Category Archives: Beginnings

The Death of “Show Me Work”

Posted on January 10, 2007 | 14 comments

Over at Thinking Things Through there is a post called Product vs. Process which talks about Christine’s dilemma as a homeschooling parent over feeling a strong need to have a product after every learning experience, whether because of her teacher training or proving to others an education is happening.

This is a battle I’m constantly having with myself. I think it comes partly from my time spent teaching elementary school where of course there always needed to be a product so I could judge how each child was doing and whether learning had taken place and also just because the school system said so. But I also think that it is a more left-brained thing to want to have an end-product to sum up learning done or to put closure on the learning. Maybe not, maybe it’s just me.

An early homeschooling experience quickly came to mind as I read over the post and I wanted to share that with everyone in case it can help someone else at this same juncture.

As I first began to plot out the wonderful experience I would call homeschooling with my then unsuspecting 5 year old firstborn son, I, too, had envisionments of amazing “products” to show off share with any naysayers interested friends or family. I think the focus on these wonderful projects may have stemmed from a three-fold source: The first is the conditioning received while attending school that every learning experience results in a product, as the referenced post agrees. The second is my left-brained learning style, as Christine also mentions in her post, that truly enjoys “show me work”, as I have termed it. When I was in school and you gave me a worksheet full of math problems, I would get all giddy inside! And, third, my external perfectionism (which is different from the internal perfectionism often exhibited by right-brained learners) that shows itself when I am planning out “the perfect experience”.

And so my left-brained systematic perfect plans began for our first semester of schooling, complete with unique and interesting “show-me-work” prospective products to later display with pride for all to see. What’s funny about this is that I had just spent most of the summer reading any and all materials I could get my hands on regarding unschooling. I had latched onto the unschooling style for our homeschooling endeavor because it most reflected how learning had occurred in our home up until that point, and the reason I was considering homeschooling in the first place was that it was working so well for my oldest son. And, yet, because it was such a fun thing to contemplate, I was busy hyper-planning all these great projects and learning moments, all divided by subjects, and even . . . gasp . . . using a timer(!) to indicate when we could move to the next subject.

It began eager enough on the part of my oldest son as he considered homeschooling a great idea since he figured things would continue as usual, but maybe with some fun things thrown in with my involvement. It didn’t take long for his right-brained learning style to reject my left-brained ideas . . . no matter how creative! I remember one project in particular. It was logged under social studies and it was an “All About Me” book that we would take pictures of him indicating various elements about who he is and then he would write a sterile sentence (you know, for handwriting) sharing information about what the picture shows. Now, of course this was a good plan because don’t all kindergartens across the nation do an “all about me” unit? And I would do the same thing, but better 🙂

It all started falling apart with the first picture. My oldest was having nothing to do with these posed pictures to go in my fabulous book about him. After the first picture, I had to resort to bribing encouraging him already! At about the fourth picture, this wasn’t even working. Now, I was having to resort to all out coercion threats force (I give up Foot in mouth)

I remember the specific moment that my ah-ha moment entered. I was stubbornly persistently working on the show off fancy cover made from wallpaper samples since my oldest was all out refusing to be convinced of the worth of this project cooperate with the project. I remember mumbling incoherently musing to myself about how quite lovely and noteworthy the project really was and how could he not see the ego booster value in it, and then it struck. I had one of my out-of-body experiences where I could see this insanely driven focused mother hunched over this useless project while simultaneously seeing the joyful intent of my oldest son in the next room pursing his then-dinosaur interest with passion and purpose. What’s wrong with this picture, I realized? And then I remember reading something in one of the unschooling materials that went something like this: If you think something is so wonderful, then do it yourself! And that’s exactly what I found myself doing, by default, and yet, I then looked closely at the project, and it was clear! I didn’t even think this project was worth it; I had created it strictly as fancy show me work.

I was determined that I would not usurp the joy of learning by interjecting prideful pursuits, conditioned thinking, or personal preferences into my son’s learning life. Instead, I would give value to his process, his timeframes, his interests, and how that looks for him. I would put the extra time into having conversations with him about what is on his mind and in his mind, take an interest in his pursuits and show my support through sharing my perspective and wisdom toward additional resources available, and be in awe over what he shows me he knows in the way he wants to share it.

But is it [a product or show me work] really important? Maybe for some learners it is. Maybe for some it isn’t necessary that they do something with what they have learned to have really learned it. Maybe they don’t need to use it or apply it or work with it or display it in order for learning to really have occurred.

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My oldest son showed me what real learning looks like: The joy is in the process; the product is personal. That didn’t mean that products didn’t emerge or get pursued, whether by his initiation or my suggestion. It simply means that those things came as a result of meaningful pursuits, not sanitized procedures that led to an end product. It also meant that I needed to look beyond the valued expression typical of show-me-work to see processes and products worthy of noting as a foundation or skill-builder or work-in-progress for this particular child’s gifts.

