Mixedup.homeschool

Lessons on how old mom and dad are brought to you by the local art museum. 😂

This week our story came from 🇩🇪 Germany (pic 2).
We looked at the globe/maps, watched a few YouTube videos, planned a meal to prepare, and did some art inspired by German born artist Josef Albers.

This art was super fun! I would recommend it for older kids because it was a little bit complicated. But it could definitely be adapted for little ones with some guidance.

All you need is:
- colorful cellophane sheets
- self laminating pouches. (Make sure you get the pouches not the sheets. I made this mistake and it definitely made this a little harder)
- scissors

-cut the cellophane into shapes place on the sticky side of the laminating pouch and seal it together when you are done.

- sounds easy but the cellophane takes patience to cut and once it hits the sticky sheet it does not come off. So it is a one and done kind of thing.
If you are doing this with smaller kiddos maybe precut the shapes. You could also use tissue paper and contact paper if that is easier to come by it just won’t be as clear.

✨Save for those days when you just don’t feel like doing the stuff✨

~Freebie Friday~
I have a kiddo who absolutely loves learning about space and especially loves the moon. So every year I make a chart so we can follow the moon’s cycle. This year I wanted to share it with you!
I also have some flashcards that work great for a morning invitation! Answer key included, so they can play and you can sit back and enjoy your morning coffee/tea. ☕️
Follow the link in bio .homeschool

We started a new book called ~ A Year Full of Stories. 52 folk tales from around the world~ by Angela McAllister
Our plan is to read one story a week and then spend the week exploring that country.
The first tale was from Russia. We read the story, found Russia on the globe, looked it up in our atlas and read some fun facts. We also watched some YouTube videos about what it’s like to live in Siberia and did a craft from the book
~Geography through Art~ by Jeffus & Aramini.
Tonight we are going to make a Siberian potato salad from the book ~Vegan without borders~ by Robin Robertson.
I didn’t have pages of plans for this lesson. We just started with an idea and watched where it went.
That is what interest-led-learning looks like for us.

Spent the afternoon planning out the upcoming week.

Yes that’s right. Spent today planning THIS week. Not a month, or a year in advance. Because that just does not work for us.

Who knows what the kiddos will be interested in next month. I find it’s much easier to meet them where they are instead of forcing them to do things I scheduled months ago.

This saves so much frustration. Both for the kiddos and for myself!

Do you plan like this? What works for your family?

(New blog post) …Reverse planning is a very simple concept. Instead of writing down what you want to do, you write down what you did. Even more simply put reverse planning is freedom. Now if we wake up and decide we feel like going to the park and library I don't need to look at what I had planned. I will simply write down that we went to the park and library.

The other benefit of reverse planning is that it helps me to see learning in places I never even thought to look. Like building a city on an iPad game, or stacking sticks in the backyard to drive a remote control car over, or simply sitting by the water watching the anemones sway. Unschooling and reverse planning has taken the pressure of checkboxes and unreasonably complicated lists out of our life and we are so much happier because of it.
Added bonus you no longer need a fancy expensive planner. A notebook works just fine!

If you want to know the story behind my love of reverse planning check my new blog post. (Link in bio )

A little Waldorf, a little Charlotte Mason, a little unschool, (yes you can unschool and use some curriculum) all come together for a whole lot of learning in our house.

Remember that you threw out boxes when you decided to homeschool and you don’t need to fit into new ones now!

Break the rules, make up your own. This is your families path and no one gets to tell you how to follow it.

New series ~Tuesday Thoughts~ where I’ll share some things I’ve been thinking about and personally working through.

I’ll start with my favorite the worry-guilt cycle of homeschooling while parenting. Two things that can be really hard to combine until you realize they are actually the same thing. But even then it’s super easy to get caught up in the worry. Trust me it is a hamster wheel I am on a lot.

We worry. We react to that worry. We feel guilt about our reactions. At least that’s how it works for me.

It takes constant work to stay out of my own head. I live with anxiety and depression, these things feel as natural to me as breathing, but unlike breathing they don’t help me with anything. I have found a few things though that really do help me.

