Welcome back to the blog! We’ve had a long period of absence on the blog because, as I’ve discovered, the task of raising kids who are active, engaged learners leaves little down time! Combined with normal “life” activities, keeping up with my goals for fostering an atmosphere of creative exploration takes untold amounts of time and energy. So does writing about it. In the end, I spent more time doing and much less time reflecting and writing. However, life has changed significantly in the past six months. Annie began school at the beginning of the year, but before the winter break, we decided to pull her out of our neighborhood kindergarten and to begin homeschooling her. As I’ve considered how to homeschool, and more importantly how to do it thoughtfully and purposefully, I concluded that more reflection on our activities was necessary–by myself and by my daughters.

This is where the blog comes in. As I begin this journey as a homeschooling parent, I want to take time to reflect on what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and if it’s working for me and for my daughter.I’m not sure how long we’ll be working this way. When we decided to remove Annie from her school, we did so with the intention of placing her in a parochial school as soon as a space becomes available. That may be this year, but it may not happen until the next school year. I’ve been working on an explanation of how and why we made our decision, but that will probably appear later. It was not a sudden decision, but rather something we arrived at after months of trying to make something fit that simply wasn’t right for our child.

So, we’ve made a clean break. Annie is excited about what she calls “Mommy School.” She’s laid out a list of things she wants to study: the colonial period of American history (including Felicity, the American Girl stories about that time); Western expansion (in light of the Laura Ingalls Wilder series of novels, which she has listened to on CD); the lifecycle of various animals including frogs, butterflies, and penguins; and fitness and nutrition. When I asked her what she wanted to study, these were her answers, and given that they’re interesting, compelling areas, I’d like to honor those. We’ll add to that some of the other kinds of things we’ve been doing this year, revisiting field trips from the summer and from this past winter break. Annie and I have also become subscribers to Imagination Stage in Bethesda, where we’ve been following each of their plays and their respective books. Also, we’ve just returned from a trip to Philadelphia where we explored the Please Touch museum for the second time, the National Constitution Center and the Liberty Bell on Independence Mall, and Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ. I’d like to find a way to include all of these in her portfolio.

2009 was filled with adventure. We did manage to make it to almost every one of the items on our initial list. We’ll continue to make our way through that list and to add more as we go this year. I’m looking forward to our new challenge. As exhausting as it has sometimes been to take 2 or more children on day-long adventures so frequently, the energy expenditure pays in dividends. I’m looking forward to sharing more of those with my daughters and with you in 2010.

I wish you equally exciting challenges and adventures…

I’ve been compiling a list of places I’d like to go in conjunction with my earlier list of themes for each week.  So far, I’ve just put the list together.  There are certainly more things to do in the Washington area, especially if you have older children; however, I’m keeping in mind the relatively low tolerance and attention span of a 2 1/2 and a 5 year old (as well as their walking ability).  There is no way that I’ll be able to do it all, but why not start ambitious, right?

• Adventure Park USA
• Adventure Theater
• American Visionary Art Museum
• Assateague State Park
• Brookside Gardens
• Butler’s Orchard
• C&O canal
• Cabin John Park
• Calvert Cliffs State Park
• Croyden Creek Nature Center
• Cunningham Falls
• FDR memorial
• Fort Frederick State Park
• Germantown Water Park
• Glen Echo Park
• Glenview Mansion
• Gravely Point
• Greenbelt State Park
• Greenbrier State Park
• Harper’s Ferry
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Homestead Farms
• Imagination Stage
• Kennedy Center (Millennium Stage)
• Lake Frank
• Lake Needwood
• Libraries (Mongtomery, DC, Fairfax)
• Locust Grove Nature Center
• Meadowside Nature Center
• Montgomery County Agricultural Fair
• National Building Museum
• National Children’s Museum
• National Museum of Natural History
• National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Old Post Office Pavillion
• Olney Farmer’s Market
• Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge Visitor’s Center
• Pea Island Nature Center
• Playwise Kids
• Rock Creek Park
• Rockville Farmers’ Market
• Rockville Town Square
• Sandy Point State Park
• Seneca Creek State Park
• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
• Smithsonian National Zoo
• The Children’s Museum of Rose Hill Manor
• The National Capitol Trolley Museum
• The National Museum of American History
• The Puppet Company
• The Theater in the Woods
• The United States Botanic Gardens
• VisArts
• Washington Monument State Park
• Way Off Broadway Children’s Theater
• Western Maryland Scenic Railroad
• Wheaton Regional Park

This is a starting list.  If you  have fun things that you love to do in the area, please leave a comment, and I’ll add it to my list.  In the future, I’ll post a top ten things to do to make “adventures” as smooth as possible…

This may be one of the last uninterrupted summers that I have with the girls.   At first, I began to  panic at the thought of an entire summer with no camps and only one planned week at the beach.  It seemed (ok, and still seems) daunting.  How many trips to the pool or playground or library could we possibly do before they were sick of it, sick of me, sick of the same old routine?  Jason and I had thought about camps, but with two tuitions to pay, a fence to build, and many other household expenses looming large, we wondered if camp was really worth the expense.  But, what I really liked about camp was the opportunity for the kids to get outside, to socialize, and to learn something new.  So, I looked around at what camps were out there for children, thought about what TV programs, books, music, and activities the children like, and considered what kinds of days the kids like to have at school… and realized, I can do camp.  We can do ” camp” all summer long.  Granted, our camp will also have a “laundry hour” and “mommy needs silence” time… but if I approached each week with not only a routine but also with a new focus each week… a theme for each week… we might just keep from going stir crazy!

I’ve only begun the planning, but come May 31st, the girls are all mine, all summer.  My goal, then, is to have a basic daily schedule of events (including times for me to get things done that *I* need to do), but also a general, weekly calendar that focuses our attention on topics we already like or that we haven’t already considered.

So far, here are the themes I’ve come up with:

• Farming/Growing/Gardening
• Reptiles/Amphibians
• Entomology/Butterflies
• Birds
• Architecture
• Oh, Pioneers!
• Dinosaurs
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
• Fairytales
• Beach and ocean life
• Pets
• Orchestra
• Theater
• Chinese culture
• Sign language
• Spanish
• Your body
• Swimming

Assuming that I have about 10 weeks to plan for, I’ll have to whittle this down a bit as we get closer in.  Some of the extended projects that we were planning this summer include growing some vegetables (we’ve already begun a few seedlings on our deck and in the windows) and planting a butterfly garden.  We have the butterfly garden seedlings in the kitchen waiting to be put in.  We have  pool membership at the neighborhood pool, too, and the girls have asked for swim lessons.  Of course, that means Pippi needs to be potty trained… and that’s a whole other story!  Perhaps today, the girls will help me brainstorm ideas.  I have a folder that I’ve been stashing lots of flyers and circulars in as I see them around town with ideas for puppet shows, places for nature walks, free community events, etc. that might help me to plan dates and times for certain themes.  As I focus my plans, I’ll post them… I think the next step is to think concretely about the resources we have in the Washington, DC area and listing the ones that would be useful for 2 and 5 year olds.