My oldest son loves to learn; but resists teaching (very common for a right-brained learner). I was fortunate to have a son who was just as passionate about what he wanted to learn and how and when as I was eager to learn to be a homeschooling parent (which is where I ended up steering my perfectionism . . . on myself to be the best homeschooling support parent in learning about and understanding each child in my care). He has been an excellent and informative teacher to me.

My lesson learned has served us both well. Smile That first attempt at homeschooling my way lasted about two weeks; his way has worked beautifully the last 15 years . . . for him!

Eric in his posed pictures, adding his input to get through it (irritation evident), including the green bucket hat, the first representing his address and the second his favorite things:

eric5add eric5fav

Eric playing his favorite things (trains and a dinosaur bone model nearby) and looking at books, just because it all interests him (happiness evident):

eric5play eric5read

14 Comments

Posted in Beginnings, Homeschooling, Learning, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners

Product and Process

Posted on December 2, 2006 | 2 comments

Usually when a title with product and process is involved, there is a “versus” in the middle. Product OR process is what the versus implies. I don’t think that’s how people work, and I know it’s not how I work. There is a product AND a process. There is always a product involved . . . it answers the WHY in what we are doing. Process answers the HOW.

People come to me for support, and inevitably, answers, on my Homeschooling Creatively list. I often steer them toward the process, but I feel that is shortsighted and incomplete on my part, and I want to give voice to my complete experience in order to better support others seeking the same.

I take you back to the beginning of my homeschooling journey. When people ask you why you started homeschooling, that why often answers your first “product” you were interested in pursuing on behalf of your children. I was no different. My oldest son loved to learn, and I wanted that love to continue throughout his learning journey. Fast on the heels of this proclamation came two more “products” I formulated based on my own experience and that of my hubby. Mine was that I wanted each of my children to enjoy reading. I wrote a blog post delineating this idea here. My hubby’s was that we wanted our children to be exactly who they are, supported to pursue anything they desired without society’s conditioned beliefs or expectations, whether emanating through us or society. These were some pretty hefty “products”!

Initially, these were weakly formulated subconscious ideas. Parenting my children before the age of 5 included incorporating a learning environment that was geared toward meeting these criteria. Although poor college students, our home was rich in books. We had already instituted a non-gender-based learning environment in which we enjoyed playing basketball with him in the basement as much as dress up with Mommy’s shoes and hats.

When it came time to register Eric for kindergarten, going through the motions seemed to disconnect us with our goals for our children. It felt robotic and impersonal. Suddenly, the experiences that Eric went through in his half year of preschool previous to registration crystalized. You can read the post I created about these lessons here.

I was at a defining moment in consciously recognizing the “products” I had in mind for my children’s learning lives. I knew public school would not support them. I had to find a resource that would help me consciously and mindfully embrace a lifestyle based on my desired products. I was looking for the process! This is what other parents are looking for from me when they seek out my right-brained learner group or my autism group. Although this next step of establishing the process was so crucial, in my opinion, at getting me where I am today, I cannot neglect to recognize the “products” as my catalyst and driving force.

Homeschooling popped into my head. Ah, this would provide the open forum in which to create the process in meeting our products. I found a woman in our church who was homeschooling and very warm and engaging about sharing her wisdom in helping me get started down the path of home education. In my opinion, she was the perfect mentor, and I didn’t even know it, although felt extremely validated in the moment. I always inwardly strive to meet the standard she created with my role as a mentor, but so often fall short because of my strong opinions 🙂

Anyway, she said I first had to figure out what my style would be. Huh? Styles? She offered a book that shared blurbs about the various methods used by others in the homeschooling circles. She felt confident that I would know the style for me when I saw it. Sure enough, it was the style called unschooling. It closely matched what we had created before age 5. Coincidentally, this mentor was an unschooler. Now, here comes the important element in creating my process that I try to emulate for others.
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Unschooling 15 years ago was rare. Certainly we did not have the ability to pool together because the Internet was non-existent at that time. Homeschoolers had to gather in real life. There were usually one or two unschoolers to be found, if they chose to reveal themselves. Growing Without School (GWS) and Home Education Magazine (HEM) were our support systems. The writings of John Holt were our inspiration. My mentor gave me scads of back issues to both as well as a pile of books on the subject matter. I particularly pored over the letters in GWS and read John Holt’s works as models in forming my own unschooling environment. In those days, there was no one telling us the “do’s and don’ts” of unschooling. I don’t think there was such a thing.

My mentor supported this premise. As I hesitantly got my feet wet, I was constantly calling her, sharing my worries and my concerns about messing up my child or doing things “wrong”. She would ask me to tell her what I was up to that day or week with my child. I would relay what we were doing and she would always say, “Wow, you are doing so great! Just keep going.” She was also there to talk about “going against the grain of society” in order to buoy me up in my new process of working toward achieving my products.

