The place of sports in our lives

I never played sports when I was growing up.  My parents, the radical homeschoolers and classical musicians that they were, had no interest in sports, and so we never pursued them.  My experiences were of ballet, musical theater, a bit of gymnastics, some competitive rhythmic gymnastics, and a tiny smattering of martial arts.  Competition was all individual, and intense.  And I never knew what it felt like to be on a team (no, being in a musical or a dance group didn't feel the same) until I joined the Army when I was eighteen.

As parents, my husband and I have always talked about giving our kids the things we most treasured as kids and also filling in what we perceived as the gaps.  Since we are very different people and had different childhoods, that produces quite the list.  Neither of us did sports, though, so we had that in common when we've tried to fill in that gap.  We started off with Tball, then baseball.  I got us all mitts, and it is one of the parenting accomplishments that I am most proud of that I actually stuck with playing catch with my kids and can now catch a ball at least some of the time.  Since then the kids have chosen to try basketball and volleyball, and once again the parents have had to figure out a new sport and some very basic competence with a different type of ball.

All sorts of studies and books about raising girls suggest that there are huge benefits to team sports for them.  My kids are both playing sports through the YMCA, which heavily emphasizes good sportsmanship and other good values over "winning", and I think it's been really good for both my son and my daughter to experience being on a team.

Neither is a gifted athlete.  Neither is particularly competitive or aggressive, either.  But they have worked hard and improved their skills, at times really enjoying themselves and definitely feeling the thrill of accomplishment when they master a new skill.  And I'm satisfied that when they are eighteen years old they won't flinch and say they've never had a ball thrown at them in their lives.  We aren't fanatics about it, and I don't ever want sports to eat up all our family time, but I do want my family to always be physically active, always playful, and always trying to push ourselves to improve.  So far, that's been found in the arena of youth sports.  Soon, as my son gets older and the schedules get insane (why no "relaxed and casual" middle school sports?  Does it have to become such a big deal?), we'll have to find another way to accomplish those same goals.  But for the elementary years, Y sports have been wonderful for us.

How do you do sports and physical fitness in your homeschool?

Taking a "Sun" Day

Some kids get Snow Days, but that doesn't make much sense for a homeschooling family - we're home snug anyway so we might as well get some learning done. :)

But ... a SUN day hasn't come around in a while in our neck of the woods.  And we couldn't possibly waste it sitting inside, no matter what fabulous books and studies we are currently engaged in.




I canceled normal school and we headed out!




Nature guides in hand, we saw a northern harrier and a great blue heron up close and personal, spotted what we think was an egret off in the distance, heard the loud geese and watched the ducks dive.  We also found a mass of garter snakes enjoying the sun as much as we were!




Plenty of time to catch back up on the book stuff tomorrow. :)

A Poem a Day

One of my reading goals for 2014 is to read 14 books of poetry.  I haven't been much in the habit of reading poetry, although there are some poets I enjoy a great deal (Marge Piercy and Denise Levertov have been my favorites), and this goal of 14 books of poetry is a "stretch" goal for me.

But I quickly realized that sitting down and reading a book of poetry straight through didn't work for me.  Each poem seems to demand more digestion time before I move on and take another one in, and so they lose their beauty when I consume them too quickly.

The solution seems to be A Poem a Day.  Or more than one, but it just depends on the poems and the day.  The point being, I am trying to sit down at my desk, coffee and journal at my elbow, and start the day with a poem.  This comes right after my morning yoga/stretching, and right before reading out loud to my kids from their latest chapter book.

It has proven to be a delightful way to start the day!  So far I've read Sands of the Well by Levertov, and now I've started Leaves of Grass by Whitman.  Suggestions of other poets most welcome!

Dreaming of March during the February Blahs

I get the "November Blahs", and I get the "February Blahs" too.  These two months are the worst for me, and I frequently feel pretty depressed.  But soon - soon! Dear God, please make it soon! - I will be out in the garden with the sun shining on my head.

In the meantime, I'm getting a few things organized as I prepare for that day.

Weekly Book Posts: Lifetime Reading Plans

Do you have a lifetime reading plan?  There are lists out there, such as Fadiman's, or the book I own 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and any one of these lists could be a good starting point if you are interested in making a lifetime reading plan.

