the shaping of our (homeschool) days

Restlessness always leads me to tinker. And only two months into the school year, I already was experiencing the restlessness that usually comes in March.

So I've been doing a little tinkering with our days, experimenting within the realm of unschooling. I don't think we are a 100% unschool family, but I'll take a 50/50 cut. ;)


My experiments so far have resulted in:

• Beginning with a "worship dance party" before we get ready for the day - I'm praying that this will help fill up our spirits and give us the enthusiasm we need to tackle the day's challenges
• Lingering through breakfast and pre-school day chores (I think I need to cut back on the lingering, however...it seems to push EVERYTHING to later in the day)
• Taking more time to read to the kids
• Using trips to the grocery store to teach the kids about estimating and budgeting
• An impromptu discussion on taxes and why it's important to pay them...this came about after listening to the story, "Stone Fox"
• Playing games
• A picnic and story time outside
• Hikes in the woods
• Mixing together glow-in-the-dark sidewalk chalk and drawing on the sidewalk (ftr...our street must be too brightly lit because the chalk didn't exactly glow...but it was visible)
• Using our creativity to make gifts
• Cooking
• Plus the usual workbook activities tucked in during car rides, quiet afternoons and a few concentrated seat work hours in the mornings

Oh, and, one lost shoe.


Well, it's not lost really. We know its location, but we were unable to retrieve it from the quicksand-like mud.

Plus a lesson about why we don't walk near the edge of the bank of a river.

Thankfully, it was a soft landing for Luke and he didn't get wet. He just landed in the mucky lower bank of the river...a four foot drop from the path. In the effort to get back on solid ground, his one shoe that had fallen off in the mud got buried deeper into the mire and despite my best efforts to dig with a stick, I came up empty handed.

This meant Luke had to complete the hike half-shoeless which he did uncomplainingly. It also meant our very next stop was to buy him a new pair of shoes.

P.S.
On today's hike, though we didn't lose any shoes, Ben wandered into several inches of leaf-covered stinky water. About 30 seconds after I warned the kids about the quagmire to the left of the path. I'll put that one down to his being only 2.5 years. Thankfully I had extra socks for him in the car. Next time, I think I'll be packing a small suitcase.

I believe the theme for our week was, to quote a favorite song, "On Christ this solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand..."