John Holt’s writings and observations gave me inspiration to conduct my own observations with my own children. His questioning society’s conditioned beliefs about learning gave me confidence to pursue my own questions about the process of learning. Because I lived the conditioned experience, as did my hubby in a different way, he and I would have many conversations dissecting what was really important and what was not in our own learning experiences. All of these opportunities for discovery and new ideas meshed beautifully with our original “products” or goals for our children of instilling a love for learning, being an individual valued for one’s own path, and coming to reading joyfully.

None of these resources that were available to me at the time “told me what to do”. Each gave me a foundation of beliefs. John Holt taught me about the power of observation and the courage to question society’s valued learning beliefs. GWS taught me that as parents applied these processes of becoming an observation detective and as we question any of our concerns or worries that stem from conditioned educational values, amazing and profound information through experiences emanate from each child’s own perspective and style. And my mentor taught me that I had the power within myself and through learning at the feet of each of my children to discover our own process.

I have found myself often deflecting parents who come to me asking if something is “right” or “does this fit”? It’s because the process is so unique to the individual and family involved. It’s because no two children are alike, even when they share the same learning style or difficulty. I try to share like those parents from GWS did with me . . . how my power of observation and resisting conditioned thinking revealed the amazing process of each child I am partnering with. I want to support the foundations to the process, and encourage parents as they discover their own place with their own child. I want to share my own observations and experiences as an example of what can be learned using these foundations. I want to give courage through these examples that it really works.

One thing I may change is to share that I have products that I was striving for, and the examples from our process is toward meeting that end. If a person has another product in mind, our process may not make sense. Also, I’m thankful I had the latitude in figuring out our own process. It’s not a checklist that can be checked off. It’s about trying something and realizing it’s not working out, and going back to why (the product) we’re doing what we’re doing, and readjusting ourselves back to the correct how (the process) to get us there. The pendulum will swing back and forth for a while, until we find the right place for us and our children. This is what my Collaborative Learning Process was trying to reveal: the foundational process that is helping us reach our goals for our children’s learning lives.

It’s much tougher to explain and talk about our process than it would be to simply give some formula for a product 🙂 As I mentioned in a previous post, I can share my foundation, but each person has to build upon it for their own child and family. But, I think the process is so important, even if it seems elusive sometimes to put to words. As an example, I will try to share our process for the goal of each child enjoying reading next . . .

2 Comments

Posted in Beginnings, Collaborative Learning, Homeschooling, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners

Internal Readiness vs. External Readiness: New Beginnings

Posted on September 14, 2006 | 1 comment

This is the “final chapter” on my thoughts on the post that JoVe from Tricotomania wrote called “Contemplations on the School Year.”

In her post, JoVe considers how the impact of the school schedule can possibly migrate to the way we look at progression and grade classification with this comment:

I suspect that this calendar pressure also affects our ability to lose a dependence on grade level and progression expectations, too.

Interestingly, it has not affected me to the level I thought it would or could. With my focus being on learning development, I didn’t see a place for “grade levels” with my children during the pre-goal oriented years. And even then, because of the leaning toward “delayed academics”, I still saw no logical place for “grade levels”. All of my children through the teen years still get stumped with the question of grade levels by first, pausing with a long, drawn-out “aaaahhhh”, and quickly conclude with “we homeschool” as if that should put an end to the mix-up.

In fact, this JUST happened yesterday at the vet office. The vet asked my 17 year old daughter what grade she’s in, and she simply is still at a loss to answer that question, so replied as per above. I think the vet was confused as he stated, “Don’t you have a general idea where you are?” They just don’t get that we don’t think in those terms. She then looked at me and concluded, “I think I’m considered a senior.” And yet, that “status” just doesn’t encapsulate our way of looking at the learning time table of our child. She knows that; I know that; others just won’t get that, I think. *I* concluded by saying, “She’s pretty much done all that school would typically require of her. She spends her time writing a novel these days.” The vet, who was quite pleasant really and not judgmental, was impressed with that type of initiation.

As for the beginning of the “school year” in September being a time for progression expectations, I do find myself “assessing” if anyone needs changes to their learning lives in a more broad context. On the other hand, I feel I have a pattern to this “assessing” every three months or so. But, I do feel a “new beginnings” atsmosphere in the air for which I allow myself to be a part. The operative word, hopefully, is “allow myself”. As my daughter and I shopped the “back to school” specials, we confided in each other that we love this special time set aside to renew your giddyness over all the new learning condiments that we so enjoy using day to day.

To end my dissertation on school schedules . . . LOL . . . I share my thoughts on JoVe’s lamentation:

I have found myself somewhat annoyed that there is an expectation that I (and others) will be around on September 5 to attend a picnic.

