Designing to Distraction

I cannot seem to bring myself to have the gumption to sit down and blog regularly this week. Am forever dashing off on wild tangential projects or slumping down into a chair with a book, a snuggly kid and no ambition. There is no steady, responsible in between at the moment. I am sans equilibrium. I think part of the issue is that although far from my own due date, my sisters-in-laws are all delivering their three babies like a string of dominoes...or at least we all expect them to. Only one baby has been sighted so far! It puts me in a very distracted frame of mind. I check and re-check my email and decide not to make the bed and feel overwhelmed by the idea of coming up with a lunch and then check my email again. Useful, eh?

Image via Wikipedia

To shake things up, I enrolled in an interior design class. Ahhh!!!!! I spent the days leading up to my first class meeting alternately freaking out (Why did I sign up for this thing? I am going to be the class dunce!!!!) and pretending that it wasn't really happening (What supplies I'm supposed to have by tomorrow?). And then I really went and it was good. Better than good. It was fantastic and inspiring and I didn't want to go home. I spent the next hour buzzed, standing electrified in Barnes and Noble flipping through home decor magazines and design books and then drove home with the window open listening to electronica in the wired night air. Am feeling like I may figure out how to crack design after all. I have a feeling this class could lead to others. So exciting to feel empowered and hopeful about such a luminous and baffling subject. Am rubber cementing together mood boards for all the rooms in the house.......fabric swatches, paint chips and magazine bits abound!

Interior Design Magazine (Photo credit: Associated Fabrication)

 On the heels of my interior arts class I am starting to feel the first stirrings of spring, the first magnetic pull towards my garden and there is suddenly design spillover from my class to the yard! Huzzah! May I conquer all things....(unless all things means the dishes or the laundry...now hindered by our broken washer). I am not feeling so starched about the seams that I feel up to tackling the front yard which I basically blank of all design at this point and needs major visionary help. I still feel like I need my landscape designer friend's handholding to pull that off but I feel up to tweaking and filling beds that already exist in the back and simply need some polish. So far I've done two of them in rather slopping, kindergarden style but hey....they're done and I've feeling excited about watching for annual season at my local nursery in a couple of months.

 So, that's what I'm doing this week, designing things in a somewhat frenetic manner. Hope your week is going well and that you are managing the balance between dejected apathy and pulsing mania better than I. Happy Thursday!

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.

Here's How a Co-op Works!

A little peek today at Cherry Blossom Schoolhouse, our little homeschool co-op that we attend once a week. I've had several requests to share a little about it. Homeschool co-ops come in all kinds of forms and fashions, just like the homeschoolers that make them up.

Singing the morning welcome song together to welcome each student by name.

Ours is a group of homeschooling families (mainly mamas and their kids, but we have a couple of teaching grandparents and dad's involved too) who all gather with their littles once a week at an outside, neutral location where we have rented a "classroom" space. Our children are all quite small and we're all very interested in Waldorf education so our curriculum (self-formed and a bit plastic) is very nature focused, season based and tradition/holiday-centric and our format quite un-intimidating and preschool-esque.

Story time!

There is usually:

• some circle time where there are some gentle finger rhymes and little songs
• then a story-time about our theme for the day
• some free-play with the toys indoors
• a snack
• a handicraft project of some kind
• group clean-up 
• and then a much anticipated group stroll to the nearby playground for a recess

A little seasonal description in a felt-board fingerplay

 We are lucky enough to have this wonderful little group around the corner from our house so we just pack up the wagon and walk over every Wednesday. I feel very blessed. Some of the things I like best about a co-op are the feeling of community, the weekly connection with other homeschooled kids who are my children's chums, the feeling of an outing, the ability to go someplace but not need the car, and the chance to corporately celebrate the seasons and some of the more obscure holidays of the year, for instance this week we're going to be celebrating Michaelmas together with our friends.

Play-dough fun!

For snack last week we juiced an apple for each child

I love the new generation of homeschooling options, the choices, the buffet nature of it all and the fact that homeschooling no longer means being alone or being separate but instead belonging to a community that is just a little different. Connection is good. I need a village.

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