In the last couple of weeks, we read some great stories and did some projects related to those. Watercolor inspired by the festival we saw and this beautiful book.
Aïsha is more into numbers and likes to practice some math problems on her own. We have been playing a game (from this great book) that they all like a lot.
We made those knitted flowers from this tutorial, after having read this story.
Form drawing is something the girls really like.
More crafts...
The girls really like that Jataka tale (The Wise goat and the wolves) and we made some beeswax goats, as wet as a shadow puppet theater to reenact the story.
Inspired by these lovely blogs, we draw and painted King Arthur's story, that we read in this beautiful book.
And we made a puzzle. A big one with thousands of pieces, like the ones I did with my grandma when I was 10. I know, who has time to make puzzles? I can say that while I was totally engrossed in that activity, with a girl or two coming and going, placing a few pieces here and there, I realized it had been a long time since I did something useless. And it felt pretty awesome in a weird kind of way. Doing something that is a finality in itself. How great.
I was sure someone would write that in the comments of my recent post, but nobody did. Someone said I was doing a great job at raising snob kids, though. I figured I might need to explain myself a bit better. I already shared this great article on boredom by Sandra Dodd, but let me copy an excerpt here today.
Another homeschooling mom once wrote, "It's a valuable lesson to learn to deal with boredom, just like all other emotions."
Until I read that, I hadn’t ever thought of boredom as an emotion. I
liked the idea. When a child comes to me seeking advice on how to deal
with any emotional state, I'm flattered and glad for the opportunity.
Traditionally in this culture boredom is seen as a state of sin. "I’m
bored" is met by unthinking parents with, "Then mop the kitchen," or
"You have a thousand dollars’ worth of toys, you can’t be bored," or
"Boredom’s good for you." I believe the VERY common habit of belittling
children who use the word "bored" should be rethought (or "thought,"
since it seems many parents have never considered it carefully but just
repeat what their parents said to them).
If a child came and said she was heartbroken would you tell her she was a
brat and should clean the garage? If a child came and said he was
angry enough to hit would you say, "Then sit down and read a book
whether you want to or not"? Wouldn’t you try to help them? It's
nonsensical to me that some parents shame their children for saying they
are at a loss about what to do next.
The most to be accomplished from punishing or sending bored kids away is
that the kids will learn not to go to that parent for advice and ideas.
Sometimes the real message behind "I'm bored" is "I'm little and feeling
agitated and vaguely unhappy and I don't know what I can do to get over
this uncomfortable feeling. What would you do if you were my age, in
this house, on a day like this?"
I think that deserves a helpful, respectful response.
I had the privilege to feel bored when we lived in Costa Rica. It had been a very long time since I had time to be bored and it felt very uncomfortable. I wrote about it here. This experience has given me even more compassion for my kids' feeling of boredom. I know it is quite common to say that boredom leads to more creativity, but I think we sometimes confuse boredom with free time in this crazy overscheduled society...
My girls don't go to day camps and don't take classes (their choice) and they have free time all day long. Boredom happens and our situation is quite different than the situation of a child who goes to school, takes classes some nights a week and sometimes even on the weekends and for whom, boredom (alias free time) can lead to some creative outlets.
And yes, coming back from a year and a half of traveling and camping in the wild, back to our small house with pretty much no yard is tough for all of us. It is temporary, but we struggle to adapt back to a more sedentary lifestyle. The weather has been crazy hot (with lots of rainy days) and activities like hiking and biking were not enjoyable for us in that context.
We are reacquainting ourselves with home life and to growing girls with different needs. The twins are going through the 9 year change and it is an important shift.
This is a time of irritability and unsureness, of trepidation and
aloneness. The young child’s experience of being part of the world
vanishes and she now must learn to stand on her own. Emotionally, the child experiences a
withdrawal into the self for perhaps the first time, a shutting out of
the outside world (from a great article on the 9 year change called Paradise lost).
Homeschooling/unschooling requires constant adjustment depending on where the kids are and it really has been almost two years since we really were home in Quebec and we have all changed quite a bit since then.
We sure are finding joy in that daily life, in time spent with friends and family members, in a (first!) card at the local library (books in French! Woo-hoo!), in the proximity of a great national park with a cool lake near our home. But I wouldn't be honest if I said that it was all easy and great. JF works full time, trains for his upcoming ultra-marathon, takes care of our truck and trailer in order to sell them while I spend my days with the girls, care for the house, cook and plan activities. It is a very different life than the one we had on the road. I do miss it and it is a big adjustment, but I sure appreciate how lucky I am to be home with my family and to spend my days with my beautiful girls, as challenging as it may be some days. I know we all need to fully experience this transition period and own our uncomfortable emotions in order to be able to move on.
I do not feel I have to *save* my girls from the discomfort of boredom, but I want them to feel like I care. I want them to know that it is OK to feel this way and to just sit through it, but I want to be there to hold their hand. I know they don't need suggestions or activities most time, but simply a loving response. And this mama is trying to be as loving and caring as possible while at the same time struggling with her own adaptation.
**We went to visit Lucie and André, who used to rent our barn for their horses and had developped a beautiful relationship with Mathilde. We were quite happy to find out that their horses are now 10 minutes from where we live!
We went to the awesome festival Mondial des cultures in Drummondville and we had such a great day with our friends! There was a really cool obstacle course in which kids (and papas!) had to climb, crawl, walk through a pool of soap bubbles (after having been sprayed with colored powder!), eat dried caterpillars (if they dared!) and more!
They said they were bored, we delivered!
There was a fascinating dance show by a troop from Mumbai, India. We even got to dance with them after the show. The kids were hypnotised! It was so awesome, because just the night before we had read the beautiful book La fille du Rajah and there was a dance about Ganesh, one of the
most worshipped gods in the Hindu religion who has an elephant head.
Then, we went to see a group from Burundi perform with their traditional instruments.
There was some free bungee trampoline jumping and the kids had a blast!
There was a First Nations area along the river, a welcome break from the heat and the high energy of the rest of the event... We were enticed to visit by a beautiful crow.
Then, it was circus time (amazing performers from Venezuela and Chile)! We even ran into Grand-maman Claudette (JF's mom!) and Grand-papa Serge!! What a surprise encounter!
My friend Genevieve (who rented our house while we were on the road the whole year) jogged for 15 minutes to get Akim to sleep! She is such an inspiring mamma!
After dinner, we went to see the dancers from China. They were great!
It was an awesome day and I didn't hear the word bored even once! I think it was a success!
