Doubts...and Reassurance

We have been doing many of the same activities over the last few weeks. Delaney spends most of her time writing stories, drawing pictures, writing letters to family members and reading books. We listen to cello music and the girls paint how it "makes them feel", in Delaney's words.

Writing letters and drawing pictures for the Easter Bunny

Read-a-thon

Cello art by Delaney

Cello art by Sophie

Sophie continues to love the alphabet magnets and we work on putting them in order and spelling her name. I downloaded the app, Endless Alphabet, after reading some comments that Brandi made about it, and we absolutely love it. Sophie has to match up letters to spell big words like "gargantuan" and "invisible" and then a cute little monster acts it out while the narrator tells her what it means. I am dying to see if she will incorporate all of these words into her vocabulary as she starts speaking more.

I limit my girls' screen time so their eyes don't fall out and their bodies don't become too stationary, but there are so many fantastic apps for the iPod and android tablet that I don't feel guilty anymore when I let them play for awhile. The land of Motherhood can be such a judge-y place, and I think moms are often made to feel like if they are not talking/interacting/playing/reading with their children every moment, that they are doing something wrong, or being selfish, or any number of other things. I have been having a bit of a rough week in this respect, beating myself up for my "lack of". I need to just *stop* and realize that I am doing just fine. My kids are happy. They are learning. They are playing with each other more every day, making up cute little pretend games. They are both curious. We all love books. There is nothing wrong with playing computer games for an extra 30 minutes or sitting around reading books all day long, doing "nothing". It's okay if we stay in our pajamas until noon, and then enjoy a midday bubble bath. That's the beauty of homeschooling.

Some days I begin to question my belief in child-led learning, and second guess if I am teaching Delaney enough math, and if I need a curriculum, and if I am going to fail her academically some day, and a million other doubting-myself-questions.

Then, she asks me with questions about the aurora borealis, which she learned of while she was watching her very favorite show from the BBC, "Walking With Dinosaurs" (it's on Netflix if you have a dinosaur lover).  We looked up pictures and definitions and learned so much. Did you know that the different colors in the aurora depend on electrons striking oxygen or nitrogen at certain altitudes? I certainly didn't!

And then there was the evening that I pointed out the constellation Orion in the sky (she still has a love affair going on with the sky) and she immediately ran inside, found her constellation book and drew Orion, Sirius and one other unlabeled constellation that I am supposed to look at and identify. (Who knew I would be the one taking the tests? :) )

I've probably said it before, but my very favorite thing about homeschooling and letting her tell me what she wants to learn is how much I get to learn too. She was interested in past U.S. presidents a month or so ago, and we checked out some library books and learned some very interesting facts about our nation's leaders that I would probably never have known had she not been intrigued. She is also curious about gemstones and jewels and how they are formed. Back to the library we went, and we (both) studied those books, learning where and how they are made. (We are saving the rest of that study for when Grandma Gail comes to visit. She is a jewel expert.)


All of these things remind me that I am on the right path, and as long as I nurture the girls' curiosity, and encourage each learning endeavor, we will all do just fine.