Mama… I feel ya. Sometimes the days just seem to blend one into the other. Suddenly, you seem to have lost your sense of self and everything is being carefully juggled just to maintain the status quo. You don’t even know how tired you are. Continue reading A Letter to the Mom of the Challenging Child
Here is the thing: when you remove curriculum and school-y stuff, a lot of parents have no idea what to DO. It seems absolutely unfathomable that we should be doing NOTHING in relation to our child’s education.
To be fair, you’re not doing NOTHING. Here is how “nothing” happens in my house (and some things I need to get way better at)… Continue reading How to make unstructured learning successful
Recently I was involved in a friend’s Facebook post asking who your MOMMY Inspiration is. It was an interesting question, probably inspired by Mother’s Day coming up. I’m actually really proud of my parenting given that I grew up in a home I should have been removed from (my state subsequently underwent federal overhaul of their child protective services division) and another I actually WAS finally removed from (although I was 18 and 2 weeks from graduating when they finally got to it).
What happens when you have kids of your own, start to really understand parenting more, and it DOESN’T give you a greater appreciation for your parents? Continue reading What happens when parenting perspective is not a gift
I’d love to be a better mother than this, but I just am not. Like, seriously.
Hormones and puberty have hit us like a ton of bricks and the last two weeks here have turned me ass-end-up. Continue reading So… puberty is officially here
So, my post on the importance of deschooling went mini-viral… but then people had questions. Most notably: how do you know when you’re done… Continue reading How to know when you are done deschooling
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
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
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
Some years, today is swapped with the 22nd and this would be the Winter Solstice (or “Yule”). But this year the Solstice falls on the 22nd and so today is Children’s Day. This is really more a Shambala Buddhist custom that often includes giving gifts to children. After all, Christmas Day is not a holiday for them. Here is a good account of how one American Buddhist parent recalls Children’s Day growing up.
In our house… Continue reading Day 21: Children’s Day
Educated Adventures 