I’m kind of known in the family as the one who will figure out a way to make do. Don’t have enough flour? Let’s grind up some oatmeal. If something outside can be fixed with twine or wire instead of a fancy clasp, I’m all for it.
However……I think using paper clips to do someoen’e root canal is a wee bit (!) over the top.
Ouch.
The Carnival of Homeschooling is up this week. From the carnival, I learned that January is “Get Organized Month.” I guess that means my most recent column was particularly timely. Following a trend I didn’t even know existed. Wow.
I did submit to the carnival this week, my post about my daughter’s dinner. She’ll be doing a repeat of spaghetti this week since her concoction got such rave reviews last week. And I get a night off. Nice.
Domestic Felicity shared a post about compulsory education in Israel. Apparently, preschool from the age of three is now compulsory in Israel.
I know that similar efforts have been made here in the US. No time to rant now, so I’ll just go on record opposing any such idiocy. Mrs. T. has a conversation started here.
For many years, we kept a schedule in our home. Then we didn’t. I’ve been mumbling about the loss ever since, and I finally decided to do something about it. Constructing a schedule that covers farm chores, housekeeping, schooling, trips to town and children’s activities is a pretty big task, worthy, in my mind, of procrastination and several cups of coffee.
Our schedule runs in thirty minute increments, so that can present some problems when a job takes more or less time than what is allotted. I don’t care. I’m militant about the schedule these days. If I went to the trouble of making it, by golly we’re gonna stick with it.
Having a schedule makes sure that everything we need to do is finished by the end of the day. This allows all of us to know who is responsible for which task, what schoolwork must be done, and it also means the children have play and discovery time that is set aside where they know I will not call them in for laundry folding or dishwasher emptying.
My kids have time set aside to prepare for coming events by choosing clothes or finding equipment before it is time to load the van. I get a nudge that reminds me to put out something for dinner the night before. When we are on schedule, I can’t imagine why I ever ran a large family without one.
Even though we successfully used a schedule for years, I resisted starting over. There are those days where a child starts looking something up and becomes entranced with learning. Every few minutes, that child will interrupt what I’m doing to come and tell me another interesting fact about tornadoes or killer whales or some such thing. I knew I could not schedule spontaneity, and I used that as one of many excuses to put off starting work on the schedule.
I want our learning to be free-flowing, uninterrupted by ringing timers and switching tasks. I want chocolate truffles not to be fattening, too.
The truth is, children do learn a lot on their own, but we all need motivation to stick with the hard stuff. They need the reminder that half of the process is settling down long enough to pay attention. Giving everyone a list of things to do with verbal reminders through the day wasn’t working for us. The difficult tasks got put off with a smile. Setting a time limit helps the kids focus on what needs to be done, and I don’t have to nag. As much.
Children have radar that tells them to ask for help with math when an adult is impossibly busy. Nothing else can be done while waiting, of course. To my children’s dismay, the schedule means help is available at set times, right when they have the most difficult subjects. “Get the help while you can,” I tell them, “because Mom has a coffee break coming up at ten.”
In the time before the schedule (is it safe to refer to that time period as B.S.?), computer time was claimed through the age-old system of “I called it,” and “I had it first.” Now those arguments are reserved for who gets to play with the Legos and who gets to sit in the middle seat of the van.
Have all the children embraced our new sense of order with a smile and a sigh of relief that they can now be more efficient? Of course not. Am I going to give up? No way. I scheduled the kids to make dinner while I take a break.
Yesterday we moved things around, and in that process, kids traded treasures. My teen gave away her speed stacking cups that she got several years ago. This has provided hours of entertainment for the younger kids. We aren’t quite to the level shown in this video, but perhaps it will serve as inspiration to them.
My girls have been bugging me to do more cooking. They want to be responsible for a meal now and then or, at a minimum, have more opportunities to help. So I put them each in charge of a meal.
My nine-year-old made spaghetti last week, almost all by herself. I did take the pot to the sink to drain the pasta for her. Her cooking consisted of boiling water, adding salt, adding pasta, setting a timer, calling me to drain the pasta, opening a can of sauce, and mixing the sauce into the pasta.
To see the pride in her face, you might have thought she made her debut as a head chef at a five-star restaurant.
The other children agreed that it was a fine dinner, and my daughter beamed.
There is so much that our children are capable of, they just need a chance to show what they can do.
This article tells of a young boy who was not expected to walk unassisted, now preparing to run a half marathon. This kid has worked really hard to overcome the effects of cerebral palsy and his medical team has been dedicated to helping him succeed.
Matthew began physical, occupational and speech therapy five days a week at Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. It was there they were told that it was unlikely that Matthew would ever walk without the assistance of a walker – but at 21 months old, he took his first step.
“When he took his first step it was actually in the gym at therapy, and the therapist went and got one of the doctors to be checked out, and they all just stood there with their mouths open,” Taylor said. “There has been no stopping him since.”
Matthew’s journey from that day has been full of obstacles. Besides therapy, Matthew had regular Botox injections into his muscles to reduce spasticity and underwent a femoral derotational osteotomy in which surgeons cut his femur below the hip joint to turn it in the correct direction. Matthew’s hamstring was also lengthened in an additional effort to improve his ability to walk.
But Matthew took it all in stride and never complained, Taylor said.
Here is the part I found most interesting:
The pivotal moment came last April when he noticed he could turn on the TV with his right hand. Immediately his speech improved. He could bend and twist and became more active.
The left side of the brain controls language (in most people) and also controls the right side of the body. So I find it interesting that the improvement in function on the right side of the body was accompanied by an improvement in speech. Very cool.
Matthew ran cross country at his high school this past season. He hopes to run a full marathon once he reaches the age of eighteen.
Determined kid. I like that. He must have amazing parents. 
I would imagine that life as the child of the president would provide a lot of opportunity for learning. Studying foreign government? Invite your favorite head of state over for dinner. Doing a unit study on interior design? Ask Martha Stewart to stop by for tea. Interested in sports? Former homeschooler Tim Tebow might make the guest list. And the vacations! Go anywhere with an entire travel office to arrange an appropriate itinerary. Imagine.
Rick Santorum told a crowd recently that his family would continue to homeschool if he made it to the White House.
He probably isn’t counting on snagging an endorsement from the teachers’ unions.
Got a question? Something you want to bring to my attention? E-mail me!
