It has been some time! A lot is happening over here in Wild Things land.
I have been busy these last few months creating all the things. I’m also working on transferring and transforming this space. I have 22 themed journals I’ll be sharing for FREE along with a homeschool planner among other things!
We have our curriculum choices picked and ready to go, all of which i will be sharing soon enough. I’ve also created a specific IG account for Wild Things Resources AND Homeschooling Wild Things so that I can be sure to share our family’s homeschooling journey while still maintaining some form of privacy with my personal IG account. So, if you happen to come across our little corner of the social world please share and help me spread the word about all the free resources I’ll have available!
We are so looking forward to the upcoming homeschool year and sharing our adventures with you. I’m not completely positive of all that this year will bring, but we’re all excited for whatever changes come our way!
It’s been about 3 weeks, give or take, since we started homeschooling again. Mayber it’s closer to 2 weeks? Honestly, who knows anymore. We’ve fallen back into the homeschool pattern of never really knowing what day it is. Throw in the Christmas season/holiday festivities, and it’s all a crap shoot.
I still plan on giving the kids off for that nice, long 10 day stretch that they would have gotten if they had still been in public school. It will be a much-needed break for all of us. Thanksgiving break was a bit of a bust because of all the chaos of tossing homeschooling back and forth to begin with. Then, very last minute deciding to just go for it and having to get all the paperwork in order to send to the district. Alas, it was a good call, and we are all happier for it. The kids may be missing their friends, but man oh man, I haven’t seen them this happy (truly happy) in a year.
I think I finally have it figured out as far as curriculum goes. I’ll know more once the Christmas break is over, and we’ve had the chance to complete the rest of this week and the few days next week before the break begins. Regardless, as much as I would love to say we have this beautifully mapped out and structured curriculum, I can’t. It has never worked for us, no matter how many times I have tried. I’ll probably get sucked into the homeschooling curriculum vortex at least one or two more times, print a bunch of things, and then after about 2 weeks remember why we stopped using something like that the last time. Homeschool mom problems, am I right?
This year is proving to be a little trickier with some of their gifts arriving on the doorstep in the form of Target and Amazon boxes. We’ve resorted to telling them that Daddy had to order a bunch of things for his school. I then have to quickly rush them upstairs to our storage room before they can ask any more questions. I’m trying to keep the magic alive in our house as long as I possibly can. I realize, though, that with a 10-year-old it might not last too much longer. But what can you do, as moms we try, don’t we?
I find myself in the odd place of having overflowing gratitude for the opportunity to homeschool again, while simultaneously mourning the loss of them being in public school. I never believed you could find yourself stuck somewhere in between those two emotions, but age and life experience has taught me otherwise.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, know that you aren’t alone.
You see, I am extremely excited and thankful for the chance to be with my kids all the time again. Watching them grow and explore and turn into the human beings He designed them to be. Having the chance to witness firsthand all that He does in their lives and see those little light bulbs go off when they grasp a new concept or idea. All the while, I miss the quiet peace of the days spent doing my daily tasks while they were at school. Seeing them interact with their friends and being a light in others’ lives that I’d always hope they’d be. Knowing that at the end of the day, I was no longer solely responsible for their education. School pictures…ahhhh, school pictures. Why is it that I am mourning the loss of something so small? I now have the chance to take a million more pictures of them! And yet, here I am.
I do, however, know He’ll carry us and bring us through. His plans are far better than my own. He doesn’t love me any less for feeling the way I do. I can rest and take comfort in the fact that everything happened the way it needed to. Which, in turn, brought us to where we are and has gotten us smack dab in the middle of the path He’s laid out ahead of us. I just need to keep on handing it all over, let go and let God. Ya feel me?
Which brings me to my conclusion. The whole reason for the season. Thank God for sending Jesus! I’m so thankful for the multitude of blessings in this earthside life. Thank the Lord that His mercies are made new each morning and that He fills our lungs with his life-giving breath each day. I pray He continues to watch over all of us, all of His children, keeping us safe and healthy. May that continue from now all through the new year and beyond!
I guess that kind of thing happens when you make drastic life changes and your whole world turns upside down.
Long story short:
Shortly after my curriculum picks post, and after A LOT of prayer, we made the life altering and very hard decision to put our kiddos in public school. It was both freeing and heartbreaking. I couldn’t have pictured our life as a “normal” family. But here we are.
Last school year (despite catching covid and the growing pains of adjusting to someone else’s time frames) was overall, a very pleasant experience. The kids learned a ton, played sports, made friends and grew as tiny human beings. We actually placed homeschooling on the “never going to happen again” shelf. BUT life….am I right?
About a month ago, seemingly out of nowhere, homeschooling was placed on my heart again. Not necessarily because of any bad experiences, just a whole lot of little things that began adding up. I miss homeschooling, the kids miss homeschooling, the husband misses homeschooling. You get the point. As a family, we miss the whole lifestyle…
Which brings us to the present.
