

Lot of fun to be had with throwing paint

Even if your little brother is sitting in the paint throwing zone