Oh No! Our Schedules Have to Change...Again...How to Keep Homeschooling

 My husband and I both work part-time, he was recently employed by Apple, Inc as a stay-at-home advisor. It sounds amazing, but he really can't leave his office space so he can't help with the schooling during our "regular scheduled" time. We recently received his semi-permanent schedule, which is all over the place and crazy. So, naturally, I panicked  and thought "how in the world am

I going to stick to a real homeschooling  schedule". Then I realized, I've done this every year and there's no reason to panic! 

I created a calendar of all the kids activities and then scheduled lessons around them. Our schedule is non-conventional, meaning sometimes te kiddos will be doing lessons on tr weekends or in the evening. We've tried this for a few weeks now and the kids are still thriving! They are a little confused about what comes next but I have printed out a large calendar and they can read what's next, it makes them feel more responsible. 

Daddy will be able to help with the evening lessons and the kids and I get are able to take advantage of doing lessons outdoors or in the community, when daddy needs extra quiet time for phone conferences. 

What has helped us tremendously is making the kiddos go to bed a little earlier. Typically they go to bed at 10pm, but recently they've been forced to at least lay in their beds starting at 9pm. This is allowing them to awaken earlier and we can actually get more done in the morning hours. They still have a rest/nap time at 2pm everyday and still have plenty of playtime! It actually works well:) so please don't give up on homeschooling because your schedule looks a little unconventional...it will work for your family and that's what matters! 

Remember there's no right way to learn! 

Teaching Kids w/ the Attention Span of a Flea...

A Crazy Little Thing Called...Attention  

We homeschool 3 kiddos at 3 different grade levels. It is already tough keeping things organized and on track but its even worse when you have three kiddos that can't sit still, won't look at you when you're explaining things to them, think too much, and have the attention spans of jumping fleas!!!

Can I blame them? Sadly...no. I have the attention span of a flea, I can't even focus enough to watch a movie with my hubby. My mind goes 509 miles per minute, so quietly reading a book doesn't suffice either. Why think of one thing when I can think of 600 things at once?! After all my education, I have finally figured out what works for me. I walk & think...I think & walk...I chew gum, think, & walk...I multitask like no other. I'm not perfect at multitasking but as crazy as it sounds it helps me focus and get things accomplished. So, how do we teach kiddos with the same issues. 

Inflow & Outflow 

Inflow:

As a therapist, I always try to exclude any environmental and external factors first. 

Keep a food journal for your child for a week or two...then make a behavioral journal for the week...do you notice any patterns? For example, my son can not tolerate the slightest bit of caffeine. Even sweet tea will boast his energy and this kid already has enough energy to power the state of Texas! Needless to say, Trysten rarely has caffeine:) and God help the person who gives my Sophee a smidgen of brownies... 

Keep in mind that a food "allergy" may not be that simple to discover. For example, many people are allergic to gluten but do not know it. People with a gluten allergy will often have mood swings, a tough time digesting their foods, and tummy troubles. Many times young children will manifest their bodily pain or discomforts with behavioral outbursts (or hyperactivity) because they don't know how to explain their pain or discomfort. 

Some foods to watch out for include:

A. Red, Blue & Yellow dye

B. Caffeine 

C. Sugar 

D. Gluten

E. Dairy Products 

F. Eggs

Environmental Factors:

People swear that their bodies react differently to chemicals in their laundry detergent, shampoos, body soaps, conditioners, hair products, and even certain feminine products. 

Try using the least amount of chemicals possible while keeping a behavioral journal.  

Some chemicals to look for that are suspected to contribute to altering behaviors:

1. Parabens

2. Chloride (chorine)

3. Fluoride

4. Petrochemicals 

5. BHT (used in many cereal boxes) 

6. Sulfides 

(There are many more) 

My rule if thumb is, if I can't pronounce it then I am not using or consuming it! 

Outflow (exercise):

Many kiddos just have a ton of energy. When we were kids in school, we had several recess times plus a full hour or two of physical education a day. Schools nowadays, can go full weeks without PE or recess...then the teacher asks why these kids have so much energy...hmmm they're confined to a windowless room full of overstimulation with no breaks.....for 8 hours STRAIGHT. Hmmm... 

My advice...exercise your kids! Trust me, I am the first to admit that I just want to get the lesson completed as quickly as possible but these kiddos need breaks and time to let what they've learned sink in. 

I will often forget to do this but when I do it makes lesson days go so much better. Implement a routine of 15 minutes of lessons and 2 minutes of exercise. I often ask my kids to do 10-15 jumping jacks between lessons or when they're attention is failing during lesson times. We also have a great backyard in which I will ask them to run a few laps around the playscape (during cooler weather) when I've lost their attention. I've learned that exercising is key to maintain a healthy brain throughout the day. 

