Whole Brain Child Review

This book, The Whole Brain Child, by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. and Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D. has amazing strategies to connect with your child in the daily comings and goings.  

After a friend posted a list of "brain science" books that indicate the unschooling approach actually helps children in brain development, I requested most from our library.  This book was the one who spoke most to me in a simple, effective way to help children make connections and understand connections in their brain.  

The anecdotes and comic depictions of what to do and what not to do that fill each chapter were helpful and applicable.  The change that has occurred in our home after reading and applying the information gathered can only be describe as remarkable.  Instead of being sucked into diffusing a conflict or problem, I can approach the situation with the focus on making a connection and developing relationships further.  

This is a book that can be read again and again.  I am sure it will join my stack of books to reread. 

Legos Unite

With one boy, who is ALL BOY, and one girl, who is a GIRLY GIRL, few toys can be played together with true equality and imagination involved. Well, Legos save my sanity.  We have tons, like literally tons!  The kids even created boards so they are able to have roads, land, and bodies of water to create their worlds of Lego.  The story lines they tend to play reenact events in their lives or plots from stories.  So as much as I hate stepping on these little blocks of plastic torture, I love more how they can unite our children in play.

So Glad I

So many blogs focus on what they would do differently as homeschooling moms.  Today I want to focus on what I am happy I did in the early years of homeschooling.  I am so glad:

• we read tons of books
• we played games
• we built and pretended with legos
• we created art
• we hiked and biked
• we watched documentaries on our interest
• we cooked
• we camped
• we spent time outside
• we picked fruit
• we played at parks

As I make this list, I laugh to myself because these are things we still do.  Although, the same basic activities look different today than they did 5 years ago.  I wonder what 5 years from now will look like from now.

Try NEW Things

Learning takes place when you are truly interested.  In the moments of trying new things, studying new subjects, and/or experiencing a new situation is when deep learning occurs.  So what is new?
Me:

• Barre class at the yoga studio is leaving me sore and aware of muscles that need work
• Cooking from scratch is stretching my abilities in the kitchen
• Blogging and writing is encouraging me to find my voice
• Serving others through hospitality is challenging me from my comfort zone

Bubba:

• Starting a fantasy football league for our family forces him to explore new information and methods
• Independently reading realistic/fantasy fiction allows him to understand his preferences and discover humor in books
• Playing tackle football at the "sophomore" level encourages him to memorize plays and positions as well as read the field 
• Hunting and cooking wild game is not only mathematical but also involves critical thinking

GM:

• New art techniques and creative writing bring understanding of new creative ways to express her thoughts
• Planning experiments allows the development of fore thought and planning skills as well as the experimental thinking
• Horse riding forces her to read signals and signs from others as well as animals
• Reading fantasy independently encourages her thinking outside the box and beyond the given information

Some days learning happens so heavily in these areas and some days we just dabble.