Reflection on the 4th Year and Kicking Off Year 5!

Year 4 started off with an amazing family bikepacking trip and ended with us making an unexpected move out of the house we lived in for 14 years. We are really happy in our new place as it is much quieter, has a view of water from every single window and is next to the bike trail. We wrapped up the last school year as we were moving so basically just took the last two months as summer break but it is definitely time to launch a new round of learning. (Side note: how amazing is it that I can adjust the school year to fit around life, instead of the other way around?)

Right now I'm thinking a lot about how to use space, not just in our apartment, but in the new common areas we have available to us. There is outdoor space with lawn chairs, a swimming pool, and an indoor clubhouse with couches. One priority is to split the boys up a little more and make sure they each have their own classes and some one on one time with M and me. I want to do a lot more reading aloud with Max, have more art supplies available, and revisit the idea of Morning Invitations, where you plan little activities to do right around the breakfast table. We have a regular schedule of more structured co-op classes and less structured friend meetups for hikes and playgrounds. I'm really looking forward to the programming at our new local library branch because the librarians seem great and there is even an athletic club with a swimming pool in the same building. 

The older two kids are looking for more independence and while it feels a bit odd to be living at a shopping mall, the walkability is actually pretty good and they can go off on their own to do shopping or hang out in the little town square area, or walk the bike path. Our old next door neighbors are getting ready to move back to Canada and that's going to be hard. The kids literally grew up together. (It makes me think of me and my cousins.)  I wish we had been able to give them all one last summer together, but the situation with our house was getting pretty bad and it feels like the right decision.

Halfway Through Year 4 of Homeschooling

The thing about homeschooling is that at first I thought it was about curriculum and schedules, but have since come to understand it as being about relationships, about really sinking into trust with my kids and believing them when they say they want or need something. 

This is not to say that I give them everything that they say they want or need, especially instantly at the moment they bring it up. Many things feel urgent to people who live in the moment. But I at least listen and consider it, and if I can't make it happen, then I will tell them why. This has also freed me to say what I want or need, and in a similar fashion, make it happen if possible. 

Homeschooling over the years has become more of a lifestyle for the entire family and less about what my kids do for a set number of hours per day. I do keep a list of Daily and Weekly tasks, and we use math and handwriting workbooks for some of this. But our social studies, science, art and music study is interest/project based, so people are very inclined to work a great deal on something that they've set out to learn, and there's very little enforcing I need to do. Mainly I feel like a librarian...answering questions and pointing people in the direction of resources. M is also one of those constantly-learning people (and would be whether or children went to school or not) so there's always something he's working on. 

I'm thinking about what label I would put us under. Unschoolers? Home educators? Brave Learners? (from Julie Bogart's book) Self-directed learners? 

Prioritizing physical and mental health first is making a clear difference for us, though. I can especially see how beneficial it is for teens to get enough sleep. Also, it's not a bad life to wake up refreshed and excited to continue on what you were working on the day before.