If you try all if these things and you still have a jumping bean at the lesson table, you may be swayed to seek medical advise. Many teachers and parents revert to medication, I'm a child therapist...medication is NOT always the answer, maybe for a few children but the majority of kiddos can benefit from a personalized learning plan and the above suggestions. 

Personalized Learning Plans:

My 8 Year Old Jumping Bean:

If I had just one ounce of the energy my Trysten has....this kid almost never sits still. He will even fiddle with his thumbs during nap time (in his case "quiet/be still" time) for an hour...a whole hour of thumb fiddling! Needless to say, at the lesson table I often find myself flying by the seat of my pants and thinking on my toes. Trysten can read it and understand it simply said but he gets bored fast. I'll often implement the exercise between lessons or I'll simply ask him to push his chair back and stand during a lesson. It catches his attention and motivated him to complete whatever he's working on. We also use a large exercise ball to bounce on while working on lessons, while reading (obviously it doesn't work while writing), or while working with manipulatives. 

My girls love project based learning and will often learn best when creating something or using manipulatives. We also learn "on the go" a lot! We love being outdoors so a lot of times we'll spell, sing, count, do algebraic equations and division while on a hike. 

The most important concept to consider is that just when you think your child is not listening...they'll blow you away with what they've absorbed throughout their day, whether its a Spanish song they learned while jumping on the sofa or how to add double digits while walking around the kitchen (lesson) table! 

Happy ACTIVE learning y'all! 

Children's Divergent & Convergent Thinking...Which is the Right Way to Think?

Children are so intelligent, in their own thoughtful ways! Homeschooling my own kiddos and providing psychotherapy to kiddos for years has opened my eyes to a revolutionary way of thinking...or is it? 

Divergent Thinking

At our enrichment on Tuesday, I showed the children a short introductory video describing Jasper Johns and his contemporary art works. I provided the kids with foam letters with sticky backs, a card stock sheet, acrylic paints and brushes. I didn't give them exact instructions simply because I love how kids view and interpret art and they blew me away with their beautiful works! Divergent thinking can manifest itself in many ways, that's because with divergent thinking, there are many ways to find a solution after a stimulus. During our Tuesday enrichment, the stimulus was the Jasper Johns video and the solutions...you should've seen the solutions these precious little brains created! Divergent thinking at its best or was it?!?

Convergent Thinking 

 

If I take the same Jasper Johns art enrichment example, and divergent thinking is when a whole bunch of potential solutions result from a measly stimulus (aka the video) then convergent thinking is just the opposite. Convergent thinking is basically deductive reasoning.    A child would manifest convergent thinking by becoming a little detective! They'd find all the clues, facts, and observe as much as possible to find a solution (or various solutions). In our example, the kiddos who used convergent thinking may have walked over to the table to investigate the art supplies and already start to create solutions before watching the video. See,  their stimulus was the table full of art supplies and their observations. Their conclusions were their final art project...no video needed. 

The Right way...

So, what's the right way for your child to think? Why not allow your child to think divergently and convergently?! See, convergent thinking and divergent thinking go hand and hand but children will often gravitate to one way or the other.  

Why is this important?! 

Once you know which way of thinking your child prefers, you can tailor harder, unwanted, or uninteresting lessons to their thought process to make them more interesting and appealing! Why not have a Sherlock Holmes scavenger hunt to learn multiplication for your little convergent thinker or a multiplication baking project for your little divergent thinker? 

Middle Child Syndrome...In My Home...No, Right?!

So my beautiful middle child is a princess made of pure gold! She's the sweetest most beautiful thing in the world, so why do we often treat her like the dreaded "middle child". I'm a child and family therapist, I should know how to handle the middle child in my own home, right?!

Often my princess will be stuck on the same assignment all morning, she'll announce that she doesn't understand it or can't do it. So I'll walk over and read the instructions to her and walk away to tend to the monster baby, or the house work, or my unruly patients. She'll sit there quietly...for a few more minutes, maybe it's more like 20-30 minutes (which is a long time for a kid) and all of a sudden I'll hear her yelling at the baby or poking at her big brother. She'll jump around and just be unruly. She gets negative attention for being "bad" and not finishing her assignments in a timely manner...typical middle child syndrome :( 

So how do my hubby and I cope with our middle child princess? We were discussing this over dinner tonight and we admitted that we each secretly overcompensate loving her and doing little things for or with her to make up for feeling guilty for her being our middle child. This is obviously not what I would recommend to my patients who struggle with a middle child, so why do I feel obligated to do so? 

