These are the faces of two very excited little ones who had been deprived of academic activities for the last two weeks. We moved. It was the largest move of my life in that I have never had so much stuff to move. Months ago I had begun planning for this, getting rid of things that were useless or didn't bring me joy. I sold stuff and sold on online sites but I still had two truckloads plus the extra we brought over in car loads. I'm now up to my ears in boxes at my new home and have realized that I didn't get rid of enough, so I am purging my belongings as we speak.
Moving with little ones while I'm homeschooling is nothing other than impossible. And what I mean by that is that I could not both move and homeschool. One had to go. Guess which one went?
I had quite an internal war going on in my brain.
Imagine my public school teacher self on one side repeating things such as, "They must continue to learn the objectives up until the last day of school! You cannot stop now! Instruction must take place until the last minute! If you stop now, you are doing these children a complete injustice!"
Then on the other side of my brain is the homeschool mama that I want to be, clothed in yoga pants and my husband's shirts, saying, "You have all summer to read and write with them. You are setting up an entire dedicated homeschool room for them. You can see that Tiny B is progressing in her reading even without direct instruction! Her brain is growing and changing right before your eyes and you don't even have to give her direct instruction for the next month--only guidance--and she will still grow and learn! Strong B, through simply watching Tiny B read, is starting to read himself! So unpack those boxes. Get your home ready! This is where all of it takes place...The schooling and my work and our lives...Get your home in order and everything else will follow."
For once I listened to my homeschooling mama brain. It's been trying and there's been a lot of yelling unfortunately (by me) and very bored children, but I have to continue my unpacking, and I will, until I am ready to begin our new life.
I finally found my current Mother Goose Time box which I kept all of my materials in this time, because of the move. I decided to pull out the Day 16 bag on caterpillars, and it turned into a Mother Goose Time Bug Blitz...Basically a three-hour long marathon of MGT lessons and activities, purely because the kids were missing it.
The I Can Read books are becoming quite a source of joy because Tiny B can really read now and Strong B can too (I can't wait to blog about this!)
Jack the Standard Poodle approved of the Invitation to Create activity.
They made caterpillars completely unlike I had imagined they would, which is really what makes the Invitations to Create so special. They are supppsed to do things how they want to.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Bug Blitz. Breaking out of the boxes and creating and learning with the children was a gigantic break from the doldrums of unpacking. I cannot wait until our new life can officially begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment