I'm still here! Life is flowing nicely and we're building a calm routine (as I say this the kids are in the middle of a screaming match!) I'm reading through lots of homeschool curriculum materials and trying to plan our school year. My hope is to start first year in the Fall with Little S. I hope Seb agrees. For now it's just a matter of building rhythms. I'm really liking our life now. Everything feels like it just works better.
People are very curious when they hear the kids aren't in school. Of course it's just until we move so I don't mention homeschool. It's mostly when we're in shops, "and why aren't these little people in school?" I say "well we live in another country and it's vacation time." And I try to leave it at that but there are always questions! I try to avoid all question and stay very vague. It helps that the kids speak english. It's funny because I feel like we're doing something wrong like I'm guilty of something. Public school felt so wrong to me but there is shame in homeschool which feels so right to me. I don't get it. It seems all backwards.
One of the biggest changes I've noticed is a gentle nature which is starting to emerge from Little S. He was starting to get angry and resentful. He was cynical and always grumpy after school. He was angry and aggressive at home. At school we knew he was very timid and never spoke. We figured these outbursts at home were his outlet for all the teasing and prodding he got at school. He wasn't like this until he started school, never mean. Now there is a shimmer of another person. A small light. He still gets angry, curses and has fits but it's slowly disappearing. I've also changed. I don't blink when he has a fit. I just dust the furniture around him, yawn and go on. It really does work better if you don't react. *
For now we're baking and painting. We listen to music and do crafts. The tv is off (and by tv I mean the dvds because we've never really let them watch regular broadcast tv). I have a few neighbors and we've seen them and their kids. They're nice and we have some kid contact which is good, something they've missed. My only complaint is that our lives have become so different that it becomes hard to integrate with others. Our neighbors for example, the mom who parked the kids in the bedroom with a Disney movie on the entire time we were there. I felt precious time slipping away as I sat there talking to my neighbor, her giant tv blaring in the background over our own conversation. I couldn't think to even talk. I don't want to alienate ourselves but at the same time I figure what's the point?
No worries because we have some friends visiting next month during the vacation and we have a whole new group of people to meet. They don't see 200 people a day anymore, but was there any benefit in that. I'm not so sure.
Right now we're doing wet watercolor painting, baking cookies and playing a lot outdoors. Life is good.
* (as I've in the ast the Parenting Passageways blog in my sidebar is really helpful for gentle parenting advice--I've learned so much from it)
4 comments:
Hello you! I've been missing your updates :)
Baking, painting and playing outdoors on your own time sounds bliss :) I really do think you made the right decision pulling Little S out of public school.
I think it really depends on the individual child to be honest. My two are particularly social and really relish seeing lots of people in a day, but one of their good friends doesn't cope well with big groups and will be leaving to go to this school...
http://www.brockwood.org.uk/inwoods/teachers%20and%20parents/index.htm
... which would probably suit Little S too. You may find your boisterous girly needs something different though as time goes on. We chose the school we did based on DD but are fully prepared to have to move DS if it doesn't suit. Luckily so far it does :)
Homeschooling is becoming so popular most people don't even blink when you tell them.
A friend of mine who also homeschooled has started a new blog about how different children learn. I wish it was around when I was homeschooling. Here is the link: http://playfulwisdom.blogspot.com/
Hope you enjoy it.
Jemma - Wow what an awesome school. Is that a forest school? I wish they had that in Shanghai! We'll just take it one day at a time and schol is always an option for either or both. I think one day they may integrate into a Steiner school in France if we can end up finding one close to us (wherever we end up!).
Pepe - I wish it were more mainstream here in France. Maybe in a few more centuries *cough cough*...I mean years. Things move much slower here.
Paulita - Thanks for the link. I will definitely check it out!
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