Where the Wild Things Are

Before anyone thinks that homeschooling looks easy and that I'm some kind of super mum, there are days when it's chaotic, messy and downright tiring. There are days when I think I'm sinking in household mess, work, noisy and erratic children and I wonder what the heck I am doing. This week has been rather full of them and I wondered if the 'honeymoon' is over.

Our Tiny Tot (TT about to turn 8 months) has taken to 3am grizzles and comfort feeding for HOURS. This seems to have coincided with a flurry of work on a short term contract, higher stress levels and Mummy absentee-ism for a few hours here and there over the past two weeks. Our regular rhythm as been completely thwarted. Until today I thought the kids were turning into 'Wild Things'. Major rumpuses have suddenly become the norm...and then I realise, it's me. I'm snappy, sound sensitive and intolerant. I'm tired.

Homeschooling is teaching me about the rhythms of life. I'm reminded that I need to look after me, get some time out and get to bed early so I can help 'hold' the days better with the kids. As I look over our weekly journal, I see that the days that flow better are the ones where there is a sense structure, 'outputs' (be that  a page in a work book, a letter for a friend or a painting) and connectedness. For now, this is what the children need. It's a juggle with work and baby, but with a few minor adjustments, reflection on the fun stuff, it is doable...

Reflecting on the fun stuff... yes, we are learning!

Flats on tour

We have been focusing on remembering to include and record things for our flat travellers from Paris. We haven't had any of our flats come home yet from overseas, but this week we received an email from Paris with photos of Akiras 'wekas' and Keilani's 'hairy caterpillar'. I'm also doing an exchange with the Mum of the family. One of the flats came to gym with Akira and they helped with the salt dough creations we made on Wednesday.

Salt Dough

Salt dough items have been created for the shop. We learnt about mixing and measuring, ,ratio (one cup salt to two cups of flour), changes when mixing things, and mass and volume (big fat things take longer to cook through), not to mention creativity and fine motor skills! Next step painting!

I also made a few alphabet letters. When they dried, Keilani began to manipulate and put them into alphabetical order. She then asked me to make the whole alphabet. Jennifer Hallissy talks about this in her book The Write Start (both her book and her blog are inspirational). 3D interaction with letters (and numbers) are a great way of reinforcing and engaging children on their literacy journey.

Mail Bag

Our children LOVE getting mail. They love checking the mail box, so if you are in the mood for exchanging letters, we have willing recipients. Akira has been particularly busy this year, sending pictures to unsuspecting friends here and in Australia and receiving lots of exciting mail. Today he recieved a three page letter from Aunty Jo sent (which is now carefully pasted in his scrap book). Yesterday, creative Aunty Jo's postcard jigsaw puzzle from Oz arrived for Keilani (Akira's arrived last week. They were sent the same day. We put the week long delay down to the Aussie post :-)) There is something magical about getting a tactile item in the letter box and it helps reinforce writing skills and appreciation for the time and energy it takes to write and post something.

Memories are made of this

Tuesday's rain fall resulted in buckets of water on our deck. Keilani and Akira went panning for gold on their summer holiday down to the Westcoast (South Island). It's obvious they enjoyed the experience as they spontaneously renacted panning for gold for a long time in our buckets of water on Wednesday.

And you know, living with the Wild Things isn't too bad... if  I don't roar my terrible roar too much ;-)