When I call school to order after marshaling everyone through breakfast, devotions and chores and I find Blossom4 playing with play-doh at her desk, I can roll with it. Instead of breaking out the flashcards I had planned, I ask her to form letters with the playdoh, while reviewing the very sounds/letters we were already going to work on. The play-to-school transition doesn't always have to be stark and strict. This is just example of "how we roll."
Today when I plopped myself down on the floor with my cup of tea and two lists of spelling words, Blossom4 naturally joined me as I tested Blossom1 and Blossom3 consecutively on their words. Simultaneously, I listened to Blossom4 read, playing a game of "Opposites" with her or giving oral math instructions. A school day in our Academy in the Hollow is a constant lesson in cooperation and logistics for all the Blossoms AND me.
With extra curricular activities that fall on Thursdays and a few on Tuesdays, I'm grateful for the flux that I'm free to keep in our days. There are lighter science assignments on days that there are 4-H meetings. There are heavier history and science assignments on every day but Thursday to add a little "give" in our busiest day of the week. We focus instead on our core work and breathe a little easier. The work that must be done in a school year is completed, but it's divided up daily in ways that work for us.
The Blossoms' education is tailored in a way that no other person can. I have a front row seat to everything: their overall educational strengths, down to their daily struggles and all the ebbs and flows in between. Each afternoon, I tailor the next day's work assignments based on our goals for the year and anything that needs to be addressed. Sometimes I do this without their knowing. Sometimes we talk about this. Sometimes they tell me this. When one Blossoms needs to review six certain flashcards, we do... in whatever ways I devise. I tweak from day to day and sometimes right in the moment.
I have another Blossom that occasionally makes embarrassing pronunciation mistakes. Our pediatrician and I have already deemed this not worthy of formal speech therapy, but rather, needful of extra parental attention. Rather than magnifying her embarrassment, we're practicing reciting, enunciating and dramatizing some fun poetry. She adores it, and even asks if we can do poetry yet, when we're really making sure a speech habit doesn't become a speech problem.
That feeling after a morning of good work and delightful discoveries, when we gather around the table for a hodge-podge lunch of Micro Farm harvests, when I sink into my favorite chair and delve into our current read-aloud, oh that feeling! This is another thing that keeps me going on the bumpiest days. It's the beautiful harmony toward which we strive.
Dominique
*I have no problem being called "weird," because I am content in the realization that I do things differently than the cultural norm.
~ All these crazy awesome mushrooms were discovered on a hike at our cabin.
~ All these crazy awesome mushrooms were discovered on a hike at our cabin.
