Monday Musings... Metamorphosis...

Susan Seddon Boulet, Dreamworlds, 1990

I think my approach to this blog is shifting. For years, I have put up planning posts, Wordless or Wordy Wednesday notes, Weekly Reports, and so on, and so forth... but it doesn't feel natural or necessary any more. Our approach to learning has shifted so much, and so many times, over the years, that I think it is time this blog shifts a little with it! We've tried classical schooling, Charlotte Mason, unschooling, unit studies, and more, and I like to think we have found our own little path through all of it.

I'll likely still share book lists, as I love compiling lists of books I hope to share with my children. I'll gladly post accomplishments and milestones, as well as challenges and struggles. But there might not be so much focus on what I'm planning in homeschooling, or what approach I might try, as all that has more or less slipped by the wayside.

Oh, we still do math. We still work on writing, spelling, grammar, and more. Just not in such a regimented way, or necessarily as separate from everything else. We also experience life together in so many ways that can't be quantified strictly as homeschooling. I know, I know... that sounds rather esoteric. But I just don't feel the need to separate things quite so much into categories of this is homeschooling, this is gardening, this is playing a board game for fun.

So how about I just post about life?

Here's what we're up to, just living...

With weather in the 80s, it is no wonder my thoughts keep drifting to summer! This picture, though older now, is to me the epitome of summer satisfaction with my children...

Weren't they cute?

Now they're all tall, and older, and all that, though they still love watermelon!

I finish with my secretarial position in a mere three weeks, and while I'll be working at the junior college this summer (starting the week before I finish secretarial work), it will be a lighter schedule, since much of it, at least half, is done from home—the grading, the email consultations/advice, etc. So I've been thinking of fun things to do with the leisure time...

Work on transforming our yard into a certified wildlife habitat

Go to one of my soon-to-be-former coworker's house to swim

Head out to the river for swimming, and the beach for bodyboarding

Take a picnic to Golden Gate Park, where we can visit numerous attractions, such as the Botanical Garden, the Garden of Shakespeare's Flowers, the Japanese Tea Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers, the Carousel, and of course, the California Academy of Sciences (a day's worth of activities on its own), and the DeYoung Museum, another day's worth on its own.

Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, and visit Fort Point

Go to the zoo (we have two in the Bay Area to choose from!)

Read aloud to the kids... a lot

Play around with The Private Eye 

The Girl will keep playing on Prodigy all summer, and The Boy will be working on math a couple of times a week (still TabletClass)

Spend some time on my own in the hammock M put up in the backyard, reading, daydreaming...

The Girl spends too much time playing with her Kindle, so it will be nice when I am around more and can get her doing other things

The Boy has visited a couple of car shows lately, and is working on compiling videos for his YouTube channel. While I love that he enjoys filming/editing, he's spent a lot of time on the computer lately, and I'd like to curtail that a bit

The house is a mess, as always. When both parents work full time plus, and kids are home all day, that seems to happen. I really want to get a better system in place before fall!

Keep working out. I use our Bowflex and treadmill pretty regularly, as does The Boy, and we plan to keep that up

The Girl might try volleyball this summer, in addition to roller derby

We have a follow-up with the podiatry specialist scheduled June 13th for The Boy, as he is still having ankle pain