There are some arguments to be made against any effort to establish a literary canon of what is good literature and what isn't, with the most compelling being that it often privileges the works of dead white guys over the voices of the marginalized or different.  But when I look at most lists now, they are clearly making an effort to branch out and be more inclusive.

So what is cool about a list like this?  It is challenging, it takes us further as readers than browsing our local bookstore would, and it can remind us to read older works.  But mostly, for someone like me who is a lover of reading and listology, it's just compelling and enjoyable to try and read them all and keep track as I go.



One of my 14 x 14 in 2014 categories is "Lifetime Reading Plan", and I am using the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list to select 14 titles I had not already read and to read those this year.  So far, I've read The Old Man and the Sea (a double dipper, since it also counts for my category of "Books Made Into Movies").  I very much enjoyed this sparse and taut little novella about man versus nature.  My next pick from the list is Crime and Punishment.  

What books would you consider "must-reads" in a lifetime?

Time Management is Life Management

How you spend your time is how you spend your life.  It seems obvious on the face of it, because we only have this one wild and precious life to live, but somehow I think most people manage to hurry through life without stopping to think about that.

How you live your life day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute --- that is your life.  




This is really hitting me in the face right now because we've had a geological scale shift in our lives (a temporary one but still huge), as I have gone on a 3 month Sabbatical from work and so I'm home full-time this month.  Suddenly, I don't have the schedule and the weekly due dates of my job, and instead I have a list of projects and studies that I've been wanting the time to do, but they are all Big And Have No Deadlines.  Last week I finished up the last few loose ends from work, and then just ... sort of floundered.

I'm not comfortable not being Busy.  It feels weird.

This week I'm settling in to it and recognizing it as a chance to look at how I and my family are spending our lives.  Is this the routine, the space, the schedule, the practice, or the organization that helps us live the life we want to live?  What is truly important and what is just a bad habit of busyness? Why does it feel guilt-inducing to spend a rainy afternoon listening to music and reading, curled up under an afghan?  No matter how much I put on my To Do list, if I finish it I just look around for more work to do, instead of claiming my time as my own.

Am I scared to live my life for myself?  Am I afraid that I won't be a "useful little engine" and get a brief word of praise from Sir Topham Hat?  Or is it that in our society we seem to take pride in being "terribly busy"?  Others will disapprove if I'm not running just as crazed and tired as they are, but is that a reason to stay in the rat race?

This seems to be Step One of my sabbatical:

1.  Spend time with myself.  Get to know myself without the rushing.

After that, we'll see where Step Two takes me.


Linky Love, to a few posts that have resonated with me this week and been part of my thinking process here:

Paradigm Shift: Curriculum is Not Something You Buy by Simple Homeschool

Overscheduling, Outliers, and the Olympics by The Happiest Home

Secrets of Adulthood: Schedule Time to be Unscheduled by The Happiness Project

Treat Yourself to These Luxuries of Simplicity by Home Your Way

Homeschooled doesn't mean stuck at Home

When I was growing up homeschooled, one of the drawbacks of my mom running a home daycare at the same time was that we couldn't participate in a lot of homeschool group activities.  But she was able to do childcare for other homeschool families, so we would have other kids our age over on a semi-regular basis, and she organized an evening "Science Scouts" club for a while, and later we had a book club with a couple of friends.  And we took the city bus to all sorts of after-school classes, so don't picture my brother and I being locked at home wasting away.

Now, I have a much more flexible job and that is great for being able to take part in homeschool groups.  I'm a member of three groups, ranging from tiny to a huge multi-county one.  This means my kids do:

• Group field trips (museums, farm tours, the special performances of ballets, etc that are for school groups)
• Nature Study activities in a group
• Book Clubs
• Presentation Days
• Chess Club
• Lego Club
• Holiday Parties
• PE type play dates (skating rinks, group bicycle rides, etc)
• Park play days
• and more

In fact, I need to be careful with the calendar, to keep a good balance so we're not running around so much that we don't have enough time at home to do what we need to do there.  Some days we are very busy being social.  Like today in the life of my daughter: we all went to Lego Club (where valentines were also exchanged), then she had a Homeschool Art Workshop at the children's museum, then I dropped her off with friends who took her with them to the church's Valentine Dinner and Dance.  Needless to say, I kept the rest of her school assignments for the day pretty light (just math and violin practice).  

So if you were picturing the reality of homeschooling as being kids sitting at home at little desks facing a wall with a giant map on it, that sure isn't our lived reality.