Cycles

The wheel of the year is moving and it feels like a change in the weather is here.  The days are drier, in the main, the sky is occassionally blue and it is slightly warmer.  We are emerging slowly from the grey and wet of this past winter.  It feels like we are emerging from a period of hibernation, it is good to be outside.

At the beginning of last Autumn our week started to evolve into a new rhythm following some major changes in our family life.  At that time we were doing different activities each day at home, coupled with time out side the house with friends, joining groups and being outdoors.  As we moved into the Winter months the rhythm changed again we stopped attending one of our groups and spending so much time outside.  I was really concerned that we would become stir crazy being at home all the time but in reality it hasn't been like that at all.  The last time we had so few organised plans in our week was in the early days of home educating, we hardly knew anyone then and didn't have the confidence to organise things ourselves.  A few years down the line things are very different, if we do have a quiet week it is usually in between busier ones but not so busy that they are hectic, I have learnt that lesson too!

Our mornings are spent at home, in the main, Thursdays we go out late morning.  This is our family time for doing things together.  I offer activities etc based on which day of the week it is but these are not always taken up which I am not concerned about.  I often find that if the are not interested at the time they are later on in the day or the week.  I am not regimental.  Monday is numbers, maths and baking, Tuesday is making things, painting etc, Wednesday is music, Thursday is language, Friday is Science.

We usually have lunch at home together at the table.  We sometimes sing songs, we usually read a chapter or story from a book and some poems related to our theme or interests bringing our morning to a close.

The afternoons are slightly more adhoc, Monday is singing group at a friends house, Thursday is our day to go into our local town, we shop and go swimming.  Tuesdays, now that the weather is changing, is our afternoon outside.  We have had this planned in our week before, to go for a walk once a week on the same day but it didn't really work, we didn't stick to it.  The children were not really interested in going for a walk every week, although they do love being outside.  So I am trying something else for now, a walk, a bike ride, some bird watching, a local ruinous castle with extensive grounds which the children never tire of exploring, alternating between the activities one each week through the month.  The other days?  Well they are time for play dates, visits to musuems and always a day at home for rest and recharging.  We invite friends to join us on a Tuesday if they want to, if they don't we go anyway.

Not so long ago I couldn't manage an adhoc rhythm, I needed regularity knowing that something was going to happen every week on the same day.  I am sure this was a reaction to those early days when I would go for days on end not seeing any other adult other than my husband at the beginning and the end of the day.  I am more confident now, not rebuffed by folks saying no to offers we make.  Our lives are just as busy, with plans made a week or so in advance.  It has a flow to it that I am enjoying. This is how our lives are now in a few months I have no doubt our rhythm will be different as the seasons and my children's interests and needs change.  I am good with this too, in the past I needed it to be a constant.  The future is an exciting place.