Oak Meadow contest

Win a curriculum

If you are going to use a curriculum this one seems nice and nature based and not too rushed. 

We are now reminding kids to play?

There is a commercial that airs on the radio with a child asking for a dollar from mom's purse.  Have you heard it?  The mother seemingly can't remember where she put the purse and has the kid running all over the house to look for it.  The message?  Get creative to get your kids moving.  Wait..What?
What happened to "no running the house, stop jumping on the couch, Take that energy outside."

Doesn't play come naturally to kids? Leave it to the grown ups who ruined education by inventing school to ruin childhood by turning play into a PSA.

There's even a website. 
And here are the great suggestions to get moving:
Make commercial breaks Let’s Move! breaks. Here are some active and fun ideas:

• Jumping jacks
• Dancing
• Racing up and down the stairs
• Sit-ups
• Stretching
• Jogging in place
• Push-ups
• Active house chores
• Come up with your own activities and share them with friends and family

Ah yes the fun of calisthenics!!  Here's another problem, Do kids even watch commercials anymore?  I know here we use the DVR to fast forward through them .
That is another way adults are ruining play they are equating adult excercise with childhood physical play.  These are two completely different entities.  Adult exercise is repeptivie with it's main goal to "get or keep fit.  Childhood physical play surely keeps kids physically fit however it also keeps their brains fit.  Their imaginative play keeps them bright and focused and frankly fun to be around.
They don't how many miles they've run unless they are cars in the game, they don't wait for the show to come back on so they can stop doing military style exercises.

The webiste says it's ok to be quiet and sitting while reading or doing homework.  Oh ok but let's say the kid doesn't want to do homework or read but  says, "I would rather go climb trees"  I want to have a nerf gun war or play with my friend"

Is it that going to be acceptable?  Can you send in the note to the teacher that says, "My child is not doing homework or his required reading this week b/c we are involved in getting moving and we feel that is more important"?

It's all talk.  Lip service.  It makes us feel good that we are doing something.  A website was created the 1st lady is hula hooping and getting the word out.  However if you really believe in play you will Let them play at the risk of not getting homework done b/c play IS that important.  In my humble opinion.

Putting the home back in our homeschooling

.It all started with me yelling, surprise!  Yelling hurry up get ready if you want to play at Karsten's.  Hurry up get ready we need to get the playground (yeah I said that)  I was yelling a lot and asking the kids rhetotrical questions like, "well do you want to go? because you sure aren't showing me that you want togo"
Rush rush rush...and where were we going?  To play.  I never felt so stressed getting kids to go and play, to see their friends.
Last month after a non stop week of , get get ready let's got to;  piano, the museum the sciences center, ice skating, friend's houses, the day came where we going to the highly anticipated Crayola Factory.
Michael refused to get dressed.  Refused to go.  I was shocked and tried reasoning, threats and "are you serious? 
He outright did want to go.  He spent the day at Mike's work with him while Johanna and I went off to Pennsylvania.
Time to slow things down. 

Although all we were doing was in the name fun, all thing my kids like to do, all the activiutes they've chosen and all the friendes they like to see.
Yet it was so stressful.  Most days we don't have the luxury of hanging anywhere past 3 b/c I need to get home for work so everything needed to be done in the AM so we could have "enough time"
My kids were fighting me and with each other.  Our connection needed some recharging.


So now we are focusing a bit more on some home time.  I am not filling each second with playdaes, where the kids play and the moms chat.   I had to face to truth I was not spending time guiding my kids, it was a break for me and I wasn't actually parenting the way I should be.  My kids actions showed me , time to come together again.
We are still attending all of our activites but only ice skating requires us to hurry out the door.  Also I didn't want to leave them to just sit on the floor playing star wars, Brady Bunch , monster trucks or dolls all day.
I wanted to be in the mix but not be playmate. 
So I invented, "Popcorn Literature"  Each afternoon I make a bowl of popcorn and read actual literature to the kids.  No Franklin books, No Nancy Drew,No Puppy place.  Those are all fine books  for the happy quiet reader but reading aloud should be more challenging at this point, in my opionion.
Pop corn Literature starts with humorous poetry. I have book tha we took out the library that was written in 1955 so I doubt it is available in the stores but it really is very funny. We will also include poetry from, If  I were in charge of the World, which we own, when the library book is finally after all the renewals, due back.


Then  we move on to our actual literature story which right now is "Around the World in

80 DAys " by Jules Verne.  It's a good read and quite challenging. 
Our slower pace has made me feel calmer. 
So you will still see us at the zoo, at ice skating and all the fun places but we will just be a bit more absent from other people's homes as we reconnect in our home on our time.

Under construction

I apologize for the look of this blog.  I was trying to get a new background and my layout is all jumbled now.  I am trying to get everything straightend out.