How we homeschooled today #98
Music, a morning outing, and a lot of mess
As promised, today was a quiet day at home. Here’s what went well:
Listening to plain chant this morning while the children drew pictures and I had a cup of tea.
An outing to a nearby park with a flask of hot chocolate. Especially in these darker months, making a daily outing an intentional act is essential. I don’t mind the hot chocolate bribery because once the children get out they love it, they just need a nudge in the right direction. I’m reading Charlotte Mason. You probably remember her famous dictum that children need 4-6 hours outside every tolerably fine day from April to October, but I hadn’t realised that she also stipulated 1.5 hours every morning and afternoon in the winter months. If your family manages that, please share how in the comments! Bonus points if you live in a city.
Earlier this week we learnt about granite. Last night I wrote some limestone facts on the blackboard—Canterbury Cathedral is made from Caen limestone, brought over from Normandy after William the Conqueror came and conquered. (So are the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey.) Granite is igneous, and limestone is sedimentary, so this was a nice way to develop the children’s rock knowledge. If you want a book suggestion, we have National Geographic’s Ultimate Rock-Opedia. It has way more information than we currently need and will keep us going for years. At the moment I read it myself and pass on the information in appropriate chunks to the children.
At lunch I offered them a choice of read-alouds and they chose the Henry II/Thomas à Becket chapter from Our Island Story. I know this history of England has a bit of a cult following among homeschoolers. Personally I don’t love it, but the odd chapter here and there is fine, and the children were rapt. (Apparently it’s plain old Thomas Becket now, but the ‘à’ was there when I was at school and old habits die hard.)
In the afternoon I played a game of Fill the Stairs with my daughter, with some input from my son. It’s from Math for Love’s 3rd grade curriculum, which is $95 to buy. I haven’t bought it, but they give a free 68-page sample, which is where I found the game. It involves ordering numbers, thinking about probability, and working out the difference between two numbers. (You can also find it in their free lesson library, with lots of other games and activities.) I thought it was good, and I’ll try it again when the children are more receptive.
They’ve done lots of drawing and playing together. There was only the tiniest bit of handwriting practice, but for my son, for whom handwriting is a challenge, I think any time spent holding a pen or pencil—writing or drawing—has to be beneficial.
But there has been no French, no Greek, and no spelling (although my daughter voluntarily copied out The Lord’s Prayer last night after reading it in the Canterbury Cathedral leaflet, which was a pretty good literacy exercise).
I planned to make the most of a day at home by doing lots of housework and getting things ship-shape. Things are very far from ship-shape. If anything the more apt description would be shipwrecked. Sometimes I feel like the only time I manage to get things straight is when the children stay with their grandparents for several days, which is not a sustainable situation! I love
’s occasional photos of her messy house. If you also feel defeated by the piles of laundry and mountains of washing-up, have a look and remember you’re not alone.One other thought on mess: What you see is not necessarily what others see. I see mess. Lots of mess, and zero interior decoration. But often when friends come over they say how much they love our home, that it’s so full of life and learning. It’s true, there’s a Periodic Table and a Rembrandt print perched on top of the radiator. The sitting room this afternoon looks very much like two children have had a brilliant time here today. Neat and tidy can be wonderful, but there’s more than one type of wonderful.
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I desperately needed to hear your comments on mess today. I have some kind of 1950s Housewife of Shame in my head telling me if my house isn’t spotless I’m failing as a housekeeper, but in a small house with a toddler it’s just not very feasible!
I also struggle to get us outside enough. We are fortunate to have good weather through autumn and winter here in Texas (although summer is another story), but our street is very busy and our backyard occupied by a friend, who lives there in a tiny house. My solution is memberships to the nearby zoo and botanic gardens, though we should go there and to the park more often.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lazy-genius-podcast/id1111796513?i=1000629886002
This podcast episode was a total lightbulb moment for me because it puts words to the fact that households have rhythms and cycles. The moments of feeling like you want to burn it all because it’s suddenly gotten totally out of control happen when too many cycles collide at once. So thinking through what your cycles are and where they collide can minimize some of those moments.
Re. outside. Man, it’s hard! We have a large backyard, but I find that I struggle to get myself enough time outdoors because I rely on the outside playtime to catch up on tasks without interruption.