Week of October 21

This week we went to Homeschool Day at the Monterey Aquarium. It was a gorgeous day in Monterey! 

We also:

-checked out loads of books at the library

- played at the park

- played several matches of Sleeping Queens

- learned grammar through Mad Libs

- Tommy & Ben went on a bike ride across town for ice cream and watched a movie with their friend

- spent a whole day playing Monopoly

- Lucy learned about Ben Franklin and the printing press

- spent 35 hours playing outside

 Poppy drew a chicken using a Draw-Write-Now book. 

The kids asked to take our piano outside for the day. 

 Beach Day Friday! It was one of those perfect beach trips that the kids will remember for years to come. They made habitats for the crabs and sea stars they collected. The kids bonded with new friends over their tide pool creatures. I shared their delight as they watched a purple sea urchin’s tentacles extend to move itself around. They climbed rocks and jumped in the ocean. My friends held my baby while I got a cat nap. It was such a good day! We spent seven hours at the beach. It was a beautiful, wonderful day!

Back to Unschooling

This week has been a great one for homeschooling.

I had been struggling for months (years?) to try to figure out how to teach my 7 year old. She forgets math facts in mere seconds, and cannot retain them from one day to the next. Same with reading, though that it getting a bit better. Writing is hard for her too. She has never liked coloring, and I suspect she lacks the fine motor skills to make writing easier.

But this week… I listened to a podcast by Durenda Wilson about getting outside more. She mentioned a website called 1000 Hours Outside, which promotes getting your kids outside for hours each day. This is something we used to do when everyone was a lot younger, but somehow got away from it.

So on Monday I tried it. We went to a local nature trail (Anderson Park) and for 2 hours we played and explored. We had to go home for the boys’ IEW class at 11:00, but then the girls went outside for several more hours. Lunch, naps, then more outside time.

We did the same thing on Tuesday. Outside first thing in the morning after breakfast and chores were done, and stayed out as long as we could. Same on Wednesday and Thursday. By Friday, the girls were going outside first thing in the morning… climbing trees in their pajamas!

Spending hours outside has been life-giving to my home and homeschool. I am more calm, because nature is just naturally calming to me. I spend time outside reading all those books I normally don’t have time for, which is feeding my soul. My kids are happier because I’m not forcing them to sit down and do school all the time. And yet, they are still learning!

We made a cave in some redwood trees in our front yard. A perfect place to enjoy snacks and books. 

 On Monday we took our schoolwork and snacks to Anderson Park and explored for a few hours.

Lucy is getting really good at making lemonade from scratch all by herself!

 More outside play. Making rivers, ponds, and corrals for their animals.

 Burying her bunny. Not sure why? But she worked on this for quite a while!