Work schedules are much more a factor for our family than school schedules. Obviously, there is periodic overlap between the two. There is also a natural shift in our family rhythms between summer activities and winter activities. Depending on where we live and the climate that we experience, that can be September, or into October. Here in North Carolina, we’re planning a week beach trip mid-September with a homeschooling family we adore. For our large family, individual rhythms shift and change throughout the year. “New beginnings” for each child happens at diverse times within each year. I do believe in and embrace new beginnings, but it doesn’t usually coincide with the first day of school. I see the picnic as an offer for new beginnings within a group. Sometimes I’m ready and interested in that offer, and sometimes I’m not, and sometimes I join in a little later.

I can totally see JoVe’s point about SO many in society live and breathe by the school schedule, and many homeschoolers continue that rhythm. By sharing some of our experiences, it has been interesting to discover how our family has focused our cycles around the weather patterns and our personal family heartbeat that doesn’t include the school schedule. I believe it is one reason we enjoy certain family connections in our home.
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Abbey at an “8th grade” vet camp offered by Michigan State University. It was a competitive application process in which one of three applicants were accepted. At the time, Abbey had been seriously contemplating becoming a vet, and this was her opportunity to try it out, which just so happened to coincide with this “8th grade” offer:


Abbey goofing off at vet camp:

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Abbey and her group dissecting a chicken to determine its cause of death:


1 Comment

Posted in Beginnings, Homeschooling, Learning, My Opinions

Memories

Posted on September 11, 2006 | 3 comments

As some are looking back at the five year anniversary of 9-11, I thought I would take the opportunity to share our memories of that time. In 2001, our family had been homeschooling for nine years and one of the benefits we enjoyed was our family togetherness. But, a few months before September, I thought it would be enjoyable to get to spend a “vacation” in my own home . . . alone . . . no children, no husband . . . giving me a chance to organize. So, my involved hubby volunteered to take the children on an adventure camping in a cabin at a state park in central PA. It was set for the week including . . . 9-11. So, the one time I choose to be separated from my family, something catastrophic occurs 🙁

As most other people naturally reacted, I desperately wanted to “circle the wagons” and be close to my children and hubby, and yet, I couldn’t. Not only couldn’t I be with them, they were out of contact, including cell phone. I just prayed my hubby would call me at noon, as he had the previous two days, although we had not scheduled to do that on a daily basis. He did, and I was able to let him know what happened. We agreed that he should stay where he was since all the airports were shutting down, and with the plane that was going down in rural PA somewhere, and all the traffic from those trying to get home was still occurring, it seemed it would create potential chaos to throw themselves into that. He was at a peaceful place and could safely share the news with the children.

I found it ironic, and even a little unfair, that I was separated at this time from my family. Here I had created a lifestyle that increased the odds of my being with my family during a crisis, and yet, I wasn’t with them. The next day, September 12, is my fourth child’s birthday, although he was not there to celebrate it. However, I tried to remind myself of my blessings. This same day as my son’s birthday is the anniversary of my baptism into the church, which is a source of peace and a firm foundation for all that I believe and hope. Regardless, it took me several days to tear myself away from the TV and try to create a semblance of normalcy and still accomplish a few of the goals I had for organizing.

Before leaving on the trip, we discovered our station wagon of ten years would not be able to make it, so we rented a van. Upon my family’s return from the trip, we hit the car lots for a new family vehicle. Business was expectedly very dry, so deals were prevalent. I felt a bit guilty capitalizing at this particular time, but life does what it does, and we needed a vehicle. We ended up getting a used GMC Surburban.

Then, go forward a few more weeks, on September 29, and our lives changed dramatically, again, forever. Two little boys entered our lives through foster care, and are now permanently part of our lives through adoption. So, a month of disaster turned to one of blessing for our family. Of course, we no longer fit into the new family vehicle . . . LOL! (We since have traded in the Surburban for a 15 passenger van.)

Admittedly, September, 2001, now stands as a beacon to the additions to our family more than the tragedy to our country. But, as others have said many times since 9-11, no terrorist acts will keep us from standing tall and proud and strong and ever moving forward in hope and love.

Three of the children at the cabin in central PA, 9/01:
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First photo of William, 9/29/01:


First photo of Joseph, 9/29/01:


3 Comments

Posted in Beginnings, Family

“Steps” to Riding a Bike

Posted on September 8, 2006 | 2 comments

It is common in autism to have low muscle tone. The reason it occurs is that often, our children don’t do the typical day-to-day physical activities that we all take for granted: running, climbing, exploring, skipping, gathering, jumping, poking . . . that overall general “business” that we all expect in toddlerhood and beyond. The reason this doesn’t occur for our children is because that “natural drive” is hampered in some way, imitation skills are often impaired, and, therefore, motivation to do something that requires effort for no known benefit wins the day.

