ThadenPierce School

Sometimes it’s a challenge to finish your lesson when your baby brother really, really wants you to cuddle with him.

I did the math, apparently my kids would be 3rd, 2nd, and kindergarden if they were starting school today. They would all be in school right now, elementary school starting at 7:50am around here (exactly an hour ago.) Instead they are giggling at the table together and eating cinnamon rolls with orange glaze, deep purple grapes and juicy cantaloupe. I’m still in my pajamas, Kit had an unusual call early this morning and headed into the office to trouble shoot some computer stuff. If this were the first day of school he would have missed their send off. Good thing we don’t do school!

Tomorrow we head to the science museum for Kit’s birthday. Saturday is our “NOT back to school” picnic with friends, Monday afternoon we’ll be at the lake with friends for Emy’s birthday and swimming and that evening we’ll be having our special Family Home Evening and blessings for the new school year. Wednesday, September 1st, we’ll have our first day of school kick off though Emy and Joseph will both be at their well checks that morning.

I remember our first year of homeschooling that when everyone else went to school I had this strange sense of playing hooky. As if someone would see me with a school age child and accuse me of ditching and corrupting my child. (Hmm, is that a high school confession?) But I realize that homeschooling is so very common around here that no one even bats an eye. We’ve not ever been questioned about why our kids weren’t in school during school hours, in fact we’ve only gotten comments occasionally about, “OH, you kids must be homeschoolers!” When we run into other kids at the library or store during the day we smile because we know they are probably homeschoolers, too. (Or DITCHING!)

I’m thankful for a community that has been so supportive of and filled with homeschoolers.

I was curious what the local guidelines are – you can enroll for preK or K if your birthday is on or before September 1st. E’s birthday is August 30th so she could just barely qualify. And I had this moment of panic as I considered that she could be pre-K this year and starting kindergarden next year and would she be ready? Am I ready?? And then I started to quiz her on the alphabet and counting and admitted I had done absolutely nothing academically with her like I had with the older kids. Poor, neglected fourth child.

I’m not being entirely sarcastic but she’s turning four and the older three all taught themselves to read at four (except for weirdo Ben was reading at 3) and have I helped her have the skills to teach herself to read? Because I don’t know how to teach a child to read! I better figure something out and get serious about the SWR program because what if E doesn’t want to learn to read on her own, I have to encourage her.

Momentary panic. I’m feeling better now. I realize she’s 3 years old and just because some of my oddballs were doing something by a certain age doesn’t mean they all want/need/will do the same thing. Breathing, relaxing, calming down from that momentary insanity.

It’s miserably hot. We’re doing lessons right now, cramming more than usual to prepare for our October vacation. We’re on break from therapies for a few weeks, too, and I think everyone has a bit of cabin fever because they play outside for a few minutes in come in dripping sweat. They don’t even want to be in the sunroom for too long before I have to crank the AC out there – it’s like winter but with the opposite temperatures.

Anyhoo, the kids have been playing really well together despite it all and I’m finding them off in their bedrooms or sunroom doing all sorts of projects and imaginary play and games. I love it, I don’t want to interrupt (because they don’t always play well together!) but I also want to have them get their book work done. It’s been a daily struggle for me to wonder, “Do I stop them and have them come do their lesson? or do I acknowledge playing well with their siblings and this creative learning is a more important lesson and let the book work go?”

I’m leaning towards the latter mostly. Having five little ones so close in age is fantastic but it can also be challenging for the kids with so many different relationships and dynamics going on – learning to cooperate and play well together and communicate are crucial life skills and I’m telling myself that the grammar and math stuff? We’ve got time, those lessons can wait. But if they are learning to be kind and imaginative and loving with their siblings then I need to remember that’s far more important.

(How much of this is me really feeling this way and how much is pregnancy induced laziness about book work? I don’t know, but I do really feel letting them play is more important than long division or memorizing the four types of sentences.)

