Walker Weekend and Pumpkin Carving

We had a Walker weekend and did the annual Walker pumpkin last weekend. Shantel and the kids went up to Wyoming and played up there on Friday. Then on Saturday morning we all hiked to the M and then did pumpkin carving that night.

In Wyoming they went and did horseback riding and the kids loved it. Especially Lydia thought it was amazing and she did a great job leading the horse around.

Lydia rode Bar (who is very old). Here she is brushing the horse with Grandpa.

They climbed on the haystacks.

Saturday morning we all hiked the M and it was fun, but so steep. It is not long, but it is straight up to start. He kids did great. 

Here is Lydia celebrating making it all the way to the top.

One thing to note is that Austin did amazing! I carried Caleb in the carrier, but that meant Austin had to walk on his own. It is really step and he did it like a champion and just climbed up the hill with no trouble at all. 

That afternoon the kids worked with Grandpa to make a zipline in the backyard. It was not quite high enough, but the kids loved it anyway.

 

 
We finished with pumpkin carving. Lydia and worked on one pumpkin. We made a puppy face and had so much fun working on it. Lydia drew it on a paper and then helped me carve it in. (I also did a mountain with moon landscape/pirate face - but let's pretend I didn't, my pumpkin carving skills are poor).

Meanwhile, Caleb helped Shantel while they made a cool drilled out design with a moon in the sky.

Happy Halloween!

Homeschool Update

Ah, homeschool. You're truly the best life. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to keep a routine, or that Lydia wouldn't be successful, or that Austin and Caleb would be neglected, or a thousand different worries. But as we've stayed consistent and trusted in the process and in the heart of homeschool, it's been a wonderful experience and I have been loving it. I'm so grateful to live in a time and place where this is possible. I love to have my kids home with me. I love to explore with them. I love to learn and teach and grow with them. 

Here are a few of the more photographic activities we've been up to lately: 

Field Trip with the Haderlies to "This is the Place" State Park. 

I only got pictures of the kids panning for gold, but we had a great day exploring together. Caleb watches every thing that the bigger kids do and he very effectively copies it movement for movement. This was a really fun field trip for us. 

Piano Lessons

Lydia has started piano lessons and she's doing really well. We practice every day as part of her family economy/homeschool schedule and it's been a good thing for the two of us to do together, although this is the thing that I have the hardest time being patient with because of Lydia's tendency to want to jump down from the piano bench and run around. Her teacher is Stephanie Lewis who lives just down the street and I LOVE the I can just send her out the door to run to lessons, and she LOVES Sister Lewis, who is basically the best person at talking with kids and making them feel important and cool. She's really cool and she's doing a great job at teaching Lydia. 

Garden Party

 There's this thing in homeschool called Poetry Tea Time. It's a really beautiful concept: you set the table with nice dishes, make a special treat together, then read poetry while you eat it. We've adopted it and called it our own "Poetry Treat Time." I thought it would be fun to extend this and invite some of Lydia's friends over for a Garden party. We talked about manners and the girls ate a snack while I read a few stories to them - then I let them play games in the backyard for a little while. It was low-key but fun.  

Reading

One of the things that has been really neat to see is how much Lydia has enjoyed learning to read. She's working her way through her course reader, and when I saw her reading through it on her own while sitting on the doghouse roof at my parents house it brought a special joy to my heart. Homeschool is magical because the learning is everywhere. It's not confined to a classroom where you have to read through a certain amount of pages. It's sitting in the sunshine reading as many pages as you can fit in because you're learning to love learning. 

Fishing with Grandma and Grandpa Walker

My kids have been wanting to go fishing for a long time, and my Dad has been wanting to take them. So one day when the smoke from all the fires here was SO bad we decided to escape to Morgan and try our hand at fishing up at East Canyon. The kids were a little disappointed because we didn't catch anything, but the whole morning was really wonderful. Also, my mom made my dad bring a bunch of things to extend learning: like a ruler to measure the fish and such. My parents have been so incredibly supportive of our homeschool adventure and I couldn't be more grateful for them. My mom taught school for years and years and years and she is a veritable font of information and wisdom. I feel so lucky to have her support in our homeschool because she has tips and tricks and is just so supportive. My dad is just as supportive, and even though I know it's an unconventional choice - I've never felt anything but them cheering me (and my kids) on. 

