tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3777852175165801482024-03-14T02:22:36.782-07:002,000 Reasons to HomeschoolA Blog For Discovering, Remembering, and Sharing What You and I LOVE about HomeschoolingSteffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-47556652016043190892020-11-28T08:02:00.000-08:002020-11-28T08:02:16.593-08:00Adding My Voice, Finding the Chorus<p>In 2020, during the world-wide Corona Pandemic, thousands of people tried homeschooling. This was my advice for their experiment, for perhaps merely the dozens that saw it: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>"There are things about choosing to homeschool that make it a hard choice, </i><i>AND there are things that make it the wrong choice. Don't confuse the two."</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">The fact is, I believe with all my soul that everyone CAN homeschool. I may be the last person on earth to try to persuade you you SHOULD homeschool. Those aspects of your life that would make it hard, and those aspects that would make it the wrong choice are unknown to me. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I may also be the last person on earth to try to persuade you about HOW to homeschool. Your child is as unique as your choice of how to go about his or her education. What works for one child - what works for MY child - may be an utter disaster for yours. This is true even among siblings. How could I ever hope to instruct an unknown parent on what is best for her child?!</p><p style="text-align: left;">But I do believe that as a parent, YOU know best. You understand best your child's needs. You understand your own capacity to meet those needs - even your <i>inability</i> to meet the needs <i>yourself. </i>Or in other words, you know when you need to call in outside resources. Those outside resources might be as big and comprehensive as a whole k-12 education system. But the resource <i>could</i> be as simple as a phone call to a friend whose advice leads to a shift in your understanding, or a great idea about how to approach those unmet needs.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So I want to raise my voice up against the outside and inner voices telling you you can't homeschool - that the only resource for any and all unmet needs is a 13-year-long system. Because the simple truth is this: YOU CAN HOMESCHOOL. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I <i>know</i> you can not as some theoretical exercise, nor in a disengaged indifference of a stranger. If you WANT to homeschool, if you believe it might be best, if you want to hope that it will lead to better outcomes for your family, for your children, then I am cheering for you! I <i>want</i> you to succeed! I will cheer your successes, but MORE importantly when you stumble, fall, and feel the fear of failure, I hope you hear ALL the voices that believe you can succeed, and hear them all the more clearly! </p><p style="text-align: left;">The following quotation has been attributed to many authors, but its message is WHY I share my homeschooling experience:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>"A friend is someone who knows the song of my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails."</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">That you CAN homeschool, AND find success, peace, and joy doing it is my <i>lived experience</i>. If the desire to homeschool is the song of your heart, let me sing to you a story of my own stretching, my own fears, my process and joy and happiness. Let me add my voice to your voice inside that believes you can do this. And let this chorus grow and be heard and make the world a better place one childhood at a time.</p>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-66020304047652311162020-10-31T09:02:00.004-07:002020-10-31T09:02:57.284-07:00A Few Simple Suggestions for Organizing Your Homeschooling Space<p>I began homeschooling in the days before social media. I'm STILL not on Pinterest or Twitter, or anywhere else where I might come across a darling room in a home, set up like a darling room at a school. That's fine by me - we don't have an extra room in our home to dedicate to the soul purpose of homeschooling. And I don't want to be locked in just one room for the process for a few reasons.</p><p>First, I've got things to DO! Teaching and/or learning with my kids is only one small part of my day. <i>I</i> spend less time on instruction than they spend learning. That means we do some portion together and they continue on their own while I make dinner, or fold laundry, etc. They find me when they need me, so the ARE all over the house learning.</p><p>Beyond MY needs, the kids often need to be in separate spaces, one needing to concentrate on Math while another practices Spanish pronunciation, my little guy escaping the piano practice to find a quite corner to read while we snuggle.</p><p>Finally, I like spatially representing that learning happens everywhere. "School" is not confined to a space or a time. So we learn all day, and learn everywhere we go.</p><p>But doesn't doesn't need to mean our tools for learning are scattered to wherever we used them last (though that has ALSO happened!). So here is what WE do, so things are easy to find and use and hunting them down doesn't become a barrier to accomplishing a task.</p><p>I have a "school work bucket" in the kitchen in a lower cabinet where everyone can reach it. It is the catch-all for everything we use or could conceive of using in the space of a few month. It holds the books we are working on together, papers, math worksheets, answer books, and DVD's. It may have the art projects and a few art supplies too. And a few crayons and markers thrown in for good measure. I tell the kids that their task (penmanship practice, math, whatever) isn't done until their things are put away. Of course, some days it feels like I'm saying that 'til I'm blue in the face. But when I come across something that has been left out elsewhere in the house, I just drop it in the school work bucket, and when they can't find something, that is always the first place to look.