by Tessa | Motherhood
My oldest son has known his letters and their sounds since before he was three. But couldn’t count for the life of him. I knew it would come eventually. My husband and I giggle about the fact that the first day he counted to 5 (at about age 5) his little brother was right beside him (at just over two) and counted to 10! We reminded ourselves to trust God’s design for him.
A few mornings ago, he was awake at 5:30am and just laid in bed, quietly. I asked why he didn’t go back to sleep. He told me he was practicing his counting. I asked him why and his response was simply that that he wanted to learn his numbers. I believe it is so he can recognize cow numbers so he can be a better helper for his daddy and Opa (my dad).
He recently started counting everything. He’s 5.5 and can finally count to 10! And count 10 items and recognize all sorts of other numbers between 1-100. Tonight he was even doing addition and subtraction with his dinner (he had 7 nuggets and ate 3 so he had four left, things like that).
I just wanted to share because, to my husband and me, this is such an amazing example of how our kids will figure out what they need to know in their lives/interests and then pursue it.
by Tessa | Book Notes
Title: The Art of Strewing
Author: Aadel Bussinger
Publication Date: 2013
Price: $2.99
Place Acquired: Homeschooling Omnibus 2013
About the author: Aadel is a homeschooling mom of 3 children and married to her high school sweetheart, a “career army man.” Her children have always been homeschooled and her unschooling journey began in 2008 when her family moved into an RV during a military move. You can find Aadel blogging at These Temporary Tents, on Facebook or on Twitter and a few more places.
Describe: After introducing herself and giving a brief explanation of what unschooling is, Aadel explains what strewing it. She explains that it isn’t just something useful for unschoolers but that it is a technique that any parent can learn to introduce new ideas to our children. It is such a simple idea and, yet, there are still some basic questions to answer about it. Questions like: Where do I strew? What can I strew? How do I strew on a budget? What should I avoid when strewing? Aadel answers all of these questions and a few more in her book. She also talks about developing proper expectations (or lack thereof) toward strewing and how to accept the journey your child can take you on if you allow him/her.
Analyze: I loved the layout of this book. It was very simple to follow and Aadel wasted no time in jumping right into the nitty gritty. The book flowed so smoothly from topic to topic that I hardly noticed the chapter changes. It covered all the bases in how to strew in various life areas: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and relational. I loved the line, “We strew to get involved, to relate to them, and join them on this grand adventure!” Who can argue with that kind of logic? Using her own experiences and that of other homeschoolers, Aadel walks you through the practicalities of applying the concept of strewing to your family, no matter the circumstances you are currently in.
Evaluate: Although she calls it an instruction manual, I felt like it was more a manual of encouragement to relax and follow the natural path of parenting. Aadel has an uncanny way of delivering all the facts, answering your questions, and telling you that you’re already on the right path, all in a book that can be read in one evening. I especially appreciated her viewpoints on strewing attitude and atmosphere. I know that I can always use the reminder that my children learn more by what I do, and how I live, than by what I say.
Recommendation: Though this book is written with unschoolers in mind, I believe it is something that could be appreciated by anyone with children. As parents, we want to open all the possible doors for our children that we can and strewing is one way to do that. Strewing is something that encourages a parent to get to know their child and get involved in their child’s world. It is about showing your children the proverbial doors and letting them decide whether or not to walk through them. As an added bonus, the parents often rekindle a love of learning in themselves as well.
by Tessa | Motherhood
I’ve already told you about what unschooling is to my family and why I feel the need to set up a plan for our year. This post will break out a few more nitty gritty details of how I’m hoping to accomplish a planned unschool year.
Step 1: Figure out the boys’ interests and write them down. I gave them each a tab in a binder (binders have become an organization obsession of mine lately). C was very easy in this regard as I already know many of the things he wants to learn about. Things like birds, weather, corn, mustangs (the GT Supersnake in particular). I asked him what he wanted to learn and was rather shocked by his some of suggestions:
* Play tricky games
* World of Warcraft – logging on (Out of sheer adoration for his Daddy)
* How to teach the new baby to play (when he/she gets here)
* How to treat toys
* How to treat shoes
* How to treat ourselves
* All about our bodies
* Write numbers and letters
* How to be gentle
* Bees
* Zebras
Biscuit wanted his own list. It was much simpler:
* How to write “Opa”
Step 2: To C’s tab, I added a sheet with the heading “Methods C Enjoys.” Here I’ve listed things like movies, video games, reading and painting. I’ll ask him for input on this page as well. I’ll also be able to add and pages with notes on how to help him expand on certain ideas/interests. For example: Magic School bus has some videos and books about bodies and I have a couple of lapbooks from Currclick on some of his chosen topics.
