Blooming

In two weeks we'll take another break from homeschooling, this time so that the boys can go to summer camp(s).  In a perfect world they'd do all of their summer camps in August so we could stay on our 'three months on, one month off' homeschooling schedule, but over the years I've had to loosen up about that, so that the boys can do the camps they want to do (this year: Primo is going to one week of sleep-away Boy Scout camp, while Radish gets a week of Wayfinders role-playing day camp).  Later in the month they'll do two weeks at a local town Youth Department day camp, not our own town but a 'better' one nearby.  We'll start back to lesson in August, which means we'll have *four* months is a row 'on', before we take a break in December.

We've had some good days of homeschooling lately, and I've been trying to remind myself to slow down and pay attention, really appreciate what it feels like when things are going 'right'.  All too often I *expect* 'right' and ignore it when it happens, then pay a lot of attention to the times that everything seems to go 'wrong'-- anxiously fretting about whether we should be homeschooling at all.  On a good day of homeschooling, the big boys are cheerful and willing to do their work, they don't break down in frustration over how 'hard' the math is (or writing, or whatever they're least in the mood for that day).  They make connections between the different things they are learning that day, and between what they've learned in the past and the current work.  On a good day I am cheerful and clever, thinking of ways to help them through their work before they get frustrated.  On a good day Snorzy is able to amuse himself for a while during the big boys' lessons, using his toys and books without whining and without asking for too much extra attention, until it's time for his morning nap.

Snorzy is getting old enough that I'm starting to think it's time for him to have some 'lessons' each day, too.  When Primo was a baby I never had to think about it, I just naturally supported his learning by interacting with him over toys and books all day.  By the time Radish came along, I had to be more deliberate about it.  When he was a little guy, I scheduled some time into his day for 'working' on various skills (I was influenced by the books I read back then about Montessori and her methods).  Now Snorzy is a big boy of 15 months old and he seems a little at loose ends throughout his waking hours, and I'm so distracted by the older boys and my own activities that I can easily let a day pass without so much as reading him a book.  Luckily, I have plenty of ideas and resources for making his world richer in experiences, I just have to put myself on some kind of schedule like I did with baby Radish.  For today, we're going to do a modified version of the 'Age 1, Week 15' activity from June R. Oberlander's Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready.  The activity specifies making a simple play house out of a cardboard box, but lacking a big box I'm going to use a pop-up play tent that we've had since Primo was 4.  I'll have to keep myself alert to find a good time, after he gets up from his nap.

In other news, look how different my frenemy rose looks, since I let weeks pass between the last time I wrote on the blog, and now:



Here's the whole, bloomin' garden:



And here's a view of the backyard, which is looking better than it has in years:



My goal is to plan and plant the whole place, so that we have one little square of lawn in the middle of all deliberate plants and features.  Every year I talk Sweet Hubby into giving up a little more lawn, in favor of other things.  A few years ago it was the rose, lilac, and peach that you see in the left (back) of this photo.  This year it was the hostas below those three.  Next year I want to take my frenemy rose out of the garden patch and put it in that blank spot near the fence, rooted in our former compost pile.  Then I'll train it over an arched trellis, and put a metal bench in front of it.  I've always wanted a small water feature back there somewhere too, but I'm re-thinking that now.  Water attracts mosquitoes, and they're so bad this year, I'm worried that it's because our local bat population has suffered from white-nose-syndrome related dwindling in their numbers.  I'm worried about the bats.  And theoretically the bees too, but I'm not feeling their loss yet, the way I feel (itchy) without the bats.