Tuesday, September 01, 2015
Sugar and Spice
Does every mother think that their daughter is just absolutely beautiful? I just really really really love having a little girl.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Hard and Cool and Vulnerable and Exciting!
The other week I was chatting with some of my favorite gals. We were having fun laughing about the craziness of our kids and swapping our latest stories and challenges of motherhood. One friend exclaimed "I am so ready for my kids to go back to school!" Everyone immediately nodded their heads in agreement, then suddenly looked at me and said, "Sorry, Deborah."
Isn't that funny? (I wonder if they feel bad for me because I never will "send the kids back to school.")
I'm not sure I know what my friends meant by that. I'm not sure if people know what I actually think about the whole thing, anyway. It is definitely different (and better!) than I expected.
For several months before I officially started doing it, I mourned the loss of a specific lifestyle I felt like I was losing--the "time away" from my children during the day that I had enjoyed previously. I was concerned about the special concentrated time with some of my other, younger, children that would no longer be an easy possibility. I knew that taking the leap into homeschool would give me much less time to do what I loved to do like read, study food science, cook, spend easy social time with babies and toddlers at parks with friends, and accomplish errands with relative ease. I felt like--and sometimes still feel--that these were real sacrifices for the cause.
When the very first morning of the new public school year came and my children did not go I thought my heart would absolutely break. There is an energy in the air on the first day of school--an energy that you no longer participate in as a homeschooling mother. I knew that this year I would not be meeting with the large group of excited and exultant mothers dropping off their kids, rejoicing in the rite of passage together. It felt isolating and scary--especially in the sense that many of my peers and family members were not super enthusiastic about my choice either. What made it all worse, in a lot of ways, is that I felt really bad for my kids...sad that they didn't get to participate in the excitement and newness and change of going to public school.
I had no idea what I was trading it all for. Had I known then what I know now, we would have gone out that morning and had a celebration. Homeschooling is the best, hardest, and most fulfilling thing I have ever done.
-----
I have decided that homeschooling takes guts; it takes moxy. It takes dedication, time, energy and VISION!!! Sometimes I feel beat up and pooped. Sometimes I feel very vulnerable to the criticism from others who don't care and don't know what and why I am doing what I am doing. So, it is the vision and the potential of it all that keeps me going the most.
Early on Aaron and I wrote down eight things that we wanted for our children from the homeschool education that we have planned.
1. We want them to be able to approach a new idea or topic without hesitancy and to be able to self-learn about it.
2. We want them to be eternally curious and develop the attitude and habit of constantly learning and engaging--never thinking that you've "learned it all."
3. We want them to be able to see the hand of the Creator in all that is beautiful and good in the world.
4. We want them to be self-sufficient and independent.
5. We want them to approach different cultures and peoples with respect, curiosity, reverence, and appreciation.
6. We want to instill in them a sense of patriotism and gratitude for the country in which we live.
7. We want to emphasize and strengthen The Family as life's prime relationship and its centrality to joy and happiness.
8. We want them to learn to find joy and satisfaction in work.
---
I try to follow a classical framework in my homeschooling. I like the way that it approaches learning--grammar, logic, rhetoric--and the concept of learning as a skill of first imitation (of the masters, and The Master) and then imagination.
I wrote down 13 personal reasons why I wanted to give my children a classical education and even now, three years later, I still get excited reviewing that vision.
1. As a mother, nurturer, and the one responsible for the children's education, I want to give my children an expansive view of their potential and opportunities in this life.
2. I want them to participate in the "great conversation" that has gone on through the passage of time. It is encapsulated in history, math, science, classic literature and the thoughts of great minds throughout time.
3. Like all children without limits, they are eager to learn and are naturally curious, interested and capable of learning in great and vigorous ways.
4. It will give them the skills to learn, read, write, think and speak proficiently.
5. It will enhance their study of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
6. It requires something of them. And it requires something of me.
7. Personally (and this is totally selfish), I will restore my own "proficient literacy" at the same time--gaining the classical education that I did not have.
8. It will help them master the fundamentals.
9. By gaining the tools of classic learning, they will be empowered to any discipline that interests them.
10. Their world will become much more interesting and enriching. (A small example: Being familiar with the elements of classic myths, fairy tales and legends automatically makes your experience as places like Disneyland much more interesting and vivid because you know what they are talking about.)