Tech Tuesday - Legos

Every Tuesday we work on our "tech" class, which is part of MyTech High's schedule. We have a lego engineering set and the kids love working on it. Lydia enjoys it, but truly it's the highlight of Austin's week. I don't take pictures very much during homeschool because I just really really try to be present with the kids - but this week we made lego boats and tried to float them in a bin of water and I snapped a few pictures of the experiment.  

Homeschool Friends

Homeschool is an unconventional choice, but having a little community of homeschooling friends makes it feel so much better. Less lonely, less weird, and more supported and lovely. Especially when your homeschooling friends are as wonderful as the Middleton Family. We actually have several homeschooling families in our neighborhood, and we are a part of a larger extended co-op, but Ali Middleton is so inspiring and wonderful that we try to get together with them as much as possible. Whenever I leave a co-op/adventure/playdate with them I leave feeling uplifted and encouraged and just plain happy. Ali's attitude about childhood, learning, and homeschool is exciting and peaceful at the same time and I love soaking up the bits and pieces that we can pull into our own lives. A few of our adventures this year: chalk & salt experimenting, finding a snake in the backyard, Airborne trampoline park, and visiting a local apple orchard.  

This apple orchard was incredible. We went on a whim when Ali invited us to go pick apples at a local apple orchard. We just happened to arrive right about the time that a Preschool Field Trip didn't show up, which meant that there was a special lady there waiting and willing to take us on a magical journey through the apple orchard. She taught the kids about all the different kinds of fruit trees, talked about what trees need to grow, and had 101 songs to sing to them about each and every thing that we looked at. She turned on some music and led them in a special apple growing dance and let us all pick as many apples as we wanted. It was so amazing. I wish I could bottle up the sunshine, the laughter, and the learning - because it was truly magic. 

Field Trip Fridays

Most weeks we go out exploring on Fridays. Sometimes it's to somewhere structured like a co-op or group. Sometimes it's up to the mountains to explore "nature". (I laugh every time, but the kids often say "I love nature!")  We went to a small cave at the Ledgmere Picnic Area and then I let the kids climb and run and play for quite a while. The day ended when Lydia, jumping from rock to rock in the shallow-but-cold stream, fell into the water. I felt a tiny bit justified because I warned her and talked to her several times about how she needed to be careful and steady as she was on the rocks or she was going to end up in the water. I gave her my jacket and warmed her up and showed her love (instead of saying I-told-you-so). But she definitely learned! I love that homeschool gives us the opportunities for her to test boundaries, explore her world, make mistakes, and learn her abilities within safe and secure bounds with loving support and guidance. I just love it. I loved everything about this day.

You know, occasionally people ask me "Why homeschool?" and I usually brush off their question with a simple "It just works for our family right now. It's a good life for us." Mostly because the answer is SO complex and expansive and meaningful and so so hard to express with words. And because that sentiment is SO true. It does work for us, and it's such a good life for us. (And what can someone say negatively to that? Ha. Nothing.)  

So... Why homeschool? There's not a simple, or even a single, answer- so it's so hard to know what to say. It's about choosing goodness and filling our days with light and love and curiosity. About combatting the word "busy" and living our lives from a place of peace. It's about being unhurried, and being together. Doing hard things, and doing them well. Sleeping in and laughing together in bed because that's exactly what is on the schedule, and even if it wasn't that would be okay too. It's about fighting and forgiving. Figuring each other out and figuring ourselves out, too. It's about building a house, a boat, a family and bringing Jesus Christ into the very middle of it. It's about listening to what would be the best for OUR family, and having the courage to act. It's about work, but also about peace. I knew it was different, but I didn't know how wonderful it would be.