Post#1 First Day of 10th Grade

It's the first day of 10th grade, Sophmore year. Wow. Wow and Wow...my 7th year of educating Evie at home. What a beautiful journey it has been. When we start a new "school year" we re-group for the year, we talk about what is important to us educationaly and beyond. What we want to learn, study, grow in. What is important for Evie and her dreams. That's how I educate her, I make sure she does her math and grammer and everything else is a facilitation of what's important to her, what will help her succeed in what SHE wants to do with her life.

It has been a journey, lots of twist and bends, some straight paths, some difficult ones. Sometimes like life it has been just as we intended and sometimes you just have to throw out your entire plan and start over. Learning when to hold on and when to let go, well that's a great life lesson. I set out to document her highschool years completely, but life had a different course in mind. Last year was full of change, loss, growth, beauty, and sadness. It was intense and the intensity of so many things prevented me from keeping up with my blog. Oh well, we still learned a lot, but there was a feeling of "wow we survived" on the last day of school. We hope to not feel quite that way at the end of this school year! I say "school year" but Evie's education is year round, 24hours a day, 7 days a week, it's called life. 

I have no idea what life will bring this school year, of course I don't, I am many things but seeing into the future is even beyond my many abilities. :) For those who like to know what "subjects" we are stuyding, well I know we hope to keep learning, keep loving the idea of learning something new. We will continue her advanced math-she's 2 grades ahead, we will read lots of great literature-she's a writer and advanced placment literature is important for her success, we will continue to use Stanford Universitie's free online history program. She will attend Ashbury College one semester for a Biology lab. Evie started taking free college courses last year through Coursera, I don't choose them, she does and she has two coming up, a writing course and a health course. I am so grateful for my self motivated child. I guess I get some credit for that as I have always encouraged self study and the love of learning. Other fun things, she will shoot archery on a team-I think this is year 4or5 of that, continue to study art and work with many different mediums, continued growth in her yoga and hoop practices, we are both going to learn how to play with fire, and then there is NANOwrimo in November. Also this will be her first year schooling with a job! We will attend homeschool co-op once a week, and then there is the building of our house. Before you ask, yes homebuilding is a class on her transcript! Sometimes you don't fit it all in, sometimes something slides, of course it does, and it should, because if not then your not really learning, and your not living in the moment. We try to live for today's joy. 

10th grade, I'm excited for it. I am excited to see how we both grow and change this year. The only thing I do know is this, I know we will shine. 

First day of school ice dream celebration! Well, because the coffee shops were all closed :) 

Lesson #11 Red Tent Retreat (From August)

Red Tent Retreat in Red River Gorge (no pun intended) was so very wonderful. We spent this weekend with friends old and new, young and old alike. Red River Gorge is an 800 acre piece of land and is an intentional Buddhist Community. The sharing of their space and their temple was just wonderful and deeply generous. I am so grateful for their generosity. We were allowed to sleep in the temple, we disobeyed all the "quiet, no speaking" rules, we laughed, sang, cried, and made the space OUR space for a short time. So much healing and sharing going on it was often hard to feel it all at once. We (all, including Evie and I ) loved the lotus pond, the beautiful food shared by all, the adornment, yoga outside, walking in the woods, howling in the cave, meditation, art making, hula hooping, singing...loved it all. Sharing this time with my own budding daughter, and allowing her to see the pain, love, happiness, SELF WORTH these women show her is
something I will be forever grateful for. I am only one woman, I am glad she has experienced and shared all the other stories and lives from so many wonderfully powerful women!

Some of our beautiful sistars, but not all!

The temple from the lotus pond

the beautiful steps leading to the pond

Tribal Wolf Heart Bear

Lesson#10 Random fun Summer Days and the First Month of Highschool

 The first month of highschool. I won't lie it's been the hardest first month of school perhaps since the first year we began homeschooling. Lots of work, but still only using curriculum that is beneficial because I think its beneficial to Evie, and  not due to state requirements. State requirements which of course we still fulfill :) Evie's English 1 is an Advanced Placement Literature program that is challenging but so beneficial. We/I are trying to find balance between schedule/demands and student pace/student (Evie's) desires. Hard schedule to come to terms with this year for us. Let's just say that I am very much looking forward to vacation in a few days! Well this has been a bit of rambling, but I AM struggling right now with our new year, and I KNOW we WILL find a flow. I have said it before, homeschooling is NOT the easy way out, it's tough, like life, sometimes tougher than others, but It's worth it. I think it's ok and necessary to share some of our struggles as well as our great achievements.