</p><p>The school supplies we AREN'T using regularly (the books on science experiments we haven't gotten to yet, the discount workbooks that were on a screaming sale we aren't advanced enough yet to crack, the math worksheets one kid has grown out of before another grows into them) are all in a closet. (But lacking closet space, I would organize them either by grade level or subject and box them up to fit in storage or under a bed somewhere.) </p><p>Then a few times each year I go through the school work bucket. If we aren't using something anymore, it goes back to the closet to wait for another sibling (or given away if we are done or I didn't find it useful). And as the kids advance I see what is in the closet that can be transferred to the school work bucket, like a tickler file to remind me to try this or use that.</p><p>I should comment about storing completed school work too! Their math until older grades, is done on transparencies so I lack a lot of evidence they DID it. But samples of their art, penmanship, writing, projects, etc. go into a collection bin (also in a cupboard in the kitchen). A few times a year, I empty this bin by sorting out who did what and placing this completed work into binders for each child, like a scrap book only FAR LESS darling. I divide the work by "grade" level, and because I only save incremental samples and not ALL of it, usually a few grade levels can fit in a single binder.</p><p>Having these binders helps the kids to see their progress and helps younger sibs see that their older sibs, who may presently do something better than they do, once were at the same skill level as their younger siblings. AND I found it really helped when I was putting transcripts together for college and an application to attend a private school! For my oldest son's "high school" transcript we assembled when he was 15, we were able to flip though this binder and remember what he studies in history, in science, in Chinese, and THAT he studied certain things so we had a fuller record of his learning.</p><p>This system has worked for our family for over a decade. Homeschooling does NOT require a school room, though if you have one and love it, more power to you! You don't need to spend a fortune on setting things up. Remember that along side your children's learning, YOU are learning what works best for YOUR family. You will discover what that is, and if the solutions you find are simple and inexpensive, all the better!</p>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-54358064959709515962020-10-29T07:18:00.001-07:002020-10-29T07:18:31.426-07:00"All the Way to College"<p>Here was my progression:</p><p>We are NOT going to homeschool because I want and need a life.</p><p>We ARE going to homeschool ALL the way to college because it is more optimal for child development.</p><p>Actually, that is not exactly how it went. But we landed on homeschooling as our first educational option when my oldest (and only child at that point) was 3, and within 2 years (or in time for him to begin Kindergarten) we were telling everyone our intent to led it ride through Junior High and High School, "all the way to college"... if it was working. </p><p>Clearly, we felt that the first 2 years of homeschooling preschool <i>were</i> working. And the caveat of "if it was working," is a large caveat that brought a lot of peace. "We're in this for the long haul. AND we are not locked in and will do public school whenever it seems MORE beneficial."</p><p>Immediately, when this became our mindset, with kids merely 5 years old and 2 years old, we started fielding questions about college: "How are they going to get into college?" "How are you going to get them ready for college?" "Are you going to homeschool college TOO?" "Are they even going to GO to college?"</p><p>There are probably parents who can answer those questions definitively for their 5 and 2 year olds with a straight face. I had to laugh, because what OTHER parents are grilled about college before their kids have graduated Kindergarten?</p><p>Still, it's not like my laughter was a GOOD, or INFORMED answer. Well honestly, I didn't have one. But I DID have a decade to figure it out. So I opted not to sweat it. "We'll see," seemed a sufficient answer to the barrage of doubt others wanted to hurl at me for our choice.</p><p>Fast forward one decade. My oldest is 15 and has ONLY homeschooled. Something <i>was</i> working. But was it college worthy? WHAT ABOUT COLLEGE?</p><p>I figured it was time to find answers to that question. He was quickly reaching the limits of the instruction and even the structure we could provide. He needed to continue to stretch himself academically, and I figured we might as well stretch in that direction, so I began to explore options. Could he take concurrent enrollment? Well no. He wasn't a high school student - that is how colleges provide those classes: <i>through the high schools.</i> Could he take college level courses at our local tech school? No. He was too young. Do correspondence online? Maybe, but when I asked around about it, I didn't hear good things about the programs, and IF he didn't end up attending the college through which the correspondence courses were offered, the time and effort and expense diminished in value.</p><p>Committed to continually walk through options, we found ourselves walking through the doors of a community college and sitting down with a gentleman in the enrollment office. I said something like, "I have a 15 year old here who has been homeschooled and moving forward, we would like to prepare him for college. What do we need to do?"</p><p>He responded, "Would he like to attend <i>here</i>?"</p><p>"Sure," I answered. And why not? The school was easily accessible to where my boy lived. They had lots of online options too. It was going to be cheaper than a university. And my son's goal to be a professional ballet dancer did not necessitate a degree of any kind, so what did it matter to his employer where he rounded out his knowledge and skill set?</p><p>But what came next shocked me. "Would he like to enroll NOW?"</p><p>I stuttered, I stammered. "Is that POSSIBLE?"</p><p>"He needs a diploma."</p><p>"But we've only homeschooled."</p><p>"Then you need to create a homeschool diploma."