September

Rowan, my youngest, has decided to stay at school, changing my role as homeschooling mom completely! Now I am homework mom. I have my mornings "free" for once and it is a lovely respite. The house is cleaner than it used to be, but it is never spotless (they do all come home eventually) It is amazing what can happen in just a few hours with three hungry kids doing homework! So I am doing the basics and then letting some mess stay so I can do the fun stuff (gardening, baking, crafting, maybe a little yoga). Who knows how long this lull will last?

Now we are reading the Norse Myths at home in the evenings. This is the one part of the Waldorf Fourth Grade curriculum that Rowan really did not want to miss by going to public school. He remembers these stories in a dreamy way from when I taught them to my older son a few years ago. So, lucky me, I still get to delve into the stories of bold Thor, all-knowing Odin, beautiful Sif and that trickster Loki!

As the school year began, it became clear that Rowan needed a refresher on his times tables! His teacher sent home a worksheet with 36 Basic Facts and I created some watercolor flash cards to make the experience more lovely. We created a game with them, hiding a small treasure or coin underneath each one and setting a timer to give it an extra challenge! These 36 basic facts don't include the zeros, ones, tens, elevens or twelves, so we spent a little time talking about those easy facts.

So far the shift in roles has been mostly painless and it is giving me time to create more fun felt goodies and work on some new designs for my old sweater upcycling project. It is nice to feel like the time I put into making these crafts is not pulling time away from other duties.