It's a time for looking back, reflecting on the past year, setting goals for the next. So what exactly did our year look like at Reese's View of the World? Little snippets throughout the year...the first post of each month! Since most of my posts are longer, I've taken the beginning of the post. If you'd like to read the entire post, click the name of the month. Wow...we've done a lot!
JANUARY:
I've recently been asked what a typical day of our homeschool is like. The best answer I guess is that there IS no typical day! Some days, Reese feels like moving from activity to activity...and I can guide him towards the educational ones. Well, having said that, I guess every day is like that. Some days I can guide him towards what I consider "educational", but in reality, PLAY is his education...so anything he's doing is educational!
FEBRUARY:
My pictures of "happenings" this week are pretty much limited to Reese sleeping. He's been sick all week, and still has a fever today. So we haven't really done much of anything except rest, snack a bit, and when he's up for doing something, playing some vintage 80s arcade games we have in our game room.
MARCH:
I love this description of "Guerilla Learning"...although some of the examples are probably more than I could handle (like riding a bike across state...I would worry about safety issues). But in general, these paragraphs are so powerful & beautiful...
“Guerrilla Learning is coloring outside the lines, finding the shortest direction between two points, moving directly toward goals, doing the best you can with what you’ve got to work with now, making what you want for your kids and what they want for themselves as real as you can, asking people for specific kinds of help, getting out of theory land and into the trenches, realizing that schools could take centuries to significantly improve (or to get our of the way altogether) and that meanwhile your children are barreling through childhood.
APRIL:
Texas homeschool laws are beautiful. Although we do not qualify as "technical homeschoolers" because Reese is not of school age (meaning Kindergarten), when he is that age the laws are so homeschool-friendly. Some states mandate the hours that you may "count" towards your homeschool records. Some states say that homeschool hours may only occur during "regular school hours." Texas, thank goodness, does not require any of that nonsense. We learn all day, in the evenings, on the weekends, during holidays....you name it, there's always stuff to be discovered! Luckily, when Reese gets older, we can just let our livin' be our learnin'! :)
MAY:
Make New Friends, But Keep The Old...
One is silver and the other gold...That song reminds me of spending time with my cousin, Corie, as a child. She had a Girl Scout/Brownie book with that song in it, and I remember sitting in her bedroom in Waco, reading that book, while I sang that song with her. Funny what sticks in your mind...I must have been 6 or 7 years old!
JUNE:
It's so hard to believe it's been 9 months since our little CoOp group first met together. We've had such fun adventures together...we've met artists & gardeners, we've visited the Flower Mound Music Consevatory & Grapevine Botanical Gardens, we've made birdfeeders and painted special pictures on canvases, we've graphed and counted gummy bears & candy hearts, we've learned about the US Presidents and about Monarch butterfly migration. More things that I can even list. More than the learning, though, is the friendships Reese (and Mommy!) have made through our weekly adventures. This group is his first group of homeschooled friends, and it has truly been a priceless year.
Happy Birthday Reese!
JULY:
"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."
- Arnold H. Glasgow
AUGUST:
Reese called me outside to "see something big", which is usually an interesting surprise of one sort or another. Boy, what a surprise it was! Reese found this HUGE spider by the back door and wanted Mommy to catch it. My "oogie" factor was going through the roof, because these spiders, which I call Wolf Spiders (although I'm not sure if that's the real name) can jump far and jump on you and jump fast...you get the point. The last thing I wanted to do was scare Reese for life with my screaming after a spider pounced on my face. So maybe I exaggerate a tad, but these spiders really do give me the heebie-geebies.
I found a good spider-catching tub, since I couldn't find our bug catcher. I'm sure this once held some yummy goody from a friend or family member, but now it holds a BIG spider. Just how big? Check this out...
SEPTEMBER:
For the first part of how Reese got hives, visit the post at the Williams Family Blog that explains it all. How are his hives doing today?
Well, they're worse. Much worse. Reese's eyelids and ears are swollen. He's spotty all over & itchy & the Benadryl is working semi-well. Of course, I feel completely guilty for pumping his little body full of the allergy-causing antibiotic (before it caused the hives of course). I was hoping we'd wake up today & look/feel better, but when I saw his little face in bed I cried. It's swollen, full of hives. I know hives aren't the end of the world, but it still breaks my heart none the less.
OCTOBER:
On Saturday, Reese & I met some friends at the opening event for a new, huge Town Square type shopping center. The main reason we went was to see Eddie Coker, who Reese calls the "Woo Woo Man." We got there early enough to check out the new shopping center, which is beautiful! We grabbed a table & waited anxiously for the show to start!
NOVEMBER:
Today we met a group of friends for a beautiful Fall hike! I never knew such a valuable set of hiking trails was just a few miles from our house. Reese & I will go back again for sure!
Here are a few of the things our guides shared with us today:
· A snake skin (a very long one)· Beaver skull· Turtle skull and shell· Coyote poop along the trail· Seed pods and varies seeds· Learned about early Texas Settlers at the Homestead· Made fresh butter from cream!
DECEMBER:
Not sure how I missed blogging about our Friday...but somehow it skipped my mind! We were invited to participate in another CoOp on Friday to learn all about snow & how water makes snow.Imagine our surprise when we read that host was going to have a snow machine! How awesome is that?
1 comment:
I looked up your huge spider..but think the dead one with 8 eyes was bigger...but it was dead which is a good thing in a spider! I love the quotes about guerilla learning and the comments about the TX state laws. What a fun year!
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