</p><p>HOLD ON ONE MINUTE! <i>CREATE</i> a homeschool diploma? Well, as it turns out, YES!! A "diploma" is a piece of paper from an institution certifying that one has completed the institution's course of study. It's "official-ness" or LACK of "official-ness" is only a reflection of the institution. When you have completed Papa Henry's Yoga Basics, he can issue a REAL diploma stating you completed Papa Henry's Yoga Basics. You are DONE with his class. The diploma is as real as Papa Henry's course and your completion of it. That means that the only difference between a homeschool diploma and a high school diploma is that one comes from our homeschool and the other from an accredited public school (presumably). But the pieces of paper certifying completion are equally "official."</p><p>As incredible as it sounds, here is what we needed for my 15 yo's college enrollment: a homeschool diploma (we got a nice piece of paper and came up with a name for our school, certified he'd "finished," and signed it), a homeschool transcript (I typed up everything he'd studied in the last 4 years including trips we'd been on and books he'd read), $40, a state ID (we'd already got him his learner's permit), and some filled out forms. </p><p>What about GPA? That's a funny story. When we returned to hand all this in, they opened and looked at his homeschool transcript. I'd broken it down as alike to a high school transcript as I could, by broad subjects (ex: History), by a more narrow topic, (ex: American History), and then listed what he'd done. (I actually had my boy do most of this. I just cleaned the formatting up and made sure we hadn't left anything out.) So they glanced over a few pages and asked, "Are there any grades?" I had not assigned him any reflection on how he'd performed in any of these studies. "No, but I'd be happy to add them." Why not? I could go back and reflect on what level of mastery my boy had arrived at and indicate that with a letter. "No, it'll be fine," they said. Clearly my boy was not enrolling in an academically rigorous institution. That worked fine for our non-rigorous approach!</p><p>And what about tests? Interestingly the SAT and ACT are tests which are supposed to measure college aptitude and readiness. And increasingly, colleges are feeling that scores on these tests are NOT a decent measure. But that is a side note in an evolving institutional prerogative. I think all THIS school cared about was whether or not MY child could keep up in whatever class he chose to take. To determine this, and without anything MORE official, WHEN my son needs to take a class with a pre-req requirement he will need to take placement tests for English and Math. When we spoke to a counselor about his classes, we were told that the English placement classes simply determine if you speak English with sufficient fluency. Noting how I yammered on, he quipped that he didn't expect my son to have any problems. (So far, my boy has enrolled in one science class, one philosophy class, and one music class, all without taking these tests.) He will need a math test to place into the class he needs for his associates degree as well. We are working to prepare him to test into that class, and hoping he can learn what he needs to get in (with the help of free, school provided tutors, no less), learn the content of the class, and be done. I should note that these tests cost $40 and can be taken over and over.</p><p>What about paying for these classes? Yes, they DO cost money. We didn't think we'd qualify for finacial aid of any kind, but it is available. The first class he took, "Scientific Foundations of Human Nutrition" cost between $500-700, I think. If I remember correctly (it's been 2 years now since we looked at it) a 2 year degree was around $9k maybe... BUT his enrollment came with a free public transportation pass, and this boy was on the bus daily. The monthly bus pass was costing us almost $80/mo. When factoring in that we have not needed to pay for the bus since he enrolled, THAT class was paid for. So the <i>cost, </i>whatever that amount is,<i> </i>is something most of us will pay anyway. The kid with a full ride might need a car and gas. We ALL pay a bit. This bit seems economical to us.</p><p>So the plan was and remains this: start slow to learn how to "college," after which we ramp up to 2-3 classes/semester. Because of his early start, he may still finish by the time he's 19 or 20 (after his 1 yr break to train with the Boston Ballet) and walk away with an associates. Sure, it's from a community college, but it's a degree that may help him get into another institute of learning. Living life with an expectation TO learn. Always expecting to move forward and figure out how to progress with the knowledge and experience one has, expecting to master what ELSE is <i>needed</i>. In the bigger picture, isn't this what college is <i>for</i>? Isn't this what "higher education" IS?</p><p>Yes, we homeschooled all the way "to college." We just arrived there a little differently.</p>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-31917599303791729642020-10-27T07:57:00.003-07:002020-10-27T07:57:59.109-07:00Homeschooling as a "Directional" and Not Merely "Destinational" Experience<p>I'm struck by how often in life we benefit from the direction - from the <i>aim - </i>we've taken to reach a certain outcome before and sometimes even regardless of whether or not we actually obtain the stated objective. I suppose this blog is filled with evidence of this. I certainly did not begin homeschooling TO reap most of the blessings articulated here. Homeschooling was FOR the kids. I wanted them to have deeply enriching childhoods, I wanted them to find balance in their success however <i>they</i> defined it, and I wanted them to be able to learn about whatever it was that seemed to fuel their souls and passions.</p><p>Are we THERE yet? Maybe, in brief snatches a time. On the path, certainly. And still waiting to <i>arrive</i>. But along the way there have been a host of other benefits reaped by this direction, before our stated destination is fully in view.