Homeschool Squirrels

The words "imposed structure" make me cringe. My mom had us kids on a pretty strict schedule at different seasons of our life and homeschool journey. At one point, she made us get up at 5 in the morning. We were done with school by ten, which was great, but I hated it. I was so sleepy in the mornings no matter how much rest I got the night before. Even when we didn't practice 5 am wake-ups, we still had our days scheduled in half-hour increments. There are many things that I look back on with fondness and joy -- that is not one of them. But I do crave predictability. Routine. Rituals. I've always dreamed about being this organized mom who cheerfully tells her children of the days' adventures ahead; I've fantasized about our days just flowing and falling into place exactly as planned. That is attractive to me. I have expectations that I don't think are entirely unrealistic. At least, not for a neurotypical human being. I do like things "a certain w

Here's something interesting about this part of the country that I've never truly witnessed before. The landscape changes. With each shifting of the seasons, it's like we're living on a different planet. In the summer, fields flourish. They are shades of green: sage, lime green, forest green, like a patchwork quilt. They heighten, and for a moment at certain angles around certain bends, you can't even see how far they sprawls, because the corn grows so fast, four feet, seven feet, twelve feet. The trees grow these leafy crowns that tumble like curls and bounce in the wind. They become full and turn into tunnels over narrow, winding roads, the kind where you only catch glimpses of the blue sky above, and the sun winks through mottled shadows. Every where there is life. It isn't just spring that's for flowers. In the spring, it's the hydrangeas, the crocuses, the daffodils. In the summer, wildflowers with fairy-tale names, lik

To be honest, I'm not crazy about Charlotte Mason's suggestion that children need to spend 3-5 hours outside every day. Don't get me wrong, I love being outdoors. I have a heart for nature. I'm pretty sure my spirit is made from dandelion seeds and curly flower petals, and Colors of the Wind legit makes me cry. When I was a toddler, my favorite movies were Fern Gully and Bambi. I get excited over seeing fuzzy moths that resemble teddy bears and scattered clusters of fungus that look like fairy villages. Moss, fog, and snow all inspire the same awe... dew drops on spider webs and veiny leaves and tiny buds are the personality of Mother Nature. I love her. During the spring, when the air of the new season was a warm hug in the sunshine and cool and green in the shadows, we spent many of our days out of doors. Sometimes we hiked two or three miles at our favorite park, discovering new trails and marveling over twisty roots and the smell of pine needle

How I wish uttering these three little words magically called upon a little focus fairy. That would be my superpower, if I could conjure one. How I wish all my plans and dreams for the day (the ones that flutter about my unsleeping mind before I go to bed, the ones that have filled my personal journals for years, prefaced by, "I would be a better mom if...") could actually be put into practice when I wake up the next morning. I can never predict what a morning will bring. And no, I'm not talking the physical things, because this isn't dependent at all on the physical. The toast may burn to a black crisp, the hot water heater may go out, all my underwear may be in the laundry, and I could still have a delightful morning that leaves me feeling energized and productive. I mean the weather over my head. The little black storm cloud that makes the tiniest things seem the biggest frustrations, or the haze that leaves me apathetic and unmoving, or the darkness that ha

Oh my gosh y'all, I am so excited about this new school year! We are two weeks in and having so much fun. Toward the end of the last school year I started reading more about Charlotte Mason (CM). I've known about the method for years, but didn't know  much  about it. All I knew was that my mom had The Original Homeschool Series written by Charlotte herself on her bookshelf, and that I had a friend who was a CM graduate, and she was intelligent, well-spoken, a critical thinker, and just an all-around lovely person whom I really admired. When I started listening to these amazing, insightful, and delightful podcasts at the website  A Delectable Education , I had the realization that everything I  loved  about homeschooling when I was young were things my mom took as inspiration from Charlotte Mason. I became enamored and completely hooked on the idea of quitting everything we were doing in homeschool so far and completely rely on the CM method for our next school year. I g

Click  here  to see part one. Even though we were six months into public school, it still didn't fit naturally into our life. I'd always planned on homeschooling and longed to pull him out, and my heart was restless; however, "it just doesn't feel right," didn't seem a good enough reason to make a drastic decision in the middle of the school year. As I said in part one, I began to pray a very specific prayer that something would happen to show me without a doubt that we should pull River out and start homeschooling, but that my little boy would be protected, no matter what that was. One morning, a week or two into this fervent, very specific prayer, I lay in bed, the sunlight streaming into the room, my four-month-old peacefully asleep beside me. I'd spent the night sick, and John was getting River ready for school and out the door. I heard River's little voice outside my room, "But I want to give Mama a kiss goodbye!" "Mama is s

The story goes -- the one I've told and heard so many times -- that my mom began homeschooling me in first grade when the military moved us in the middle of the school year, and discovered I didn't know my letter sounds, much less how to read. Within a few months, I was reading on a third grade level; that's when she decided to keep me home, and went on to eventually homeschool her three younger children. My step-mom also homeschooled her two children, so it has simply been a way of life to me. The idea of sending my kids to public school was challenging and frankly, a little scary. Before we were married, John encouraged me to   consider   the fact that all children are different, and that we might have a child who would flourish in a public school setting. I was stubborn. I wouldn't consider it. Homeschooling my children one day was important to me; however, that was a pivotal conversation that planted a seed of curiosity and submission to God. I realized if I id