A Snapshot of March

A few months ago, I read Julie Bogart’s The Brave Learner. I recommend it to anyone educating their children for any length of time.

My main takeaway was the suggestion of looking at homeschooling in month long snapshots rather than measuring success or accomplishments based on any one day.

Of course, this makes sense because, naturally, the days that aren’t going so well often stand out over the ones that are until it seems like the only reality that exists is one in which no one wants to “do school,” the house is a mess, the kids are always fighting and the laundry needs folding (again)!

Ironically enough, I decided my first month snapshot would be March because, you know, we’ve all done a lot this month and it’ll seem really impressive.

The arrival of March in itself always feels like an accomplishment to me. In Canada, March 1st does not mean the snowsuits can be put away but it still feels a little like I’ve survived the winter and things are only looking up from here.

The first half of the month was filled with finishing skating lessons (with passed levels for everyone!), the three year old’s first chance to accompany big sister and mama to a cooking class, meet ups with friends and the first meeting of what seemed like an awesome nature group for my biggest kid. We also survived a night without Daddy while he was away for work.

We were looking forward to two weeks of March break, complete with a sugar bush field trip, the start of spring swimming lessons, afternoons at co-op, a church fun day, more nature group for miss eight year old and visits with grandparents.

And then we cleared the calendar, wished we’d bought more disinfectant wipes in February and March became “Everythingiscancelled 2020.”

I almost can’t believe life seemed so normal such a short time ago.

But all has not been lost.

During our weeks of lockdown, we’ve been enjoying more outside time, the kids have played hours of creative independent games, we’ve baked and we’ve spent more time with daddy.

Although the calendar has been empty, the days have still been (mostly) meaningful.

April will mean we’re back at school again and maybe I’ll try to read a book instead of COVID-19 news articles.