</p><p>The ones springing to mind to today are likely echos of sentiment I've expressed before. I don't think that is because they represent ALL homeschooling has to offer. I'm sure the blessings of the direction vary from family to family, parent to parent, and child to child. But if these sound repetitive, I believe it is because they are <i>consistent</i>. They persist regardless of the ages of my kids, regardless of what ELSE we are doing or not doing, regardless of my inexperience in what I'm doing growing to a comfortable confidence that <i>something</i> is working.</p><p>The first blessing of this homeschooling <i>direction</i> is TIME! I have enjoyed more quantity AND quality time with my kids. This has enabled daily pleasures like (still!) snuggling with my youngest, now eight years old; to more life altering outcomes like being able to let my oldest move out of the house when, at 13 years old, his talent and dreams caught him up and away. (A choice I might never had allowed were it not for the wealth of memories we'd created together over his entire life to that point.)</p><p>And it has not only been "time with mom" that has been a blessing. The kids have also had more time to develop relationships with each other and our extended family - that's time spent vacationing with grandparents, nannying for their little cousins that live out of state, and visiting and playing with cousins, uncles, and aunts whenever we have the opportunity to get together. We have been able to seek out this family time more often, not constrained by rigid attendance requirements, and enjoy it better when we are together.</p><p>Homeschooling has also increased <i>my</i> intellectual curiosity. I think of all the things I have learned studying history with my kids I never would have known, remembered, or cared about. I've tried painting with my kids who need "art." We put science events on our calendar as a high priority, and <i>enjoy</i> going; without homeschool setting our direction, it's unlikely these outings would be on my radar, let alone my priority list. I'm even more politically engaged than I thought I would be, because I'm engaged in <i>creating </i>a future for my kids instead of passively letting one unfold.</p><p>This has all translated to a more active family lifestyle. Looking for engaging ways to learn has made us more likely to travel, to attend events in the community, and to <i>care</i> about community and involve ourselves in it. (Not to mention that being networked with homeschoolers is an immediate connection to so many resourceful and active people that activating ourselves becomes all the more simple.)</p><p>Finally, homeschooling has transformed me from a "program follower" into a "problem solver." My parenting has become both more <i>responsive</i> and more <i>proactive</i>. Every parent faces challenges in raising and securing an education for each child that meets their needs and benefits their future possibilities. Homeschooling has helped me to take an active role in meeting these challenges. I DON'T assume "this is just the way it is," or that "maybe it will be better next year," or that "this is rough, but there's nothing I can do about it." When problems arise, I actively engage to find solutions and assume I have some power to make things better. And when opportunities seem few, I create them! Rather than lament that this or that is not part of my kids' school experience, I find ways to add in whatever it is that is lacking! (This chance to create and implement solutions and growth experiences is extremely satisfying to my soul, I would add!)</p><p>In the end, who my children become, what THEY take away from their homeschooling experience is still their choice. We can never <i>enforce</i> the success of another human being, regardless of how we measure or define it. Despite my "destinational" intentions, where my children GO is up to them. But I have been so blessed by our journey, by our <i>direction</i> in homeschooling. And these blessings seem to shine a warmth and joy on so much of the rest of life!</p>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-55042921731465869412020-10-23T07:35:00.003-07:002020-10-23T07:35:54.826-07:00Preparing Your Kids for Successful Adulting<p>Years and years ago, when I was single, I took a class on marriage and dating. As a glaring example of my pragmatism going way back, I ended up dropping the class for its heavy focus on dating. "Why," I reasoned, "would I fill my head with good info on dating when I don't even have a boyfriend?" Considering the other participants in the class were wet-behind-the ears college freshman who were practically already engaged, this was probably the right call for my 23 year old self. I didn't feel like the "target audience."</p><p>But before I stopped going, I did make one note that made it into my binder of life-study notes, and I just came across it today. It's a list of the characteristics of both husbands and wives compiled from a study on successful marriages. (That's all the info I have. Sorry. No sources.)</p><p>So here's the list:</p><p>Connection to a higher power (faith). Love and concern. Emotional maturity. Industry and initiative. Economic maturity. Health/heredity. Character and integrity. Patience/tolerance. Handyman/homemaking. Child-rearing abilities. Intellectual maturity. Ability to give/receive affection. </p><p>When we consider that, for economic reasons alone, it benefits both males and females to have successful marriages, and that if done right they will be married for the majority of their adult lives, it WOULD seem wise to incorporate BUILDING these skills into any education that actually IS aiming to prepare children and youth to transition into successful adults.