Water

 She is water

Soft enough to offer life

Tough enough drown it

-Rupi Kaur

Basically, be kind but remain strong.  

Experiential Learning

 

Experiential learning is my new lens for how we are homeschooling.  Borrowing on the unschooling philosophy of letting interest lead your learning, but adding the intentional hands-on approach of project learning to the mix is my goal for 2021.  

Both my 15 year old son and 13 (well almost 13) year old daughter are fully invested in experiential learning.  What does that mean?  

Well, for them it means running their own businesses focused on interests and services needed in our community.  With this businesses experience, we are reading business books, maintaining spreadsheets for costs and income, creating marketing ads, negotiating with clients, developing websites, setting prices.  Notice I say we.  This is because I am invested in helping them navigate these murky waters that many adults feel are intimidating.  

What an amazing opportunity to be learning by doing.  What a blessing they are not stuck in an old system of learning.  Instead they are each living, learning, creating, collaborating, and discussing within our family but also within our community (the real world).  How naturally they are drawn to the things that are important and key to their lives.  In turn flourishing into the individuals that God designed them to be.  Which fortunately allows each time and space to know themselves, their preferences, their desires, their likes and dislikes.  

I am thrilled to be the one on this path with them.  

Authentic

When you are open and honest about your life and pursuits things have a way of working out. My eyes have been opened to this recently and looking back at the past year, no matter how tough it was, there was so many silver linings to living authentically.  

My daughter who is a creative at heart, loves making any and everything.  Her Christmas gifts included baking tools, dress form with pattern paper and pins, specialty nail polish, monthly makeup subscription, as well as a monthly maker crate of crafts.  After mentioning her desire to begin sewing more and creating patterns in a yoga class, a couple ladies approached me.  One was a retired home economics teacher and the other a retired pattern designer.  Both expressed a desire to help her if she needed anything on her journey in sewing.  Then a couple nights ago, one of the ladies brought her 2 pattern and design books.  She was over the moon excited.  

My son had such a similar experience.  He and his fishing partner won the state bass fishing championship which qualifies them to compete at the national competition in the summer of 2021.  Wanting to earn money for the expenses, he offer to help families in the community with yard work and dump runs   Seeing his post, some nearby family friends offered to have him help with lawn work which kept him busy 1-3 days a week learning skills not only in lawn care, but communicating with others, and developing a strong work ethic.  Families in our community were also quick to request his dump run service, thus supporting his endeavors.  

These are just two examples of the heartwarming responses our family received by being authentic and open to others in our daily lives.  

What a great life.  Remember to sit back, enjoy some coffee as you ponder the blessings that have come into your life as you truly live.

New Year New Planner

 

Each year, I try to get a planner or planner system that will fit my goals and needs for the upcoming year.  In complete honesty 2020's planner was a hodgepodge of bullet journal, big planner, notes, and mess so fitting for the year.  This year with a little more clarity on where I want to focus and what my goals are I chose a traveler's notebook.  While, I have used this system in the past and even created my own (link to how to create), this is my first time with so many individual journals. 

This notebook contains a pouch for my pens, envelope for my notes or receipts, folder pockets, and slots for business cards. The best part is I am able to place 6 journals within this one notebook.  Narrowing my plans and notes down to 6 areas of my life was difficult being a multipotentialite.  (A multipotentialite is a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life. Multipotentialites have no “one true calling” the way specialists do.)   Somehow, I managed to do this.  The 6 journals include a calendar, notes on our homeschool/unschool, family resources, and then one for my son, my daughter, and myself.

I plan to use this accordingly.  A calendar is obviously for appointments, deadlines, activities, meeting, and all things scheduled. The journal on our homeschool/unschool is a landing place for ideas, games, books, interests, and activities we are or might enjoy together.  This also gives me space to record learning that is happening through notes, lists, or mind maps.  The family resource journal is a spot for sizes, needs, desires, favorites, subscriptions, goals, and doctor visit schedule (you know the dentist sneaks up on me every-time or I can't remember the date of the last yearly physical which can't be done twice in one year or insurance refuses to pay),  Then individual notebooks for each of my kids.  This, hopefully, will allow me a space to record classes, activities, involvement, business plans and ventures, contacts, individual mind maps, goals, and ideas. I find that our relaxed, unschool-y approach to high school will rely heavily on the notes I take on their individual and group learning.  I usually move this information to a spreadsheet for the transcript but until then I need the notes so I can capsulate all the learning that happens everyday for each teen.  Finally, the journal for myself holds goals, projects, homeschool support group leader notes, books read, tracking for personal goals, yoga schedule ideas, and work information for the part-time teaching I do to help homeschool families.  

