just wake up and check the vibes: a life update
i saw this funny, and apt, instagram reel the other day that said something to the effect of ‘people are out here with their five year plans’ and i’m here, just waking up every day and checking the vibes.‘
low key, i felt personally attacked. that’s my permanent state right now. just living life, day by day. we’ve reached a place in our business here our business sustains our day to day life, with about an hour a day of focused check in and work-ins and work. i’ve thrown myself into leading community here, creating a homeschool co-op for my kids (two of which appreciate the effort) and one that would prefer we have a maximum of four children at anything we do, with arbitrary guidelines like being between certain hours of the day, and activities can last exactly 30 minutes of structured anything. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which rigid miniature dictator i’m talking about.
the kids are okay.
we came here with the intention of having three kids in school. we have one kid in school part time. Soon, that kid in part time school will have to make a decision about homeschooling or going to school for full days. The school agreed to a three month transition period, to try it out. she’s never been in school before - so, we needed more than a one-day trial. if I as a betting woman - and you know I am, I would bet that she is not going to make the transition to full days. we do daily academic work at home, but we’re working through the year 4 program, a full year ahead of her age - so, there’s not a lot of work we’re doing.
the youngest kid’s favourite things? spelling. her least favourite thing? anything we do more than once. the 90 minutes of forced reading time (not as bad it sounds, friends) has paid off because these words have been a breeze.
current school? not ideal. she is learning so much Vietnamese - very cool, and maybe my opinion would be different if she were taking part in the academic program, but i’m not happy about it - especially at the cost of $1,000 CAD/month for the part time program. In technology they’ve been making cards in Canva, and envelopes in Canva, for what feels like an eternity. She’s been using Canva to make her *Friday presentations for three years now. Ideally, there would be more elements of coding, design.
the oldest kiddo, thriving now. we had a lot of catch up work to do this last few months. we faced a big shock doing the entry process for the international school and realized how much she was pushed through. sure, we took a year off to travel with our kids but she made it to tenth grade without being able to formulate an opinion in an essay. she made it to tenth grade without being effectively able to infer details from a story. she made it to tenth grade without knowing common types of triangles. these are things that my eight year old unschooled child can do. and she was pushed all the way through middle school without a lot of the basics, with average, 75% grades. how? this year, I lost whatever little faith that I had left in a traditional education system. that being said, school plays a big role in her social happiness, and I could see her returning in the next couple of years, maybe for her last year. but for now, she’s got her twice weekly soccer, badminton, board games meet ups, surfing and volleyball, and a dozen good friends in the community. for now, I think she’s enjoying the freedom to pursue her interests and a more free schedule than the international school would provide.
the middle kiddo, thriving. not as engrained in the idea of spending the full day in a classroom, she’s content and thriving with the current self-lead learning she’s completing, using the gram resources for the IGCSE and project based learning. the self-cleaning-oven kid, this one is becoming curious and has her hands in many different types of projects, from creating jewelry from ocean trash to knitting and weaving. I love to see these curiousities develop, because there was a solid year after the transition out of traditional school where I wondered if she would ever regain the curiosity she’d lost. it still shocks me, how long it took to re-develop the curiosity.
if you can’t find it, build it
i’m putting the bones together for a micro school, but I can’t call it a micro school because it doesn’t align with the tradition of what school stands for. it feels like we’ve spent the last four months so focused on building this community and the days pass by quickly - so, i’ve made little progress aside from the branding, bones of the program and vetting suitable leaders. it’s the education experience that I envision for my unschooled child, rooted in nature and free learning.
We’re loosely following the IGCSE program for the older kids. Getting to the same checkpoints through a method of project based learning and one-on-one tutoring in math and english. It’s been beautiful, aside from a few hiccups along the way.
a small size petting zoo
the other day we happened upon a vendor selling turtles, and bought two turtles for the equivalent of five dollars CAD. they’re currently living in our bathroom in a basket, and a small created pond. we’re going to release them back into the wild when it stops raining today because otherwise turtles will lead to birds and birds will lead to something else and before we know it we’ll have a small petting zoo.
that is if I can pry those turtles out of the kids hands.
the next path
a petting zoo is not my next path. i’ve dove head first into creating this community of children and parents in a homeschool co-op, even extending it to create a welcome place for worldschooling families to assemble this month. it’s becoming so popular that we’re up to 500 people in our Facebook group and our homeschool co-op activities might have to be split in two because we’re upwards of thirty kids.
so right now that’s the focus. i’m leading a stem club, a math lab, art play and a little book club. and i’m in my homeschool mom era. maybe there doesn’t have to be a next business, a next project or a next big path. maybe we just stay, pause, and enjoy being in this era where all I do is homeschool my kids, check into work and approve content and cook 983 meals a day, make marshmallows and graham crackers from scratch, create community for kids, and bask in the sun on the beach.
maybe that’s the lesson here. maybe that’s the path.
maybe i’ve spent my whole adult life in an entrepreneurial state of turning everything into a monetized business because i’m admittedly so fucking good at that, and it’s time to all that part of my brain to exist, write it down, send it into the universe for someone else to create, and just wake up and check the vibes.
…..
oh my god jamie look is a beautiful tablescape
jamie: I love the banana-ing
me: what?
jamie: I thought we were just making up words
me: but look at the tables cape
*Friday presentations: every Friday, the kids present a five minute presentation on their chosen topic, educating each other (and us!) They spend the week researching the topic to share with the family. 