1. Mindfulness. I know it sounds cliché but it does help. No need to meditate for hours just breath and feel the world as it is in the present moment. Sometimes that is all it takes to chase the worry away.
2. Sit back and really observe your kiddos. Look at things from a different perspective. You can find learning in almost everything.
3. Talk to your kiddos. I try to involve them in what they want to learn and how they want to learn it all the time. After all this is their education and their life and I’m just lucky enough to be a guide along the way.
4. Reverse plan. Biggest game changer for me to date. I no longer plan in advance. I simply write down everything we did after we do it. This helps me see all the different learning that happens. It allows our day to flow and go in whatever direction we are going in. It has been the best method to keep me off the hamster wheel of the worry-guilt cycle.

So let me know. Love this? Hate this? Want to know more?

My 13 year old stopped to put a seashell back together like a puzzle. As I watched him I got a glimpse of that little boy who played in the sand for hours. I am so glad he still plays with the heart and wonder of childhood.

By 13 I was embarrassed to “play” school and society showed me it wasn’t “cool” so I hid my Barbies under my bed and only played when I was sure no one else was watching.
Thinking back now it makes me sad I had to hide things about myself, things as simple as play.
But play wasn’t seen as important. School subjects, being popular and in my case sports were what I learned were the things to value. So I hid my playfulness away.

I’m 42 and still struggle with being playful, but my kids are teaching me and I’m learning everyday. And hopefully when they are 42 play will come natural to them because they will never have to hide a piece of themselves.

Can you relate? Is play hard for you? Why is it so easy to forget the importance of play for grown-ups and kids alike?

It’s always important to check in with our kiddos, but on weeks like this it’s especially important. They hear and see more than we realize.

I came across these fIve easy questions from that can be worked into everyday conversations. They have been really useful to me and I hope they can be for you too.

This is my new temporary normal. Our living room is squished to the corner to make room for our dining room table (currently in the living room) because our dining room is now our box storage room.
And I’m constantly walking around with a tape gun, sharpie, and grabbing a quick snack between packing 📦 📦

The cart is in the middle of the room because I’ve already whacked my head multiple times 🤣

So exhausting and yet so exciting!!! Three weeks till we pull out of our drive and head for the west coast!

I know that homeschool is a privilege and I am so grateful for the freedom it gives us. From the tiniest thing to something grand like moving across the country!

What freedoms has homeschooling giving you lately?

Last week we dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, explored the most beautiful forests, watched bald eagles soar over mountains and found our next home in the Pacific Northwest!!! Now we are back in Pennsylvania and the packing begins🥰

I have had my doubts. I have had my moments where I thought that they were not learning.
Where I was sure all of my decisions and ideas were total failures. I’ve panic bought curriculums and books and programs.

I think I found a better way.

Simply change the scenery. Get out of the house, change the routine for a day, a week, whatever just do something different. When that anxiety and unschool panic starts to creep in find somewhere to go even if it’s just a new trail in the local park, go. And then listen. Just listen to these amazing humans we call our kids. They will show you that everything is good and on track and your decision to unschool was the right one.

We just returned from a week in Washington DC. where we walked about 50 miles, fought some serious wind, saw almost all the things we wanted to see, and had the most amazing, fun, thoughtful, connecting conversations.

I feel renewed. And I have never been so sure that unschooling is the perfect fit for my family.

Just a little reminder.

You can’t see behind the perfect pictures. Past the funny videos. Or the emotions hidden inside the people on the screen.

Homeschooling is personal and different for all of us. Your experiences and joys and heartaches and failures and fears and successes are all valid and real. And they all contribute to a complete homeschool life.

There is no way to capture the enormity of the homeschooling experience in a tiny square.

So deep breaths. We got this!! 🥰

Play = learning
No matter your age.

When we give our kids space to follow their interests we get a glimpse into their world and the privilege to share in that world.

I have come to the conclusion that as a home educator my job isn’t to instruct, it’s to observe. To see what sparks my children’s attention and provide a space for them to explore. If possible, to give them materials and experiences that engage those interests.