I am very excited to begin this planner system and pray it host a organized, productive year after a year of slow time, mismatched activities, uncertainty, and perspective shifts.  

Perspective in Learning

 

Last week, I wrote about perspectives and how it makes a difference in the way you see things.  Homeschooling, learning, education also have an element of perspective.  

When I have my "school" glasses on, I see learning differently.  With "school" glasses, I mean visualizing the learning through subjects, memorization, and isolated understanding.  The perspective I have is one of lacking.  I see what my kids don't know, haven't learned, can't understand.  Yet when I remove the glasses, thus shifting my perspective, I move to abundance, seeing more knowing, learning, understanding.  Sitting with each of them,  I observe all they are truly accomplishing interconnected in everyday living.  This is true learning as they synthesize and grow, instead of performing rote tasks for some outside influence.  

What perspective do you have on learning today? 

Perspective Makes a Difference

Your perspective is the way you see something.  Perspective has a Latin root meaning "look through" or "perceive."

My son and husband enjoy duck hunting.  This past weekend they spent the entire day hunting in a near by river.  Apparently, my son took the boat down the river to look for birds.  He must have gone further than my husband thought he planned to go.  So my husband called him to return which took a while.  Once he return, my husband was disappointed as he felt my son had used too much gas as the boat was "almost empty" with 2 gallons of gas left.  My son told me the same story, but with the comment, "I don't know why dad was mad.  There was still 2 gallons of gas left."  Same story, same amount of gas, but different perspectives.

Perspective changes the scene you experience.  Whether it is your visual perspective, your experience perspective, or even cultural perspective.  

Homeschool is like Yoga

 

I have been practicing yoga nearly as long as I have been homeschooling.  The parallels in these two areas are amazing to connect.  Both yoga and homeschooling involve time to improve, breath, flexibility, strength, dedication, and quiet.    

Obviously, anything you spend time doing you will see improvement.  Having a daily yoga practice will enhance your ability to reach goals in yoga. Challenging yourself through longer or more difficult poses will benefit you greatly.   Related the longer you homeschool, experiencing the day in and day out challenges, the better you will be at it.  When you achieve a higher level of  ability in one area such as elementary the focus will change to middle school or when you master focusing on one child's education another will be added to the mix. This is also like yoga.  Once you are proficient in one pose you can take it a step further or try a different type of practice.  One child might excel with unschooling while the next needs a more Charlotte Mason approach of short lessons.  

Next, breath.  Yoga works on at a breath pace.  Inhaling and exhaling as you move through poses.  Homeschooling involves breath as well but more of a figurative breath.  Stepping back taking a breath when things get difficult.  Breathing and noticing your thoughts as you begin the day with your kids.  Breath is key to a homeschool mom's sanity.

Yoga is known for its flexibility.  Many people will say they cannot do yoga because they are not flexible.  This is exactly why you should do yoga.  You are able to improve your flexibility.  Homeschooling works the same way.  Moms tell me they cannot homeschool their kids because they do not have patience. Well, by homeschooling you grow in patience.  You also build a flexible mindset on how things need to be done and what things are of most importance.  Your patience and flexibility increase as you perform both yoga and homeschooling.  

Strength is a component that builds in yoga.  Poses help you develop strong muscles throughout your body.  Homeschooling strengthens your family relationships.  The daily interactions with each other, the shared books, games played, and experiences that take place all invigorate that relationship between parents and children as well as sibling bonds.  

Creating a mindset of dedication helps in both yoga and homeschooling.  When you commit to a yoga practice the benefits are seen.  The same is said for homeschooling.  Once you affirm your dedication to homeschooling you will see the advantages.  

One other influence both yoga and homeschool have had on my life is the need for quiet space in my mind.  With yoga, you are encouraged to clear your mind or set an intention as you practice.  I like to choose a verse, a word, or a person that I feel God has laid on my heart.  With homeschooling, this quiet is crucial.  I need time for reflection, journaling, and prayer to help me move forward in our journey.  

I hope this helps you look at homeschooling in a different light whether you practice yoga or not.  There may be another influence in your life that parallels your homeschooling journey.  I just added a zen yoga practice to my podcast if you would like to check it out it is at curious journey podcast.