Our Week

No curriculum, no lesson plans, no grades, no tests, no textbooks...

just living, learning, and finding joy together...

{don't be fooled, there are plenty of rough patches...

but we get through and learn from those, too!}

Snippets from our week

* Jenna found an inchworm on Lauren's shirt outdoors, which sparked us looking up info about inchworms and what they eat. The girls created a habitat for their new friend  :) They also made rings of rocks around many anthills they found in our yard, and spent time observing them with magnifying glasses. Interest-led learning all the way!!

* As always, lots and lots and lots of reading happens around here: classic Nancy Drew, books in the 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers series, math puzzle books, Poop Happened: A History of the World From the Bottom Up, new issues of National Geographic Kids and Ranger Rick magazines, and a wide assortment of other books the girls are reading individually (I can never keep up!). Read alouds = The Adventures of Penrose, the Mathematical Cat; A History of Us, Volume 1; The Children of the Longhouse, and The Mark of Athena on audio book in the car.

* We watched a movie version of The Secret Garden since we finished reading the story aloud not very long ago. The girls have also been watching Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys episodes on DVD from Netflix (from a TV version that aired in the 1970s).

* Jenna is super interested in getting a betta fish, so she's been researching this. We made a trip to a pet store so she could get an idea of the cost of everything she would need.

* Jenna worked on a quilt block for the Sunbonnet Sue applique quilt she is making (of her own design).

* Lauren has been writing stories on her own...she uses Google Drive to type and store her work.

* CNN Student News

* Trivial Pursuit Junior (I love trivia games!)

* The girls decided to bake cut-out sugar cookies together...they did it pretty much all on their own, from start to finish...including clean up!

* We had a "spelling bee" and did some Mad Libs...the best way to practice spelling and learn grammar, in our opinion  ;)

* The girls are both still working on their Pet Shop Math.

* Cousin time! All of Friday, in fact, was spent entertaining my 6-year-old niece...the girls did an amazing job and had a lot of fun  :)

* Loads of outdoor time this week...exploring nature, riding bikes, playing ball, practicing doing flips over the bar on the castle swing set, going to the farm to play with the puppy and seeing calves being born.

* There also might have been a bit of LEGO creating and storytelling  ;)

* Using the microscope to look at blood and fingerprints...Lauren also did some research into how best to lift fingerprints so they can be examined.

Remembering Gratitude

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."
-- Oprah Winfrey

Gratitude highlights from this week:

* the hummingbirds found our feeder! I love watching the hummingbirds :)

* I was able to finish the baby afghan for my new niece...I am quite proud of myself for this! I completely taught myself how to crochet granny squares and then how to put them together to make this blanket. Thank goodness for YouTube and the internet!!

* David and I spent much of Saturday alone together....my grandparents had the girls at their house, while we went out to do some shopping and get some lunch. I really needed to do a bit of clothes shopping {which I HATE!!!}, and David had offered to take me. We had a really nice day, and the girls enjoyed their time with Nana and Papa...a total win!  :)

time to ourselves happens very rarely...I think we often forget that we need it!

* taking the time to truly notice the beauty in nature...it's all around us, and sadly we can get so busy that we forget to experience it deeply


* good books: I am reading Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini


* laughter: the girls and I roared with laughter over I Love Lucy episodes  :)


* having all we need, and then some...
and the freedom to live and learn on our own terms!

How was your week?
What are you grateful for?

Linking up with Mary:

Remembering Gratitude #84: Happy Mother's Day!

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." - Thornton Wilder

I am grateful:

for music

for good days, and that we can recover from bad patches

for beautiful weather

for flowers: being able to look out the windows and see our apple trees and lilac bushes in blossom, for lots of little cups and vases of flowers brought indoors to enjoy, for the smell when we step outside

for morning walks

for bird song to listen to through the open windows and when I'm outside hanging laundry

for gorgeous hanging baskets of flowers for our front porch 

{Happy Mother's Day to me!}

that we now have our hummingbird feeder hung up and ready for customers  ;)

{can't wait to do a bit of hummingbird observation!}

for a visit with my grandparents, an aunt, and my cousin's little girl

for the way the gray light of a rainy day makes the green outside look even more green

for my co-worker at the library...I'm happy that I will actually be working with her again very soon {we've been working on different days for many months now}...

she's especially awesome because she's taking a big load off me by assuming primary responsibility for our summer programming

for good conversations with library patrons...

these conversations and interactions make me feel like more than just a mom and a wife...not that those aren't wonderful aspects of myself, but it's nice to feel like more

for good health, and the health of my family

for learning with my girls, all the time, our way...

and for being a part of how they grow and change with time

for resources on the internet that are readily available...

the girls are recently very into YouTube, and there are so many great things to watch! {of course, there are some not-so-great things too, but I'm keeping an eye on that}

for all sorts of household types of issues, like...

the power coming back on when it was out on Monday for hours...

our water treatment system working again

{we have sulfur water, common in our area due to the underlying rock structure}...

being able to pay for various repair bills that have come up

for my MOM...

for giving me life, and much more along the way

Happy Mother's Day!!

Those are my gratitude highlights for this week...

what are you grateful for?

Balance

Balance can be difficult for me...