Step 3: Plan into my daily routine time to sit with my sons and allow them to choose a topic and learning medium. It sounds very technical but this step naturally comes with more flow. A typical day may start with C talking about the very cool robin he saw on the lawn. We can watch some videos on YouTube, print out a coloring page, make robins with playdough, and, of course, head outside to watch the robins in the trees. Depending on his level of interest in the topic, we can add in lapbooks (what little boy doesn’t like cutting and gluing?) or photography and scrapbooking (i.e. notebooking).
The most important part of this process will be for me to be diligent in spending time in the boys’ world on a daily basis. It is so easy to just let them play independently, since they play so well together. I frequently pull them into my world with asking/allowing them to help with housework, gardening, and meal preparation. They even join me for my morning Bible reading. I, however, need some prodding and reminding to get down on the floor with them just to play cars, or sit at the table and play playdough with them instead of just putting it out and letting them have at it. We even painted together the other day and it was so much fun! And sometimes we walk to the barn just so we can play with the kitties, and this (rather large and pregnant!) mama sits in the straw with a kitty in my lap as the boys make up stories about what the kitties have been doing. The only thing that I haven’t joined in with is playing in the dirt. That’s totally Papa Bear’s department.
by Tessa | Homemaking
Typically, the words “unchooling” and “planning” do not show up in the same sentence. So how can I claim to be an unschooler and still be scouring the internet for information on how to plan a homeschooling year?
C is 5 this year and, even though kindergarten isn’t mandatory where I live, I have decided to register with a homeschool board. I did this for a couple of reasons:
1. To get people off my back about his education. Everyone is asking me what we’re doing so now I can tell them he’s registered as a homeschooler. It just eliminates some of the much-repeated questions I receive.
2. To give a school board a “trial run.” I know that I want to homeschool but I don’t know exactly what it will all entail, as far as there being required records or plans, or what a meeting with a facilitator would look like, or what a homeschool board will offer in terms of support/guidance.
Back to the whole “planned unschool” idea.
I used to be a schedule-a-holic. My days were planned down to the minute (including time for inevitable interruptions like traffic or getting stopped by a chatty co-worker). I loved it and thrived. It reduced a lot of stress in my hectic life/career and helped me accomplish more than I would have if I wasn’t a planner and list maker.
5 years ago: enter baby #1. He was on his own schedule (of nursing for about 30 minutes every 1-2 hours and not sleeping longer than a two hour stretch until about 18 months). It didn’t match mine. I retired from my business and significantly slowed down my pace so I would be better able to meet his needs. It was an amazing season of growth, trust, and learning priorities. Everything else could wait. My son could/would not. He was about 2.5 before he finally settled into what most of society would consider a decent routine. Which allowed me to settle my life into a bit of routine again. Until his brother was born a couple months after that. Thrown into chaos, any semblance of a rhythm or routine eluded me. Fast forward another couple of years and we moved away from everyone we knew and, consequently, all outside of the home commitments. The first few months were hectic as there was a lot of extra work on the farm which made scheduling anything rather difficult.
A few months ago I started reading about home management binders on Pinterest and became a little obsessed with finding a way to work a planner back into my life. The boys are at a stage where they spend much of their time playing together happily outside, which means that I have more time to figure out things like a housekeeping and time management system that will suit our ever-fluctuating family rhythm. I have been running my home management binder (a “lite” version compared to some of the other ones out there) for a couple months and it has made a huge difference for my family.
I am in the process of figuring out a loose routine that will allow me to have lots of breaks to sit a nurse the baby or change diapers and such, but will also encourage me to stay on top of things in my household, including encouraging the interests of my children. I’m not there yet, but I’m praying about it regularly and the pieces are starting to come together. Including the pieces that require me to be very involved with my boys’ interests and assisting them in furthering those interests, through various methods. Though I’m not planning any curriculum for them, they still deserve my focused attention. Their interests are important to them and, therefore, they are important to me. And kids spell love T-I-M-E. So that’s what I am planning to give them.
by Tessa | Faith
Welcome to this week’s Word on Wednesday post!
This is a verse that I’m reflecting on this week. It is a great reminder to me at this “back-to-school” time of year that neither my children nor I will learn true wisdom by sitting in a classroom. If we are open to the Lord’s guidance and instruction, nothing will be able to take away from us the Wisdom from the Lord.
It goes hand in hand with Romans 1:20 which states that “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” My primary role as a mother is to teach my children about God and this will be understood from what He has made. So we will continue to spend our time in His world and learning about Him through the life He has blessed us with.
