Well hello to all! It has been a while since I came on here to record our home education. An entire season has passed literally and metaphorically. When I conducted these lessons. winter was beginning and now it is coming to a close. When we enjoyed these sessions, a couple of babies we now love, had not entered the world yet, and the one in my womb, had not been conceived yet(Praise God for new life!)
For several reasons, blogging about our home education has been hard. But here I am, finally (almost) out of the ‘puke bucket’ phase of this pregnancy, typing away at this desktop of a laptop(IYKYK).
Weeks 17-18 were the last weeks of school in October. We took November and December off ‘schooling’ to work on realigning the atmosphere of the home through a celebratory season. December is when I found out about baby number 3 and Jan and Feb have been a haze of vomit and exhaustion.
And amazingly enough, learning has still happened!
Nature/Science/ Language
There has been a lot of outdoor time these 2 weeks. We did a mini unit on farm life including farm animals and life cycles by reading through several books we have and made a new farmer friend! We visited his farms, fed the rabbits, petted the chickens and were followed by the ducks. I even got to feed the pigs.
Our garden signaled to us that winter was beginning. The malabar spinach went to seed and that was the first sign of winter coming. Usually, each year, it is my skin that first goes dry but this was a pleasant observation this time around. The seeds of the malabar spinach can be consumed but I knew I was going to have a busy Christmas season and would have to devote time in other areas so we did not pursue this aspect of gardening this year around. We are enjoying the first harvests of winter crops! Hope is learning that she loves radishes. Since a new season beckoned, we got out our shifting seasons books and read through them to help conversations flow.
The flowers are in bloom too! One morning, none of our neighbours seemed to want any of the flowers on the bushes.(They usually pick them by 9 am) This one day, the flowers were still on till 11 am when Hope napped that day. So Ahna and I quickly ran down with our basket and plucked them for an idea I had fermenting in my mind for a while. We took flowers from our plants on the garden too and came home to make ink! We followed a 2 day tedious process of washing, drying, crushing and seeping followed by thickening and painting! It was so much fun and kind of became a core concept for Ahna. A few months later, she will suggest to me, holding one measly flower in her hand, that we ought to make home made paint with it. (Maybe we ought to do more math too!) I love how this process was a way in which we explored ancient ink making and made some natural paints to paint with. Of course we had to use it to paint an ‘all natural’ card for my dad since he loves everything natural. The ultimate product was a little disappointing though. It did not look more than a slightly shaded page which smelled nice. Thankfully, CM reminds us to enjoy the process rather than the product! So Yay for that!
For our language projects we have started mailing letters, using the postbox and envelopes and the whole thing! Ahna loves going down to the post box and posting the letters. Our first one this month was to my dad since it was his birthday. Her letter composing skills could use some refining but I’d think she did pretty well for a 3 year olds first letter! (My handwriting could definitely use a metamorphosis)
Life skills/Servitude/ Reading
This month was a month of baking in the home. We made cookies and breads almost twice a week. Ahna got so good at braiding challah breads and more importantly, grew a deep love for baking with mum. It became our special time where we would both put our hands into dough and enjoy the yummy delightful home made bread over the next 2 days. I remember wondering if Ahna will grow up and remember that her home smelled like bread because every time there was something in the oven, she would comment on what was baking without having seen it. She is definitely forming associations with smells and that is so heartwarming and special for me.
We started using the Penny reward system recommended by M is for mama and it has really opened up so many opportunities to praise the effort Ahna puts in around the house, and the times she effortlessly contributes too. She has been enjoying using her home made bio enzyme spray and I love that cleaning tables is a skill she can teach her baby sister too. What a beautiful relationship building opportunity. Since one of the rewards she wanted was chocolate, I had to try a few home made chocolate recipes. Of course these had to be sugar free, full of nuts and still yummy. She loved it! Win win.
Social skills have never been something I have put in an extra effort to develop. I believe children do have an innate desire to socialise once they are comfortable and my job as a parent is to help them be comfortable around people I’d like to develop a friendship with. We have been grateful for the couple of opportunities to spend quality time with friends this month though and it has been nice for the girls to have a slightly later bedtime for those days.
Well, I will see you with the next blog post soon. We took November and December off so the next home-ed lessons happen in the year 2024! Happy new year!