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We are also trying to finish up the last pieces of our renovation puzzle, and I’m threatening myself with actually confirming a housewarming party, which I’m glad no one showed up for a couple of weeks ago, which had been the original plan (I’m pretty sure those who know and love me took it for granted that we wouldn’t be ready way back then!).

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I have however, been unusually on-the-ball with our homeschooling routine, and I’m quite proud of that.  Not that there is really much to it: We do a couple of hours of “school” every morning, which consists of reading, writing, drawing, and chatting at the table.

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I am totally agnostic when it comes to “schooling” or “unschooling” my children, and my approach is, as always, made up of a bit of everything.  I understand and appreciate the unschooling approach, but I also have a soft spot for Classical education, Charlotte Mason’s work, the Waldorf philosophy, and Maria Montessori’s vision as well, I suppose because I loved the more inspiring aspects of formal education, with some important caveats. There is a place for formal teaching, I think, in small doses.  In other words, I am an educational agnostic.  Certainty, moral or otherwise, is as unappealing to me when it comes to schooling as with anything else.  I hope that any formal teaching that I do with my kids will carry with it a spirit of freedom and self-determination, and that conversely, when the kids are running wild and learning from the earth, the sky, and other people in the world, (which still makes up 85% of their day) they will bring to those “unschooling” experiences an aspect of self-discipline, organization, analysis, and consideration.  What I don’t subscribe to, is the idea that children require no guidance whatsoever, and that chaos equals unschooling equals everything is fine.

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In any case, Horus, Treva and Felix are doing really well, and for me,  engaging with my children in this semi-formal teaching mode is fascinating.  The way each of my kids learns so differently is fascinating.  The experience exercises my patience and my intellect, and is highly fulfilling.

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Apart from learning, apple-picking, archery, walks in the woods, pottery, house-fixing, reading, karate, & ballet, my own life has been increasingly devoted to birth-work, which feeds my soul in the most profound way.  I love seeing this birth community of ours here in New Brunswick thriving so well.  I am endlessly grateful for the privilege of being able to honestly say that I believe the work I and my colleagues are doing is helping to make the world a better place.  Birth-work has revealed to me my own genuine love for other human beings.  I meet so many wonderful, diverse families, and I love them all.  We humans are so beautiful and inspiring.