These past few weeks, I have been a little shorter with the kids than usual, and find that I need a bit more down-time than normal, too.
Ben helps when he can, and there is always that almighty baby-sitter, screen time; in fact, as the boys get older, this is more often educational rather than true couch-potato vegging.
Even with Mommy-time and TV, though, this in-between season of too cold for fleeces, too warm for winter coats (resulting in excessive whining and less time outside)can be wearing. So, I decided to post some inspiration this week!
In no particular order, here are some quotes, websites, and silliness I've been trying to keep in mind while fighting the early-spring doldrums:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein. What cracks me up about this quote is where I read it - in Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of the Purple Potty People! Author Dav Pilkey is someone that I suspect would have made a great homeschooler, judging from the way he skewers the educational system in these awesome, funny books.
"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire" - W.B. Yeats. When Luke is happily reading Calvin and Hobbes, or whistling a little tune over and over again, when he is just in 'idle' mode or wants to horse around with Owen rather than do anything (that I think of as) productive, I try to remember this one. Because those non-productive times are offset by lots of very creative, productive hours, and it's important to remember that there is an ebb and flow to interest-led learning; he goes by his own schedule. Sometime soon, I'm sure he will have more creative drive and interest, and then we'll be off on the next wild ride - the one after dragons, which was the one after Star Wars, which was the one after Pokemon...
Home Education Magazine; I've enjoyed the free online version for a year or so, and then I was lucky enough to receive a gift subscription this past Christmas. It's a great magazine, lots of interesting, timely things to do with the kids and also content intended to make us adults think about why and/or how we homeschool.
Barbara Kingsolver's great book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and the book's website both get me happily thinking about the coming growing season. They are informative and a cure for cabin fever.
Because you just can't see them too many times, here are OK-Go on treadmills:
And finally, The Twiddlebugs:
8 comments:
I love these! I just stumbled onto your blog looking for reviews of Mythmatical Battles and got caught up reading posts. Nice to meet you and thanks for all the smiles, thoughts, links and such. BTW, we went maple syrup tapping last week and it was interesting to see how your place did it compared to ours. We go every year and love it!
What a clever video! My husband and I both really enjoyed it. It's a little too early for me to be watching the Twiddlebugs though;)
Thanks for the great spring cheer - - especially the Twiddlebugs! I'd forgotten how incredibly "cheery" they could be!!
Those crazy treadmills! I wonder how much falling off was involved in rehearsals. :) That made me laugh, thank you! And I'd forgotten all about the Tweedlebugs! Fun. And thanks for a new Einstein quote. :)
You're so right about the ebb and flow, the quiet times and the obsessive times. I think it really is the way we naturally are, and it's great that you're allowing it.
Oh, how nice to come back to my blog after a week away (family visiting, other family moving, and spring viruses...) and find that I've had company!
Alicia, nice to 'meet' you too, I love your blog and wonder, how do you find time to post so often?
Dana and Topsy - you're right about the Twiddlebugs, they are cute (cuter after at least 2 cups of coffee :-)
Jena, I always marvel at the fact that they did that whole thing in ONE take - rehearsals must have been a riot. I actually met the mom of one of the band at a conference last year, she told me that a bandmember has a girlfriend who's a choreographer and she came up with the whole thing. This mom was so proud, you could tell that she's thrilled for her son, glad that he has found his own way and is having fun.
S (may I call you S?...), thank you for reminding me about the ebb and flow - right now, things are flowing along rather fast, and I must have confidence that they will ebb sometime soon!
Thanks very much to you all for visiting, and commenting - I'm starting to feel like the blogosphere is a form of home.
:-)
Karen
proud to be in your blogroll, thank you! :^)
did you see that pilkey video that i linked to a week or two back? my 9yo and i watched it together and we both loved it!
Lori - you're welcome! I tried to find the pilkey video on your blog, but I couldn't - I loved the comics, though :-)
Karen
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