Do you ever feel like you are being watched? I’m sure Lillia does…
Lillia’s Adventures
This week we continued to read chapters from the Tao of Pooh. I think Lillia’s favorite chapter was “Bisy Backson,” in which we learned all about how living like Rabbit (constantly on the go) causes a lot of undue stress. I think I can fully appreciate this now that our lives have really slowed down. I was already working on cutting out the “Bisyness,” but choosing to homeschool was really the tipping point. One of my ongoing projects is to create a home that allows my children to live their lives at their own pace, without always being rushed, and most of the time I’m pretty successful (except Saturday mornings when it’s time to leave for ballet lessons…).
In Life of Fred we learned more about sets — domains and codomains and how they are used in relation to functions. For example:
A function: A rule that assigns to each member of the domain exactly one image in the codomain.
A constant function: A rule that assigns to each member of the domain exactly one image in the codomain, and it is always the same image.
The coolest thing about the Fred books is that I end up learning things right along with Lillia. I think that any adult suffering from math phobia would really benefit from doing this series.
As usual, Lillia spent many hours this week drawing and being creative. When she was little I thought that her love of animals would lead her into a science-oriented career like zoology or veterinary science. Now that she is older and becoming more of an individual I can see that her real talents and passions lie in the realm of the arts.
Here she is doodling on the floor of the garage with chalk.
She also created a magazine for me. She got mad when I tried to photograph her making it because, as she exclaimed, “It’s a surprise!”
Here’s my favorite page:
Zane’s Adventures
This week Zane experienced a kitchen remodel…on a small scale. Our friend gave us an awesome piece of play kitchen furniture a while back but it was just too big for Wee Little Zane to use. I switched it out with a little bookshelf we already owned, and now he has a just-the-right-size kitchen.
He spent a lot of time playing outside. I’ve been trying really hard to work outdoor time into our daily schedule, so we definitely got out more than usual (the warm weather helped).
And, as usual, Zane spent a lot of time playing with is sister. Yep, it’s true — two kids do fit on a rocking horse. They had to prove it to me.
Mama’s Adventures
This week I did a lot of soul-searching and thinking about the rhythm of our home life. We didn’t really have much of a rhythm this year and I think that was a big contributor to some of the stress we experienced, in regards to homeschooling. My first order of business in tackling this issue was creating a snack/meal chart that we can use every week. The snacks and lunches will be the same each week so it’s a no-brainer when it’s time to shop and, more importantly, the kids will know what to expect. I’ve taken many early childhood classes, as well a year-long professional development course about caring for children ages 0-3, and time and again my instructors emphasized the importance of rhythm and routine for little ones (and all children from about birth to seven). I’m embarrassed to say that I’m just now putting that knowledge into practice in my own home but sometimes we have to spend some time doing the wrong thing in order to figure out how to do it right. Lillia is more independent and her food needs are somewhat particular. She has a lot of sensory issues and this manifests itself strongly in her dislike of most foods. Still, the rhythm is there for her, even if she doesn’t eat the snacks. I’m still tweaking my chart but when I feel like it’s pretty much done I will post it here.
My next order of business is developing a schedule for our special activities. I’m thinking of painting on Monday, seasonal craft on Tuesday, playdough or modeling clay on Wednesday, baking on Thursday, and trip to the library on Friday.
Do you have a structured rhythm? If so, what aspects of your home life do you include?