A year of learning #2
A year of learning #2
Late September and early October days
“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,
“Come o'er the meadows with me and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold,
For summer is gone and the days grow cold.”
- George Cooper
With weekly posts feeling too frequent, and monthly not nearly enough, I’ve settled upon biweekly newsletters for this academic year. These ‘A Year of Learning’ letters share how we spend our days as a home educating family, throughout the seasons. My eldest (A) is 7 years old and the twins (L & Q) are nearly 4.
More than a fortnight has passed since my last newsletter and we’ve slowly crept into October - my favourite month.
In all fairness to me, it hardly feels like October at all here. We’re still waiting for the leaves to really fall and for the month’s festivities to really begin. But the days are passing, whether I like it or not, and I feel like an update is long overdue.
I fear that my day-by-day descriptions might actually bore you! I don’t think we’ve ever plodded along so contentedly before.
Our days have been characterised by lazy starts and library visits. We’ve spotted crab apples on neighbourhood walks and collected acorn caps. We bake, pour over books, and go down rabbit holes. I think we’re perhaps just a poetry tea time away from being a homeschooling cliché.
For complete transparency - my house is still an utter mess. The girls still argue (a lot) and the thoughtfully made packed lunches from earlier in the month have already been swapped for hasty cafe lunches. I do feel like we’re finally on our way though. After years in the trenches of early motherhood, I can finally see the light - and it is golden, dappled, autumn sunshine gleaming in through the window. Finally, home education looks something like I imagined it would.
But all coins have two sides, and with every thing gained there is something else lost.
While I now have three young girls to teach at the table, I no longer have any babies to hold. We are finally, fully beyond the toddler stage - and it is bittersweet.
The other day the girls took toy pushchairs on a walk, and I thought to myself: how many more days will we have like these? Surely I’ll blink and they’ll have outgrown taking dolls for walks, just as quickly as they outgrew footed pyjamas. (Especially my eldest, who is 7 - although I think home ed gives them a few extra years of sweet play like this.)
I’m trying my best not to rush around, to stay in the moment - luxuries I didn’t feel like I had just months ago. It’s a difficult transition as I’d grown so accustomed to being constantly on the go, always rushing from one child or house chore to the next. Always looking ahead to the next age and stage when mothering would get easier.
Now I wish I could keep them at these ages, make time move treacle slow. I can regularly be heard asking my children to please stop growing to their amusement.
Time to rest has also become much more abundant recently, as the girls occupy themselves so often now, which perhaps explains my tardiness in writing this letter. I’ve been resting, reading again. The girls playing happily nearby while I curl up on the sofa, book in hand - this is something new. And I think I could get used to this.
Our weekly rhythm
Our weekly rhythm is still going strong, with Monday being a home day and typically the day we do nature study (we use Exploring Nature with Children).
The Autumn Equinox passed without fanfare this year, but I remember Harvest Moon week. We made the moon cycle with Oreos, read about the Mid Autumn festival and the story of the rabbit on the moon, and revisited an old favourite picture book: The Mouse Who Ate the Moon (which is, charmingly, not the moon at all but a banana). We also went outside after dark to see the full moon - it was very misty and spooky! Such a treat.
Some days I wonder if half of what I do with the girls sinks in, so I did smile the other night when my eldest walked in and announced: ‘The moon is waxing gibbous!’ (It was actually in the first quarter - so my weather app told me. I love that she remembered the terminology though, and felt confident enough to use it!)
We didn’t really do much for pond week itself, but we have begun building a little pond in the garden. I’d been meaning to make one for months, and had set aside an old plastic pool to do it, but it always somehow made its way to the bottom of the to-do list - until we found a frog! We must have been doing a little gardening at the time, perhaps planting spring bulbs, and disturbed the little frog’s hiding place. My father-in-law was over that afternoon, helping my husband build our new decking, and in seeing the children’s excitement promised to work on the pond with them. Now that Grandad is on the case, I’m sure it will get done! He set up the old water butt next to the shed (although we have no guttering yet) and moved the pool into that quiet corner of the garden. Hopefully we’ll be able to collect enough rain water to fill it soon, then we can add some pond plants.