</p><p>So reviewing the list, I'm struck by how little may actually be covered in a traditional k-12 education. And we are tempted to interject, "Well of course not! Parents, families, the HOME still do have some responsibility to prepare kids. That's where they can and hopefully do see these principles lived anyway!" </p><p>I'm not arguing that's NOT true. I DON'T think it's fair to expect the schools to do everything. And yet, does society have that unconscious expectation anyway? When the public school mindset takes our youth out of the home so consistently with academics, extra curricular activities, and socialization, DO they have the TIME and OPPORTUNITY to BUILD child-rearing abilities (as one example)? If they are not around to help make dinner, let alone eat it, when ARE they gaining homemaking skills (as another)? </p><p>I've said before, "LIFE is school" (that learning that prepares you for the future). And I confess sometimes that legitimately feels like a cop-out. (Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!) But shopping, cleaning the bathrooms, making breakfast, hauling rock in the garden, playing with siblings, visiting cousins, scripture study, helping mom on a business venture, giving feedback on where to hang pictures, listening to another podcast on exercise with dad, enduring a political discussion with your crazy uncles ... ALL that COUNTS as "school"?</p><p>Well, if the list above is anything worth caring about, yes! If the point of school is to prepare a child to become a successful adult, yes! If an income and college degree is not the only value an adult brings to relationships and the world around him/her, YES!</p><p>Something tells me this list is worth taking out of my dusty binder and putting it somewhere where it can receive a little more intention from me as I homeschool and parent. I'm comforted I'm moving in the right direction. I needed the reminder the direction IS right, and to keep moving!</p>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-62509009369419679072020-10-22T16:37:00.002-07:002020-10-22T16:37:50.327-07:00The Evolving Pragmatism of Making Homeschool Work<div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">I've now been homeschooling for 11 years. Though in my own blog I speak of homeschooling in terms of lofty ideals, if I haven't before gotten really REAL about the day-to-day grind, let me just do so now.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a whole homeschooling philosophy out there built around this phrase: "Inspire. Don't require." I like this idea. A lot. I think it can work and the results are inspiring. I mostly view them from a distance. The purists of this ideal I THINK I know are </span>acquaintances who often present at homeschooling conferences and sell product built around this philosophy. I haven't had a heart-to-heart with any of them, heard their struggles, or shared mine. But I like to believe the approach CAN work.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Me, however? When people ask how I can do something as difficult as homeschooling for years on end, I joke that it's my rock bottom expectations that make it possible. What I <i>mean</i> is that at the end of the day, at the end of this time I've been gifted to raise my kids and BE with them, my <i>expectation</i> is only that they will master the skills that are necessary for <i>their</i> lives. That IS a requirement. Some it they get to inform: the son that wants to be a professional dancer spends a ton of time on dancing, the daughter who wants to sing on Broadway spends a ton of time on her voice, the daughter who wants to be a swimmer is expected to do exercises every day.</span></span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">But some of it is MY expectation, my REQUIREMENT: what is acceptable penmanship, math fluency, speaking and communications skills, self-care/cooking/housekeeping skills. Do we INSPIRE? Well... we try to show our kids how what they are working on ties into their ideas of what life will look like in the future.</span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">ARE they <i>inspired</i>? Meh. Yes and no. The younger two (10 and 7) waste a ton of time every day just messing around or playing with each other. Often they resist if I ask them to "get started on their school work."</span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">If I WANTED to, or could remain available all day to support them, perhaps I wouldn't <i>require</i> that they actually get started, but I don't want to just be waiting for them all day to need me. So I don't spend energy trying to force them to do anything, but the understanding is that they can't watch anything, go anywhere, or play with other friends until they have completed their homework. AND if they gripe about covering these basics, they don't get any extras like lessons, or anything fun. (Yeah, a pretty big "require" right there.)</span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white;">But this <i>works</i>. And my kids at these ages, lacking the perspective to grasp fully that I, at my age, do still need clear penmanship AND use my multiplication facts, and without setting the expectation for <i>myself</i> to daily "figure out a way to make this or that engaging," setting these requirements is also <i>sustainable</i>.</span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">The other thing I would add is that while I don't think short-term incentives are included in the concept of "inspiring," these also WORK. Despite all the research about how giving kids rewards damages their intrinsic motivations, the fact remains we ALL give ourselves rewards - it's how we get ourselves to do the hard stuff, whatever we feel that "hard stuff" is. (When I finish my taxes, I'll watch a movie; when I have saved enough money, I'll go on vacation.) In our family, we like to do fun things, or even watch a movie, or have fun plans that we understand come AFTER we have put in the work. And mostly this IS effective, especially when the kids know that they will NOT get to do the fun stuff no matter what. Yes, it's a drag to cancel, or enacting the consequence of time wasting; but not nearly as big a drag as growing up non-functional because you never learned to NOT waste time. These short-term incentives work, and I see that as the kids mature, so does their sense of moving through their obligations with their allotted time, and that is "Adulting 101."</span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">ALL of this going SO against the ideas of child-led learning and inspiring instead of requiring. BUT perhaps of equal significance to just moving through the work, I note that when I require a bit of academic structure AND even REQUIRE MORE help around the house, the kids are happier, get along better, and seem to enjoy their resulting leisure more.