Carpe Diem

Many MANY years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, a coworker of mine said 'I don't have any of that baby-advise you'll get from others, but I can tell you.......change your expectation about Sleep'.  After having my first baby, I then quickly understood what this coworker was trying to tell me.

For anyone starting out home educating (life without school).......I don't have any of the typical advise you will get from others, but I can tell you........change your expectation of what a 'clean house' means.

You see mess? I see imaginary play

When you're juggling the days around identifying and pursuing things your child is interested in, taking your child on social outings, inviting friends of your child over for social outings, etc upon etc.  you do learn to prioritize. For example, you could spend the morning cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms then organizing all the craft supplies, OR......you could quickly get dressed and head outdoors to enjoy nature or a few hours at the playground with friends.

Or possibly a spontaneous moment comes up; whereby, you suddenly realize that the local museum (or the one an hours journey by train) has a temporary exhibit on Egyptian artifacts, and your weeun just so happens to be interested in Hieroglyphs.

''What's more important''?, you may ask yourself.
''Cleaning the house and sorting toys, OR, going out and seizing the moment''

THIS, my friends, is why you will often find our house in total disarray.

We don't get out and about as often as other home-ed families , but, for sure, we 'seize the moment' when opportunity comes knocking. In the bigger scheme of things, I fall back upon the age old saying of 'a messy kitchen is a well-loved kitchen'. 

A messy outdoor table means some creative children expressed themselves
A messy living room floor means some creative children enjoyed playing with their toys in imaginary play.
A messy bedroom floor means I decided to spend time reading with my children in bed rather than cleaning the bedroom.
Messy children mean children who've had fun and weren't afraid of getting messy.

I do find a few strategic moments each month where I say 'STOP, that's it......I'm cleaning and sorting', but I reserve those moments for when the weather is awful and we stay indoors anyway.
Oh, and in case you're thinking ''well, you should make those children clean up their own messes''
Rest assured, they do often surprise me without being coerced and CLEAN surprisingly well.
BUT, if they are otherwise occupied creating and enjoying imaginary play.......I'd rather they spend their time in that world than in the mundane world of cleaning-n-sorting. Trust me, they will later in life have the ability to keep their own homes clean.  That moment will come when they have their own place.

On that note, I am going to be doting mum here and post a few pics of the other side of 'messy'

dipping marbles in paint and rolling. a bit 'preschool' but still fun!

Cypress

Indigo

Zephyr