Sadly, our pod schooling came to an abrupt halt. The other kids had even left their school books at our house on Friday because we anticipated their return on Monday. However, one of the kids got sick, and we realized that our families were now on different pages as to our levels of caution in response to Covid. We decided to split off, which was hard for our boys because these were their closest friends at the time (and, really, the only kids they were seeing or playing with).
Thus began a few months of I don't know what. Sometimes I would halfheartedly give them checklists. It wasn't as fun to do science and history without the other kids, so those kind of dropped off altogether. We often went to parks because we had set a goal to visit all 88 parks in Lexington. We finished this by the end of February 2021.
My philosophy of education/homeschooling often changed (as it still does!). I'd constantly fret about not doing "enough," especially compared to my educator background. But then I would think about what really mattered. Our top three priorities of the day were (and are):
- Jesus time (continuing with our Scripture memory program to earn a scholarship to camp that summer and finishing their online year with AWANA)
- reading time (I read to them, they read to each other, they read to themselves, we listen to audiobooks together)
- outside time (working toward our 1000 hours outside challenge)
I call this phase "unschooling." You can see a boy in the top picture throwing a fit when it was time to do "schoolwork." Although we did some, we mostly spent time outside and played and visited grandparents. This photo dump of pictures just looks like normal everyday life -- like there's not much educational going on. But homeschooling is so multi-faceted and is about doing life together (all parts!) as a family that I could label these pictures with the hashtag #thisishomeschooling .
We spent a day in Frankfort, visiting a sculpture park, a nature park, and the Capitol building (someday, we'll return to take the tour inside!). #thisishomeschooling
We were gifted a membership to the Cincinnati Zoo, so we made several trips to visit the animals in different types of weather (and usually listened to audiobooks on the way there and back). #thisishomeschooling
During the days leading up to Lucas' magazine deadline, I took the boys to my parents' house in Indiana for a whole week. This became an every-other-month tradition. #thisishomeschooling
The boys are quick to find things to climb on! #thisishomeschooling
One awesome part of the 1000 hours outside challenge is getting us out and about in all seasons. I used to think that snow or rain meant that it wasn't a good day to go to the park, but we've had picnics with icicles hanging off the tables and I've scraped off snow from slides. Once we finished our family challenge of visiting all 88 parks in town, we revisited our favorites as the weather turned to spring. Occasionally there was something deemed "educational" (like animal tracks in the snow or the history at the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden), but whether it appeared educational or not, #thisishomeschooling.
We played games, baked new recipes, camped in the backyard, read books, jumped in puddles, made messes, and bonded as a family. #thisishomeschooling
We spent a couple days as a family at an AirBNB in McKee, Kentucky. We were out in the country with cats, horses, and cows to observe. And we hiked around the rocks at the base of Flat Lick Falls. #thisishomeschooling
By May, we were ready for a little more structure, but looking back, I'd definitely call this season a "win."
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