The rhythm of a homeschooling day is exactly what we needed. I call it a rhythm although we don’t follow any sort of real schedule. We know what we want and need to get done, and we do our best. I feel very good about the year ahead, and what I have planned to do with each child. Even Larkspur is getting some schooling this year, at her request. She hardly wants to “go play” when her big brothers are having lessons!
(It seems that half naked pictures of Larkspur keep appearing when I download my photos. It’s all very confusing considering that she wears no less than three different outfits each day. I feel like seventy five percent of the laundry around here can be attributed to her.)
I moved my nursing chair/Seth’s favorite reading chair into the kitchen where we do lessons which proved to be a very good move. I was able to comfortably nurse Beatrix and be available to my other kids while they worked. Seth settled in with a Hardy Boys book as soon as I got up. There’s nothing wrong with having an armchair in the middle of the kitchen right?
In addition to our scheduled work we did lots of other things today as well. Seth made ink from pokeweed berries, and a pen from a wild turkey feather.
I coddled Trouble all day. Still no change in her. I am feeling rather silly, and will admit that I called several vets today. It seems that there are no vets around that will see chickens with the exception of one possibility who is out of town until next week. We gave her a soak in a warm bath again today hoping she might use the bathroom as she hasn’t since her bath yesterday a.m. No good, but I am thinking that what we are calling “hydrotherapy” had got to be good for her legs.
Keats took this photo of me with Trouble after her “therapy.” He meant to focus on me, but I love the way our new (but old) statue of the Blessed Mother seems to glow.
This evening after supper we went to a local park for some frisbee golf. Seth, Larkspur, and I don’t play so we went on a separate trail to look for interesting trees at Seth’s request.
This to me is so precious. They are studying the leaves of a tree, trying to determine what it is.
Seth often talks about cicada killers, but had never seen one in real life until tonight.
That little hornet is dragging a huge cicada around.
After the park we went to the pool for the last half hour before it closed. We had such a good time and I was so amazed at Beatrix who has absolutely no fear and tries to get away from Jonny and I, trying to swim on her own, and going underwater with eyes wide open and a smile on her face. She makes the lifeguards nervous, that one!
Today was so full and so perfect. I love the way that trying to teach four children while managing a baby forces every ounce of my focus to be on them for such a large part of the day. I love that on the first day of school I am so wanting that, rather than wishing I could have a break.
Seth reminded his brothers today of the time when I was called to the public school to meet with teachers and the principal after he tried to escape the property by climbing a chain length fence. He was in kindergarten and they were trying to make him hula hoop in p.e.
I chuckled to myself, “and that is why we homeschool now.”
Watching my children at the park tonight I just loved them all so much, I can’t even describe it, but I am sure you know what I am talking about. Those times when you become so aware of the goodness in your life, your children, and all that love and it’s all you can see. And I am grateful, so grateful that I can raise my children this way, loving and teaching them with all I have.
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[…] This is an older post from Ginny at Small Things, but so worth the read. […]
danielle says
Looks like so much fun! I have had many run ins with cicada killers and they never cease to amaze me!