the rubberiness of schedules

Um, remember how I said my son was following a timetable? And he was starting around 9 and working until around 12? And he was doing maths, then english, then Science on Mondays and History on Wednesdays, and so forth?

Well…

I've decided the beautiful thing about making any sort of schedule is that you can then relax and ignore it completely! Yes, that's my take on it.

We've had such a lovely week.

On Monday, my husband cancelled a class to be home with us. So while I rested, the kids got to spend their morning riding bikes with their dad, along the ocean bike path, in the sun. When they got home, yes, my son did maths, but instead of then writing in his journal and doing Science, he began researching for his new chosen project—a lapbook on Greek and Roman myths— and made his first mini-book. He was so happy.

Then my son made up such a silly story playing with his sister that he had to go write it down. He couldn't stop writing when it was time for band practice, so he brought it along, and wrote it while his friends waited for him to play soccer (which they all play just before band). When the very silly story was done, the band kids crowded around while my son's friend read it out, and everyone roared with laughter.

Tuesday, the kids learned about Carl Friedrich Gauss, the Prince of Mathematicians. Naturally, my boy didn't touch his maths workbook. And then he suggested reading through the Science by Email newsletters I've been getting through the kids' subscription to an Australian Science Club.

The kids read about solar radiation, did little quizzes and got excited about some experiments. But it was time for tennis lessons, so our academic day was done. Or was it?—we still managed to fit in a really deep ethical discussion about "right" and "wrong," while driving the rolling, cow-speckled hills to the tennis court. As you do!

Wednesdays are my boy's History days, but instead he played Man Bites Dog with his Nana. Stories had to be shown, cuddles had. Then we went out to lunch and spent a happy hour or two in the book store. My son found a new Asterix book which he bought with his pocket money and promptly devoured. Then it was time to play an hour of soccer before music lessons. And to read and read and read some more.

As for Thursday. What did we do today? My son read until 10, a book called The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth. It's a wonderful book—you get to visit Scotland, and time travel with the characters back to the 16th Century and the days of Mary Queen of Scots. And fight evil fairy queens to boot. Awesome.

Then my boy leisurely strolled down for breakfast. In the meantime, I had made a maths Bingo game for my girl and I to play, matching subtraction sentences and numbers. My son just had to play that with us. Workbook, shmurkbook.

Afterwards, my boy continued writing a new, also-very-silly story about a goblin named Frank who likes to eat tourists.

And then we had to go to Homeschool Group to play tennis with 15 other free-to-be, joy-filled, laughing children…

So, as I was saying:

The schedule had no chance this week. There was just too much life learning to do!