Sights that take your breath our day today

Literately as we came over the hill in Truro ,into Ptown it was so beautiful I drew a huge in-breath. Francesca said it looked like it was out of story. I think the word that could best bring to mind what we were seeing is the word surreal. It looked surreal.

It's been a long time since I've been in the area this time of year and I had forgotten how lovely it is. Hands down the tip of the Cape is my favorite part. It's so wild and lovely feels timeless. It makes me long for a Cape I never knew,one with far less men and "progress".

We started the day with a visit to the Truro library. Oh what a beautiful children's room! The room was just filled with sunshine having wall to wall windows with lovely window seats beneath them to read and dream on. Lovely open ended toys to play with and the book selection was fantastic. I discovered several books that I fell in love with. This one I have to have for our home libary it would make a lovely coffee table book too. http://www.amazon.com/Wave-Suzy-Lee/dp/081185924X

Sadly we didn't get to go for the long walk I had planned it was impossible to get the children to want to leave that lovely room. When they were finally ready,we had just enough time to catch the sunset from a lovely beach we discovered I think it was on the other side of Wellfleet Harbour. It was lovely they ran around making all kinds of discoveries,chasing the birds and then we sat had a snack. I asked them while they were eating to not talk and to just listen. They asked if we could do just that every time we went for a walk. It's so soothing even for a child to sit and be still.

I am discovering the more sensitive I am towards them the lovelier our days are. What does it matter if plans are spoiled? Children have a way of creating new exciting plans. I've come along way from my stacks of workbooks,schedules it would be hard to explain how I feel and what I see happening with my second set of children. (We have two older teen-aged children as well as the three little ones)

It's amazing to watch them teach themselves as I provide the means and inspiration sometimes. Sebastian taught himself to read because he had to dive into Captain Underpants and Shel Silverstein poetry. Now we work on phonics with games to improve his spelling he doesn't even look at it as work,. He's taught himself basic grammar writing comic book after comic book. Which he started off copying sentences from his favourite books because he didn't know how to read or write on his own yet.

We learn math ,science etc... often from projects we take on. Sebastian asked to build a sundial that interested him. So we learn about time and shadows as we are doing.We call it block learning. We will study time until he gets it(or if he's not ready we will move on but come back at some point to a concentrated block of learning it.) not jump from one concept to another. I have found that when they have a solid grasp on something they retain it better. Rather then just when the lights are coming on,we move to another concept like so many math programs do.

Sometimes I will choose a subject like right now we are learning about the pilgrims and Wampanoags because we are planning a trip to Plymouth Plantation. But within the subject I have chosen (I call it trying to inspire them) I still follow their interests. Sebastian was interested in our family genealogy as I had mentioned our family goes way back in America. So I went digging asking relatives who have been studying our family tree. He was so excited to learn that is a decedant of the man in the Peanuts Mayflower video (In America Series) that peanuts made fun of that fell off the Mayflower (John Howland who married a Tilly so we are related to two Mayflower families).

One subject or inspiration will often jump to another unexpectedly. When I mentioned some famous people we are also related too ,he wanted to know who Churchill was." How can you describe that man in a single sentence so we will get some books ,maybe a movie and then we might try to do something Winston did. He enjoyed painting so we might see where his interests lie in that and attempt our own project or look at what life was like for him as a child during his time etc... I bet he will remember our relative Winston Churchill based on his interest. Luckily we can do this follow when they are interested. You always remember things you are interested in so much more like your favorite subjects in school. They engaged you at the right time and at best engaged all your senses. I love the Yates quote "Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire,"

We still do daily rote work but we do not do gobs and gobs of worksheets. Instead I try to find ways that engage all their senses. We might play board games,jump rope the a times table,paint a science fact,sing a song etc... I really like the Waldorf and Unschooling methods. They believe a child's early learning should be fun and natural,a slow start that develops into a more rigorous study as the years come on. I think the stats for Waldorf grads continuing on into collage is something in the 90s. So yes kids do not read strongly until sometimes 3rd grade or later going at their own pace, but they are not behind in the end and have a great love of learning.

Sadly still no pictures,my computer is running off an old harddrive and I have to replace it before I can load up all my "stuff".