Sometimes you just need to eat raspberries slowly to wake up to the sanctity of the now. Ripe, juicy, sweet, tart, red raspberries.
I am reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Finally. I have been circling and circling around this book, avoiding it because it is a New York Times Bestselling Book. Sometimes bestsellers disappoint me. So I did not have the courage to pick it up.
But then, thankfulness seems to be the answer to all my questionings. Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you will leave me a comment below about the things you are most thankful for. Among other things, I am thankful for the United States of America – this greatest experiment in the history of human civilization. Without this country, we would not know what life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness mean. In our homeschool, we took three days to study about Thanksgiving.
First, we did some crafts, coloring pages, math unit studies and other activities from this list:
My children doing crafts at the table
My daughter enjoyed the crafts, which gives me energy to bring craft time back more often
My son cut lots of feathers, and even helped his sister a bit
Brother did not have the patience to sit through a photo shoot with the paper roll turkeys, but he made one of these
My daughter taking advantage of a snow day
My son enjoying our first snow day
Turkey Craft I made just because I felt inspired. But then, I realized it inspired the kids to see their mom cut and paint.
This particular Thanksgiving craft personalized the holiday when we wrote what they were thankful for on every feather of the turkey
More than anything, my daughter loved cutting paper in small bits
She is thankful for Jesus, good food, birthday cakes, her brother, snow and the Titanic
Thankful for snow, sun, sister, parents, God’s power, and evergreens
We learned/sang some Thanksgiving songs:
Then, we read these books:
Finally, the children watched some videos:
She made most of the mess and was willing to clean it up.
Teaching a Thanksgiving unit study inspires me because I know from experience what it is like to move countries. While growing up in Communist Romania, I used to listen to The Voice of America – a forbidden activity. Their broadcast about Thanksgiving has stayed with me ever since. Who would have thought I would end up in the USA, homeschooling my American children and teaching them about Thanksgiving?
We homeschool for six weeks and take a week off. Many veteran homeschoolers have recommended this schedule as a sanity preserver, so I am going with the voice of experience. We have homeschooled now for six weeks and this is the first official school break in our home. It’s exciting.
I thought this would be the week when I finally finish some writing projects and can applesauce, but I have all kinds of other appointments which I was not planning on. On top of that, our monthly Ripley’s Aquarium science class happens to be this week and we still have another session of our Adventurer Club to attend before we take a two-week break from that…
Looks like learning will happen despite the break from the 3Rs.
The curve ball is the bug my daughter has been fighting for a few days now and which has transferred to my son today.
Speaking of my son, I asked him to sweep the floor after lunch and he did a great job. I still had to sweep a bit after him in places, but he has made a lot of progress since last week. He was proud of what he accomplished. After he missed the trash can though, he got discouraged. He asked me to sweep up the mess. I told him that he was still learning and encouraged him not to give up. He was still negative, but stood there and watched me sweep.
After I cleaned up the trash can area, he came back to me asking me to let him try dumping the dust pan again. He did not miss this time. I felt he was growing right there before my eyes, not just in home ec. skills, but also in attitude towards work and in his self-image.
Work is an important component of the Moore Formula (besides academics and service). I think children learn so much by working and performing chores around the house.
As I look up, I thank God for every day I am able to stay home and teach the kids.
When we visited their grandmother in the hospital over the weekend (that falls under service, by the way), my son narrated a whole book to her of his own free will – Curious George Gets a Job. (Narration is a Charlotte Mason method.)
Of all the books we have read to him recently, he thought of that one because George broke his leg and had to wear a cast – like grandmother, who fell and broke her leg, and has to wear a cast now.
My daughter sang I’m a Super Sleuth – which she learned in church recently – also of her own free will. Children are so good at comforting others. They are natural at it.
I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with them and teach them and watch them grow and learn.
Homeschooling blesses me just as much as it blesses them. Which is why, when I look up at the sky, I thank God for my life. How did I get to be so lucky?