The question is no longer if we should homeschool again, but when.
We really don’t want to uproot the tiny humans again by pulling them out less than halfway through the year, but we also don’t know if we want to wait until next school year to begin either. Decisions, decisions. Being a grown-up is hard, you guys. Just when you think you have everything figured out, life throws curveballs. I do know, however, that Jesus will guide our next steps and carry us.
Lately, I feel the calling to begin homeschooling in January more and more. It would give the littles time to process and prepare for the upcoming transition back into homeschooling and time for them to deschool a bit during the Christmas Vacation. New year, new lifestyle, ya feel me?
I have spent the last few weeks researching (it’s what I do) curriculum and ALL the things homeschooly. We still have so many resources to pull from that we collected over the 4 years we had homeschooled prior. So many things, like, a lot of things. More things than I’d care to admit to having. We did get rid of a lot, but I also held on to so much “just in case”. I’m glad I did, because here we are.
There is plenty more to this story, or journey, if you will. All of which I’ll be sure to continue writing about. I have no doubt that I will dive deeper into the year and a half that we took off while the kids were in public school. Who knows, it might turn out to be a full 2 years in public school. Literally at this point, only God knows. Either way, I’ll be sure to keep updating and sharing this never-ending journey of life, motherhood, schooling and ALL the other things.
UPDATE:
We are NOW homeschooling and we couldn’t be more excited!☺️
Well, well, well…it has been some time. I had planned on doing a better job of keeping up with things around here, but, life. You know?
I won’t make this a long drawn out post. I’m almost positive you are juggling a million little things behind the scenes, and would just love to get right too it. Luckily enough, I’m not one for small talk, butthere is a lot to unpack here…so stick with me!
As mentioned on the world of IG, after much consideration, research and debating, we will be moving forward this year with a One Room Classroom style approach. With that said, most of the resources we’ll be using will fall under a Classical or Charlotte Mason based method.
I’ll start with the curriculum picks that were made earlier in the year that we did, in fact, purchase. I will link the items, so you can simply click on each one to be taken to their individual site!
Master Books – Foundation Phonics, Language Lessons for a Living Education and Math Lessons for a Living Education in three different levels.
I’m not exactly sure whether we’ll definitely be incorporating those, that was our plan. We’re going to begin in July with the resources I have found, and downloaded for free, from the Public Domain. We’ll know more by the end of July, and base our final decision on how the littles are responding, and how much progress they’ve made.
For our morning routine, we’ll be using the Morning Time – Volume 2, from Brighter Day Press with accompanying copywork.
We have also purchased multiple units from CM Simple Studies, which include:
English Fairy Tales Heroes & Hope America Night Creatures Meadow Creatures
I acquired North American Animals, as well, through the purchase of one of the Mega Nature Bundles a few years ago.
Will we be using each one of those units all the way through? No, mostly likely not. That’s the beauty of them, however. They are very easy to incorporate while making them work for you and your family.
We will finally be using Exploring Nature with Children this year, and we couldn’t be more excited! I had tried a few years back, but, at that point I had a 6, 4 and 2 year old. My specific kiddos just weren’t ready. It was also only the very beginning of my 2nd year in this homeschooling gig, I had a lot to learn. But, I digress.
Along with ENWC, we’ll use Raising Up Wild Things seasonal Nature Journals for Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. I have not had the chance to purchase and print all of them, however, I do have a picture of the Winter Journal below. I love her gorgeous resources!
For History, we’ll be using the book This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall as a semi-spine and lots and lots of, you guessed it, read-a-louds! We’ll use Simple Studies – America and Heroes & Hope thrown in here and there, as well.
Finally, what you have all been waiting for, the FREE stuff!
I did a ton of searching and found these gems that completely changed the game for me.
Lastly, I found a perfectly wonderful version of Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Geography (it’s under her Freebies category towards the bottom of her page) created by Cassandra over at The Unplugged Family.
All of the covers for each of the Public Domain downloadable pdfs are located on the Wild Things Resources page.
Lastly, I found a beautifully simplistic Homeschool Planner from Inspire the Mom. It’s absolutely perfect and the best part is that it’s free!
Finally, just as a side note, I only printed part of the Public Domain books. I will continue to add to each as we move through the year and as needed. I use cardstock for the front and back covers, and our Fellowes comb binding machine to bind them after printing.
I sincerely hope these bring you as much joy and excitement as they have for me.
I have never been one to be consistent. I try, but it always escapes me. I suppose it may be a character flaw. I’m filled with those.
So much has happened since November. The holidays have come and gone and we’ve entered the seemingly long, cold winter. I have had a million swirling thoughts that I desired to write about, just never got around to it. Funny thing about thoughts, mine come and go so quickly. Rapid fire, then poof…gone.