I was flipping through a homeschool magazine and a comment caught my attention. When your children are in school then the responsibilities are spread across a lot of different positions – teacher, principal & VP, school nurse, school board, therapists, counselor, janitor, gym & music and art teachers, school board, curriculum committee, cafeteria staff, etc, etc, etc… each of them does a little (or a LOT) for your individual child. (Though they are working with many, many children of course – not just yours.) But there are a lot of adults involved in choosing curriculum, implementing it, preparing and planning and assessing, administration, nursing, cleaning, feeding, etc, etc…

When you homeschool it’s just you and your spouse. Therapists if you bring them in, though you’re covering the daily therapy. Specialized teachers if you hire them for music or art. But you are doing it ALL – picking a curriculum, setting goals for and with your child, planning lessons not just for one age group but for each of your children, attending seminars and classes to learn more about learning styles and teaching methods, doing the daily teaching, clean up, counseling, crowd control, damage control, feeding, encouraging, disciplining. You are doing it ALL. No wonder burn out is such a real concern.

BUT, you also know your children in a way that no one else does and you, unlike anyone else, are promised inspiration and guidance and wisdom beyond your own if we prayerfully seek it. All parents desperately need this but when you are taking on the additional challenge of educating your child at home then I think it becomes even more crucial. We can have that inspiration in making these decisions, big and little, as we try to fill so many roles. I find great comfort in that!!

List from The Pioneer Woman’s blog. Enjoy!

I’m consolidating all my prior posts and adding some new traditions we just learned about.

- back to school cake & special dinner.
- kindercones (Schultute) w/treats and new school supplies.
- new composition book/journal and let them decorate it (modpodge it.)
- Kit suggested buying some easy lunch stuff for the first week back into school so Mommy will eat.
- new school year blessings at FHE.
- breakfast of ABC pancakes.
- let them pick whatever they want for bfast, lunch or dinner.
- go out for a special lunch or pack a picnic lunch.
- go have school pictures taken.
- pick special new outfit for school pictures.
- go shopping for school supplies (best sales are in fall) & let them do a scavenger hunt to find them or pack into backpacks.
- have a “teacher” meeting to go over curriculum, goals
and routines with both parents. August & January.
- plan a special back to school fieldtrip to a location like the park, zoo, or a museum. Most PS don’t have fieldtrips in the first of the year so those places are empty.
- make “All About Me” sheets at the beginning and
end of school year, including self portraits and list of favorites.
- have a family conference and let each child pick the areas of focus they want for the next year. With young kids maybe pick one special topic. With older kids this needs to be a much more in depth special date to go over their areas of concern, what they want to focus on, having them establish their schedule, setting up time to review with them, etc. But for grammar stage, just picking a couple special topics to get library books or coordinate field trips around.
- write a list of books to read aloud as a family
- “NOT back to school” picnic with other homeschool families.

New Ones:
- Russian Day of Knowledge on September 1st, students bring flowers to teacher (that would be me, right? ) Make tissue paper flowers or get real ones.
- Japanese nyugakushiki, formal celebration: dress up for a candle lit family dinner the night before school starts.
- Maori haka: show children “primary school haka” on internet and let them create their own new school year dance.
- Indian Praveshanotsavam (admission day) is during monsoon season. Make a fruit smoothie with marshmallow “rain clouds” and paper cocktail parasol.
- Israeli kita aleph (first grade) walk under canopy or arch of older student’s arms, release balloons. Create an arch of balloons or tissue paper, etc at home and take photos under it, write new school year wishes on rainbow arch, get balloons to keep around home and cheer up first new week.

This was fun, from our first back to school picnic with friends in 2007:

We assembled a bin with a variety of things to make it easier for kids to write friends or family. Stationary sets, paper of all sizes, envelopes of all sizes, stickers, return address labels (though I’m not letting them near the stamps, they still have to come to me for those!) There are also some cards for different occasions and some craft stuff to make cards. If I trusted my children more I would include crayons, markers & pencils as well but we still keep those out of the toddler’s reach.

I didn’t buy anything in particular for this set, I just went around the house collecting items and assembled them in one place. On Sundays we try to write a letter to a friend or family member (near or far, since even local cousins have fun exchanging drawings & letters.) The little kids can doodle or draw, big kids can write, and it encourages me to remember to take the time to include a handwritten note to people we love as well. If I were more creative I would let the kids decorate the box but we’ll have to wait until I have some more energy to tackle that.