</span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">This balance of requirement and incentivizing seems to be working for us. I would note that "working" is NOT measured by kids getting into or excelling in college or life - my 16 yr old DID begin community college, and survived. The others are still too young to say for sure - though my daughter IS planning to do some public HS next year. So in my definition of working, we get along with each other, enjoy being together as a family, have more good days than bad, and it seems that while the kids do spend some time being "behind," that they mature into more motivation and better pacing and don't seem "behind" in anything that matters when they get to it....</span></div></div><div class="gmail-o9v6fnle gmail-cxmmr5t8 gmail-oygrvhab gmail-hcukyx3x gmail-c1et5uql gmail-ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">If I can get those results, and get them consistently, I'll take them!</span></div></div>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-3212791430824991832020-10-22T14:47:00.003-07:002020-10-22T14:47:36.591-07:00Confessions of a 12-year Homeschooling Veteran<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ours is not an "academically rigorous" approach.... </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We aren't ahead grade levels. We don't get "SO MUCH" done. I don't know if the kids will go to college. (Oldest at 17 is currently IN college - taking a few online courses in a slow plod to get his associates while he is busy doing other things more in line with his passions and life goals.) I don't know that we care about college - certainly not about WHICH college. (If the kids care, great. We'll support that.) </span></p><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;">So I was talking with other moms whose kids went all through school, whose kids have this drive and ambition to get good grades, to then pursue hard careers, and I found myself wondering "What are WE going for? What is the benefit of OUR approach?"</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;">And here is some of what I've concluded - and I will probably draw other conclusions years later when we continue to see what worked and what didn't:</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;">Where others might use words like "advanced," or "accelerated," to describe their school/homeschool desired outcomes, my words are actually, "slow," "intentional," "present," "creative," "imaginative." I won't argue that these words are BETTER. They are just different. That's an odd thought to mull over: I don't know that we homeschool because we think we can do it BETTER than the schools. We DO know we "do it" differently.</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;">And when I consider my personality and my husband's, I also note that this may be the only way that actually WORKS (or that DOES work "best") for who we-the-parents are. We both are type A, driven souls who WANT the accolades, who WANT to be the best. AND we resent authority. AND we resent doing things for no obvious reason when they don't seem to be in the best interest of ourselves or our family. I asked him last night what he thought our family might be like if we'd never homeschooled. We both agreed we'd feel a lot more dissatisfaction with our children because most of them don't have the competitive nature we do. In other words, we'd want them to get A's, and we'd be bothered if they didn't care about grades. And because we would not be able to identify <i>why</i> an 8 year old <i>needs</i> A's to be successful in life, we'd be conflicted inside with the expectation our kids excel in the system, probably leading to more dissatisfaction with everything related to the system.</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;">Checking out of "the system" may be the only way we could functionally support our kids being who they want to be, developing at a pace that works best for them.</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;">I guess that is another word that pertains to our homeschool experience: "intuitive." Even more than my husband, I expect things that ARE right for my family to FEEL right. Homeschooling allows me to lean into this trait - to live a family life the way we do, without the structure and guarantees of the system, forging our own crazy path forward in some haphazard fashion for the adventure of it all, and for being true to our inner selves. </span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black;">It's scary. And when I look at the security the system offers, and the sometimes-happy outcomes it produces, I <i>do</i> wonder "what if we are kidding ourselves? What if we are doing it WRONG?" And then the persistent, deeper, slower, intuitive me asks, "how can you do anything in life with any peace if you can't trust <i>this</i>?" and I just surrender to knowing that our "different way" might be the only way that works for us.</span></span></div>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-81430448714421266862020-04-17T16:20:00.000-07:002020-04-17T16:52:37.379-07:00Concepts to Internalize When Creating Doable Expectations for Your Corona SchoolingThe whole world is homeschooling right now!<br />
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And those of us who have been at this for years know it's not really what homeschooling looks like! But I wanted to share my empathy with those who are burning out, whether it's the kids OR the parents! Most homeschool pros will confess there are days they want to tear their hair out. ON those days, we think "I just need to send my kid back to school! I can't do this."<br />
