Poetry Friday: Winter Cherry Cinquain

Happy Poetry Friday! I am sharing a cinqain today, a shorter form but kind of fun for its simplicity and compact succinctness. Yesterday the boys and  I pulled over because I spotted the first blooms of tiny, flowers on the dormant looking branches of a Prunus subhirtella, the winter cherry. It was bitter cold so the boys all stayed bundled in the car while I braved the frosty air, breathing smoky clouds of breath on the branches in the sunlight. I took one tiny blossom into the car and let my four year old hold the tiny bloom up to his eye, examining the minute gold stamens with a smile. This is all in December, in New England...in below freezing temperatures, mind you.

 Last year I noticed the little blossoms in February by chance and went dashing home all full of global warming sadness and googled to see if other people in my area were seeing cherry trees bloom far, far too early.  Instead I met this particular species of cherry and found out that it was happily doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing....blooming "sporadically from autumn until spring." There is a whole row of them there, standing side by side all along the parking lot. This year, knowing they are there now the boys and I will keep enjoying the gradual, gentle show. I do love an unexpected pleasure. 

Winter Sakura

I find
Pale, petals
Fluttering in the chill park
December-time cherry blossoms.
Rosy snow. 

 Alison is hosting Poetry Friday round-up today over on her blog Robin Hood Black. Take a lazy, meander through the offerings and enjoy a little poetry with your Saturday morning tea. I am hoping to get a chance myself, mug in hand, baby on my knee....

Little Homeschool

Everyone is always asking me, everywhere I go, "So, how's that homeschooling thing going? You started this year, right?" The short answer is, "Just fine!" and the longer version details the fact that I totally over-prepped psychologically for this year. I felt like I really needed to brace myself and be ready for the full-impact of real life, full-time homeschooling to hit me. (Look out world, I had a genuine kindergartener on my hands!)

The truth is, honestly, kindergarten isn't a whole lot different from preschool and preschool is just normal childhood at our house. The only things that are really different are the fact that I am working through a book of pre-reading skills with Ru which includes writing practice and we're attending Cherry Blossom School House, our once a week co-op. Otherwise it's basically life as usual around here and "schooling" is definitely unschooly in the form of baking together, watching videos on YouTube to answer kiddie questions, nature walks together as a family, and lots and lots of stories and conversation. Same old, same old.

The only other thing we're doing is working on math with Ru but I'm not responsible for that or doing anything to make it happen. A has taken over the job. I have mixed feelings about that. I love that he wants to teach some subjects, I love that he's been so driven about making it work and I love that he gets special consistent time with Ru. (He's also really good at math which is obviously a good thing too.) The downside is that this means I'm not likely to get better at math myself (one of the coolest things about teaching something to someone else) and it also means my brand as the family math-dummy is likely to perpetuate. Man, do I hate having my own past ghosts never die! I was really kind of hoping for a clean slate or at least a boost up in this department because of teaching my own kids, at least at the lower levels. Oh well, I am glad A is being participative, more glad I'd ever feel if I was sitting around cramming numbers in all my spare time to try to be a presentable teacher.

So, yes, my mom was right, (aren't they always?!?) when she told me to not get all worked up about homeschooling this year, kindergarten is not a belly buster. For all of you out there who haven't asked me yet how I'm doing with homeschooling, here's the answer...fine, just fine...it's really about the same as preschool...kindergarteners aren't up till all hours with mind boggling homework, they still want to hear stories and spend hours building things with Duplo Legos, they just know how to write their names.