Solo Time With the Kiddos

Like most people, we spent a lot of time together over the past year or two. Some of that was by design, but we got a little more than we bargained for with the pandemic. I dropped Max and Laurel off at my parents' house yesterday and I think it was the first time Max and Marko had been apart in a really long time. They gave each other big hugs and a secret handshake, which I thought was pretty adorable. The reason I dropped those two off was so M and I could hang out with Marko, doing the second of three "solo" nights with the kids. M is cleared for light physical activity and italian ice is renal friendly, so we went for a walk to get some dessert. We also visited the used bookstore and the game shop. The people at the game shop taught Marko and M how to play a new game. We bought Wingspan to try. We played a lot of cards on our road trip, but didn't have any strategic board games with us. When we got back here, we realized with everybody being able to read and do basic math now, we had outgrown a lot of our board games. Luckily (or perhaps dangerously for our budget), we are within walking distance to a very cool game store.

We did a "soft opening" for homeschool this week. We are reading the Dart and Arrow books for this month but only discussing the Juicy Questions. Marko and Laurel started working on the next math course on Khan Academy. I downloaded their social studies and science textbooks and they started reading them and doing a few of the worksheets that come in the teachers guide. We are using the Core Knowledge Series and the entire curriculum is free to download, although we don't really follow it that closely. We are swimming, biking and hiking for exercise. We are doing the activities from Brave Learner's "One Thing," and the theme is simple machines. And of course, we are doing poetry teatime. 

Even if we weren't all recovering from the trauma of M's injury and our subsequent separation and sudden end to our road trip, I would still probably want to ease into homeschool. However, it is a particularly useful approach right now because we are taking a lot of time to rest and relax, cry, and talk about what happened. Alongside that very necessary process, we are slowly adding back in things that we truly enjoy doing for school and hobbies and life. 

I have to constantly remind myself to not rush, to keep the margins around activities empty, to avoid worrying that we aren't doing enough. It can be very hard for me to not compare myself to my friends and their kids, many of whom are doing really cool things with their careers or hobbies, have nicer houses or things, or are planning awesome adventures. JOMO over FOMO (Joy instead of Fear of Missing Out). It is possible to celebrate other people's choices and be really happy for them, without needing to keep up. It sounds a little ridiculous that I struggle with this, because this blog is a testament to all of the awesome in my own life. But for every single thing that I have chosen, I had to give up pursing something else. There are only so many hours in a week, your money only goes so far, your mind can only handle so many inputs.