Fall is here and we're going to enjoy it!

I love Fall in the Midwest! It's my favorite time of year because it is pleasant enough to be outside, the weather is superb, and everything is still so pretty.

As I worked with David today, the outdoors were calling to me. He went outside to find something to tell me about for nature study, and soon called me outside to see what he'd found. He'd caught a butterfly from one of our flowering bushes in the front yard. Of course it flew away as soon as he opened his hands, but he took me to the plant to show me more.

The plant, and all of its bright yellow flowers (I thought it was a Black-eyed Susan, but I checked and I was wrong), was covered with all kinds of insects. There were bees flitting around with full pollen sacs, butterflies tasting the flowers' nectar with their long proboscises (a new word I just learned but apparently David already knew from Kindergarten last year - those Magic School Bus books are pretty cool!), what looked like flying ants, and various beetles crawling around. As I sat there watching them for a minute, I was suddenly consumed with an overwhelming desire to throw schoolwork out the window for the day and enjoy the moment.

So we did!

It was wonderful, and the kids were delighted. Drew and Darcy joined us while Spencer rode his bike up and down the street, and we all had a marvelous time. Darcy was especially funny because she was trying to stand up by the bush and pick the flowers apart. It was darling!

David and Drew started pulling petals off the flowers and putting them Darcy's hair. Suddenly Drew cried, "Mom, there's a bug in Darcy's hair!" Sure enough, there was indeed. It was a little green inch worm that David pulled out and held in his hand. It was so interesting to watch it scrunch up its body to inch forward. He wanted to keep it in a jar inside, but I warned him that it would die if it wasn't able to stay outside and be near its home. I was glad he agreed; he caught a cicada last week and stuck it in a jar and it died and got VERY stinky. Yuck!

All this led me to start thinking about what my priorities should be right now. After all, there will be PLENTY of time for schoolwork when the weather gets nasty and we're stuck inside day after day. Why not take it a bit easy with the academics part of homeschool and just enjoy the life part for a little while?

So we are.

I just re-did the boys' boxes for tomorrow, and I'm taking it down to the bare minimum (I still want to maintain a semblance of a routine and consistency, at least for Spencer's sake). I've moved our history/Bible readings to bedtime and am reading the Book of Mormon and a chapter book then, too. Our daytime work was been reduced to each of them reading the Book of Mormon, working on some scripture memorization (surprisingly easy!), hearing me read stories to them, some copywork and writing practice, poetry, and some math. I'm going to keep the math fun by mostly playing math games for the next little while so the kids can polish up their facts without realizing they're doing it. *hink hink hink!*

Anyway, it feels right to be doing this. I want to leave as much time as possible free during the day for us to go on walks/bike rides, play outside, discover what's going on around us, and enjoy the delightful weather before winter sets in. It seems like the snow and cold is a long way off, but these months fly by so quickly.

So does childhood, for that matter.