Hello Friends,
It’s a sad day here so the letter is going to be short today. One of my son’s passions is ants and he’s trying to start his own ant colony. We found a queen, everything was going great, she laid eggs and we thought that this was it. We were on our way to a colony. We checked her this morning and unfortunately she had died. There’s some big feelings this morning and I need to be there to help him move through that.
Let’s reflect on what we covered this week.
We talked about starting slow and being present with what’s going on with your homeschooling for this week. Going slow gives you the time and space to transition out of the summer smoothly and to pay attention to the verbal and non-verbal cues that your kids are giving you.
We talked about the importance of establishing your home schooling routine. I discovered that my kids do best right now with a chunk of time for academic work in the morning, a long lunch with lots of time spent outside, and project time in the afternoon. I’ll build more academic work into the day as we progress into the year and do my best to keep big open spaces in our schedule for hands on learning. Have you found a flow that’s working for you? Tell me about it!
Flexibility is your friend. I suggested you take a cue from Cyprus trees bending in the wind and that you dance, bend, and sway with what your day is bringing you.
Note taking and your work journal is a powerful tool for observation and reflection. I write down everything because my Mommy brain won’t hold on to it if I don’t. I use my notebook to think about my day, to celebrate what’s working, to plan my next steps, to capture observations about my children’s learning and also to report to the school what we’re doing every day. Embrace daily documentation, my friends. It’s the best.
I gave you some of my thoughts on what I think “process” is. To me, the process of learning how to learn matters more than the product. The product is what we work towards and it’s an important part of the process, but it’s not the end game. Going through the steps and making the process of learning an ingrained habit that your students can always fall back on, no matter what they are doing or where their life experiences takes them as they grow is the goal.
Thanks for following along with me and all of the lovely feedback that’s been flowing through my inbox. Just so you know, I take requests. Writing prompts are one of my very favorite things, so if you have any questions or topics you want covered, send them my way.
Have a great weekend everyone. You’ve done amazing work this week. Celebrate yourself, celebrate your students and celebrate this awesome journey that you’ve started on. I’m glad you’re here.
I’ll see you on Monday.
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