How We Homeschooled Today #83
The usual, plus some other things
I’m tired
I’m going to take a break from the daily posts next week because, in news that will shock no one, I’m really tired. Are you? Are we all tired? Why, when we live in the age of modern convenience?
If you’re not tired, will you please tell me your secret? (I’m not joking, I would really love to hear from non-tired people about how they’ve made this happen!)
Write me a guest post
If you’re educating your children out of school, would you consider writing me a guest How We Homeschooled Today post? It’s so great seeing how other families make this work for them.
If you’re new here, you might like to have a look through some previous guest posts:
Ruth Gaskovski on building community.
Katherine Seat getting out of the house on a noisy day in Cambodia.
Renee’s account of a homeschool day with her son, who has autism.
Mary-Ann Horley’s account of home education at home and on holiday.
Allyse Hopkins’ very relatable day with her family of four in New Zealand.
Susie Wales’ life with her three boys in Florida.
Rachael Ringenberg’s thoughtful glimpse into her life with four girls in Vermont.
Joel Bowman’s ‘away schooling’, travelling around the classical world with an eight year old.
If you’d like to share one of your days, please get in touch! All styles of home education welcome. You don’t have to have your own Substack to share. And please pass it on to other families who might like to contribute.
Pen Pal Exchange
If your child would like a pen pal, leave a comment or send me an e-mail with their age and home country, and I’ll get to work. Spreading friendship and literacy one letter at a time! Over 50 children matched up around the world now, which makes me very happy. Feel free to share with other families.
Here’s How We Homeschooled Today
Today we had our trial Judo session. We had to be out of the house at 9.30am which, for us, is quite an achievement. We didn’t manage any academic work beforehand—I didn’t even manage to make a packed lunch, which I regretted later.
Judo was fantastic. Who knew martial arts would be such a great mother-daughter bonding experience? There was lots of parental involvement so my son (5) had to entertain himself for 45 minutes—reading Sir Gawain, and doing some colouring. My daughter (7) and I can’t wait to go back.
Then straight on to our now-regular Friday meet up with some fellow home educating families. Still without lunch, the children all raced around a playground for nearly 4 hours, while the mothers chatted and laughed. When it was time to go, my two children begged to go to the nearby museum, and I declined, but their father had arrived and gallantly said he’d take them himself while I went home for a cup of tea. What a man!
When they got home we talked about cheetahs. I read in
’s post today that cheetahs went through such a tiny evolutionary bottleneck (the gene pool got so small) that if you give a cheetah a skin graft from another cheetah the host will immediately accept it as its own, which is pretty incredible. We talked about what this means, and about population change and why genetic diversity matters.Next Friday I will have to be much better prepared: with food and water, certainly, but also about how we fit some work into a day when we’re going to be out of the house for the entire time. I don’t really like the idea of taking Fridays ‘off’ as a regular routine. On the other hand, schoolchildren have plenty of days off. And today my children have both done lots of reading, physical exercise, socialising, visited a museum, and talked about cheetah evolution, which isn’t a bad day.
Bedtime reading: Socks, by Beverly Cleary, and The War of The Worlds (an Usborne reading version).
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Exhaustion is both a reality and real threat. People give up on homeschooling not because they don't believe in it, but because of being completely worn out by the standards they set for themselves!
I think it's wonderful how much time your children, particularly at *their ages*, have in outside in parks, gardens and with friends. I just listened to a podcast interview with a pediatric occupational therapist that was chock full of reminders about how physical activity outdoors is essential to proper growth and brain development. https://1000hoursoutside.libsyn.com/1kho-200-children-today-are-under-relentless-supervision-angela-hanscom-balanced-and-barefoot
It is amazing how a little quiet time and silence can help so much to balance out the chatter! I have a friend, a well declared introvert, who every week after a day of communal adventures with her boys she schedules a "reading dinner" where they do not talk during dinner. Everyone reads at the table, cleans up together silently, and continues reading 'till bedtime. These type of requests can feel unreasonable in our heads, but in fact your children are happy to learn about you and grow into accommodation with you.
On being exhausted... for me it MOSTLY stems from the fact that I am an introvert and need quiet time alone to recharge, which as a homeschooling mom I almost never get.
Lately, my wonderful husband has been making a point of taking our five year old fishing with him several times a month, which gives me much needed alone time. It helps immensely.
I also started doing some weight training exercises. Nothing too crazy, I just use a 15lb kettle bell and follow whatever YouTube video I find that day. I started with 15 min videos 3 times per week. I’ve been doing this for about a month and I feel stronger and my energy level has slightly improved..I think?? I’m hoping for more improvement in the future.
I also use herbal supplements to boost my energy levels, along with several cups of coffee per day. I use some combination of these everyday, depending on how tired I feel:
Tincture- ginseng, Eleuthero
Capsule-white sage, green tea extract, lions mane, rhodiloa.
Tea- rosemary tea. It doesn’t have caffeine but is invigorating. I have a rosemary plant in my backyard, just pull some leaves and boil in water.