You know the analogy for keeping life balanced? The one where an acrobat keeps multiple plates spinning. He goes from one plate to another, giving attention to whatever plate is about to fall. I imagine the acrobat has learned through shattered porcelain exactly how many plates he can keep spinning at once. Or maybe sometimes the number fluctuates, like if he didn’t get enough sleep that night, or he has an especially appreciative audience.
This past month we posted about balance and some of our core practices that help us keep our balance. I think it’s important to know what our bare essentials are so we can keep those going even if a few of our peripheral plates go crashing. We’re doing a lot of stretching around here, with our youngest two rehearsing for Mary Poppins, our older two starting back with early-morning classes, and our first season of bike racing. We’ve added music students and are gearing back up for church choir.
Books help me keep balance like nothing else. I guess it’s because my brain goes on overdrive when I’ve got a lot going on and it’s good for me to let my body take a break.
I’m not sure how we found time for all of these read alouds, but it must be all the time we’ve spent in the car together. We like to use read alouds to explore books that are not part of our permanent curriculum. We can explore topics we wouldn’t run across otherwise and turn some of the books imperfections into teaching moments. Here are the books we’ve perused together over the past month:
We read the Australian classic Dot and the Kangaroo. The animal conservation message was a little heavy, but we loved reading about the different animals of the Australian bush.
A Wrinkle in Time. I never liked it as a kid, but I see the beauty in it now. A thought-provoking view into security and existence.
Treasure Island. Reading it aloud is the best, because you get to talk like a pirate, arrrrrrrg.
Nancy Drew and The Secret of the Old Clock—such a classic, but I never would have read it again if I wasn’t reading it aloud to the kids! I do love a good mystery.
Around the World in Eighty Days. We’re still at the beginning of this one. We’ll see how far we get! Again, so far I’m enjoying it for the accents!
Just for myself, I’m enjoying a collection of Redouté’s floral prints.
What’s your favorite balancing practice? I hope you’re getting lots of it these days!
Love, Amanda
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