Monkey Business

One thing that sets this year apart from others for us...Is not Covid. Though for Ariel it's part of his motivation, I don't mind the idea of kids going to school wearing masks. They can do hard things. It wouldn't be the end all and be all of their education. A very big part of doing homeschool this year is that we found people. Other people who we don't hardly know, but give the impression of being loving and accepting of kids on a journey to learn. All of them have or are kids at different ages, levels, personalities, and capabilities.  

Unfortunately with writing about homeschooling, you're going to get an earful of the why.Why we're homeschooling...Everyone has a different reason. But first, because now I'm a homeschooler...(and I can't tell you how good it feels to say that...) Why were my kids in public school? Because the school here did a pretty darn good job of getting the basics into my kids. They were exposed to lots of other kids that my hermitish nature never exposed them to before. If there were a Homeschool conflict (which never happens) between exposure and protection, exposure would win in our family. I'm of the idea that kids need to be exposed to lots of things to prepare them for life. Protection comes in other forms. Protection from abuse, protection from physical harm, but not from people on the whole, not from most germs or viruses and certainly not from ideas.

We found some people. They had a whole year planned before we even got on board, but have welcomed us in our late, running to catch the bus, kind of way. But we are so excited for the things they have planned. Once a week we'll do Shakespeare, archery, birds and bunnies, and currently...monkeys! We havn't read chapter books aloud since the dvd player took over the car on camping trips...And this has given us the best experience. My kids choose everyday if they do a puzzle or a coloring book and just listen to the story. We're reading Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls with the people we found, our homeschool co-op. Other books are planned for the year, providing us with a perfect morning routine. I lack in the routine area, so someone giving me this perfect excuse to give myself just enough of a routine to create sanity for my kids with has been ideal. 

Today, along with the other science topics we've researched by way of Youtube videos, we watched a few about Monkeys. Specifically, the invasive species of monkeys, the Rhesus Macaques, and tried to imagine what it would be like to have 30 small monkeys grabbing and biting us all at the same time.