Day In The Life Of A Home Educator - March 2022

Cherry blossoms and a moody sky!

So as I promised in my Day in the life of a home educator post here is the first month of me sharing what we did, how our days and weeks roughly looked and how I felt it went.

March 2022

This month has been a change for us as we have introduced lapbooks as a way of encouraging the kids to dive a little deeper into topics they're interested in.

The lapbooks topics as chosen by the kids are:

1. Oceans
2. Coral Reefs

Weather

The weather has been very up and down, sunny, bright and warming up one day, torrential rain the next and then, to really mix it up, a couple of snow storms thrown in! I've found myself being tempted out by the sun appearing, heading to a park and then realising, in actual reality, the wind is in fact a natural blast chiller and you just can't stand around watching kids play for that long. Yes I have a great winter coat but I'm built for tropical weather really so I have (very low) limits!

Weekly Activities

These things happened every week!

• Swimming
• Cleaning the house
• Lapbook work
• Park play with local group
• Meeting friends online to play Minecraft   

'Field Trips'

For the days where we weren't cleaning, loafing around, playing games, meeting friends or swimming we tried to regularly head out and explore the area, finding either a new park, fun place to visit or somewhere amazing to eat, as we all appreciate some good food!

This month we headed to:

The Aquarium

We have an annual pass so where our initial visit saw us rushing through the whole place just to see it all in one go, I've found our subsequent visits have been much more relaxed and focused. This is our third, and we spent more time watching the sealions, searching for the octopus, catching the 4D show and checking out the Canadian coastal displays. I highly recommend having annual passes as I have really noticed mine paying a lot more attention to the exhibits, reading the signs and spotting differences with the fish and their behaviour. 

They do seem to acquire a new stuffie whenever we visit so there is that to be aware of! 

Regular visit to the aquarium, with new stuffies (sigh)

The Climbing Wall

The kids have really wanted to try climbing and after making the silly mistake of trying to visit a trampoline park on a Saturday (ugh, why did we do that!?) we headed instead to the local climbing wall. It was super quiet and they had a great time.

Kids first go at indoor climbing 

Brunch

We love to find new, delicious foods and great places to eat, the more interesting the better. We headed to this spot that had great reviews for brunch and it didn't disappoint. 

Trying new food places, the blue pea lemonade was delicious

Seeing Nature Bloom

It's hard to miss the vast cherry blossom displays around us, so everywhere we went I made a point of shrieking out "CHERRY BLOSSOMS," it drove the kids crazy and made me smile! 

They are very beautiful though and sparked a (tiny) discussion of spring and the trees preparing to get their leaves back.

Admiring the beautiful cherry blossom that bloomed

Weird Nature Finds & Beach Combing

On a rare break in the rain we dashed to the local beach for a play on the park and a wander down the beach. The tide had recently gone out and there were lots of 'treasures' along the shoreline for us to discover. We brought back a (dog poo bag as that's all I had on me) full of pebbles, seaweed, shells and driftwood which we washed and displayed. We discovered that one of the seaweeds (a beautiful bright shade of red) actually releases a soapy gel and we reactivated it in water. We also spotted this greedy gull trying to eat a starfish the size of its head, having never seen a gull eat a starfish before I was unable to stop watching, it was fascinating how long it took. This was one of my favourite days, it was super relaxed we had nowhere to be, no one to answer to except us and I love discovering new things, especially in nature. 

Weird nature - this seagull took 15 minutes to swallow this starfish - no joke!

Exploring A New Skatepark

We had a mooch out to a skatepark on the outskirts of town. JJ loves to skateboard and enjoys finding different obstacles, this one had a lovely piece of street art on the wall opposite which we all admired then we indulged with ice cream - including one specially made for the dogs complete with chicken! 

Art appreciation

Random Walks

One thing I love to do is park a bit further out from where we're heading (mainly because non easy parking stresses me out!) and have a longer wander to our destination. I find that doing this helps us discover those streets, sights and hidden gems that you wouldn't usually spot. Doing this we've come across play parks, little free libraries, cosy coffee shops, cute statues and this time we found these stones along the spirit trail that have fun mariner quips on them, naturally we stopped and read each one on our way. The same walk also found a great stretch of pebbly river, Miss L loves to sit and watch the water so this was a tranquil spot to take a pause at. 

Discovering hidden delights on a random walk

Enjoying an impromptu river play on a walk

Finally, Library

I don't think any home educating month is complete without a trip to the local library to stock up on new reads. We love our library jaunts and can get out 50 books per card at our local so we regularly come away with a huge weight in books. I always joke I need a trolley! 

Thoughts on this month

Weird weather aside it's been quite a good month for discovering new places. We've not tried as many new, interesting foods as I'd like but we've managed to frequently get outside which is always a goal of mine. I find leaving the house is the hardest part! 

We're still having troubles with balancing screens and game play, especially as Minecraft is now also tied in with social play and I don't want to restrict time with their peers too much. I can see this will be a delicate ongoing balancing act. 

I'm pleased we've established a regular meetup for our home ed community and that I've introduced the lapbooks which were, surprisingly, met with enthusiasm rather than the usual resistance. I see them as a good way to encourage research into topics that interest them without it just being a shallow level of detail, and if it means we don't have to battle each other to get it done then I consider that a win.