Adam was drawn to swinging as his primary outdoor activity for the sensory integration it provided him. It was easy to set him on a swing when he was little and give him a push, with no effort on his part, in order for him to understand and literally feel the benefits to him, and the enjoyment factor. I always thought that Adam would really love to bike ride, if he would understand to give it a try. I brought out the typical tricycle bikes and pushed him on them and encouraged him, but Adam would simply not exert the muscle effort to either push the bike with his feet on the ground or on the pedals. Years passed, and the idea that he would love this activity stayed in the back of my mind, looking for inspiration to help me help him “catch the vision”.

A young lady named Jennifer worked with Adam in helping him learn skills back in 2001-2002. Jennifer was special in that she was in her early 20s, unmarried, but totally dedicated and passionate about the special population in her community. She had a lot of knowledge about resources for someone so young and without a direct link to special needs in her own personal life. After leaving our home and Adam, we have kept in touch consistently, as I do with many of our past tutors. Sometime in 2002, Jennifer directed me to a resource called Ambucs that identifies children who would benefit and enjoy a modified tricycle for special needs.

I found myself last minute at the open house and was impressed with the sincere interest in my child and his needs and the individualized attention they gave him in fitting him with a bike that might suit his age and needs. I was amazed to see Adam shoot off on that bike right inside that public building immediately upon sitting! He had never ridden a bike independently before, but there he was, doing so on this particular modified bike. We qualified to receive one and a few months later, did at a special ceremony. Here is Adam riding that bike (one pedals with their feet AND hands, which seemed to be the clincher for Adam in being so successful with it):


Adam spent some good months being interested in riding his Ambucs bike, including hauling it up to the top of the cul-de-sac, which is on a slight incline, and coasting down and into our driveway, which continues the same incline/decline. Eventually, this resource waned in progressing toward a regular bike.

A year or so later, I became re-inspired as to what might be the next “step” to riding a bike for Adam. I envisioned that if Adam could FEEL the thrill of the ride on a bike, that he had progressed enough in his cognitive skills that he might just become self motivated in figuring out how to ride a bike. I knew that it wasn’t that he couldn’t physically ride a bike . . . that wasn’t what was preventing him from doing so. It was pure and simply Adam’s lack of “natural drive” to desire such a thing.

So, to get Adam on a bike and riding, I thought . . . tandem bike! One Easter season, as I was shopping at Wal-Mart, I saw scores of tandem bikes hanging from their ceiling. I spied the reasonable price and determined that I would buy a tandem bike for Adam for his Easter present. (Our tradition for Easter presents is getting each child an outdoor toy.) He was immediately interested after seeing Dad and Abbey demonstrate the process. He’s been riding off and on over the past year on the tandem bike with Dad, Mom, or Abbey. Here he is with Dad:They brought gel and soft tablet version purchase cheap viagra browse over here in the light with many benefits.


A tandem bike allows a person to have the “thrill of the ride”, with the wind blowing though their hair, pedaling the bike (with some holding back from the person in the front), and the feel of what balance on a bike is like in all its forms. Sure enough, some months back, Adam started hauling out his younger brother’s little bikes to the top of the cul-de-sac, sitting on it, and putting his feet up in the air as he coasted down the incline into the driveway . . . on a two-wheeler! using his balance! enjoying himself! The conditions were all set up to take the plunge into independent, two-wheeled bike-riding 🙂

So, in June this summer, I fitted him out with Abbey’s old bike as the perfect size for him to learn on. Basically, because of the past experiences on the other “steps” to bike riding, he seamlessly learned to ride this two-wheeler. Here he is riding, including convincing him to put on a helmet (no small feat), as well as shoes (most of my children love barefoot, him included . . . autism simply adds an element of “love of sameness” that makes it difficult to convince a child to do something different). Here’s a picture:


We’re not at the stage where he’s going off doing any more than “practice rides” at this time, but as time continues, I feel confident he will go venturing on his new mobile ability. In fact, as his imitation skills have improved enough that it inspires him to try new things, and as he watched his much younger brothers catapulting their bikes down the more serious decline of an empty lot across the street, I found myself seeing Adam hauling his bike to the top of this lot and coasting down, with his feet out, like his little brothers.

Tears on many levels . . .

I thought I would share our process for any others who might benefit.

2 Comments

Posted in Autism, Beginnings, Interests, Learning

Rhythms

Posted on August 31, 2006 | 2 comments

I would like to write in my blog on a daily basis. The thing is that I have to find the time that allows for my in-depth thinking when I write in my blog, at a time that I feel like writing in-depth, without trampling on other more pressing wants and needs. So, I’m going to try to do it first thing after my morning routine . . . which means around this time Monday through Friday at least.

