busy bees

I feel bad that I have not been posting more frequent entries here, but every time I feel inspired I feel pulled away by many new and exciting things in the works and unfolding around me.

We have been ordering and planning our new kitchen. My dad will be here soon to employ his masterful skill to help us. Jove's birthday is coming up and his chocolate party is in the works. It has been raining like crazy which means that our garden weeds are very unruly and begging to be pulled.

Miranda has started walking and we are all enjoying this new stage of her life. She is also in a block building apprenticeship with Jove. She miraculously leaves his towers alone except to maybe take a single block on and off the top. This morning she made a five block tower all by herself and then called to me to look at it. She is going through a putting things in and taking them out stage and is saying a lot of new words. Toddlerhood is in full swing.

Jove is enjoying warm weather so much: collecting bugs, monitoring the flowers and vegetables, checking his rain gauge, watching thunderstorms (even dancing outside in a recent one).

This brings to me to the latest development in my life which is our decision for me to homeschool Jove next year. It is not homeschooling in the truest sense since he is not of compulsory school age, but he will not attend a pre-K program. I have met some homeschoolers and I am reading a ton about it. It is all very interesting and even through Jove will attend "regular" kindergarten soon enough, the information I have learned in the last couple of months has really informed my parenting and my understanding of learning. My own teaching of adolescents has shown me a lot of the problems kids experience when their personality or learning style seems to be at odds with what they are supposed to do, but I have never throught about it the way I am now. I think I will also be a different and better teacher when I return to the classroom.

I really cherish the joy and wonderment that Jove shows towards his interests and I feel like he is learning so much from our life right now. He says he does not want to go to school right now and I am excited to have him home with me. The great thing about the homeschooling community in this area is that there are so many great things going on, opportunities to explore and learn together. I will share more of our adventures as they unfold.