We recently went to a bookstore and my daughter picked out these books. I was surprised. I try not to push my interests onto my children and let them come to things on their own. But these books make me so happy because they speak to my heart and I can’t wait to see what we discover in them.

I know what I’ll be doing all day today!

I remember when they were all little and I was in the mess of four toddlers running around, someone told me “the days might be long but the years go fast” and wow they were so right. I can’t believe we are here already. Happiest of trips around the sun to the boy who made me a mom 13 years ago.

Hi!! I’m LeAnn. I am a momma of four kiddos age 12 (a few weeks away from 13 😬) 11, and two 9 year olds. We learn at home and have been for the last 7 years.

I am a weird, introverted 41 year young creative type. Who is still trying to figure all the s**t out. I really try to follow my kiddos’ interests and let them lead the direction of their education (while constantly worrying and holding my breath that it will all turn out 😁)

We do use some curriculum books but mostly for ideas and only when it fits our current interests. I am inspired by the teaching methods and ideas of Waldorf & Montessorri but with our own unschooling twist! I’m not a big believer in absolutes and suck at following rules.

I hope I never make it look I like I have it all together and promise to always be genuine. I am sarcastic and silly and want to share my ideas, lots of laughs and some inspiration because being a homeschooling parent is hard.

So let’s have a little fun! Here are two truths and a lie which one do you think is the lie?

I love to
1- make mixed media art 🎨
2- dress up and wear heels 👠
3- run marathons 🏃🏻‍♀️
(I might have made this too easy 🤣😂🤣

I wish you the best life can offer this 2022. But if this year sucks I hope at least I can make you smile. Thanks for being here friend!

Baking day! We are having a blast today listening to music and baking a bunch of treats for our holiday celebration!

My husband is the baker in the family. I love to cook but baking just has too many rules and measures for me 🤣 I’ll leave all that to my mathematician hubby who likes that kind of thing.

The kids are always baking right alongside him! So much learning happens in the kitchen. Not only math and science but planning skills, reading, and teamwork!

Do your kiddos spend time in the kitchen baking or cooking?

~ Expectations ~
Today I made these 3d paper stars. I asked the kids if they wanted to learn how to make them. Each kiddo, in their own way, told me no thanks. I still made them and hung them up and left out the supplies because if not today maybe tomorrow or the next day they will be interested.

I had visions of us all sitting around the table crafting and listening to Christmas music. I had hopes of spending lots of time together. But the kids had different ideas on what today would hold.

Was I bummed? A bit. Did I force them into a activity they weren’t interested in just to spare my feelings. No. Do I still have hope that at least one of them will come around and listen to Christmas music and craft with me? Absolutely.

Sometimes homeschool does not meet the expectations we set up. It helps to stop and sit with our feelings before we act.

I’ve learned this.
I still struggle with this.

Expectations are a hard thing to come to terms with, especially when it comes to our kids and being a homeschooling parent.

Homeschooling parent, these two simple words can hold so much pressure, worry, and stress which makes forcing our expectations almost excusable. But in the end forcing our expectations only makes everyone, including us, miserable.

So in the end I really loved making these stars! Soooo if my kiddos never come around to letting me teach them….can I make a video and teach you?? Because they really are super easy and fun and I really want to show someone how to make them! 🤣

Today’s morning invitation.

We have been watching an exorbitant amount of domino and chain reaction videos on YouTube lately. And Lego is a favorite in our house. So when I saw this book I knew it would be a fun morning invitation!

Morning invitations are my favorite way to start the day!
They not only give me a little extra time in the morning to get some things done, they also help the kiddos to focus and fall into the rhythm of our day.

What a morning invitation is:
⭐️ Simple activities
⭐️ A way to introduce new things
⭐️ Independent learning opportunities
⭐️ Playful & fun!

What morning invitations aren’t:
⭐️ Forced involvement activities
⭐️ activities with an expected result (from us as parent-teacher)
⭐️ Over complicated things that take a ton of prep work!

The key is the invite. If your kiddo isn’t interested today that’s ok. Save the activity and put it out another day sooner or later they will engage and play.

What would you have loved to start your day with when you were a kiddo?