May homeschool notes

on my finishing up the year to-do list, a recent meet-up, a day in the life

Our local librarian has been trying to pull together a weekly homeschool group meet up on Mondays since January. I was a fan of the idea and even helped suggest the timing to do it. Then we did not show up for a single Monday this winter. I am genuinely a different homeschooler in the winter. I mostly unsubscribe from a number of our activities because it’s just not as fun to get out of the house. Plus skiing takes a certain amount of energy, and you can’t just bandy about showing up for things all week and then manage skiing as well.

Then spring comes, and we’re back! My friend remarked that late spring is when she goes around apologizing to everyone for not answering their text messages all winter. 

So, we finally made it to the library for one of the planned gatherings. I met two local moms in one quick swoop! It was so nice. It did take that gutsy first moment of walking up and saying “Are you here for the homeschooling meetup?” and yes, I did ask one person who was not there for it, she was just visiting the library.

It felt great. I was reminded of the amazing value of tiny local gatherings with people trying to do something similar to you. The connection feel wonderful. 

WeVideo

The 11yr old’s passion-interest these days is in making storylines on wevideo. This free online software allows you to drop in music, images, and text slides quickly into a video format. She and her sisters like making previews for imagined storylines like…: “It was a beautiful world…but darkness was coming…” I am a fan as I think it’s an amazing tool for thinking through narrative arcs or what my college-level film class would have called “the hero’s journey.” She’s currently using the free version but I think we should look into paying for it so she can export her videos. 

all the summer things ✨

There is no greater three month long celebration in our part of the world than summer!

• icy cold popsicles

• lemonade stands and the profits to share

• farmer’s market snow cones

• river swims

• summer camp weeks

• summer camp packing lists with little check marks

• fireflies in june

• sunlight past bedtime

• strawberry picking

• blueberry picking

• bike rides

• library summer reading programs

We visited a New Hampshire YMCA open house because the 11yr old is excited to go for two weeks this summer! I love a good overview situation: where everything is, how the cabins feel, meet the director…it makes the plan of dropping her off after a busy August Sunday sound much more simple!

Still on my to-do list though...

The weather is becoming seriously beautiful every day and the outdoors are beckoning us. So school is closing up in a few formal ways. Our classical conversation group celebrated and concluded a few weeks ago. I want to do standardized online testing for the 11yr and 9yr old. I need to build a portfolio of work submit to the state for the 7 yr old.

I’d still like to do more days of handwriting, some reading aloud (because we love it anytime), build a photo slideshow of our year (I want to take a few more photos of their work to pull this one off), and cracking open a new grammar curriculum so my rising 7th grader gets a chance to look at before the fall. 

A day in the life

In the last newsletter I linked to Catherine’s substack How We Homeschool. Catherine asked me to write up “a day in the life” for her. It’s a prompt I always mean to do more of, so I was happy to do it. You can read it over at her substack, thank you Catherine!

And, a short quote for you from a long audio interview that I loved

"For the best results with your children: Spend only half the money you think you should, but double the time with them.”

-Kevin Kelly, in an interview with Tim Ferriss