Welcome to the inaugural addition of How We Homeschooled (this week). This section is mostly for our family’s own records and for sharing with distant family who’ll enjoy laughing at our escapades.
But even if you’re not family and you’re just curious about how we homeschool, you are welcome to sit in as I share the little details of our lives each week.
The song it true: these are the days that we’ll want back. And I know that one day, I will love looking back on these days, laughing (or cringing) at my younger self, and my heart will ache with the fullness of love in the days past (even if right now it seems that most days, that pain resides in my ears from all screaming).
Quote of the Week
Me: This dog (online) needs a home.
G: I could give it a home in heaven.
C: They don’t go to heaven. They disintegrate.
Last week, we had a delightful Ash Wednesday which began with “burying the Alleluia,” — an activity I never would have come up with on my own. I finally broke out our Lenten activity kit from @faithandfamilycollective (I kid you not when I say that I was in such a state last year that I simply could not. make. it. happen).
Thankfully, these activities are timeless and simple enough that I plan to reuse them each year. I am very much looking forward to creating our Lenten prayer space, which I know will delight the kids to no end.
We also got new baby chicks, which I’ll admit is usually more of an Easter tradition, but several of our chickens died for a few days in a row, so it’s been memento mori around here for a while. It is sad, but not too sad. We get to talk about death and why it’s not as sad as when a human being dies. It has opened up theological questions that we might never have found ourselves discussing otherwise, or at least has become occasion for their own curiosity to spark those questions.
And so, my chickens, you have not died in vain. In all things — even chicken mortality — God works for the good of those who love him.
We visited the fire house on Sunday at the invitation of some wonderful friends. The kids had a blast climbing up into the trucks and seeing where the firefighters “live.”
We also came down with the stomach flu — like dominos. It was an invitation to rest, and I didn’t answer it very well. I did sanitize the house and all of our sheets, so that’s something.
While the stomach flu did pretty much wipe out my plans for the week, we did indulge in some lovely marathon reading sessions, and in my mind, if we have prayed, read aloud, and snuggled, everything else is gravy.
We read about St. George and the dragon at popcorn story time, and got through a couple of the Winnie the Pooh stories, both boys nestled on my lap. It was sweet to hear N (3), predicting what would happen. He’s seen the movie many times, but I didn’t realize he was comprehending so much of what we read.
C (7) and I snuggled up in my bed and read through several different cultural versions of Cinderella and Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen (the OG Frozen). She has been dictating her own fairy tales to the notes app in my phone and then illustrating them, so this was a nice way to reinforce her creativity.
This week wasn’t at all what I expected, but it was a nice way to reconnect with some of the lovelier aspects of homeschooling. I can get into a “check the box” mindset and its been good to remember those boxes are the how and not the why.
Currently, the kiddos are building Lego towers, frolicking with the puppy on the trampoline in the sunshine, painting imaginary worlds, and nursing. And I am here writing, recollecting, and planning for the future.
What a glorious gift to spend our days together, igniting curiosity, exploring the true, good and beautiful, and learning to love one another and our Father — stomach flus and all.