It Takes a Village

I've always been able to relate to the age-old saying, "It Takes a Village"...because honestly, it does. Right? I honestly can't name a moment in my life where I didn't have at least one person, if not a group of people, who I felt were there for me if I needed it. There isn't one thing I've taken on, accomplished or completed without a group of supporters behind me every step of the way. Of course, who that village is and consists of varies from situation to situation. Sometimes it's family. Sometimes it's friends. Sometimes it's people you'd least expect. But, never-the-less, I've always gratefully felt supported.

This journey into and through homeschooling has been no different. I relied heavily on my village to bring clarity to this decision. I rely heavily on my village to make the day-to-day workings of this journey possible. And I rely heavily on my village to maintain my sanity and strength through it all.

There have been many saving graces along the way but the one that has been a constant lifesaver for both me and my son, Odin, has been another (more seasoned) homeschooling mama like myself, and her sweet boy. She and I have connected on parenting similarities; she's been an invaluable resource to bounce ideas off of and point me in the right direction; she provides a sense of normalcy to my perspective when I'm beginning to wonder if I'm destroying us all; and the best part is that our boys are natural friends with more in common than I could ever hope for (they even both are rocking the long hair!)

Our weekly get-togethers provide social interaction and natural discovery time for our boys as well as a chance for us, as homeschooling mamas, to connect with another like-minded adult in our week! I may be so bold to say that it provides us with a friendship that we've both been longing to have in our lives - someone who GETS where we're at and can morally support us along the way. She has certainly been that for me. I don't know what I would do without them as we make our way through this journey.

Our days together consist of the boys running wild in the prairie or jumping from log to log playing "cowboys" while we drink coconut milk chai tea together and review homeschooling resources or compare the latest challenges or joys in our boys' lives.

Today during our gathering, we explored a science-based lesson plan where the boys watched a short video about animal food chains. We then played a card game, all together, called "Eat or Be Eaten" where we tried to create food chains focusing on who eats what in the wild. This activity engaged the boys to think critically about the various ways in which animals relate to each other in nature from a predatory perspective. It was fun to see them laughing and learning as they figured out, together, the links in the food chain sequences.

Prior to the end of our time together, we had the boys share their main lesson books with each other. We all then discussed the beauty of nature journaling and how the concept of doing so encourages you to step outside and be more observant of the world around you. No doubt, there are exponential amounts of learning we can acquire from the simple observations around us. Upon leaving their house, we headed into town to purchase our own dedicated nature journals! Odin was so excited to pick his out and start journaling.

Admittedly, up until this point, I've found that it's been sometimes hard to get Odin excited about working on lessons or workbook pages or anything of the sort. This has been another reason that having my village to lean on has been such an integral part of my sanity. However, I've slowly allowed myself to find that when I let him truly lead the way in his learning, it's so much more enjoyable for both of us. Hence, nature journaling....

Odin's love at the moment is birds (of course, a natural extension of nature journaling). Anything birds. All he wants to learn about is birds. So, we learn about birds. He gets up at 7am and heads outside in his pajamas with his binoculars and sits and looks for birds. He reads about birds. He talks about birds. He calls to birds when we're in the yard or walking to the car. So, naturally, when we discussed nature journaling and how he could document all the things he observes about birds, he was excited from the get-go. I'm crossing my fingers that the excitement stays, but I'm optimistic. He's been a bird lover all of his life and I don't think that'll be changing anytime soon.

It's exciting to know that we can take our learning journey any which way we want to. And I think Odin gets excited about the potential around that too.

It's even better to know that we have companions and friends that are working on THEIR nature journals too - and so much more. It feels like a group effort in some ways. It truly does feels like a village. A "learning village". Albeit, a small one, but a village none-the-less. One that is learning from each other as we go. One that is unfolding and blossoming in it's own unique way. One that is full of support and encouragement and camaraderie and understanding.

And as long as we got that, we'll be just fine. No matter how hard any given day might be. We'll be...just...fine.