The new fall rhythm started on Monday. It came right after my weekend presenting at the VA Homeschooler’s conference, which was a blast! I was able to meet Stephanie from Throwing Marshmallows, and she was exactly as she appears on her blog and on e-mail. In fact, I find that if a friendship develops through these mediums, when the chance occurs to meet in real life, it has been so natural and affirming, and the friendship blossoms like old friends meeting again. So, I am a total believer in friendships being able to develop on-line! Stephanie wasn’t feeling well, but when we were able to get together, we had an endless supply of topics to talk about 🙂

I was also able to meet Jeanne, another featured speaker, at the conference, that I bumped into on an unschooling list. She was also very easy to form a friendship with, and she, Stephanie and I spent hours Sunday morning bonding, sharing, and supporting each other’s journey. I love my women friends that value what I do! I was able to gather some strength and insight from this conversation in parenting my youngest, strong-willed child.

What a great conference, with diverse and fabulous workshops, and awesome organizers and attendees! I encourage anyone in the area to consider attending it in future.

It certainly got me focused on one of my passions: understanding and celebrating the right-brained, visual-spatial, creative learner. Which lead me right into my new, carved-out time dedicated to trying to write my first book about the same topic. So, Monday through Friday mornings are about writing this book. But, writing in my blog may help me kick start my writing brain, or that’s the thinking . . .For getting best viagra prices amerikabulteni.com results it should be taken at least an hour before actually going for sexual intercourse.

I’ll admit, this weekend at the conference around such passionate women who want to make a difference helps me believe that I am capable of doing the same. Do others feel that way, or is it my idealism showing? I want to empower and unite others in a cause and belief that is important to me and change the world! Is that too much to ask? LOL!

To end, I’ll share one of my own beliefs I created, that I have been honing for a while (and I encourage feedback and suggestions for improvement). I created it in response to all those people who remark “how amazing I am”. The fact is though, that *I’m* not amazing, but the life I am living amazes me, and humbles me, and stretches me. But, it stems from the blessings from and knowledge I have of a loving Heavenly Father and the awesome plan of happiness earth life offers. So, my “quote” reflects how I feel my life has been up to now, and how I hope it will continue:

“I am an ordinary person, given every day opportunities. Life becomes extraordinary in the taking and building up of those opportunities.”

2 Comments

Posted in Beginnings, My Opinions

Organizing . . . William and Joseph

Posted on July 25, 2006 | 1 comment

Several of you bloggers got me thinking of how I could organize differently to best meet the needs of certain children in my family at this time.  William and Joseph are high energy, low attention span boys, but still love to dabble in learning activities that I come up with.  However, whenever I have tried to create “a plan” in the past, because our lifestyle necessitates flexibility with the size and uniqueness of those living within it, “plans” don’t last long.  So, I needed something flexible enough for my schedule, but that goes WITH their exploratory stage, yet accounts for their short attention spans, and still opens the world more up to them.

Combining the inspiration I received from Theresa at Lapaz Farm Home Learning in her post called “Kinderplanning” and Faith at Dumb Ox Academy in her post called “Natural Structure” I’ve come up with something that I think might just be a good fit this year for these two children.  I found a nine cubbie wall unit (in the closet organizer section of Lowe’s), bought two, and put one in the living room (William and Joseph’s) and one in the kitchen (Alex and Adam):

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Although both of these posts I have gained inspiration from are Montessori based thinking, I wanted to apply it to the “categories” that William and Joseph would most be interested in.  What I came up with was:  church, letters, numbers, arts/crafts, science, fine motor, writing, books, sensory play.  A ton of ideas entered my head after scanning over Faith’s great ideas in her post with items I already had around my house.

But, then I ended up over at my unit study collection.  There’s a particular publisher I like and I have quite a few in various levels that have served various purposes over the years.  I had a few in the early childhood level and started looking them over.  The thing with some of these units is that the books can often be out of print.  But, I looked over their activity ideas, and in each book area, I could find new ideas that would fit in each of the categories.  Or, something was mentioned that got my own creative juices flowing with my own idea.  I’m not that interested in following the “themes” outlined in these books, but I’m more interested in using these books to give me new ideas and ways to present various learning opportunities.Achieving a natural appearance following surgical process in males may be unprepared to accept that there is a homeopathic remedy available for almost every condition (yes, there really is a homeopathic medicine is purely the result of the placebo effect. cheap levitra

The way I figure it right now is that the nine cubbies can last me for a week before I rotate out resources.  I also see the children going to the cubbies as they are interested, as well as my inviting them over once or twice a day for an hour or so or however it lasts.

My intent for Adam is slightly different, and yet the same.  He has reached the stage where he is ready for more independence and autonomy and responsibility toward balancing his free exploration, interests, self care, and more formal learning.  The cubbie system will be part of his independence in formal learning and exploration.  I haven’t completely formulated his side yet, nor Alex’s, because I want to take one new thing at a time (a new habit?) in order to see if it can become a part of our lives right now.  I intend to have Adam’s portion ready in about 2-3 weeks, and I’ll post about it then.

