our homeschooling days

I have to remember not to rush around in our days.

I have been tempted to have “activities” for each of my kids.  The winter was long, and cold, and a bit restless.  I am a home-body.  I truly don’t mind not leaving the house — so homeschooling really makes a lot of sense for us because it works with my “introverted” personality — I put that in quotes because I’m extroverted in many ways too :)

But my children like to go places.  If they see me put make-up on, for example, then they scream, “where are we going?”  So they like to go out.  They don’t have the stress of bags packed, seat belts on, drive safely.  And why should they.  But it’s hard.  Mommy-ing is hard.  …. So I enrolled my little dancing girl into a ballet class.  And oh she brightens up when I tell her where we are headed!  Eyes a-glow.  She rushes into that class, without looking back.  She frolics around the room in he rlittle pink leotard and she is oh so happy.

If she cried for me the whole time, I would absolutely not push my two and a half year old to dance.  This is for fun, nothing more.  And that’s what happened when we tried karate for my son.  He got to choose between dance (which he tried) and gymnastics (which he tried) and karate.  And his first two times at karate were glorious.  First, I loved the theme of respect and control, and second, I love him listening to a teacher other than me.  He did so well and I felt that it was the perfect fit.  Until the third time.  We almost arrived and John screamed that he just wouldn’t go in.  I did try to push him and remind him how much he loved it, but to no avail.  So no more karate.  We’ll try something new, or karate again, in another six months.  He wasn’t ready.  For some reason he wasn’t ready, and that’s okay.  He’s four and a half.  Is he “quitting” as my husband would suggest — no. He’s learning himself and his boundaries and I respect them.

All of these pictures are from about a month ago — I am behind in sharing — thankfully there is no more snow on the ground!

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We made marshmallow buildings.  May ate marshmallows while we made marshmallow buildings.

How long can I make a line?

Fun in the snow.  These best friends.

Painting icebergs — we got this idea from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds!

John fell in love with dominoes this week — so sweet! 

Some scooping and playing.

An animal matching game from 1plus1plus1equals1.

Sorting and reading letters with Frozen alphabet cards.

Sorting rocks on number printables.

Little feet with those just-awful shoes from grandma.  She absolutely loves these and walks around the table over and over again.