During playschool we read:
Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower
Bread is for Eating (a simple story with gorgeous illustrations)
The Way To Start A Day (lovely and magical, like everything by Byrd Baylor)

We talked about how we can celebrate sunrise and printed out a calendar that lists times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset, as well as the phase of the moon. We decorated it and stuck it on the wall.

We made cards and wrote them out to send to friends and family.

We baked challah bread and brownies, and had sandwiches and dip and spaghetti for lunch, while we watched Schoolhouse Rock America as our "and a movie".

Sarah did some more writing for her homework (finishing up her card to K) and some math (from her Time and Money book). I did some physics problems for my homework.

Our daily rhythms -- a good place to start

A number of folks have been curious about our homeschooling activities and how we spend our days. Keeping track of these things here and then just giving out the URL seems to be the easiest way to do that. Figured I'd start at the very beginning, with a quick runthrough of what our days tend to look like.

Every once in a while, Sarah and I sit down and talk about what we want our days and weeks to look like, and about what activities we want to include and what sorts of things she wants to learn. Then we work out a daily rhythm that fits all these things in, put it up on the wall, and do our best to stick to it until the next time we reconsider our goals. (Or, as Sarah said when I asked her how to describe it, "until we do it all again!")

A lot of this will be changing once the co-op is really underway, I expect. But in the meantime, this is more or less what our days look like:

* Wake up and cuddle
* Solo time (Sarah usually watches TV, I usually putter on the laptop)
* Breakfast
* Sweeps (tidying up) and getting dressed/brushing teeth/etc.
* Play school (we sing a few songs, each pick a book or story to be read aloud, and do a project together)
* Snack
* Assign ourselves homework and fill in our daily plan
* Relaxed, expansive play (the phrase is from when we were doing Enki - basically I putter, do housework or gardening or practice the bass, and Sarah does her own thing nearby)
* Lunch and a movie
* Rest/Quiet Time
* Afternoon Adventure (baking or gardening or sewing, or getting out of the house)
* Practice work and a snack
* Expansive play
* Settling time (Sarah and I have some focused time together right before Joe gets home)

Then Joe and Sarah have some focused time while I finish making dinner.

Almost none of our days looks exactly like this. Every day has at least one exception or surprise. But this is the rhythm we return to, time and again, to guide our choices.

Huh. Blogger lost my entire reading list, apparently -- it tells me I'm not following any blogs.

We're home from 2 days at Lake George, a sort of classic summer vacation, for me -- wave pools, arcades, mini golf, ice cream shops... I'm rested, vacationed, and incredibly tan (for me, which mostly means a significant increase in the freckle population). I made progress on my crochet projects -- both of which have been making me very happy. It feels so good to have something to work on, to look forward to, to watch the progress of, without the stress of deadlines or other people's needs/expectations. Just me and my pretty blue filet crochet... :)

We were watching Ice Age with Sarah, earlier. It was pretty good -- reasonably entertaining, and except for a bit at the beginning where they kill off (surprise!) the human mother, not too distressing. But give me a break, would it have been so hard to make *one* of the main characters a girl? Were they afraid that being female is such a bizarre and otherworldly quality that it would have tainted or derailed the whole story? Because, I'll tell ya, in my experience you wake up, put your pants on, and go about your life for days at a time without having to sit down in the middle of the street, blinking and scratching your head at the weird and wonder-ful fact of being a Girl. I don't even collapse in hysterics much, these days -- "wait, I'm not a boy? How'm I supposed to leave the house?!" It's certainly nothing to get in the way of, say, taking a long walk in the snow to reunite some kid with his dad.

Now, I can absolutely enjoy movies that are intentionally about a group of guys -- Stand By Me, say, made perfect sense to be about a group of just boys -- because at that age girls really *are* bizarre and otherworldly creatures. Bringing one in would've changed the story. And I don't mind the tendency for individual lead characters to be men, not all that much -- I identify as much with Wolverine as with any female superhero -- the fact that he's a guy in no way makes me feel like I can't access my inner Logan (of course, I also had no trouble playing Prince Charming when we played fairy tales as kids). But in a movie like this, an ensemble movie in which there is *absolutely* no plot-based reason to make them all guys... I've gotta assume it was just because it never even *occurred* to them to make one of the animals a girl. Because girls only exist to interact with the main (male) characters, right? To be mother, girlfriend, temptress, prize... Heaven forbid she should just *exist*, just be living her own story, having her own adventure, not looking to be an accessory, not looking to be anything in relation to him at all...

Ugh.

One of the things I'm choosing to let go of, as we start the long, gentle waning of the year, is perfectionism and the need to control (control outcomes, control people's perceptions, control my own emotions). Of course, as soon as I put this intention out there, I was hit with several opportunities to face the overwhelming waves of embarrassment I feel when I express myself strongly or honestly (in that particular kind of honesty that makes me feel vulnerable or exposed).

I don't know how extroverts do it. How they just stand up and put themselves out there, living outloud where anyone can see, all the time.

Something new to breathe through...

On the other hand, though, I've got my two mothering necklaces (one a gift from Sarah and Joe for mother's day, a few years ago, and the other a reflection of the feminine Divine I chose for myself), reminding me to nurture and mother myself -- and I'm feeling warmed and nurtured just by knowing the reminders are there...

Today: Sleeping late, Sarah splashing joyfully in the pool, laughing with friends, making crowns with a gaggle of princesses, sharing an abundance of food and goodies, driving through the rain, snuggling up in front of The West Wing, and now a show on the Galapagos...

Tomorrow: Playing school, errands, doctor appointment, gardening, therapy appointment... As much as possible, a lazy summer day...

We had Sarah's birthday party, today. I knew it was going to be fairly lowkey, but it turned out to be even moreso than I'd expected -- basically my parents, Joe's mom, and 2 friends of ours from college. In keeping with our new Simplicity theme :), we ordered pizza and made cupcakes-from-a-box (Sarah picked out red velvet cake, of all things -- now with more artificial food coloring!), and just did a lowkey spread of dippables to start with. We made fairies and crowns/tiaras and masks, and played a couple rounds of charades, and generally had a long, exhausting, satisfying day.

We didn't use up nearly as many of the art supplies as I'd expected, so Sarah may be planning *another* fairy tale party in a few weeks, just to do some crafts and have some cupcakes with her friends...

My parents got her some wonderful stuff, including a craft tote full of goodies and a sewing kit with loads of gorgeous fabric, and my MIL got her other wonderful stuff, including _and tango makes three_, which is just adorable. It makes me want to go to the Central Park Zoo. And two of the other books my MIL got her (Harriet the Spy and Secret Agents Four) make me want to curl up on my bed on a Saturday afternoon with a glass of iced tea and a plate of apple slices, and be about 10 years old again!

Joe has tomorrow off, so we're all gonna sleep in, then Sarah and I are going to head out to see friends for a few hours, and then the three of us are going to play with some of Sarah's new board games (she's setting up her Game of Life as I type!). Yesterday we went out the Island to a family baby shower with folks we don't see nearly often enough. We showered the mom-to-be with loads of Burt's Bees baby goodies (my favorite stuff to use on Sarah when she was a little one) and my very favorite Belly Balm from when I was pregnant. It's been a good weekend, but I'm so very glad to have it behind me -- I feel like, finally, I'm now done with the sense of running-in-place I've had since school ended, and can really sink more deeply and truly into relaxation...