Letter to my children: Cursive and Cucumbers

Hello my beloveds,

We have settled into our routine of school time from 8-10, then playing and summer doings the rest of the day. We have breakfast, then dishes, then the Dragon plays while the Bean and I focus on learnings. One of the joys of homeschooling is that you can teach in July and take October off and you can also teach cursive.

Bean, you are devouring cursive. It is such a joy to witness your enthusiasm as you figure out the loops and curls to get you from one letter to the next.

“Momma, the capital D has so many loops!" You burst out and laugh. “What a silly letter.” As you bend over your paper you mutter to yourself, “silly D.”

I lean over and give you a squeeze, “you are a silly Bean.”

The fun thing about cursive is that most of the books we have have slight differences in the specifics.

“Momma, the other book showed the P without the little tail at the beginning. It is wrong.”

“No my love, it is not wrong. The fun thing about cursive is that everyone can make it there own. The more you write, the more comfortable you will become with what works for you. That is what makes it so fun. It is individual to you. Unlike math, where 5+8 is always the same.”

After you practice loops and flourishes, we might play Go Fish with addition facts. I would write simple, but these are the basis for all addition, so it is not simple at all. I strongly believe that unconscious mastery of such will serve you well now and for always - 8+7, 6+8, the magic “rule of nine,” we are getting there. You know without thinking 8+8 and 7+7 and the rest will come in time.

After reading and ‘rithmetic, I try to work out the bass clef notes in order to stumble through a duet with you, thank you Winkie for the piano.

Then it is time for an adventure: a playground, swimming, picking berries, library, working outside, making cucumber salad. For some reason Dragon, you have decided that you cannot get enough of cucumbers and your sister is with you. Cucumber salad, gnawing on a freshly picked cuke like it is a bone, cucumber sandwiches, chunks of cucumber, strips of cucumber, you inhale them all.

Which means it is time to make cucumber soup!

Thank you both for being my beloveds. I am so honored to be your Momma.