Sometimes I just can't interrupt

Most days, I have a rough plan for what I'd like to accomplish that day. We do things like reading, math, spelling and so forth on a regular basis. We do science labs and read alouds and all sorts of things. I used to plan things by the day, but I found that taking a more relaxed approach fit our family better.  Although I don't write lesson plans that tell me what to do each day, I do have a sequence of things to accomplish, in a rough order (or a strict order, depending on the subject), and we move through those things as we go. I usually start the day with a plan of what we'll do that day, and it helps me stay on track and make sure we're accomplishing what we need to accomplish.

The thing is, sometimes I just can't interrupt them.

Today is a great example. This morning, they were building Lego stuff, so I pulled out a couple of books and read aloud. Yesterday we got a new book, Design Your Own Coat of Arms, so we took that out and the boys immediately wanted to design their own heraldry. This was something I'd planned to do as part of our history studies, but I didn't pre-plan it for today. They got really excited about it, and carefully crafted their designs. Afterwards, they wound up spending the morning making cardboard shields with plans to include their new coats of arms on them.

Grayson decided to be an "American Knight" and David wants to be the "Green Knight."

If I was still trying to check off all the boxes on my list, I'd have stopped them. To be fair, I probably wouldn't have, but I'd have felt pressure to get through the rest of our list this afternoon, and would have been madly erasing our schedule and rewriting it to make it fit with the time we have left this week.

After lunch, I figured we'd do our "seatwork" - things like cursive and handwriting, math, spelling, etc. The kids drifted into the school room while I finished my lunch, and fired up their favorite art website (Art for Kids Hub is great!). All three of them went to work drawing sharks and dolphins, first following the video instructions, and then continuing to enhance their drawings on their own. Grayson told me a very elaborate story about his great white shark trying to eat a hammerhead shark, who was trying to eat a fish. And then the dolphin came along and leapt out of the water to avoid the shark.

Grayson's is on the left; David's is on the top right and Ella's on the bottom right.

An hour later later, they are all still sitting at the table, drawing and telling each other stories.

I just can't interrupt.