Deschooling

I am now convinced that the purpose of deschooling is not so much for the kid but also for the parent!! I have so much to do between reading through the Oak Meadow syllabus I purchased, sorting through notes and handouts from the conference, finishing up the garden, meal planning, paying bills, and cooking a ton of food. See, I broke one of the refrigerator door shelves. You know, the part that holds everything on the shelf? Where I felt I didn't have enough room to begin with I *REALLY* don't have enough room. Combine that with the massive amount of cooking I am doing to make room for the pig share that arrives in a couple of weeks, just, EEK! I just roasted 3 heads of broccoli, finished a batch of lamb stock (from the leg of lamb roast on Easter), made a batch of emergency breakfast protein (1 lb sausage, 1 bunch swiss chard, one onion, a splash of fish sauce and coconut aminos), got strawberry/banana fruit leather in the Excalibur as well as a bowl of popcorn for the kids snack this morning. I still need to boil artichokes for lunch, figure out what I'm doing with ~12 red bell peppers and the epic amount of cuties that I bought when everyone was into them and now they aren't anymore, as well as hope this wind dies down so I can grill these chicken thighs I pulled out of the freezer. Out of the next 4 days, we have activities that require at least one of us to leave the house every day. Every late afternoon/evening we have plans. It's going to be busy. So, with all of that, I am trying to not let myself feel guilty. For the first time we ALL played in the DIRT yesterday! We found earth worms! We started our tomato, bell pepper, cabbage and herb seeds indoors. We are making plans for the future. There's a toy train expo, a lego expo, and a reptile show in the next few months. My mom is moving 4 hours closer next week so I am hoping to be visiting more often. I am eager to get the relationship going between my kids and my mom/grandparents. Yet another great thing with homeschooling is allowing that flexibility. For those who don't know what deschooling is, it's a period of time many homeschoolers recommend in order to help your child unlearn the routines they had in structured school. Your home schooling philosophy and practice can be just as structured but it isn't going to be the same as someone with a class full of other children. My daughter keeps asking about our Morning Message and we don't really need one. She's starting to understand that we can plan our days a different way and have flexibility. She's starting to understand the need, at times, to wait until after her little brother's nap before we can do a specific activity. She also gets that she needs to help out around the house in order for us to have more time together. I know that more understanding will come with time. :)