I've always been very partial with each of my three babies. My husband and I are great at spending special time with each kiddo individually and with all of them together. We read to them, we do projects with them, and we play with each of them as well as together. I think that sometimes when we fall out of the routine our middle child acts up, they all do actually. Our children are creatures of habit, they strive in routine. Therefore, our solution is to

stick to the routine that works for us. A routine in which she gets the attention that she needs and allows her to progress in her awesomeness. My husband and I will revert back to sticking to giving each child the time the need individually. We already spend every waking moment together as a family so we're complying there! 

Here's to homeschooling the middle child! 

A Homeschooler's Birthday Party

Soooooo... I've always had little "get togethers" for my kiddos on their birthdays, although for the past couple of years I've only had "family gatherings" because I learned pretty quickly that some homeschoolers are well...wanderers. Wanderer homeschoolers are those families that don't like sticking to a plan, pull their kids out of extracurricular activities and away from their social circles frequently, not giving them the opportunity to be invited to a party per say. This saddens me because out of the hundreds of homeschooling families that we've met only a few have been constant and my kiddos don't comprehend why their friends just stop coming, or don't invite them anywhere, or just fall of the face of the earth.  So birthday parties are always a tentative plan with our family. This year I didn't gamble on inviting the few friends we do have in hopes they'd show up, so we decided to have some big family fun! We rented a party room at a local party place with tons of games and racing cars and had a blast. My son, didn't even realize that his friends weren't there & I didn't get my heart broken! It was truly a win win situation! 

More on homeschool wanderers...

My husband and I have been teaching classes in our home for several years. We teach all the fun stuff like Spanish, Art & Science. Every year we advertise with the local email chains and every year we receive an overwhelmingly amount of interests. Every first class is jammed packed and everyone expresses their love for the classes but when week two comes around, half don't show up (even after the RSVP'd) or some families are just not a fit for our family. For example, their disciplining style is too harsh and will disrupt the classes or they may have a teenager and all the rest of the kiddos are very young (we're actually working on making a more flexible curriculum to accommodate the older siblings). For the most part though, most of the families that attend the initial classes fit really nicely with the constant families that we have but for some reason or another they don't fully commit. I know you're thinking, "well...just how expensive are the classes?" Honestly, we don't even charge properly! Basically there's a tip jar at the front of the classroom and each child is supposed to put $5 a class in there for supplies but its unregulated, so money is not a viable excuse :( 

The therapist in me wants to believe that these families have a hard time committing but the mama in me thinks that I'm doing a horrible job at teaching or maybe just maybe my kids are...the "bad ones" that scare off these potential bff families. All in all, teaching the classes does more for me than for my kiddos. First, it makes me thoroughly clean my casita! I clean and clean but I clean like no ones business when we are having guests over! Second, I thoroughly enjoy having something to do. Yes, yes, I know, I already have a really full schedule but I really like being productively busy! Third, I get to socialize as well, I have one family that is exactly like us (older boy, two little girls & same belief system) and their mama and I are great together! There are a few more families that I feel so so so connected to and often miss them but the stubborn Mexican says "wait, if they truly love you, they'll contact you" so I wait and wait -.- Lastly, I enjoy teaching, I feel like my kiddos get to see me at my absolute best and they get to learn from their peers as well. Overall, I love my many jobs but teaching homeschoolers just melts my heart and keeps me happy. 

Our new semester is coming up and I can't wait to get started! I'm hoping that things run much more smoothly this semester in terms of attendance and we meet new and continue to meet with our bff families:) 

Limitless Education

We homeschool three children who are all at three different levels. Any normal teacher would have difficulty doing so between the hours of 8am and 5pm. We have no learning restrictions at home. My son, for example, is a night owl. He just sparks and energizes at 7pm (my hypothesis is that because he was born at night, he comes to life at night). That's not to say that he's not a hyper little booger the rest of the day, he is, but he's more inclined to activate his brain and freely want to learn at night. What's wrong with that? NOTHING! Homeschoolers learn all day long...it's part of the beauty of homeschooling. Don't get me wrong, when the girls (both are morning people) are working on their lessons, he has to at least try. I'm not a complete twit, I know that the rest of the world works on the 9am-5pm schedule and we practice that as much as we can so that he learns the way of the world, but on those difficult days, he can learn at night. 

I have had several families ask how can full time working parents or single parents homeschool if they work all day. Here's the answer...you homeschool at night! Even if your child had to go to school for daycare purposes, you still have the option of advancing and supplementing your child's education in the evening. 

