Ignoring the folding

Last week I bribed myself with a bottle of bubbly (a treat for me!) to fold the washing that had piled up. This week I thought I'd do the same thing, but when I sat down at almost 10pm Friday night to do it, I gave up after 3 or so items. The pile is now sitting next to me and I think I will ignore it again another night.

Sidenote--I have taught my girls how to fold with me, it is a part of their home education to help me with some of the household chores. But lately I have been ignoring it. Things feel so busy even though I've spent practically the whole week at home.

Anyway, I just think that it's ok to have some washing piled up. I mean, we have clean clothes to wear, my children are looked after, the house is mostly clean and in order, and we are getting through each day. I have time to spend with my darlings and that is what matters. I may look back on this period and think yes, I had a lot of washing waiting to be folded, but I will also look back and think of all the fun times we spent watching movies together, playing games, reading books, cooking, breastfeeding, changing nappies, trying to get Flopsy to smile etc., and at the moment that feels like time much better spent than folding the washing :)

Life through my children's eyes

Sometimes I like to think through the events of the day through the eyes of  my children. I will pick one of them and then replay some of the conversations and things that we did, imagining I was the little innocent he/she is, and wonder what it was like for them. What did he or she experience? What must he or she been thinking or feeling? I imagine being small, behaving as he or she did, responding to me or what we were doing or seeing. Was I  respecting and valuing them and what he or she had to say or was I in a rush, not listening to them?

It is an interesting thing to do. Often it is fun, and more often than not it softens me more towards them. It reminds me to view them as real individuals with feelings and ideas and personalities that are young and innocent and vulnerable. Little grown-ups in the making, worthy of respect and time and love from their mum.

Friday fun

A new favourite ritual for us on Fridays is to head to Gloria Jeans coffee shop with my 4 darlings and read a Beatrix Potter classic to them. I did it mostly for me to begin with, to feel like we were being productive whilst doing something I loved (drinking coffee). I didn't think my darlings liked the story time all that much until one week recently they said something like, "where is the book mum? I want a story", that I discovered they actually enjoyed hearing a story. It is hard sometimes. Sometimes I have to talk loud and quickly and sometimes Sunshine has to hold the book up for Sweet-pea and Harrison to look at while I'm feeding Flopsy and reading it out. But it is fun, and it is something I now look forward to each week we are free... Coffee with my darlings (and a Beatrix Potter classic).

And upon leaving we usually end up with some lovely comments about what a good job I'm doing and really, we can all do with hearing more of that when we are working so hard as mums!

Do you want to know what I'm excited about?

Handwriting! ...and teaching cursive handwriting to my children. ...and maybe even to me?!

I initially downloaded the Victorian cursive font from our state government education department's website and was making worksheets for my children to copy and learn. I liked the new way they were teaching letters such as b which was more like the old loopy version they taught like 50 years ago than the ugly 'modern' cursive I was taught. I have nice handwriting, but I spent time making it neat and pretty, but I would love to have gorgeous handwriting. So we have been working off my personally made worksheets but I wasn't happy with the progress and I realised, "hey, I'm homeschooling, I don't have to do things like everyone else who is at school in my state".

Enter Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. It is not expensive (yay!) and will ultimately teach a gorgeous cursive style that in time, my daughters will love to scrawl notes to their husbands in and my son will love to write loving notes to his wife in. And maybe, my husband will one day love to receive notes from me in ;) ... So I ordered two books to get cracking in. I'm excited that I will have something that my children can pick up each day and work in without me having to do any prework. It is sorted, tested and should work. So, hopefully the children love it too. Will be kind of annoying if they don't ;)

One downside was the cost. Shipping from the US is expensive! Frustrating that things cost so much to post to us here in little Oz...

One thing is for certain

I can not manage 2 blogs. It remains to be seen if I can manage 1, but 2, certainly not. So I have decided to post my homeschool posts here with anything else I decide to blog about and just manage this one blog. Maybe then it won't seem like such a big task and I will be able to handle it. We will see... so anyway, that's what I'm doing :)