Homeschool Friday

I’ve started to realize that Thursday is the most productive day of school in the week.  Everyone is a little out of schedule on Monday because Sunday everything is different.  So Monday is kinda a “recovery” day.  That would make Tuesday the first normal day, but Tuesday is our big activity day in town.  Every other Tuesday we have our homeschool group, and every Tuesday Silje has choir practice and piano lessons.  So that makes Wednesday a bit of a recovery day, especially as Elias often misses or gets a very short nap on Tuesdays.

So Thursdays always seem to be productive, and I love them for that.  Not only that, Thursday evening I often prepare my Homeschool Friday post, and I want to get enough done to write that we actually got something done.

This second wave of frigid weather has been keeping us quite housebound, and while I don’t mind settling in by the fireplace for a few days, I’m thinking my kids are not feeling the same.  There has been a lot of running in the house.  A lot of fort building, and a lot of concerts at night.

However, the weather was above zero, and Knut was home Thursday afternoon, so he decided to take the 2 older kids out for some “physical education” out at the ski gaard.  I’m pretty sure a whole afternoon out there skiing and sledding caught them up in that subject!

We’ve been using the geo-board in Silje’s math class, and for some reason, this is the most interesting activity for the older 2 kids these days.  Who knew that a rubber band and a board of pegs would provide so much entertainment?  The new bribe in the house is the geo-board.  “Clean up the basement and then you and David can have 15 minutes playing with your geo-boards before lunch.”  “I want to see your best handwriting on this verse, and if I see no mistakes, you can have 15 minutes with the geo-board.”  I know.  Bribing my kids with more education.  Evil.

Silje’s poetry memorization is going much better.  I realized that she needed more help from me than I was giving her in the beginning.  She’s been tackling one stanza at a time, and can say the whole thing all the way through now, but with little enthusiasm and pretty rushed.  So we still have some presentation to work on.  I think she knows it, but not well enough to feel confident with the reading.

I seem to have not squashed her love of poetry, because we seemed to have formed yet another new tradition.  After she’s done working on her Spring recital poem, she asks me if she can read me some poems.  So I usually work on some dishes or baking in the kitchen, and she dances all over the floor while reading me several poems.  These she reads with a keen storyteller’s voice, and much enthusiasm for the rhythm of it. 

Lately, I’ve felt convicted, though, as to what we get done in a day.  Always something, isn’t it?  I feel however, that when it comes to homeschooling, I want to journal both the highlights, and the struggles, as silly as either may be.  I feel like leaving one out would give an imbalanced picture of what homeschooling is like. 

I have my checklist of readings and sitting work.  We cover the math, and the handwriting.  We get the basics done everyday.  I envisioned homeschooling to be more intense.  I envisioned orchestrating these huge projects.  Silje is so good at coming up with her own projects, that it’s so much easier to do those.

For instance, she’s starting to work on her Valentines.  She’s been pestering me all winter, and I told her to wait at least until February.  Wouldn’t you know, on February 1st, she pulled out her nicest card stock, and started writing out notes to her loved ones.  Well, I was hoping to do a sit down craft session with her closer to Valentine’s day with paper doilies and *gasp* maybe glitter.  She would not wait another minute, though, and I hadn’t even purchased those supplies at the store yet.  I told her if she waited, I’d get some more fun things to decorate them with.  She did not want to wait.

So as she began, I pulled a stack of old magazines, and asked if she wanted to cut pictures out for her Valentines.  She liked the idea, and started her project.  I’m not even there when she’s doing all of this.  She’s cutting and gluing and writing these all on her own.  I’m one part proud that she is so independent, and one part guilty that I’m not giving her more to do so she doesn’t have to search out projects on her own.  All around, I think it’s a good thing that she’s so independent.  Although I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt anything if I did come up with some more off curriculum things to do.

That’s the thing.  Lately I feel like all I’m doing with her is what the books tell me to do.  All the creativity in looking beyond, that comes for her.  My guilt in not being this provider of fun for her doesn’t stem from her lack of fun, I see, but from my pride.  These expectations that I’m not living up to belong to no one but me, and I have to continually remind myself of that.  I am planning something fun for Valentine’s Day, but I’ve been planning it for weeks…and it’s not that big.  Doing it daily I think would burn me out faster than anything.

I think it’s good to give up the idea, though, that we have to work to make fun for kids.  Kids naturally find fun.  I hope we can plan big things like Disneyland and road trips.  Birthday parties and family traditions.  I can handle things like that.  I’m just terrible with the “OK, now that we’ve studied Pandora’s box, we’re going to make macaroni boxes.  Here’s your craft box and paint.  OK, now do it like this sample that I stayed up until midnight last night doing.”  Fortunately for me, even though I’m terrible with the day to day fun planning, Silje, (as Knut has dubbed our resident cruise director) is fabulous at it.