Start simple. For example, if your child is allowed to play video games or watch TV, then make it so that the only games they play and the only TV they watch is  exceptionally educational. If you're in the car all the time and your child goes with you, have them practice flash cards in the backseat, read, or memorize the multiplication chart. Those are just examples but I'm sure there's other writers that have written books on "backseat learning" or "traveling homeschooling".

Everything that we do, we learn from even our bath time! How many shampoo bottles are there? If you take two away, how many are left? Sitting down at the dinner table is always a fun learning experience. While mama is serving dinner we'll ask the kids to share what they've learned and answer any questions that they have. We learn a lot but there also comes a time that we are just so exhausted. We take daily naps and play a lot too but for families who only have the evening hours to educate their children in, this is a difficult task but definitely doable and you would be your child's EXTREME SUPER HERO:) 

Swimming Against the Current, Why We Homeschool

When I first decided to homeschool, I was drowning in a raging ocean. My husband was a full time public school teacher, my parents thought I was an overgrown hippy, my adult siblings questioned my sanity, and the rest of the world questioned the process. 

Why I decided to homeschool?

First of all, I had issues in the public school system. I graduated at the top 10% of my high school class, then why upon completing my first semester of college did I fail Organic Chemistry? I had all A's in the rest of my classes but for some reason I couldn't get my brain to think "organically". I didn't have kids then, but I was so disappointed in my public education that (after I failed organic chem twice more) I decided that I  would teach my own children at home, well...when I had them:)

When my husband and I got married, we were fresh out of college & an awry of things opened my sheltered eyes to an ugly world. My first "real world" job was to help victims of domestic violence write up and defend protective orders against their perpetrators. It was awful! Completely and horribly awful, I was witness to children being abused by their parents, parents being abused by each other and children being bullied by peers. On the other side of my world, my husband had started teaching bilingual education at a local elementary school. We had no children yet, but I attended every school function in support of my husband. I learned a lot about public school...a lot. My husband is awesome but he wasn't so organized, he was literally thrown into a class room with no real direction. He was given this little sheet of paper with what his classroom should look like but that was about it. Silly me, this whole time I thought that teachers were equipped with atleast a list of things that their students should know by the end of the year. Sure, there were district wide websites and lists can be found online but the school itself provided no guidance at all. While, I was upset with the school, I was amazed at how these teachers, who get paid in pennies, dedicated so much of their own time to really teach a child. 

Over the years and after having two of our three babies, my husband showed signs of exhaustion and frustration. He was not a happy camper at the end of his work day. Testing every spring was a huge ordeal and all this pressure is placed upon the teachers and these poor children. Promises of field trips, pizza parties and movie days filled these little hearts and most of the time they weren't fulfilled if you failed your tests and teachers were placed on the chopping block. 

Meanwhile, I had taken a job "helping" children in which we would go to public schools around our district and preform a little skit exhibiting bullying and "good & bad" touching. After we'd discuss this awful topic in their classrooms the children had the opportunity to discuss anything with myself (the counselor). Too many times, I had these precious kiddos ask if his family member's touch was a good touch (they usually weren't) or why their friends at school would call them names and push them everyday. A few of those cases were so horrible, I have a hard time forgetting the details. Bullying is a huge issue. Nationally, it has caused children to contemplate and commit suicide.  

I knew that my Trysten would be school aged soon and I was either going to war with my own one (wo)man army or I'd come to terms with sending my child off into a beautifully cruel world. I just let it all sink in, it festered and brewed in my heart. 

It was definitely extremely hard, for the first three years of T's education, I taught him alone, my husband thought I was nuts, my parents thought I was nuts, and my world was crashing. After all, who homeschools when one of their parents is a public school teacher?! 

It all changed when my husband was laid off from a charter school (he was the last one hired first one fired when budget cuts were demanded...2 days before Christmas). He took it upon himself to "test" my 6 & 4 year olds. He was AHHH-Mazed. I'm clearly not a teacher. I am not patient with my own kids. I'm not anything special yet my 6 year old was reading chapter books by the minute and working on multiplication & my 4 year old was reading 3-4 books per day and excelling in beginning mathematics. My husband was speechless, surprised and speechless. Now he is just as motivated to teach our kiddos at home:)  In terms of my parents, they express amazement every time my children read to them. 

Hmmmm maybe homeschooling does work and I'm not a crazy overgrown hippy...well...the point is that it does not matter why you homeschool or what pushed you in this direction, but it does matter that you know that you can swim against the current and succeed! It's an exhausting but rewarding task!