I’ll keep you up to date as to how William and Joseph like the new organization, new accessibility, and new interaction over the next few weeks!  Thanks again for the inspiration, blog friends 🙂

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Posted in Beginnings, Collaborative Learning, Homeschooling, Learning

My Snake Lesson

Posted on June 27, 2006 | 7 comments

I was prompted to recall today some of the lessons I learned from my firstborn son the first year we began to homeschool. Don’t we all have these? My most important lesson I learned was the snake lesson.

I had tried to do school at home . . . hey, in a FUN way . . . with my son for two weeks in August. I chose to do it then because I was eight months pregnant with child number four and wanted to “get a jump start” and have a rhythm going before I gave birth. Well, what ended up happening was I realized it wasn’t working and had to come up with Plan B. I always say having a newborn saved my son’s education! I just didn’t have time to hover and micromanage with a newborn, a one year old, a three year old and a five year old . . . LOL!

So, we slowly tested out some unit study books from time to time over most of the school year. Eric let me know what he was interested in, I would find a unit study book on it, and we would play around with the ideas in it together. Well, around April, he wanted to do a study on snakes. Well, I couldn’t find a unit study on snakes, but since we had done a couple of them, I felt I was up to the task of putting one together myself. Although the newborn was now about seven months old, with four young ones, it still took effort to carve out the time to put something like that together.

So, we started off by going to the library and finding a bunch of books about snakes that I could use as fodder. I also gathered whatever we had at home. By this time, we had quite the stack. Well, it took me two weeks before I was able to find a weekend to put it altogether. In the meantime, Eric had been going through that stack of books. He was a non-reader, but he would ask me a lot of questions about what he was seeing, or ask me to read certain blurbs.

Well, the weekend came and boy did I put one great unit study together. It would last five days and Eric was so excited he could barely contain himself Sunday night. Monday morning came and he was there with bells on, eager to jump right in. How wonderful to have such an enthusiastic “student”, ready to be fed. So, I began with my first lesson. Immediately, Eric’s face fell.

“What’s wrong?” I quieried.

“I already know that!” he lamented.

“What do you mean?” I asked incredulously.

“I already know it, I mean,” he insisted.

“No problem, we’ll just skip to the next part,” I concluded.

“I already know that, too!” he cried at this point.

So, I decided to share with him all that I was going to teach him, and he realized that he knew everything already from his going through the resources before I was able to get to them. He was interested in doing a couple of the craft projects, but so ended my fabulous unit study.
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Ah, but wait, I noticed that he knew everything you never wanted to know about cobras and pythons and constrictors, but nothing about rattlesnakes and vipers!

“How about I teach you about those?” I questioned.

“No, thanks. I’m not interested in rattlesnakes or vipers,” he calmly pointed out.

“Yeah, but you didn’t tell me that, and I prepared it, and you don’t know it, so how about I teach it,” I insisted.

“No, thanks.”

Well, I was about to go into a tirade about all the time and energy I put into it, and by golly, he was going to learn about rattlesnakes and vipers, but then, a sudden idea entered my mind and turned the learning experience from him to me. Something urged me to go ahead and teach him one concept about what he didn’t want to learn about. Just one. So, I decided to teach him why a pit viper is called a pit viper. He listened, and we went on our merry ways through the day.

Before going to bed, I asked him why a pit viper is called a pit viper. He couldn’t remember. I rehearsed to him again the reason. We then had a long discussion about all the things I never wanted to know about cobras, pythons and constrictors for a good 30 minutes. The next day, I asked Eric why a pit viper is called a pit viper. Couldn’t remember. Repeat, try again. Repeat, try again. All to no avail. And yet, a month later, a year later, that boy could tell you all the types of cobras, what country they lived in, if they were venomous, how they gave birth to their young, etc. as well as about constrictors and pythons.

Lesson for Mom: I can put lots and lots of energy and time into preparing “the perfect lesson”, and if he’s not interested in learning it, it is all for nothing. Being a person who had chosen to raise a large family close in age, time was valuable. Why would I waste my precious time, let alone weaken my relationship with my child as we battled over his willingness to listen to my lessons?

It was right after this point that unschooling completely took over how Eric pursued his learning world.

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Eric at 5

7 Comments

Posted in Beginnings, Homeschooling, Interests, Learning

Life Without School Blog

Posted on June 11, 2006 | 2 comments

A month or so ago, I was invited to be a featured author at a group blog called, Life Without School. I had heard of this blog a few months before that, but passed it off as another site that will come and go of limited substance or narrow focus/perspective. A friend I have made through my e-mail group homeschoolingcreatively, Stephanie, who has her own blog called Throwing Marshmallows, brought it up on the list, and referenced a post that she thought I would really resonate with. Because of my respect for her, I decided to check it out.

I immediately enjoyed what was going on at the blog. It really seemed to be trying to represent the many faces of homeschooling, and not setting any one thing up as best or better or “the way”. In fact, it really seemed to be focusing on the individuality of children, families, and each unique experience as valid. I am an inclusivist (is that a word? LOL!) at heart and value what I can learn not only from those choosing a similar path as myself, but those choosing different paths and having different perspectives than I currently have.