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Since NONE of us have that option right now, here are my tips to survive and rework the schools' and your own expectations, hopefully reducing stress, burnout, and hair-loss. ;)<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="boqs0-0-0" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">1) Duplicating school at home is hard and leads to burnout for students and parents. (This is absolutely true, even for die-hard homeschoolers.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="306k5-0-0" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">2) Break subjects down into proficiency subjects (those whose concepts build incrementally, like reading, math, foreign languages) and content subjects (those which do NOT depend on mastering one concept before going on to the next, like Literature, Geography, History).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="bqqu4-0-0" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">3) For ALL subjects, identify what is important for your child to learn - do they need to stay on pace with peers? if they learn something later (or not at all) will it be developmentally harmful? They may need to practice a proficiency subject daily. They may get away with doing a longer stretch on one content subject/day. Set an idea of how much time your child can take <i>and you can support </i>for school work. Prioritize using this time, beginning with completing work for the proficiency subjects, and with time left over, working on content subjects.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="f5c4q-0-0" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">4) Determine (or have your older child decide) a "material covered" and/or "time spent" standard for each subject/day. If your child is on pace with the school's proficiency standard for a given subject, consider allowing her to spend less time on that subject, or not doing ALL the assignments for it. For those subjects needing YOUR full participation and support, schedule time for that subject with AND FOR your child. Let him work on self-managed subjects at times he may chose.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="fent3-0-0" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">5) Look for alternative resources to teach AND ENGAGE your child in both the proficiency and content subjects. Youtube videos, podcasts, documentaries, a phone call with grandma, a fun book from the library all may be excellent DIFFERENT ways to learn and/or cover the same subjects as the school-provided curriculum. Your child's learning is more important than the completed assignment. Be willing to get an F as a parent by NOT turning in assignments/covering the school's exact material in order to give your child an A in life by helping him or her really succeed at LEARNING.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="ccg0p-0-0">6) </span></span>If you find FUN ways to cover content, it can be what your family does together or how the child has fun/spends screen time. If all the kids learn the same history facts by watching the same documentary, will they suffer academically for it? No. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="f18sb-0-0">7) </span></span>Balance what is important for your child to learn with what is needful for your family. (For example, history facts may wait while your child gains a skill that allows her to make money to supplement lost income that otherwise would have gone towards lessons, summer fun, new toys, etc.) AND your child might have something that he is passionate about; gaining THAT knowledge or skill may serve him just as much or more than covering the school-supplied content!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="9e0p1-0-0" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">8) Remember, the most important thing you may be teaching is adaptability and resiliency! These are VITAL life skills, so take a deep breath and give yourself some credit!</span></span></div>
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Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-72141069133073235262020-03-13T11:06:00.004-07:002020-03-13T11:06:49.535-07:00My video on Five Tips for Homeschooling during the Corona Virus OutbreakHope you can view and share by posting here:<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/100009505930952/videos/2683805048613000/?id=100009505930952">https://www.facebook.com/100009505930952/videos/2683805048613000/?id=100009505930952</a><br />
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#CoronaHomeschooling #ViralHomeschool #CovidHomeschoolingSteffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-60809158788182783462019-11-09T21:07:00.000-08:002019-11-09T21:11:25.361-08:00Woman's Work"Men just don't understand." It's the sentiment echoed by so many women of their labors as mother and keeper of the home. I'm sure I've said it a dozen times myself when recounting to my gal pals conversations I've had with my husband where he assumes I have oodles of free time, or he speaks of me getting a paying job, or I've expressed exhaustion at the busyness that is my life.<br />
<br />
But if I'm being completely honest, I realized recently <i>I</i> don't understand. What <i>do</i> I do all day? Why do I feel like I'm always busy? Busy with what? And why is there so little to show for it? No paycheck, certainly, but no visible, measurable proof that I labored at all? And if there is none of that, why do I like what I do and NOT want to trade jobs with women in "the work place"?<br />
<br />
So I decided it was high time I do the math. My math. Not trying to represent by my figures the labors of any other mother. And as I both qualified and quantified one woman's work (namely myself), I made some important discoveries that I feel are worth noting. So here is the breakdown by task, how I defined the task, and in parenthesis the time I spent on the task.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Cooking</b> (1 hr 20 min/day) is all the food prep, and also includes menu planning, grocery putting-away, list making, fielding questions about what is for dinner, and putting up with all the complaining when your people don't like the answer. It includes re-working a life-style when someone says they don't think we should eat cereal. Or bread. (Good-bye easy breakfasts and lunches.) Yes, I make breakfast, lunch, and dinner - not every day, but on any given day I AM preparing two out of 3 meals. (And we could count the number of times we eat cereal and have sandwiches in a month on one hand.) The kicker is I don't especially like to cook. But I do love my health-nut husband. I love that we are intentional about what we eat. And I love growing the bodies of my children with nutritious food. So I do what it takes.<br />
