Time to Write

This morning began with me having to attempt a visit to Home Affairs in Wynberg rather urgently. I had set some work for Jet and Doug was with him. I antisipated that the entire day would be a mess.

However, extraordinarily pleasantly , I was done and dusted by 930. I arrived home to Jet having been busy at school , all on his own, and he greeted me enthusiastically.

He was off his meds and not much good focus had been at hand but he was perservering and hungry.

We downed tools so to speak and went in search of suitable food. After a delicious time at one of our local resturants ,we headed home to begin and try again.

I am introducing all my children to the concept of growth mindsets. We watched a TED talk which was really facinating  and given by the key researcher, Carol Dweck, and we settled done to watch some short, pithy explainations for kids on youtube.

In short, having a growth mindset is my goal for the year. Making every effort to try and perservere and not think we can not achive new things. This is a big shift for a young man who has a rigid brain by nature.

Creative writing was the order of the morning. Through much huffing and puffing and brain pain he hit on a topic of HIS choice and ditched all my fabulous ones. I just love this about him.

He then proceeded to, through much pain, write and write and write........ he wrote for over an hour and announced at the end ,"I think I will turn it into a book." Whether he will or not is neither here or there for me but the process was exceptionally important, as will all ideas around growth mindset thinking. His brain made lots and lots of new connections this morning.

A simple joy of being able to homeschool Jet - he had time to write for as long as he needed to.

The Real Reality Dawns

Here we are.. A week and a bit into the first term of our first year of homeschooling Jethro.

 Our other three songs ( although they are our songs, all four of them, I meant to write-SONS) are settling in at their two schools and so are we.. 

It is indeed "a settling period".

 A coming to grips time. 

A finding out feet space.

I won't lie.. I wake in the wee early hours of most mornings and think to myself " What the heck have we done?" ............and then I remind myself of these two things a friend's husband asked me.

Is Jet happy?
Are YOU learning?

Along with all the other good tips people have given me these two things were compelling and I can answer without missing a beat.. 

Yes!

I am totally aware that many "Purest" homeschoolers would be horrified at us having some of our children in school and one at home. They might even think we are not true homeschoolers BUT I know that we are so encouraged and enriched by the broader educational community, despite its faults. It has enormous strengths  despite our own individual experiences and I count myself fortunate to straddle these two worlds. It would be great to see more of a sharing and integrating of the two sides of the same coin. There is much to be shared!

This week we had the usual orientation meeting at our primary school.. This year it was a meeting with a new, fresh start. You see, as things shift in life education is forced to shift too. Gratefully but a little late for us, this school is shifting in a good way.

 Collaboration and team work learning is going to be emphasised, rather than individual's competing against one another. Etc.

The introduction of Kagan. Took me on a search and I stumbled upon another world of growth mindset education.. This was an exciting and helpful discovery for us. I feel as if I want to go study again. There is so much new info on education and brain development and it is exciting.

So, back to Jet.......and me.

We are having fun and we are experimenting.. I am adding, chucking and using so much good stuff from Footprints to LLATL.. Through to Cambridge and yes CAPS( which despite the much shared negative thoughts around it, it has many helpful learning tools and great activities)

 We are both experimenting, exploring, trying and discovering and we have not yet found our rhythm.  He is learning something about himself and so am I.

The best thing so far is such a simple thing. We can go and stop doing something when we feel Jet needs a brain rest or when he has got it. The flip side of that is we can pick it up again in the car or while watching CNN Student News  because that is how we rock with home-schooling.

and so we begin....

http://www.craiglpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/New-beginnings.jpg

A brand new year. A brand new beginning for our children. 3 of them are off to new grades. Grade 11, 9 and 7 and the forth is being home schooled in grade 5. 

We begin for real now and my tummy id full of butterflies. I keep thinking," what the heck have we done?"

This weekend I got to share a birthday with a friend and she brought with her a whole bunch of homeschoolers. One mom I am getting to know and we are sharing Science together with two other home school families.

I shared my fears!( daring greatly and being authentically vulnerable. Thank you Brene Brown!!)

To my surprise she told me she felt the same , often. What a great and honest thing to share with a brand new homeschooling mom. Thank you oh fellow brave one.

And so here we are......

My other boys keep asking me if we are actually going to do any school this week. They are as curious as I am!