See Me Homeschool

I’m linking up with Micaela of California to Korea and Theresa of Ordinary Lovely to show a homeschool day in pictures…without words.  (So you may be out of luck to figure out what’s going on in some of these.  :) )  I took photos throughout the day on Tuesday, documenting a fairly ordinary day of school for us.  For those who don’t know, the cast of characters in our homeschool:  Hannah, 11.5; Naomi, almost 9; Simeon, 6.5; Teresa, 3.5; and Felix who just turned 8 months.  And there’s me, too, but even though this is entitled See Me Homeschool, you won’t actually see me, because I’m taking all the photos.  You can see the effects of me homeschooling.  Or something. 

Help with Laundry

And then you have the kids who help with the laundry…

I know he’s a bit blurry in that last one, but he was so happy, I just had to include it.  He’d much rather play with the laundry (or the pieces of my pump, in the background there) than with actual toys. 

In the kitchen

Back when Hannah was tiny, she always wanted to help in the kitchen.  Of course, then help was really “help,” since it always took longer to make things with her than if I’d been able to do them on my own. 

I’m not naturally patient, but I decided when Hannah was little that I would encourage kitchen interest in the kids as much as I could.

Kids seem to have a natural window of kitchen interest at a young age, and if you allow them to “help” at that time, that window will stay open and they’ll develop more interest and skills.  I’m not sure if that window closes if you don’t encourage them, but I don’t want to take that chance!

I like to cook and I want to pass along the skills, at least, if not the enjoyment (because some people just don’t enjoy it, I know!) to my kids.  [Simeon is sauteeing onions for the curry dish we had for dinner that night.  The match in his mouth is supposed to help keep the fumes from making his eyes water.]

And it really turns out to be a big win for me, since I have kitchen helpers now who can bake all kinds of things, make dishes for dinner, make snacks, and generally make it easier to feed all of us.  Simeon and Hannah, in the pictures above, busily made almost all of dinner for that evening. 

In a benefit that I didn’t even think of when I started out, letting little people “help” in the kitchen has taught my kids how to let little people “help” in the kitchen.  Hannah made this chocolate chip cookie cake, and Tess helped her. 

It’s pretty awesome to stand in the kitchen, look around, and realize that now that I’ve chopped the onions and garlic, the kids will take care of the rest of dinner.  Or to say, “We’re signed up to bring dessert to this potluck.  Can someone please make cupcakes?”  and have it happen. 

Hiking

We’ve been getting out and about on trails in local parks at least once a week for about 5 weeks now, and we’re really having a great time.  Monday we went with Cousin Jess, who lives in town and has Mondays off.  I didn’t take any photos on the hiking trail, but the park we chose has a beach and a playground, too, so we took advantage of those and I took some photos there. 

Someone had made a driftwood tepee.  Too good an opportunity to pass up! 

Naomi had already been in and out by the time I got there to snap some photos. 

It was 50 degrees or so, but the wind on the beach made it pretty chilly, so we didn’t spend a ton of time there.  But the mountains and the water!  So gorgeous. 

Sim and Naomi are on the top of that rise.  They would have been happy to spend much longer on the beach, breeze or no breeze, but Felix and I were getting a bit too chilly. 

Sim was thrilled to find a piece of driftwood that looks like a crocodile with its mouth wide open. 

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that one can visit parks when everyone else is in school.  This particular Monday at 11:45 was pretty crowded, though, because of Presidents’ Day.  So the kids had to wait in line for the salmon slide.  You can see Hannah waiting at the bottom of it for Tess to slide down.  (And Sim at the top, grinning at the prospect of his turn coming.)

And there’s Tess!  This is the only slide I’ve seen on a playground that draws such a crowd!  The thrill of the dark tunnel, perhaps? 

We are really blessed to have some seriously gorgeous local parks with trails for hiking.  Because of Felix’s age and naptimes, we don’t drive very far very often for outings (it would take a while to get into the mountains to hike), but this park is only about 10 minutes from home.  Other nearby parks with trails abound.  We’re hoping to take good advantage of them this spring!