I’ve recently switched gears, or I could say, switched back to a more Charlotte Mason approach to our homeschool days. Lots of living books, Bible study and focus, morning time with art, music, poetry. The only thing we’re truly missing is the outdoor time. I’m the cause of that, I really do dislike being cold, and well… Pennsylvania winter can be a tad unpredictable. There hasn’t been much snow, and that is just about the only thing that can draw me outside in the middle of January next to unseasonably warm, delightful sunny days.
Not to say we haven’t had the chance to get out at all…we have, just not on a daily basis. Character flaw, remember? Terribly inconsistent.
We have acquired quite a few new things for our days, including the prettiest tea I ever did see.
I’ll be sure to try and keep this more updated. Even if it is just for myself.
Fall is in full force. I can’t believe that October has come and gone so quickly. It never ceases to amaze me how time flies by in the blink of an eye after children come into our lives. At first, you feel like those phases or stages will never end. After a few years pass, you know better. I still have young littles, but I am all too familiar with how fleeting these years are. One night, it seems they fell asleep as toddlers and poof, just like that, they wake up with ideas, wishes, hopes and dreams. They become their own tiny humans.
Gone are the days of picking out cute outfits that they will happily wear. Now, they have their own opinions of how to properly convey the image of themselves they want projected out to the world. They don’t care for your food, shoe, accessories or apparel choices. No more suggested movies or shows. They need room to grow and form their own likes and dislikes.
That’s the beauty in it all though, raising them is a lot like the autumn season. So much grace in learning to let things go. Having a front row seat to the glorious colors that will be put on display, the work of the past. Watching old ideas and interests slowly fade and fall away – only to come back, new and changed. Maybe it will be an entirely new adventure, or maybe it will be the same adventure intensified. You just never know how things will fester and grow in the seasons to come.
These last few weeks have been tough. Between the state of our world and the coming of cool, crisp weather; shorter days and longer nights, I can easily slip into the darkness. We all struggle behind closed doors, I suppose. It’s an interesting thing to be conflicted in your thoughts and emotions. Being capable of being excited and dreading the coming changes, simultaneously, is exhausting. I couldn’t wait for Halloween, but was so glad when it was over. I was overjoyed with the new Usborne Books & More (which I plan to continue pursuing, just in my own way) endeavor, but equally overwhelmed with trying to do parties and finding balance.
It took me a long time, but I have learned that I am very simplistic by nature. Not out laziness, although I am far from ambitious. I am simplistic because the only constant I need is ease. Not to say I never do hard things, I just need wide open days and freedom to find peace. Otherwise, I become stiffled and cut off.
All the energy I have goes into being a wife and mama. I give 110% into everything I do. So, if I’m trying to focus on even one extra little thing, and it throws off my balance; I get cranky, short and distracted. I cannot put anything above my required peace to be the mama my kids deserve. I have made that mistake far too many times. I’m no longer willing to compromise the time or energy I give to my family.
I know that is not His intended purpose for my life. I have no (and have never had) direction. It is the story of my life. There is no plan as to where I’m going, I just go where the wind takes me. I do know, however, that He created me that way for a reason. Because, no matter where I’ve ended up, I give it my all. Wherever He takes me or places me, I go at it with gusto. Sometimes it works out, sometimes, I can tell very quickly it was only meant to be a lesson.
At the end of the day, I know, when He is ready to reveal His plans for me (beyond being a wife, motherhood and homeschooling) it will all fall into place. I’m also aware that I’m incredibly hard headed and maybe, just maybe, He’ll continue to throw things my way only to further solidify that there is no beyond motherhood, or homeschooling, or being a wife. And, to be honest, I’m perfectly content with that.
While I may not be ready for the unknowns that these darker months will bring, I will embrace them and trust in His plans. I can feel the changes coming in the wind as it hits my face. I can see them with every leaf that turns to a magnificent new shade just before it falls. With each leaf, He shows us what it means to let go. Luckily for us, we’ve already had the pleasure of seeing what He does afterwards. He creates something new. Something even more beautiful than you remember. Something enchanting, as if you’re seeing it for the very first time.
Well, isn’t this the story of the Mama life, am I right?
First of all, thank you for stopping by! Second of all, I have plenty of big ideas and plans for this blog…but as the title reads, it’s all still under construction.
I wanted to create a space for sharing my love of living authentically and to document our daily lives. Mostly through pictures, because who doesn’t love pretty pictures? So, what will I be writing about and photographing? Well, I’m glad you asked. Ok, so you didn’t, but I’m going to ramble on anyway.
Topics to include but are not limited to: raising 3 littles, homeschooling/unschooling, books, music, recipes, DIY projects, adventures, Faith, inspiration, and any other random things that pop into this noggin. Trust me when I say, there are A LOT of random things.
My hope, is that this can be a place to help inspire and find solidarity within my little corner of the internet shenanigans. I will not claim to know what I’m doing, because I don’t. I’m quite literally wingin’ this whole thing called life. What I do know: I am tired of trying to be anyone other than who I am and was intended to become. I just head in any direction that I feel He calls me toward. I’m a free spirit, learning to just let go and go with the flow.
Homeschooling Wild Things 