So, when I received an invitation to be part of the group blog and throw in my perspectives and experiences and passions, I quickly accepted. So, my biography is there under Cindy, which shares how I made the decision to homeschool in the first place. My first post is now up called A Whole New World, which is about the shift I had to experience as I learned to homeschool my son with autism.The lovemaking cialis sale performance is optimized with the consumption of this medicine.

Check it out and I would love to have your feedback!

2 Comments

Posted in Autism, Beginnings

A First Step . . .

Posted on May 29, 2006 | 3 comments

Well, a journey always starts with the first step, right? This begins my first step into the blogging world as I share my homeschooling adventure with you all. It’s been quite a journey, after all . . . You know, homeschooling is so entertwined as part of our living, that it will be inevitable that our lives will be interspersed with my homeschooling stories. I mean, I started off choosing to homeschool because I wanted to continue our lifestyle as it had been working out so well up to that point before my first child turned 5. So, thus, one often hears the adage, “living, loving and learning” mentioned about homeschooling, and unschooling in particular, since that seems to most define our way of learning. And so it will probably be with my blog . . . living, loving and learning together on our journey of life.

So, let me introduce myself and my family. My wonderfully supportive husband, Weston, and I have been married coming on 21 years! We have a “divide and conquer” mentality. With a family of seven children, it works really well for us. Whoever has the talent, the desire, and/or the time/energy takes upon themselves particular responsibilities in the functioning of our home and family. We truly work as partners, and have a lot of respect and trust in each other as we work and play and learn together in this family venture.

We were senior year high school sweethearts in Michigan, and were married at 20 years old in Washington, D.C. for time and all eternity, which we strive to fulfill each day. I helped put my hubby through university, which ended up taking six years, as we experienced some health challenges as well as bearing three children before he graduated with his bachelor degree. We then spent the next ten years living the corporate gypsy lifestyle as my hubby developed his career options. We have lived in Ohio, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, central Pennsylvania, and now here in North Carolina, where we have lived for six years and hope to continue settling down here for a good season.

As I mentioned, we chose to homeschool our children from the beginning at which time our first child, Eric, successfully trained me up to embrace unschooling, which is perfect for his learning style and the personality of our home lifestyle. Eric is now 19 and loves drawing, anime/manga, everything Japanese, and video/computer games. He is preparing to leave for a two year mission for our church to report on June 21. Abbey is almost 17 and loves to write (anywhere from fiction to poetry to journaling), animals (particularly her beloved pets: two dogs, Spencer and Precious, four parakeets, and a tree frog she raised from the wild from an egg, Tasolen), and reading books. Eli is 15 and for many years loved Legos, Technic, and any other building materials, and trains, which has given way in his teen years to computer programming, math, piano, and video/computer games. Adam is 13 and loves watching movies, playing video games and computer arcade games, books, bouncing on the trampoline, and swinging. Alex is 11 and loves our cats (5 of them!) and making voice-over movies of them compliments of his sister, mechanical things (especially garage door openers and ceiling fans), watching “how to” videos on the Internet, and watching movies. William is 7 and loves swords, LOTR, Star Wars, pretending (he always has items attached to his body representing various costuming and/or weaponry), riding his bike, and bugs. Joseph is 5 and loves tractors (especially John Deere), construction vehicles (he used to love the grader), riding his bike, and hanging out with dad working in the yard.

My diverse and unique children have taught me so much. If you look in the right spots, and learn to change your perspective just a bit, there is an apple star hidden within each of us. I created the name of my blog because of my own personal experience as I realized that there are different ways of doing things. I know, it sounds pretty naive, but I didn’t know there was another way to cut an apple. I thought everyone cored it down the center, but my first unschooling friend accidentally taught me a valuable lesson when she showed me how she cut her apples. If you lay an apple on its side, and slice it against the core, inside is an apple star! This simple but profound realization changed how I viewed everything around me. I no longer thought life ended at my perspective, but always chose to explore and wonder and question every assumption that I faced in my life and toward each of my children. It allowed me to find joy so much more easily.It revives libido and relieves you from anxiety, stress and depression. levitra 60 mg devensec.com

My blog will especially talk about areas of great stretching and learning for me from my children as they shared their apple stars with me. One is learning styles, especially the visual-spatial, right-brained, creative learning style. The other is autism in all its elements. I have several children who strongly identify with each of these topics. I desire to share what I have learned from them to others who have similar children. I will do that at this blog, and I also do it at two yahoo groups I moderate: aut-home-fam for families homeschooling their children with autism, and homeschoolingcreatively for families homeschooling their creative learners.

I hope to hear from some of you along my journey . . .

family1105

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Posted in Beginnings