A has also been doing her own nature study, as per usual. She can often be seen wandering about the garden, checking on her larvae and collecting ‘ecosystems’ in glass jars. We’ve been reading this brilliant book on ecosystems which has some stunning illustrations and has really deepened both of our knowledge. We’re still in discussions over whether to buy some fairy shrimp next, or perhaps try to make an eco system in a bottle with a little fish. I suggested a terrarium but A was less enthused as there are no creatures involved! I’ve been able to buy myself some time to decide though, as some more of her sea monkeys have finally hatched and are thankfully thriving this time.
Q supervising Daddy and Grandad as they built the decking; A behind them checking her larvae.
On Tuesdays, the twins go to a lovely childminder and then we all get the bus to town (for drama class for A, and hanging out in the library with younger siblings for the rest of us). A seems to be really enjoying drama, despite only joining to spend more time with her friends (she has 4 friends from HE group in the class!). She told me all about making freeze frames the other day, forgetting that I had a life before she was born where I was (briefly) a drama teacher. It’s funny how children often think that their parents are nothing but parents!
Our HE group on Wednesday has been busy, with lots of new families coming and going. I suppose it will be a few more weeks yet before we find out who sticks around, but in the meanwhile the children are enjoying working towards a ‘park’ PawPrint badge and playing with friends new and old.
Usually we collapse when we get back from HE group, after hours of socialising and being on our feet at the park (I somehow never manage to sit down for long!). I’ve gotten into the habit of having a little rest myself, then setting up something for the children to do. Usually this is where a bit of ‘topic’ work comes in, even if it just a book on the table and an offering of biscuits to munch while I read.
I’ve made a note somewhere that says ‘zombie ants and cholera’, a reminder that our reading about microbes has continued. We’ve borrowed The Bacteria Book from the library (again - it’s an old favourite. I know it will also come in handy when we move onto fungi in a few weeks). This book of a history of medicine has also been an invaluable library find (although we skipped some of darker sections) and I can’t remember if I recommended this or this book on microbes last time. I have Three Trillion Cells tucked away for when we’re ready to move on from bacteria cells to human cells. It’s lovely when one thing runs naturally into another!
Otherwise, outside of table work (which will have to perhaps take up a post of its own one day soon) we have been doing a little Geography - a rather neglected subject in this household.
Some months ago A was gifted a map with little flag stickers, and I have made a point of putting it up on the wall and slipping an atlas into the morning basket. Most days we try to locate a country and stick up its flag, linking it in with whatever conversations we’ve been having (e.g. our animal of the day was a groundhog, so we learnt a little about Groundhog Day and added the flag to Canada). I also had stashed a couple of new Yoto cards: one with a flags game and another with first words in five languages. Both were well received by the girls and made a nice introduction to what I hope will be an ‘around the world’ topic.
Thursdays are a further childminder day (the twins go for 4 hours), followed by a quiet afternoon at home. I’ve really been slacking with arranging trips and play dates (which is what I’d put Thursdays aside for) but it has been so very lovely to just be at home with the girls.
I’ve started to be more intentional with what I do at home with the twins, very much the same way I did with A before her sisters were born. We’ve been practising seasonal finger plays, telling stories with little puppets, doing wet on wet painting, making bread rolls - all very Waldorf. I’ve been using The Connected Family Handbook as my guide and it’s an absolute gem of a book, a must have for the early years. I’m enjoying revisiting stories like How the Apple got its Star with the twins, which I tell to A every year, but also sharing some new ones (like Jessie Mouse and the one about the giant with cold feet).
As well as lots of Waldorfy goodness, I’ve also begun doing Phonics with the twins - we started some weeks ago, in fact. Partly because of their own interest in letters, and partly because of how much A has struggled (still struggles), I decided to start some regular practice with them this year. So far they’re flying with it, much to my complete and utter amazement. L can already read some CVC words (and she’s not yet 4). The contrast between her ease and A’s struggle with reading has not gone unnoticed - although A is making steady progress, too. I know she will get there in the end, I only wish I could make the journey leas difficult for her.
It’s probably time for me to wrap things up, as I’ve sat far too still for too long now. I will leave you with A’s bread roll snake, a tribute I think to the childminder’s snake (a king python) who she finally got to hold the other Friday.
I wish you a wonderful week ahead.
