It’s the word that no new homeschooler wants to hear: “deschooling”. Sometimes confused with “unschooling” and regarded with the same disdain and disgust to the newly transitioning… but this little word can change the trajectory of your homeschool experience. Continue reading The truth about deschooling that will blow your mind
One of the things that happened while on my writing pause (which may not be completely over… keep reading) is that our homeschool Science Olympiad team ROCKED their Regional competition and advanced to State level competition. WhaaaaAAAAAT? Continue reading Absolutely astonishing victory for my science kids
Yesterday, I appeared to be having “a day”. And my blog is here to help me process, so I turned to my blog. Because it was just after noon and it was a bad morning. Here it is… raw and real and freshly outpoured yesterday. ❤ Continue reading Small confessions: all out of courage
You know you want to. Some of the longest threads I have seen on Facebook are about laundry. One of those posts included a friend’s realization that her unfolded laundry in baskets were a critical part of her clothing storage: if she folded it all, there wouldn’t be room for all of it in her drawers.
So I want to share with you nuggets of laundry trivia from my home… Continue reading Can we talk about laundry, please?
I had an incredible discussion with another #soccermom the other day. The conversation meandered onto the topic of how we infantilize our children these days and how different it was when we were young. We talked about the things we did long ago and more importantly, the character traits and skills we developed because of these differences. We went on to identify some of the ways that behavior has inadvertently carried over into other things that were just silly… How suddenly, not just “coming home when the street lights come on” seems to have carried over into children who don’t use knives to cut their own food at age 12.
And that’s changed our kids… and their behavior… Continue reading This is what happens when we unlock maturity
Last week, I spoke with a client who sought guidance on managing her son’s education. Her son was a 9-year-old and I could hear this mama’s concern about how to support her child and minimize some of the issues she clearly recognized as being control issues. And she was spot on. She had read about “The Nine Year Old Change”: “The special needs of the nine year old are the result of an important change in consciousness that marks the end of early childhood and the transition to a new developmental phase” (from WaldorfInTheHome.org)
As BigGuy started entering puberty last year, I sympathized with her; but I also realized that reading about a developmental stage wasn’t the same as reading about how to handle it from the parent’s side… Continue reading Navigating a new child within my child
BigGuy turns 12 this week. Eleven years ago–just shy of turning one year old–he looked into my eyes for the first time. That’s right: one year old. We were already 4 months into “global developmental delay” hell. He had been flagged with possible mild cerebral palsy and deafness–the latter quickly (presumably) ruled out with a test that showed his eardrum to be working, but couldn’t tell us if the messages between the eardrum and the brain were being relayed and interpreted properly if at all.
Eleven years ago we were roughly two weeks into removing the trace amounts of dairy that existed in our diet (I was still nursing) and rushing back to the immunologist that diagnosed his immune deficiency just a month before. I wanted him to see my son–to see if I was just hoping to see something that didn’t exist or if an objective eye could say that there was change. In fact, there was change; and the immunologist confirmed that the dairy could be the culprit.
BigGuy has presented us with challenges since conception and we spent a lot of years swamped in various developmental therapies, research, interventions–not being a family, but being a therapeutic unit for this small child who has come so far. IT. WAS. HARD.
It was overwhelming.
It was exhausting.
At times, it was very, very scary–because we weren’t sure if he’d ever live independently (which actually didn’t occur to us until a round of tests at age 3).
“So often we parents of special needs children come to live a life that inadvertently becomes defined by our children’s problems. Life becomes a series of therapies and nights of research or online support groups. It’s not intentional or malicious–it’s just how it happens. We never know the delight of the moment because we are plotting the future… what else can we do? Who can we see? What can we give them to help? Who on EARTH can care for them if and when something happens to me (and my spouse)? Will they ever live independently? It’s an organic process for sure. But it’s not a positive one.
“Let me tell you what my son’s challenges have done for me…”
That is an excerpt from the guest post I did called “Let Me Tell You About My Son” over at my friend’s blog, “Unveiled and Revealed“. She has dedicated the month to “Parenthood Perspectives” with each week dedicated to a very different parent experience. I hope you will find beauty in the journey. ❤
Just popping on to wish all of you a Happy New Year. Our family wishes you all things bright and beautiful in 2016. Here we are on Christmas Eve at one of the cleanest and best lit rest stops we’ve ever experienced on a road trip (Post Oak Rest Area on Interstate 57 in Salem, IL in case you’re wondering–and those are my antlers 😉 ). We look forward to sharing our year with you! ❤ (from left to right) BigGuy, Mama, Girly & Papa/Husbeau
Many of you reading are from a broad range of faiths (or no faith). And a subset of you have various ways of regarding Jesus and the Bible–be it sacred or spiritual or support. My own family is Quaker and most people look at us as Bible-based, Jesus-following Buddhists (although they don’t generally know enough about Buddhism to know that we are more aligned with Christianity than Buddhism).
I had the opportunity to do a guest blog for a friend of mine on her series about Advent. I chose to write about “Life After Christmas” and how we can carry Jesus with us into the New Year. It’s a topic I feel very strongly about:
Our family tries very hard to walk the path of Jesus as a lifestyle. We try to carry Christ with us in each step. I am blessed to have a husband who walks with me in this journey and when one of us hesitates to offer love or service, the other is quick to redirect with a gentle “What would you want someone to do if we were in those shoes?”. I had a shirt at one point that said “Live in a way such that people who know you but don’t know Jesus will know Jesus because they know you”. And that’s what we did.
For the rest, you’ll have to click on over to Claire’s blog, Radically Broken and read my post “The Love of Ignorance”. While you’re there, you might as well check out the prior days of December with a cup of tea and an afternoon to think deeply on some of the topics and let them help you mold your coming year. As for myself–I’ll be posting more here soon enough!
Educated Adventures 