Wild Mama Weekly Snippet #4
What I’ve been reading, watching, listening to and thinking about this week…
Inspired by Patty Smith’s A Book of Days here is a photo for every day this week:
10/3:
11/3:
12/3:
13/3:
14/3:
15/3:
16/3:
What I’ve been reading:
As mentioned above I read A Book of Days by Patti Smith during the week. I’ve been listening to the audiobook of The Fiery Cross (Outlander 5) by Diana Gabaldon. This month’s book club pick has been The Women by Kristin Hannah and I’m excited to dig into it more tonight once my kids are in bed. I’ve only been hearing good things (both online and from my book club) and I love Kristin Hannah!
What I’ve been watching:
My biggest little and I have been enjoying watching The Babysitter’s Club series on Netflix together. I’ve watched it before but it’s her first time. Definitely holds a level of nostalgia as a 90’s kid reading the books and watching the movies back then. I’m really impressed with the newer series (released in 2020, I think?), it’s so wholesome and cute. A great mother daughter watch.
My husband and I have moved on from our heavy true story series watching into something light hearted with How I Met Your Father on Disney+. It’s a bit cringey and silly but good for a laugh so far.
I’ve continued watching along with the Australian Homeschooling Summit this week, and will be continuing to catch up on the recorded videos for weeks to come I’m sure.
What I’ve been listening to:
I have been listening to the Sisters Who Homeschool podcast. 2 homeschooling mothers based in Brisbane who have started sharing their homeschool experiences. I’m enjoying it! I really value learning from other home educating parents and hearing how they approach things. We can all learn so much from each other! Even if we approach things differently.
We traveled this week and The xx were our car tunes!
What I’ve been thinking about:
I’m currently thinking a lot about family centred learning. ‘Child led’ has become such a buzzword. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely believe in our children leading the way in their own lives! I believe in listening to children, following their interests and ideas and giving them autonomy but at the same time, as a mother of 3, I’ve also had to deeply consider how realistic and practical this is in the day to day. How can I be child led when I have 3 very different children that are all extremely unique, both in their needs and in their interests, leading me in 3 different directions all at once? So often this feels like an impossible task! Instead I’ve found myself leaning more towards family centred learning. By following the flow of our family, contemplating our overall holistic needs, prioritising shared interests and adventures that will captivate the attention of multiple family members, prioritising group learning opportunities, striving to keep things fair and equitable between my children, as well as considering my own boundaries and wellbeing. I’ve learnt the hard way that I can’t follow my children and their wants and needs when I am drowning so avoiding it is paramount.
Homeschooling, unschooling especially, is a lifestyle after all. It involves ALL of the family. Children, of course. Individually and as a group but It’s also a lifestyle for parents. It is inherently family centred! Or at least should be. I understand why we focus on the children, this is their education and childhoods, they are of utmost importance - always! But if we ONLY focus on our children and following their individual desires and demands constantly we miss some of the magic that’s available to us. The magic of learning to work together as a family, the magic of connection, the magic of navigating the wants and needs of multiple people at once. Each of these are massive learning opportunities for our children (and let’s face it - for us too)! Our children need to learn how to work together with others, they need to learn to communicate and to navigate different perspectives. Having siblings and a family centred lifestyle is the perfect set of circumstances to develop these skills and prepare for real life and relationships long term. If I somehow managed the impossible task of following all of my children constantly, all of the time, maybe they would miss some of this.
So maybe we’re not perfectly ‘child led’. But perhaps it’s not such a bad thing after all.
Would love to hear about what you’ve been reading, watching, listening to and thinking about this week!
Some older posts you may be interested in:
Love the little snippets of your days in photo form. I completely agree with you about being family-led, that is a lovely lense that considers everyones needs, not just the individuals 💛