Is it for you?

I find balance to be such a key to my/our general happiness...
and to everything running smoothly.

I feel that it is essential to find a balance to EVERYTHING in life...
otherwise, it all can come crashing down...
or at least slip downhill in small bits.

As I've mentioned previously, the reason I have been rather quiet in this space recently is because I've been struggling with finding my balance in the face of changes going on for our family...
also it seems like my girls are in an odd sort of phase where they're not quite sure what they want to do with themselves, yet they are not always interested in things I might plan.

I know these issues will all resolve themselves in time, but given my personality, I find myself very stressed a lot of the time...I tend to like to be in control  ;)

This is yet another stretch of time in my life when I'm being taught lessons...
{there have been MANY of these stretches of time, especially on this homeschooling journey of ours!}
lessons about not letting my tendency to focus on minor details and organize everything overtake my joy in what IS...
lessons about trusting my girls' lead and being a support and a gentle guide to them {instead of letting my insecurities and anxieties flood to the forefront and strongly *suggest* changes they aren't really into}...
lessons about letting life flow and resisting the urge to manage it.

Even though I strongly believe in a human being's ability to learn without being "taught" in the conventional sense, and believe that interest-led/organic/life learning is the best method for our family, I can still go a bit crazy when anxious, and second-guess myself and my girls.

So, we're trying to move into a more balanced phase...

I find that what feels balanced and right at one point in life, shifts and changes with time, and a new balance must be sought.

Right now, our balance is a work-in-progress...
and it will certainly continue to be so for a few months to come...
in striving to find balance in our homeschool life, in our everyday life, in my work life at the library, and within myself...probably the most progress at this point is in the parts of our life that I would label "homeschool".

We have stopped making lists like our monthly fun lists...
instead, each weekend, I meet with the girls separately, and we have a conference, of sorts.
They talk to me about what they want to work on in the coming week...an informal goal-setting process...and we check in with their goals from the week just ending.
Throughout the week in progress, I offer them reminders about what they were planning to work on, if they seem at a loss.
I make myself available to help, in any way they need it...which is something we discuss during our informal conference...I want to be sure I'm helping with what they need help with, not taking over the project they have in mind with my ideas.
We have a plan to read together every day...I read something aloud and we discuss it informally...some days it's history (we've begun reading A History of US by Joy Hakim), some days it's fiction (we're reading Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac), other days it might be science or even math themed.
Each of the girls is working on Pet Shop Math right now.
I'm also encouraging writing, in whatever form it comes...for Lauren, this is no problem of all; for Jenna, this is a bit more of a challenge.
That's the extent of my planning...the girls are taking the lead, I'm the support, and the expectations that I do have are agreed upon and clear.

So far, this seems to be working, so I can turn my focus to other areas that need attention...
onward, right?  ;)

Remembering Gratitude #83

"Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive"  Wikipedia

A focus on the positives in my life, and on all I have to be grateful for, is important to me. 

I enjoy being able to share my gratitude highlights for the week here...

I am grateful:

for over-the-counter allergy medicine...

I REALLY didn't want to start taking the stuff, but after months of being constantly sneezy and congested with itchy eyes (this was even before spring began!), and trying other alternatives (local honey, Vitamin C), I finally gave in. It has made SUCH a huge difference and has made my symptoms more tolerable.

for a gorgeous spring week, with so many flowers blooming!

  

that my girls do not have to do all of the standardized testing required of public school students...even the limited amount we are required to do as homeschoolers in NY is stressful!

{This is Lauren's year to be tested, last year was Jenna's year. I hate the way testing can make kids so nervous and worried about making mistakes.  The test means so very little, and it is such a shame that it is so upsetting  :(  I do everything I can to reassure the girls that they only need to do their best and that they do know the covered material, but there's something about that word "test" that inspires fear. }

for new blueberry bushes!!!

that my grandparents arrived safely home from their winter in Florida

for a trip out with my girls to a larger library to have a good browse...they checked out so many books that they struggled to carry their bags back to our car  :)

for good stories!

{we've been listening to The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan on audio in the car, and we're almost at the end of reading The Secret Garden aloud (it takes us a while to get through read-alouds); the girls are each ALWAYS wrapped up in a story, and I've finished reading Dodger by Terry Pratchett :) }

that David takes the girls out on bike rides...this is the first year that they've been riding on the road side...we do not live in an area with sidewalks and safe places for kids to ride bikes (beyond our own property), so riding on the road where cars zoom by quite fast is a big deal! 

{Their favorite destination is their uncle's farm to see the new puppy :) }

for a most excellent and exciting reason to STOP PROCRASTINATING about finishing up the afghan for my new niece...little Olivia Wren was born on Friday morning, about three weeks early.

We are most grateful that she is healthy, although tiny! and should be headed home with her very happy and tired parents today!!

SO, I have now gotten very busy about finishing up Olivia's afghan and hope to have it done before we make a trip to meet her for the first time  :)

that we've gotten a decent amount of "spring cleaning" done outside this weekend...including getting our front porch cleaned off and ready for use, a bit of clean-up done in our garden beds, and the girls (with Daddy's help) set up some tents and our camper for their outdoor spring/summer headquarters

What is on your gratitude list this week?