Inspired by Earth Mama who was
*inspired by Amanda Soule*
a brief glimpse at our morning
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Ostara
it's taken me far too long to post this, but alas i took a bunch of pictures of the boys with my phone, and the daunting task of sending each one to my email, to save to the computer, to finally upload here, ug well here it is Wednesday.
faeries and gnomes strike again!
M1 basket
M2 basket
M3 basket
oooh look!
look what i got!
look Moma!
checking out the goodies
M3 has no clue what's going on. :)
M2's bunny from last year. the Magic Bunny is really good at recycling.
M1 with bunny.
the hunt begins!
it did not take him long to figure out what to do!
we colored on our eggs this year. the Equinox being on Saturday morning meant i didn't plan well for decorating the eggs Friday after school. so it was fun and simple. there weren't any sweets either and the boys didn't even notice. :)
look at those eagle eyes!
Our boys. :)
Blessed Spring to all!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
schedules, routine, rhythm, whatever you wanna call it...
Lisa @ earthmama has an interesting thought this morning. one that i have been thinking on and planning for our family. we have a really good nap and bed time routine. it's the during the day (like right now) that kinda sucks. i have grandiose visions for the summer and the fall. i don't remember if i posted my thoughts on how i would like to homeschool, but it's an offshoot of that.
so the nursery and kindergarten programs are play based. the rooms are set up to mimic the home, which i don't know that everyone gets. now why is this? why do all the activities for the children revolve around meaningful work and play? if you think about it back-in-the-day that is how it was in the home. the children were an integral part of the home, helping and maintaining the home. now i don't know how much of their lives were spent at play, but we know how important it is for our children. we all see how our children model and imitate us. they want to sweep, wash, and clean. just like they see us doing. so i think that a blending of the past and now is the perfect balance. for us, anyway.
meaningful work. this is a task given to a child that has a purpose and the achievement of this task gives the child a sense of accomplishment and pride. not from us "good jobbing" the hell out of them and the task, but a simple acknowledgment of the task fulfilled and validation that you can see they worked hard. that's it, that's all they need. i don't believe you have to "pay" or treat a child for completing an age appropriate task. they get their own rewards just from the sense of fulfillment and our validation of how hard they worked.
so the nursery and kindergarten programs are play based. the rooms are set up to mimic the home, which i don't know that everyone gets. now why is this? why do all the activities for the children revolve around meaningful work and play? if you think about it back-in-the-day that is how it was in the home. the children were an integral part of the home, helping and maintaining the home. now i don't know how much of their lives were spent at play, but we know how important it is for our children. we all see how our children model and imitate us. they want to sweep, wash, and clean. just like they see us doing. so i think that a blending of the past and now is the perfect balance. for us, anyway.
meaningful work. this is a task given to a child that has a purpose and the achievement of this task gives the child a sense of accomplishment and pride. not from us "good jobbing" the hell out of them and the task, but a simple acknowledgment of the task fulfilled and validation that you can see they worked hard. that's it, that's all they need. i don't believe you have to "pay" or treat a child for completing an age appropriate task. they get their own rewards just from the sense of fulfillment and our validation of how hard they worked.
so our rhythm:
getting up
getting dressed
making beds while bfast is being prepared
M2 &3 feed dog
M1&2 setting the table
blessings
eat
M1 (6.5 yo) clearing and putting stuff away
M2 (4 yo) wiping down the table
M3 (1.8 yo) push in chair
M1 & M2 washing their own dishes
All ~ chore of the day
M1 help collecting laundry
M2 help with loading laundry
M3 help with switching out loads
*free play
go for a walk
snack
M1&2 setting the table
blessings
eat
M1 clearing and putting stuff away
M2 wiping down the table
M3 push in chair
M1 & M2 washing their own dishes
All ~ activity of the day
*free play
lunch
M1&2 setting the table
blessings
eat
M1 clearing and putting stuff away
M2 wiping down the table
M3 push in chair
M1 & M2 washing their own dishes
M3 nap
M2 book, then nap
M1 quiet time (book, knitting)
snack (outside)
play
dinner
M1&2 setting the table
blessings
eat
M1 clearing and putting stuff away
M2 wiping down the table
M3 push in chair
M1 feed dog
bath & teeth
pjs
books
bed
Chore of the day:
M: bathrooms
T: sweep/vacc/mop
W: dusting
Th:
F:
S: sweep/vacc, change towels
S: linens
Activity of the day:
M: painting
T: bread day
W: soup day
Th:
F:
*free play is on here like it's scheduled but really it's for when ever they are done with their tasks.
Laundry schedule:
M: darks
T: whites
W: lights/colors
Th: jeans
F: rugs/mats
S: towels
S: sheets
so as you can see i still have to flesh out a couple things, it's definitely more of a rhythm than a schedule. i know better than to put times on stuff. i know i want to have them help with dinner prep early in the am (chopping veg and the like), i know i will have to adjust this for M1 and M2 when the Fall comes to incorporate schooling time in there. i will have to see where the natural break comes for these things though. but for the most part i'm pretty happy.
for whatever reason i cannot think of more activities or cleaning things...i don't know why that is. well that's not true, i should probably add ironing in there so that both M1 and M3 are crossing their mid-line. we do laundry every day. i would like to put up a clothes line in our back yard, just have to find the right place to put it.
so there you go...i am a Virgo what can i say :)
Monday, March 15, 2010
Green Spring Cleaning
yes yes yes, it's that time of year. The official beginning of Spring is this weekend and in anticipation of it the Spring Cleaning bug is nipping at my toes.
in doing a search for Spring Cleaning checklists and articles i found this one that i thought was lovely. it includes recipes and ideas for what to clean. not so much the checklist. martha has one of course, if you wanna get down and dirty, she doesn't talk green, but if you are like me i have to edit/adjust everything anyway to fit my taste. *shrug* so no worries.
here is the best of both worlds. :)
happy cleaning!
in doing a search for Spring Cleaning checklists and articles i found this one that i thought was lovely. it includes recipes and ideas for what to clean. not so much the checklist. martha has one of course, if you wanna get down and dirty, she doesn't talk green, but if you are like me i have to edit/adjust everything anyway to fit my taste. *shrug* so no worries.
here is the best of both worlds. :)
happy cleaning!