I’ve noticed that having the box down and easily accessible has encouraged the kids to grab some paper when the urge strikes and get started. We try to always send thank you notes and this makes it a bit more fun and gives them some control over their medium as well. I’m optimistic this will get all of us into the habit of writing letters more often and in our instant contact world of IM and texting, I think these notes are something special we should preserve. I have boxes of letters from penpals and family over the year and I love to see their handwriting and have that written record of our discussions and our relationship over the year. I hope my children will have that experience, too, so I’m trying to foster their penpal friendships.

I found this at our library, What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Anxiety. (Probably good for adults, too.) The intro is for adults/parents but the book is geared towards kids reading it could be read to kids as young as Ben (5) but easily readable by C (8) on his own. I found him exploring it this morning and the older three are all working on it now. It discusses in kid friendly terms what anxiety is (worry) and has them write or draw pictures as it goes throughout discussing what worries are, why people seem to have more than others, how it makes our body and mind feel, and then coping techniques. The kids seem to be really enjoying it and it’s prompting some great discussions. So far I highly recommend it, anything that engages the kids this well and helps them discuss their concerns and gives them an emotional vocabulary is a win in my book.

Pictures of the kids’ artwork to come, they want to show off their drawings. C’s is cracking me up.

These are three different sources of worries. The worry bully makes the worms to go inside of you & the worry worms make the worries. (The bully has no hands but uses the grappling hooks to get on your shoulder and get inside of you.) With the worry worm it burrows inside of you and if you don’t listen it uses its slapper to slap you! (He saw some science show about parasitic worms, I’ll spare you that explanation, it was gross.) The worry gas is what makes the Worry make you worry.

Ben’s worry (spelled “worey” down the side.) This is a bad house and a dream catcher to catch his bad dream and there’s a pea shooter coming to help and it killed the bad guys.

Table of Contents:
1. Are you growing worries?
2. What is a worry?
3. How do worries get started?
4. Making worries go away?
5. Spending less time on worries.
6. Talking back to worries.
7. Re-setting your system.
8. Keeping worries away.
9. You can do it!

Exercises:
- draw something you worry about
- do you know someone else who worries?
- how does worry make your body feel (stomach, heart, etc)
- what is something you can say or do to help you worry less about your fear?
- set up worry time (15 minutes) and make a worry time sign
- imagine a worry box & draw a picture of it; put your worries there until worry time
- imagine a worry bully & draw a picture of it.
- What will you say to the worry bully?
- What can you do to stay busy while ignoring the bully?
- Draw the worry giving up and going away.
- Draw a list of activities you can do to reset your system.
- Write a list of relaxing things you can do to reset your system: meditation, deep breathing, tense & relax muscles, warm bath, massage, visualize happy memory.
- Draw a picture of a special memory or place.
- What do you do to take good care of yourself? Draw it.
- Draw yourself doing something you are good at.
- Draw yourself without your worries.

Key Points:
- Logic is when you think about what is really true instead of what you fear.
- Resetting your system with activity or with relaxation.

I asked the older kids to grab their notebooks (charts are slid into the front of the binders) and tell me what they needed to get done. As they get older we plan to leave more blanks for them to determine what they need to accomplish but for now we’re mostly filling it in for them.

I asked Bennett what was on his list to do today and he said, without looking up, “Play on the iPad, watch movies, play outside, eat a carrot, be calm, go to Grandma & Grandpa’s house.”

After I stopped laughing and acknowledged his wishful thinking I was happy to hear that some good things are sticking on his list. And the charts have been fantastic for giving the kids more autonomy over what order they do things and letting them see what needs to be done without me having to constantly remind them. I am optimistic.

I put a preschool podcast on for Joseph to watch and Bennett saw it and announced, “Oh, yeah, that’s on my checklist!” Oh, haha. How convenient, little does he know that Mommy knows exactly what’s on those checklists.