In the span of a month? A few weeks? (Perhaps minutes, even.) Parker grew out of both the children’s menu at restaurants, and the “big kids” section of shoes. He usually eats more than me, a few weeks ago polishing off almost an entire Chipotle burrito, and when I went to check out a new pair of shoes for him and realized there was no size 4.5 to click on in the kid section, in disbelief, I headed over to the adult section where–lo and behold–there was his size. And for $25 more.
This isn’t new to me, but it is new to me with a human I actually gave birth to, and seeing as I gave birth to him last week, I’m in astonishment.
We are in that part of winter where I get itchy. Itchy on Airbnb. *Googles week-long rentals in St. John* Itchy to overhaul entire wardrobe. *Sells everything she owns on Poshmark and is left with one pair of sweats and two turtleneck sweaters* Itchy to change anything and everything. *Chops off all her hair and regrets it after the first wash. Cries.* Itchy to change up the house. *Pinterest boards grows and so does discontent. Changes nothing about the house, but picks up a few new shows on Netflix instead. One is Emily in Paris so getting dumber by the second as well.* Itchy to pick up a new hobby. *Googles “what kind of ice axe did the Alpinist use?” Adds it to cart and then remembers the ending.*
Oh my, yes! I actually sent my kids to public school this year after 5 years of homeschooling. I was always so worried they were behind and not getting “enough “. It turns out they were ahead of their classes. I did hit the extra curriculars hard when we did homeschool, but we were part of a homeschool charter where we actually got funding to send our kids to classes.
Anyway, I totally feel you. We have found soccer to be a great first team sport.
I’m not a homeschool mom but my cousin took her girls to a Classical style education a couple days a week. It sounded so cool! It’s like a co-op, so you take your kids 1-2 days/week for a few classes and do the rest of homeschooling at home. They teach Latin, history, language… it seriously sounds so cool.
I get the same itchy feeling every January! We just signed up my girls for a full day of homeschool enrichment at a nearby school and it’s been wonderful. They get to dance, do science experiments, and learn musical instruments and I get a break to be myself for a day and we regroup refreshed. Hopefully it’ll still be fun after the initial high wears off!
I grew up a few miles south of you. In winter homeschooling months, my mom found a good discount at Bradford Ski Area- we’d ski in the morning until the “school kids” arrived around 2pm (that was on Wednesdays). Another day of the week, our homeschool co-op rented ice time at a rink in Andover (also during school hours). It was nice to have a few activities to get out of the house! The rest was a lot of cozy indoor time. As a new homeschooling mom myself, I totally relate to the concern of “enough.” Wish I had answers for that one.
After a decade of homeschooling, I refer to January and February as the semi-psycho months. It’s where I question everything we are doing, am convinced my kids will end up dropping out (of homeschool?!) and end up living in my basement forever. It’s the time period where I consider running away and joining (a different more animal filled) circus.
January and February keep me humble as a mom and homeschooling parent. Then it’s March and I’m all about “what curriculum should we try next year?!”
Re activities – we are doing rock climbing, my kids do cooking classes and science stuff on outschool.com – seriously love that site.
hahaha Sierra. are you in my head?!
i am SO glad to hear that about outschool because i was actually hoping i might get some feedback on them! i’ve never signed up for anything yet!
Homeschool mom definitely nodding along. This post-Christmas stretch slog through till spring is hard! We’ve done some handcrafts and art classes through Plumfield Academy in Danvers and the Waldorf school in Beverly that both my kids have enjoyed. Tons of spontaneous adventures and hikes. I let them scroll through the Trustees website and make a list of properties/hiking trails they’d like to visit and then we plan fun adventures around it (mostly free aside from the mandatory swing through the Starbucks drive thru on the way home to keep us all from totally crashing). FWIW, we’ve been using the Elemental Science Biology for the Logic Stage Student for my fifth grader this year, and it’s been just what we needed. The right amount of structure to help me feel like we’re doing “enough” science to cover our bases.
Thank you for reminding me about Plumfield Academy! I have had them on my radar, but haven’t yet done anything!
You’re so in my head with this post. I’ve been loving the little extra downloads and freebies on For the Love of Homeschooling . . . they are sweet and lovely and informative and aesthetically pleasing to boot!
I also read Unschooling Rules and The Courage to Grow and it’s been helping greatly with feeling like they need ALL THE THINGS RIGHT NOW!
Super quick reads and so inspiring. Want to start an Acton Academy together? Haha. Just kidding (or am I?)
Outdoor time is never a waste of time and it always adds to any learning. .. so keep on with that for sure! The fact that they live with chickens is huge in and of itself. Animals are great teachers! Food is a huge teacher! Anytime you eat or grow or gather food, you learn about whole microcosms. (Another gem from the Unschooling book, seriously, pick it up)
We are all itchy this time of year for sure, and it’s not just sweaters- although they are infuriatingly claustrophobic at times.
xxo
Bridget I am so happy you posted and find solace in this. To me you and everyone else must have it all figured out. My boys are 6,5,3 and 1. I question everything I do and worry that my 6 year old would rather watch ninjago or play legos then do “schoolwork”. On the days I can see clearly I remember that he’s only 6 and the beauty of homeschooling means I can tailor his education to him. So I ordered ninjago and superhero easy readers and thank the lord he is excited to put all of our hard work to use! Finally eager to figure it out.
For these upcoming winter months this is what we are doing out of the house… jiujitsu twice a week, indoor soccer once a week, aikido at our local Y twice a week, swimming once a week and ninja class once a week. Sounds like a lot now that I write it here yet I still worry about music lessons!
I suggest soccer or jiujitsu for your little guy… they’ve been awesome choices for us!
Oh how this resonates ( from growing boys to questions of enough in schooling). A seasoned homeschool mom told me once to never make big schooling decisions in February, I believe it applies to January too. It’s encouraging to read from you and the other comments that I’m not alone in these feelings.
It applies to all winter, I think! 🙂
Great comments here! I have to frequently remind myself—in all seasons—that one of the very best perks of homeschooling is actually time to be bored. It’s really goo for their brains, though we anxiously rush to suggest the next thing to them. Boredom, unstructured time, and a listening ear when they do have something they want to process. These are the gifts! xo
So much truth, and I know this fact alone was a big draw to homeschooling for me. Good reminder.
The most positive thing that I did as a homeschooling mom was to realize that I don’t want to spend my time chauffering my children from activity to activity… that I want them to actually have a childhood full of life. I felt like I should have my girls doing every sport, every art class, eve-ry-thing. But, I realized that I want a life WITH them, and we are all so much happier. They choose an activity that they really love, and we spend our days playing games, going on hikes, sitting down to dinner every night, etc. Once I realize that this simplicity is what I want for them our lives, I felt so much peace.
oh i love this. reflects so much of my own goals and yet come wintertime i can forget them! thank you for this reminder.
Okay hear me out about the itchy-ness, you should plan a family trip to Moab 🙂
oh you KNOW we will.
Despite not being online too often anymore for anything other than work (not the fun kind, the constantly on LinkedIn kind), I quite enjoy typing talesofmeandthehusband (immediately after trying itsahuntlife first) into my browser and slowing down for a moment to catch up on your latest, as I’ve done over the last decade or so. So glad you’re still taking time to write on here; it’s one of my favorite ways of slowing down with a cup of coffee. May you feel the hope of longer and warmer days as March is beginning to creep by! -L