We’ve done poetry tea time as a special event about once a term with fancy treats and hot chocolate instead of tea. But my kids definitely prefer the more funny or silly poems, like Shel Silverstein! But we do gather more regularly in the evenings for a fun read aloud. That seems to be more successful for us. 😁

I'm so glad you're homeschooling - congratulations on embarking on such a huge and scary task! Your littles are indeed little. I have been homeschooling for 10 years now and I was homeschooled as well. But mama it just gears up from here. Many of the things that you mentioned are the little drops of memories that add up. Just choose one. It might not always be fun. But some of the best things take time to cultivate a love of. Some of these took my kids LOTS of time to fall in love with. But now that they are older, it is their favorite part - it's the slow and lovely part of our day. Do the things you love, not the things that are required. They will grow on your kids. And the required things will fill themselves in. I also wanted to offer you some encouragement about your people - it took us 4 years of going to so many places, play dates, and awkward meet-ups before we found our people! Keep going - you'll find them and your stride! Good luck to you!!

I had to cut all these things out too. Lol I do think it’s a maturity thing. Maturity of the home school as well as us teachers and our students.

Ive enjoyed your videos. I’m from the other side of the country and am starting my journey with my 4 almost 5 year old so we share some struggles and experiences. I also have knowledge crates as a subscription box and we seem to get a bit more use out of it than our kiwico box (but love them both). Something I thought about when listening to your video (just sharing but not at all telling you what to do) -you seem to already have a lot of things morning basket like - maybe just put it together to kick off your day -morning menus which your kids sort of enjoy - add some playdoh for your son and you’ve got yourself a bit of math warmup -the American Girl read aloud, literacy -your continents song, geography/social studies -add a jump rope or hula hoop for a fun quick body energizer and you’ve got PE (you can easily tie in counting, alphabet recitation, nursery rhymes which is intro to poetry, etc.) -add a timer or stop watch or buzzer and make obstacle course which includes brushing teeth, fixing bed, dishes in sink, getting dressed or any combination of morning routines. Objective is to complete and hit the buzzer or timer before anyone else. Winner gets to pick outdoor activity or snack for the day. Now you’ve got practical life skills and maybe even getting that hike in as a reward 😉 I haven’t tried the buzzer one yet but am working on it with my boy. If you try any of these - I would love to hear how it goes. Good luck and keep sharing. Your content is great

We are with a charter in CA also, but in Mendocino County. We try to do field trips and charter gatherings, but with 3 little ones, it’s really hard to find the time. Glad I found your channel!

Homeschool moms we love doing all the things and I think that may have been the problem. I have done the same thing and it’s so relatable. My kids are 4 and 6 and I do think it’s an age thing too. We just started doing morning basket time during breakfast and that has been working for us. Our morning time looks like this- A very short Bible devotion. I read one picture book. And then I rotate a very very short enrichment.. so like Monday we are studying one composer Chopin. We will just listen to one song. On Wednesday we will do our poet study and we are studying one Poet Robert Lewis Stevenson… that looks like reading one poem and that’s it 5 minutes maybe ask how the liked it or if they have any thoughts. We don’t dissect the poem, only listen. Fridays we do our artist study and we do Van Gogh so each week we look at a different picture of his. We look at it and then I put it out. So basically morning basket is 5 minute Bible devotion, 5 minutes for a picture book, and 5 minutes for enrichment. So if poetry is important maybe try just reading one poem once a week and see how that goes. On the other days we may do a science lesson or history lesson. But sometimes I just choose a picture book that has science or history in it. Then we do math, one page of handwriting, and phonics and we are done for the day! I think kids mostly do want to just play and I’m reminding myself how important that is. You are doing a great job!

My daughter also didn't take to poetry, until we did poem memorization in the First Language Lessons curriculum. She loved that!

We haven’t had a lot of success with subscription boxes! Kiwico has largely been a flop for us. We have loved knowledge crates but a lot of it ended up not getting used which seems wasteful for the price. My kids aren’t big into “product” art - they like to dance to the beat of their own drum 🤣🤣

My son is 6 and he is doing soooo much less (at home) then my daughter (11) did at his age. He just isn't interested in things like I wanted him to be. It's simple at home. Reading and math and sometimes LA if he is still for long enough. He gets most of his enrichment at the three days at our coop/micro school.