My Maplerose Blog

My oldest has always been keen to get up first thing in the morning and do his own thing for a while. Since he could toddle his way out of the bed he spends early mornings reading and playing. Often the sound of LEGO block searching  gets me up.

Lately though, he's been into foraging first thing and the sound of the cookie jar lid at 6:45am often wakes me up.

My way to combat this behaviour, rather than get myself out of bed, is to just make cookies and muffins so chock full of goodness they pass for "pre-breakfast" and this mom can sleep on.

One of the concerns of homeschooling/unschooling parents is often how to achieve all the lessons in all the subjects (especially if you're responsible for documenting all the "learning" that's going on at home). I often find by just getting outside and doing what we love so many of the boxes get checked off and it happens in such a gentle and organic way.

It was something special if I spent more than 10 minutes sitting down, doing something "just for Jenn", in a day.

When it all came to a halt, I found myself disoriented. And then I was sad.

I quickly realized it had been a very, very long time since it was just me doing things for just me. And what had that done to my sense of self? Is my only value based on what I can get done in a day? Or what I do for my children?

What was it liked to do?!

I realize it's become increasingly hard to give myself time. I run this business from our home. I love cooking and baking for our family but it's a part time job. Homemade marshmallows and soup and bagels are sooo good. And I get so much joy from doing it.

I crave more joy in my life.

And then there's the laundry, sweeping, and snack making that seem to work together to fill every other spare moment there is. Oh yeah, and I'm unschooling the hooligans.

Unschooling requires energy and attention and the willingess to go with the flow. And there's a whole lot of mental energy required to deschool myself.

Last year we started doing a new Autumn craft that preserves leaves perfectly and they're a lot easier to keep track of.

It's a quick craft, takes very little prep and smells delightful. And with enough newspapers spread out, it's any easy clean-up, too.

Are you ready to try dipping leaves in beeswax? Oh yes, you are!

The hooligans and I had such fun baking these. We actually do most of our home learning when we bake.They loved making the Tanzhong in the first step and it opened up all kinds of conversations about baking, Asia, language, chemisty, stories from when I was a pastry chef. And we smelled the cinnamon and meausred and mixed and rolled the dough. And while it rested to let the yeast do it's magic we rested too. And talked a little bit about yeast and sourdough and looked for the dental floss.

I can't always count on the hooligans for help baking anymore. Baking has been "our thing" since they could stand beside me on a chair in the kitchen. But they are very busy individuals, as you can imagine, so all I can do is create the opportunity. And if they care to join me then I'm there to help.

The very first blog post in which the author, Jenn Chic, introduces herself. So excited to get started. See you here.