Below are some pictures from the last month or so of just random summer fun. Included are days on the lake with friends, just hanging out with friends, with friends at the fair, playing in the mud, yoga, a lovely party at my mom's themed "girls just wanna have fun" (wish i had gotten a pic. of all the lovely girls!), a party and light show for our new Yoga studio and founder's bday, and other randomness.....random ramblings, fun, life, and so on.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun- Alex, Alexa, and Evie

Evie Rockin' the Wake Board

Girls Rule!

Light Show in the sanctuary of the Presbyterian church! Yeah that is how we roll :)

yoga with Des

I don't even think these need a caption....."mud with friends day" perhaps?

Evie and Des have been to the fair together since they were 1 and 2 years old! EVERY year :) 

Just hanging out

at the Fair with little brother and Des

Goddess dressed for the Nourish Yoga /Jenny bday party

Lesson#9 First Calendar Day of Highschool 8/5/2013

So obviously I don't think that education stops at summer break. I feel that life IS education, and the "book work", or "curriculum" that we use should only be used for a few reasons. The first and most important is to benefit LIFE, the life the interest that she has NOW, things should be explored when you are interested, not in five years when it might be good for you. This helps us living more fully in the present. Secondly to full fill some sort of high school requirement, and thankfully in KY it is easy to bend/expand/change requirements to fit our needs and life. Lastly to get into/feel comfortable and to succeed in college. Evie intends to go, and I am proud of her for that, but I will be just as  proud of her if she never sets foot in a college classroom. All I want is for her to follow her heart, be happy and healthy, to feel like she is living her life and not just getting by, to feel JOY and Awe in her own life.

To celebrate our first calendar day of highschool we picked up Alexa, and went to the pool!

Lesson#8 July Red Tent

July's Red Tent was awesome! Of course it always is :) I will admit when Evie and I both walked in we were both a bit dissapointed that the majority of the faces we saw were not our familiar friends. However, the energy, the beauty, the love and light was just as strong, and afterward they all just felt like old friends. I love the Red Tent. One of the lovely ladies set up an adornment table where she brushed your hair, put a flower in your hair, gave you a bit of face paint/glitter/or a bindi....lovely just lovely. I was so very grateful for those moments of letting someone else "pretty me up"! (thank you Victoria!)

"July is about honoring beauty and celebrating ourselves as women on a healing journey. Join us as we journey within on a meditation of flowers. I will be dressing up and as always we will be adorning one another since we love it so much!
If you have something you want to share please share it! It could be a quote, a story, a poem, reiki, a painting, ect. This is our co-creation and together we weave it!
Please everyone bring flowers from your garden (we'll be making something ;-), a potluck dish, and your plate, cup, fork, spoon and bowl to conserve resources."

Mama Jamie...the woman spirit who listened to our heart and began our Red Tent

Our beautiful co-created flower mandala

Lesson#7 (From July) Yoga Camp

Yoga camp for 10-14 year olds. This was held at the studio I teach at with friend/owner Jenny Watkins, at Nourish Yoga Community. After seeing how much fun they had, I really want to do an adult yoga camp! At first Evie was like, " I am really busy, I don't know about yoga camp...." She had sooooo much fun! She didn't want Yoga Camp to end, like ever. Some of the things they did besides obviously do yoga; breath work, meditation, art! including painting the chakras, making homemade Mala beads out of paper, learn about the yamas and niyamas, and create designs with henna on each other. Aside from helping with the henna I just stayed away and let her have her own experience. We do so many awesome things together, and I love that, but sometimes when your homeschooled it's nice to get picked up from an outing/experience and to get to share that with your parents. It's good for her and I like it too! 

Lesson#6 (From July) Master Musicians Festival 2013-Twenty YearAnniversary

Wow Willie Nelson in little Somerset KY! First let me say that I LOVEEEEEE MMF, better known as Master Musician's Festival. This year was the 20th anniversary of the MMF event. It started with a woman's dream and a boy that needed a guitar. Life doesn't get much better, or more simple than that. The festival has been as much as four days long, and is currently at two days, the third Friday and Saturday of July. The festival is put together by a board of directors who do their good work for free. It is usually headed by another awesome woman with vision. Every year local talent as well as world famous talent play. This year our local Master Musician was that young boy who needed a guitar. Some of the other acts I thoroughly enjoyed were: Big Leg Emma, Bonepony, The David Mayfield Parade, Mountain Heart, and of course the legendary Willie Nelson and Family. I didn't get very many pics, because as usual I am too busy enjoying and experiencing! Evie looked gorgeous, but I have no pictures of her.