Tomorrow will be the official start of our homeschooling year! This is a big deal to me and I feel like given more energy I could re-write the famous Christmas story but for now all I've got is "the curriculum is all stacked on the shelf with care..." When I told Rigel we'd be starting tomorrow a few days ago he looked at me like I was crazy. "Mom, we've been homeschooling for a while now, what do you mean we are going to 'start'?" Point taken young padawan.
Today we went to the "Not-back-to-school" picnic that the relaxed homeschoolers group puts together. It was a lot of fun and I met several nice other homeschooling parents. Rigel met a few new friends too and both Rigel and River were reluctant to leave when the 3 hours were over.
So now I breathe and wait and will myself to have the patience and flexibility to find a balance between the "school" stuff that I want to and need to do with Rigel and a willingness to embrace the organic learning that is bound to be happening without any input from me at all. For example, this morning I let Rigel and River watch an episode of Wild Kratts this morning while eating breakfast. I had originally thought that afterwards I might do a lesson of some kind with Rigel or that I'd start reading our next read aloud (The Trumpet of the Swan by EB White...I loved that book when I was little). Instead, when the episode finished I went downstairs to find Rigel and River making their own creature power disks and acting out the various animals superpowers. And yes, I did let them to continue to play instead of forcing "learning". However I know that it is going to be an ongoing struggle for me to step back when needed and let the kids learn in their own amazing, organic, messy way.
And so we begin....with a couple first steps. I don't know that we'll make it up Everest, but we can walk.
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