11. I want them to know that it is never too late to learn, that throughout time people have learned under the tutelage of masters, and that the great responsibility of learning is, then, teaching.
Isn't that funny? (I wonder if they feel bad for me because I never will "send the kids back to school.")
I'm not sure I know what my friends meant by that. I'm not sure if people know what I actually think about the whole thing, anyway. It is definitely different (and better!) than I expected.
For several months before I officially started doing it, I mourned the loss of a specific lifestyle I felt like I was losing--the "time away" from my children during the day that I had enjoyed previously. I was concerned about the special concentrated time with some of my other, younger, children that would no longer be an easy possibility. I knew that taking the leap into homeschool would give me much less time to do what I loved to do like read, study food science, cook, spend easy social time with babies and toddlers at parks with friends, and accomplish errands with relative ease. I felt like--and sometimes still feel--that these were real sacrifices for the cause.
When the very first morning of the new public school year came and my children did not go I thought my heart would absolutely break. There is an energy in the air on the first day of school--an energy that you no longer participate in as a homeschooling mother. I knew that this year I would not be meeting with the large group of excited and exultant mothers dropping off their kids, rejoicing in the rite of passage together. It felt isolating and scary--especially in the sense that many of my peers and family members were not super enthusiastic about my choice either. What made it all worse, in a lot of ways, is that I felt really bad for my kids...sad that they didn't get to participate in the excitement and newness and change of going to public school.
I had no idea what I was trading it all for. Had I known then what I know now, we would have gone out that morning and had a celebration. Homeschooling is the best, hardest, and most fulfilling thing I have ever done.
-----
I have decided that homeschooling takes guts; it takes moxy. It takes dedication, time, energy and VISION!!! Sometimes I feel beat up and pooped. Sometimes I feel very vulnerable to the criticism from others who don't care and don't know what and why I am doing what I am doing. So, it is the vision and the potential of it all that keeps me going the most.
Early on Aaron and I wrote down eight things that we wanted for our children from the homeschool education that we have planned.
1. We want them to be able to approach a new idea or topic without hesitancy and to be able to self-learn about it.
2. We want them to be eternally curious and develop the attitude and habit of constantly learning and engaging--never thinking that you've "learned it all."
3. We want them to be able to see the hand of the Creator in all that is beautiful and good in the world.
4. We want them to be self-sufficient and independent.
5. We want them to approach different cultures and peoples with respect, curiosity, reverence, and appreciation.
6. We want to instill in them a sense of patriotism and gratitude for the country in which we live.
7. We want to emphasize and strengthen The Family as life's prime relationship and its centrality to joy and happiness.
8. We want them to learn to find joy and satisfaction in work.
---
I try to follow a classical framework in my homeschooling. I like the way that it approaches learning--grammar, logic, rhetoric--and the concept of learning as a skill of first imitation (of the masters, and The Master) and then imagination.
I wrote down 13 personal reasons why I wanted to give my children a classical education and even now, three years later, I still get excited reviewing that vision.
1. As a mother, nurturer, and the one responsible for the children's education, I want to give my children an expansive view of their potential and opportunities in this life.
2. I want them to participate in the "great conversation" that has gone on through the passage of time. It is encapsulated in history, math, science, classic literature and the thoughts of great minds throughout time.
3. Like all children without limits, they are eager to learn and are naturally curious, interested and capable of learning in great and vigorous ways.
4. It will give them the skills to learn, read, write, think and speak proficiently.
5. It will enhance their study of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
6. It requires something of them. And it requires something of me.
7. Personally (and this is totally selfish), I will restore my own "proficient literacy" at the same time--gaining the classical education that I did not have.
8. It will help them master the fundamentals.
9. By gaining the tools of classic learning, they will be empowered to any discipline that interests them.
10. Their world will become much more interesting and enriching. (A small example: Being familiar with the elements of classic myths, fairy tales and legends automatically makes your experience as places like Disneyland much more interesting and vivid because you know what they are talking about.)
11. I want them to know that it is never too late to learn, that throughout time people have learned under the tutelage of masters, and that the great responsibility of learning is, then, teaching.
Then, with my own predilection towards english...
12. I want to teach them the rules and origins of our own mother tongue so that they can more easily appreciate, utilize and explore all languages.
13. I want them to love to learn.
---
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