Thursday, June 19, 2014

A Year in Review and a bucket list.

One of the MANY things I love about homeschooling is the ability to slow down and catch a breath when it is needed. Last week we had one of those days. 

At ten in the morning we were still in jammies, curled up in the living room, each one of us doing our own thing.

I was working my way through a book about learning to draw.

Little man was drawing plans for his next Minecraft creation.

Little lady was playing with her sticker book.

It was lovely that we didn't need to go anywhere. We were basking in the emptiness of the day ahead.

About twenty minutes later, my little man declared it the start of summer.  "We have no more classes now until the fall.  This is what I want to do all summer."

Well okay then.  I asked him if he enjoyed his classes this year and we dove in to a long discussion about all the things he loved, and didn't like so much, this year.

On his like list:
  • Woodworking
  • Garden Class 
  • Minecraft
  • chalkboard math
  • circle time with singing and poems
  • learning to read, 
  • copy work, 
  • hiking
  • (field) trips with friends, 
  • writing out the grocery list, 
  • baking, 
  • planting the garden, 
  • drawing maps while we walk around the neighbourhood

On his didn't like list:
  • Boring trips, 
  • writing stories

I'm really happy that he feels he had such a successful year. We tried some different things this year, with a focus on hands on activities and LOTS of outdoor time, based on his feedback about homeschooling last year. I really feel that made the difference this year.  Most of what we did was right from his suggestions last year.

He then created a list of all the things he would like to do in the coming months.  A bucket list, so to speak.  He was really excited about creating this list, and has since added some things and written it all out so he can cross things off as we do them.

On his to do list:
  • garden class again
  • more woodworking, 
  • make a Minecraft book, 
  • learn how to make a Lego Movie, 
  • read more so he can read his big pirate chapter book all by himself,
  • learn to bake muffins on his own, 
  • take a survival class, 
  • be a pioneer for a week (this one should be interesting for all of us),
  • practice printing because, and I quote, "I want to write so many words but my fingers aren't strong enough and my brain doesn't know enough words on its own.",
  • play in a creek, 
  • learn to skip stones, 
  • go to SportBall classes.

A pretty thorough list if you ask me, covering lots of different areas of his life.  It looks like we have fun times ahead of us!


My little lady added some things of her own:
  • more painting and crafts
  • make puppets
  • make an Elsa dress

I'll be using this list of activities as we map out our next few months, making sure to continue to incorporate our outdoor time and hands on activities.  The rhythm we have established over the last year has become the one thing that ground us, allowing us the freedom to add new activities and the security of knowing that certain things will always be a part of our day.   It centers us and helps us through the hairy times.

And I'm sure there will be some hairy times to come!  Especially if we all have to be pioneers for a week!!

Cheers!
Marina

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