Friday, March 12, 2010
friday mornings
the little boys are doing yoga, although M2 did tell me that he can't do the ABC on yet, cause he's not in first grade. he made me laugh. well i should amend that and say that one of them is doing yoga, the other one is, i'm pretty sure, destroying the play room. i remember this stage with the older two boys where they would just sweep everything off the shelves, pull everything out of the little kitchen, leave a huge wake of mess as they would walk away and sit quietly and read a book. M3 is a pro at destruction, he's pretty good about helping to clean up, but you know the horror you have when you walk into the room and it's so chaotic it just takes your breath away? happens at least two times a day here...
my blog is missing pictures and it slays me not to have them posted here. my beautiful boys and all their craziness. my camera was stolen out of my car over a year ago. they broke the window and took my purse, right in front of school while i was dropping off M1. oh my heart was broken. i was also attempting to take a picture of the boys everyday, which is an amazing feat in itself, and all those pictures gone. no i did not upload them. and yes i know... ;)
let's see i can figure something out...
i can't use pictures from FB, now that's a bummer!
my blog is missing pictures and it slays me not to have them posted here. my beautiful boys and all their craziness. my camera was stolen out of my car over a year ago. they broke the window and took my purse, right in front of school while i was dropping off M1. oh my heart was broken. i was also attempting to take a picture of the boys everyday, which is an amazing feat in itself, and all those pictures gone. no i did not upload them. and yes i know... ;)
let's see i can figure something out...
this in Oct, obviously, our goddaughter R was in town w/her moma R*. we had such a good time!
moma and M2
Our nubian Queen. :)
crazy driver already...
i'm thinking there was some nakedness going on there...knowing me :)
i can't use pictures from FB, now that's a bummer!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
lighter shoulders
exhale
yes! we had come to the point this weekend of making a decision about the boys education. i was of the mind to pull our oldest from school and start homeschooling them as of this past Monday, but my level headed husband said, why don't we wait until Spring Break and do it then. the relief of making the decision and the added benefit of us having money to do the little things, you know like being able to feed our family and put gas in the car, was much appreciated.
so, my husband put the proverbial gauntlet down and said okay now you have to figure out what your teaching and find your rhythm. you have 3 weeks. my thought was to ask M1's teacher for the rest of this years lessons so that we would just leave off where he started. i was also going to ask if he would mentor my sweet boy and also help me with the curriculum for next year and to ask him how to teach to my boy, so that my lack of patience doesn't ruin everything. so i typed up that email and off it went and that evening he called. i was expecting this, of course, was i wasn't expecting was for this man to offer to pay M1's tuition out of his own savings. he's a teacher at a Waldorf school, for gods sake, so you know he's not making big bucks. oh my, he just floored me with his love and generosity. he told us that he really thought that it was important that M1 finish this year, for closure, but also because he had come so far this year. we told him we would talk to the finance guy at school and see what could be done.
that meeting happened today. M1 can finish the year and our payments have been suspended. really they are just being added to the back we owe them anyway, but he did say that if we want to return that we would have to chip away at the back as well as pay what we owe for the boys tuitions. really and truly i don't see us returning, but i'm not closing that door. you never know, but i'm just so jubilant with the thought of us creating our own school where all the boys will be participating regardless of age.
exhale with a contented smile.
yes! we had come to the point this weekend of making a decision about the boys education. i was of the mind to pull our oldest from school and start homeschooling them as of this past Monday, but my level headed husband said, why don't we wait until Spring Break and do it then. the relief of making the decision and the added benefit of us having money to do the little things, you know like being able to feed our family and put gas in the car, was much appreciated.
so, my husband put the proverbial gauntlet down and said okay now you have to figure out what your teaching and find your rhythm. you have 3 weeks. my thought was to ask M1's teacher for the rest of this years lessons so that we would just leave off where he started. i was also going to ask if he would mentor my sweet boy and also help me with the curriculum for next year and to ask him how to teach to my boy, so that my lack of patience doesn't ruin everything. so i typed up that email and off it went and that evening he called. i was expecting this, of course, was i wasn't expecting was for this man to offer to pay M1's tuition out of his own savings. he's a teacher at a Waldorf school, for gods sake, so you know he's not making big bucks. oh my, he just floored me with his love and generosity. he told us that he really thought that it was important that M1 finish this year, for closure, but also because he had come so far this year. we told him we would talk to the finance guy at school and see what could be done.
that meeting happened today. M1 can finish the year and our payments have been suspended. really they are just being added to the back we owe them anyway, but he did say that if we want to return that we would have to chip away at the back as well as pay what we owe for the boys tuitions. really and truly i don't see us returning, but i'm not closing that door. you never know, but i'm just so jubilant with the thought of us creating our own school where all the boys will be participating regardless of age.
exhale with a contented smile.
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