Ever tried this with other fruit? Does it need to be citrus or could strawberry puree work?

I love your conclusion and hope you and your kiddo have tons of fun letting his “quirky imagination” run rampant!

Our preschool didn’t assign any homework and gave the parents a speech to help us establish appropriate expectations about what our kids’ artworks will look like coming home since they have very little adult help.

Basically we received lots of works that resembled Pinterest fails… plus glitter. Lots of glitter.

Yet, several years later, my kids are eager to get creative, don’t fret about going outside the lines (at some point they did learn how to color inside them), and have wonderful senses of personal expression.

I would also encourage you to continue to communicate your feelings about homework and workload in general with your kid’s teachers.

Fear and laziness are terrible motivators… In situations of suffering or difficulty, it can seem reasonable or even wise to sacrifice one’s personal freedom (or others’ freedom through legislative action). Strangely, this reminds me of the counsel received by Spider-Man that “with great power comes great responsibility.” I fear that more people in the cultural west are willing to forfeit the great power of freedom in order to avoid the great responsibility that comes with it…

Any veggie suggestions to grow? my family has been in a tomato/pepper/cucumber rut these past couple years… The kids loved harvesting carrots but the half dozen teeny orange spears didn’t seem worth the real estate in the garden. Any favorite veggies to grow (zone 6)?

With many co-op groups and alternative supplemental classes, “home school” is less isolated than I assumed.

For example, my home schooling friend has her kids pick a few subjects each semester at a program designed to supplement their curriculum at home. She doesn’t feel comfortable teaching high school math so she has had them do math and foreign languages from certified teachers and oversees the rest at home. This gives her 2-3 days a week to work a part time job and gives opportunities for socialization to her kids.

It seems like a win-win for them…

Your post is very encouraging to me- busy mom trying to stay abreast of this changing world.

I am grateful to hear of teachers who are thinking passionately and compassionately of their students- building them up in ways that will truly equip them to face adulthood.

I find myself in cycles of pushing through over-commitments, burning out, reevaluating and stepping back, then slowly over-committing again. Perhaps maturity would be to become better at saying No when stretched thin to avoid the burn out cycle.

I feel this tension especially as I watch my children falling to the need to consume- already trying to outpace their friends for new things that won't last except as plastic in a dump or ocean. Their interest in artistic and musical production (i.e. banging on the piano and smearing paint on everything) has too often been overshadowed by temporarily distracting Things. Asking "what habits have you established" is so important, because it is habits that will cultivate a creative lifestyle, become second nature, and end up being the model for our children. My children can be taught repeatedly that they are made in God's image, therefore should cultivate their creativity, but much more affective would be for these habits to be caught from my example. The two venues in which we try to cultivate a thirst for creativity in our family include: