It’s been a less productive time lately. I have a very hard time with the shortening of the days. No amount of vitamin D or special lighting has ever provoked a response in my body. Even magnesium supplements have not helped (there is a contingent that yells loudly about the need for magnesium to help with vitamin D absorption). So things have gotten slow… and moved to the big bed.
It’s been quite a week. Mama is starting to get her footing and get back to engaging better with the small people. Engagement. That’s what I’m going for here. It’s hard. I have horrible Seasonal Affect Disorder and am truly thankful that we spent our emergency funds on a skylight in the master bedroom. So the last few weeks have been very sluggish and mama hasn’t been very engaged. I think I didn’t really realize what was happening, either. My semester in review post made me think about it. Continue reading Real understanding
And so comes the time to look back at the last few months and assess what has worked, what hasn’t worked, what to change and what to keep. I probably wouldn’t be doing this except that we tried to make a monumental change and I’m not sure we’ve managed it well. In my former career, “continuous process improvement” was actually part of one of my job titles. It’s something I fully embrace.
So let’s review… Continue reading The semester in review…
I just needed to update you all on BigGuy’s writing. I’m VERY. PLEASED with it! He’s seriously coming along really well!! We don’t work on this every day but after his first whipping out of a page of writing, I introduced the process of rewrites. There is a local homeschool mom I admire very much and she recently divulged how she tackled writing instruction and the gusto with which she embraces the rewrite. Her kids (who are high school age) know that there is pretty much no set number or max on rewrites.
I gave this some thought, and decided that I would really rather my son be prepared to rework his writing many times over than assume he was done after any set number (likely a number close to 3). Continue reading The Dragonnaire Cluster
This is really not articulating the full breadth of my feelings on this issue. Not even close. And probably not as well-connected or easy to follow as I wish. I’m just going to put it out there and hope someone gives me the benefit of the doubt that my intentions are good and my fear and hurt about this are real and that I am trying to do something good with it all.
Background: I am white. I spent several years of my childhood being the only white kid in my neighborhood. In Kindergarten, I was walked to the school door by the crossing guard because otherwise the black kids chased me and pulled my hair and hit me because I “didn’t belong there”. We moved, and although the demographics of my school changed, the makeup of my little area of town was still predominantly black. I was thankfully accepted there and I know this is largely the result of quickly making friends with the tallest (and wisest) black girl there… by way of having the same bicycle and her thinking I stole it. Thankfully, her bicycle was quickly within view and the crisis averted. She sheltered me from a lot of nastiness. Having come from experiencing that nastiness first-hand, I remain grateful 35 years later for her ushering me into being accepted in that community. Continue reading At the intersection of “privilege” and “minority”
When you’re a new parent, rarely do you give a great deal of thought to things like Santa, the Easter Bunny or Elf on the Shelf and how those illusions will be shattered. I mean, I guess if “finding out” was traumatic for you, that might cause you to think carefully about this. I honestly don’t remember what shattered these illusions for me so I didn’t really think much about it.
Until I woke up one day and it REALLY bothered me that I was lying to my kids. I’m not sure why this bothered me. Everyone I knew did it. Safety in numbers, right? Because if we go down, we all go down together… I think parents live life by that mindset on a LOT of topics. Like “How wrong could this be if everyone’s doing it?” and “Well, at least if this is wrong, there are SO many people doing it that I won’t be alone.” But it did bother me. I didn’t care how many other people were doing it. Unfortunately, this thought came after my children were well indoctrinated in the fictitious… Continue reading Transitioning from fiction to reality
BigGuy is not what most people imagine when they think of someone with Asperger’s. They see my personable and extroverted kid who likes an audience and think I’m out of my mind because “THAT’S not Asperger’s”.
Oh contraire… but it is–I assure you. Not all kids with Asperger’s are the silent, introverted, cannot-look-you-in-the-eye type. Meet my guy… Continue reading How we handle Asperger’s Syndrome
Sho ’nuff did. So, I have not been able to get my act together–especially to facilitate Socratic/thinking discussion.
But I was inspired by my son’s willingness to write when the writing was about the fictitious land he created and made a map for. Then I saw a TEDx talk on hackschooling. Suddenly, I remembered the whole reason we’re homeschooling is to allow our kids the experience of learning by way of the things they love–that drive them to learn. Continue reading Totally hacked my son’s education today
And she is very taken with the concept that yesterday she was 5, but today she is 6. Mind-blowing. She also had a fit today, stating that she is “the worst writer in the world” because she wrote something and her brother couldn’t read it. Oh my…
Every year I e-mail the social worker that first handled her case and met her birthmother. His birthday happens to be the same day as hers and had he been able to catch the birth certificate processing in time, our Girly’s first legal name would have been the female version of his. So he and the social worker that handled the remainder of the case get an e-mail each year with a link to a photo album of pictures. Occasionally, the first one responds. I have no idea if either of them still work for the state, but I send it anyway. Continue reading Folks, we have a 6-year-old in the house
My blog post on allowances was posted to Facebook and someone asked me “what happens when they don’t do their chores?”
Fair question… because that happens. So here is how I handle it at my house… Continue reading How I get my kids to do their chores
Educated Adventures 