I've been home-schooling two of my children for the past two years. Well, Unschooling would be the most appropriate term to describe my Education philosophy.
My oldest joined us after he had a serious concussion but had a shorter stint - a year and a half - and then he went back in the early spring of this year, 2014.
After the privilege of educating my kids for two years, they were ready to go back to school and we felt the timing was good for all of us. Because of the strong foundation of Education through Unschooling that we've built in our home, we see their return to public education as simply another "educational experience."
From this moment forward, we plan to be partners and mentors in our children's education and help them to learn about the public education system they're in, what to take from it as they move forward in life and what to honour as a method of the industrial past. We see this incredible modern, creative information age as an opportunity for our children to decide for themselves how they want to be educated for their future based on their individual talents and abilities. They will have options that I couldn't even imagine. In this global market of Education at their fingertips, their futures are evolving as they grow and I want to ensure that they evolve with the future, armed with the lessons of the past.
In my journey of Educating my children, I've been inspired by the following:
The book:
Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less
by child psychologists, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D., with Diane Eyer, Ph.D.
The most popular Ted Talker ever is Ken Robinson. One of his talks (I love them all! I recommend watching them all!): Do Schools Kill Creativity? & Changing Education Paradigms
Just watch them. They're amazing!
(Filmed at a local gem of a building here in Waterloo, Ontario, The Perimeter Institute - an Institute for Theoretical Physics (a place for smart people or smart people wannabes like me!):
Learning 2030: Without Teachers
Watch this too. It's enlightening...and amazing!
What does this have to do with buttons? I'm getting there.
You see, something I learned about my daughter after she began home-schooling with me was that she was incredibly shy. "Introverted" would be the more modern, politically correct term. An introverted girl was a new idea and experience for me. My sons and I are both the opposite - we're the classic extroverts. Thankfully, I married an introvert that knew how to interpret his fellow introvert-of-a-daughter.
I learned that the school environment was toxic to my daughter. Her individual introverted ability to learn was not being acknowledged or validated in the classroom and her desire to learn diminished. It took a while to infuse the love of learning in her again but when it came back, she excelled - as I always knew she would.
However, going back to the public school environment loomed over her as summer was coming to a close. It began to disrupt her sleep and caused her great anxiety during the day when she thought about it. We knew we needed to arm her with new strategies to go back to public school. Strategies that would empower her, calm her and help her cope with whatever she might experience.
There are three things in particular that we choose to do:
#1. Prayer.
One sleepless night, my husband felt impressed to pray with my daughter. He let her know that she was never alone at school. He let her know that she could say a silent prayer during school - whenever she needed strength to do whatever she needed to do and he reminded her that she could pray right there and then at the side of her bed until she felt she was ready to sleep again. He even stayed on his knees with her as she said her own personal prayer to the point where she was ready to sleep. Since that night, there has never been a sleepless night filled with school anxiety.
#2. Communicate.
The communication door is always open. You never know when a child is ready to talk about their thoughts on school but when they are, that's the time to talk about it. It comes up every now and then. One day it came up in the form of "bullying". We talked about what the kids might do if a "bully" began to bug them in whatever way. My son - who thinks in movie lines - recalled the movie, "Despicable Me", when Gru continually tries to impress his Mother and she consistently responds, "meh", un-phased by Gru's attempts to impress her. My son decided that this would be a good reaction to his "bullies" in order to diffuse a bully's attempts. My daughter had the opportunity to try this recently with perfect success. We talked about it and we'll continue to talk about each important thought to them.
#3. Creative strategies.
I recalled one of my best friends telling me about a strategy that she used for her son when he started school. She sewed a button on a piece of fabric and let him know that he could keep this button in his little pocket. When he missed her or felt that he needed her, he could reach into his pocket and touch the button and feel closer to her and be reminded of the Love that she has for him.
*Lightbulb!*
That gave me an idea! Yep. The Buttons!
My friend's idea stuck with me because I've always had a love and fascination for buttons. When I was a child, I recall going into my Mom's sewing shelf and pulling out her jar of buttons. I was fascinated by these buttons! They were exciting! Each one was individual. Different patterns, shapes, textures and designs. It was fun imagining the clothing that they came from. It was therapeutic to run my hands through the pile of buttons and soak in the varied tactile experiences. I loved buttons!
So, I decided to get my creative hat on and create something. I'm not the crafty or artsy type. It's not my strength. It's my daughter's strength. However, I created a simple idea. I used one of my daughter's hair elastics that was slightly lose and fit on her arm comfortably, versus tightly. I then sewed on several buttons and voila! A fun, button bracelet that she can wear or just hold when she needs a little Mamma-Love at school.
Ironically, I live in Uptown Waterloo just a hop, skip and a jump from an old Button Factory. Yep. Pretty awesome! It's an Uptown Waterloo architectural gem of our local history:
In the history of our local Button Factory, the irony continues! To make buttons, natural materials, such as shells and wood were stamped to create the buttons. So, each button was unique. (These are the buttons that I adore!) This button factory died as the manufacturing of plastic buttons evolved and it was cheaper to make plastic buttons that looked identical.
Just like our Education system needs to evolve from the plastic industrial age from which it was created, this old button factory has evolved into a creative hub of artistic exploration. There's creative juices bursting out the windows of this modern factory of creativity.
As we head back to school this season, I feel more ready than ever to home-school my kids despite the choice of enrolling them in the public education system.
It will be another new journey and we're ready to experience it and learn from it.
I send my very best to you and yours as school starts this season. Let the learning continue!
daisy
p.s. This post needs some music. I'd like to dedicate this song to all the kids going back to school - wherever that may be. Isn't this song "Cute as a Button" too?!
p.s.s. I LOVE Diana Krall & Yo Yo Ma!
