Letters to my children: Homeschool Circle Time learnings

Dearest Beloveds,

The effects of covid range from the tragic to the ridiculous. Tragic - thousands dead. Ridiculous - Dragon you do not know any children’s songs.

I don’t know why but I had assumed you knew them. Honestly, I was rather shocked and sad at your first Kindergarten circle time. Shocked because it is such tangible evidence of these past years of isolation. Sad - for the same reason.

Kindergarten in Oak Meadow (our beloved curricula) starts with circle time. Full body songs (Head’s Shoulder’s Knees and Toes or I’m a Little Teacup), hand stories and movements (Here is the church, Here is the Beehive, Five Little Mice) and songs (Five Green and Speckled Frogs, I’m Riding on My Bicycle) fill the space.

Bean, you were exposed to the classics courtesy of story time at the library, Kindermusic, friends parties, and singing in the car. By the time we started Kindergarten you were already an old pro at the classics.

Not so Dragon.

Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Wheels on the Bus, BINGO, She’ll be coming ‘round the Mountain, This Old Man, Over in the Meadow…these are all new to you.

We do circle time with everyone together after breakfast. After the dishes I feed the cat and braid hair. Everyone attends to secret pees. Then I begin to sing as I walk from the kitchen to the library: “Time to make a circle, a circle, a circle, time to make a circle and hold somebody’s hand. Time to make a circle, a circle, a circle, time to make a circle and hold somebody’s hand.”

A three or four person circle stomps together on the sheepskin rugs - all eyes on me.

Usually we start with a full body song (Parts of the Body Song or the Hokey Pokey) then we sit down and do poems and songs. Circle time doesn’t usually last more than 7-10 minutes and then we finish up with “Guide my hands left and right, As I work with all my might.”

The first week of Kindergarten/3rd Grade the Bean would blurt out, “Not this one!” or “Momma! I don’t like this one! Do BINGO!”

But, thankfully, ever since I explained to you that your brother doesn’t know any of the songs and it is up to us to teach him - you have totally flipped it - and are now helping him by modeling. Mixed age learnings are so good.

Circle time doings is a perfect example of a Conscious Discipline I Love you Ritual. “I Love You Rituals are playful, one-on-one interactions that build loving bonds while increasing attention span, decreasing power struggles and promoting language and literacy at school or at home. These brain-building interactions facilitate optimal development for young children and create lifelong bonds between children and adults.”

BOOM!

That, my dearest children, is the point of all of this.

And you thought it was just Momma wiggling my butt to make you laugh.

Exactly.

Remember: Life is both/and. Not either/or.

I love you in the morning and in the afternoon.

I love you in the evening and underneath the moon.

Skidamarink A Dink A Dink

Skidamarink A Doo

I Love You!!