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<b>Cleaning</b> (1.5 hrs/day). I have myself down for 1.5 hours, which seemed high until I observed my house last time I was incapacitated. A TOTAL disaster. Because no one was carrying things upstairs to put away when they went up, carrying things down when they went down, returning shoes and jackets to their spots so there isn't a panic when they are needed, trashing all the papers everyone came home from church with, gathering all the dishes from the upstairs when her water glass needed refilled, putting the throw cushions back on the couch instead of letting people trip over them, etc. etc. etc. I might only spend 5 minutes straightening an area at a time. But I do that about 5 times a day. AND I spend about 3 hours in deeper clean/week. Do I have kids? YES! And trust me, they help. If they didn't, I might be able to get it done in LESS time. But the goal isn't just an orderly home, but well-trained kids, right?<br />
<br />
<b>Laundry </b>(15 min/day) is washing, sorting, folding, putting away, rotating, matching, spotting, mending, and mentally noting what is needed by whom.<br />
<br />
<b>Shopping</b> (25 min/day) is never ACTUALLY done in 25 minutes. I average about 1.5 trips to the grocery store/week, if I've made good lists. But clothes shopping usually takes longer, especially if I'm trying not to spend a fortune. And there are all sorts of things I buy or search for online - small appliances, curriculum, supplements, gifts - that take a bit of research, and that is all time spent shopping.<br />
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<b>Academic Support </b>(1.5 hr/day) in my home is the time I spend teaching my kids - reading to them, hearing them read, correcting their errors, practicing Chinese, etc.. My guess is that if you DON'T homeschool, you may think this figure surprisingly small, because it is probably what you are spending on homework, parent/teacher conferences, mentoring your child through a big project, etc, when you DO send your kids to school. We just get more say over what we learn, and less institutional expectation, by learning at home.<br />
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<b>Talent/Interest/Opportunity Support</b> (30 min/day) is the time I spend taking kids to and from lessons, but also finding out about, registering for, communicating with providers about, researching activities and fitting them into our lives. It's time at dance recitals, concerts, and swim meets. It's time spent to ensure my kids are well-rounded, whole, thriving.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSGUD9oB_f7dQm-_QwPMvaEEaQfgaagwBoAIue3n0zfIwwX8VrEd9rJFbTNfuNfoq0Xmqr56UVVd_kduRmEP7nOUBBmCbYoDm4Bkc5MroSGvpxY6jPuXCS7X2YrXT7_NHeweUA-UQ49xOR/s1600/20191011_170611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSGUD9oB_f7dQm-_QwPMvaEEaQfgaagwBoAIue3n0zfIwwX8VrEd9rJFbTNfuNfoq0Xmqr56UVVd_kduRmEP7nOUBBmCbYoDm4Bkc5MroSGvpxY6jPuXCS7X2YrXT7_NHeweUA-UQ49xOR/s400/20191011_170611.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Making time for a Corn Maze... because it's TRADITION!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Calendar and Schedule Management </b>(15 min/day) is the text reminders to kids about schedules, the morning run-downs of the plan for the day - all the communication that ensures everyone is where they need to be when they need to be there.<br />
<br />
<b>Finances </b>(10 min/day). Honestly, this is the one that is more of a goal. This is keeping up with what lessons need to be paid for, tracking expenses, transferring money when my kids earn it, communicating with my husband about what was spent and why. Currently, I'm probably at 2-3 minutes/day. And consequently, we are probably not making the most informed financial decisions. I need to do better here.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQbDXUwCz7wUMBmd2qpduRF7ntWnCHM3QL7fqrgEj5ZAd624-fs4OwXFINFA0RjteWNq3jg0eS5cIwjvpg8DfYCeILwy8w5O0Ji9avIt0uTTQ5KE1O5bU9X_-S2UXVXXj0ZWJXew-OU15/s1600/20191023_164737.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQbDXUwCz7wUMBmd2qpduRF7ntWnCHM3QL7fqrgEj5ZAd624-fs4OwXFINFA0RjteWNq3jg0eS5cIwjvpg8DfYCeILwy8w5O0Ji9avIt0uTTQ5KE1O5bU9X_-S2UXVXXj0ZWJXew-OU15/s320/20191023_164737.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From a distance, it looks pretty good!</td></tr>
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<b>Yard and Repair Maintenance</b> (15 min/day) has a goal of 1 hour/day. That is WITH the kids help. And much to their relief, it only happens on average about 2.5 times per week. This number does NOT include their labor, nor does it include the time hubby spends mowing the lawn. But it ALSO includes babysitting the dryer repair guy for 1.5 hours, listening to the exterminator give us his pitch, meeting the tree doctor to make sure this time the trees are properly supported, and calling about the water filter acting funky. These sorts of things don't even arise on a monthly basis, but when they do arise, each one represents a few hours of need.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4DCb-mRXgzph9KnevmFD6vOY0XlgWxT2O71uoS51LjJ14wwIL4HRjoXgwQdVZ1QHHw1lzk2zrFG7moOEJfvMB0TddM98y-E4zqH8mXMmxBfOkcAl8xpzQ3zVriSMOXT7I8w5JOFoe6pM/s1600/20191007_174940.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4DCb-mRXgzph9KnevmFD6vOY0XlgWxT2O71uoS51LjJ14wwIL4HRjoXgwQdVZ1QHHw1lzk2zrFG7moOEJfvMB0TddM98y-E4zqH8mXMmxBfOkcAl8xpzQ3zVriSMOXT7I8w5JOFoe6pM/s400/20191007_174940.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Squeezing in a family dinner while my oldest<br />
is in town.</td></tr>
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<b>Life Enrichment</b> (15 min/day) is making all the warm-fuzzy memories of childhood happen. It's planning and pulling off birthday parties, Christmas, Easter, Halloween. Even play-dates. It's making sure life is to be enjoyed and not just endured.<br />
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<b>Community Connection</b>, (30 min/day) for us, is largely church. But is also service at This Is the Place, or attending the Community Meal, or taking treats to the neighbors, or picking up trash at the park. It is the time I make sure we spend to strengthen our place in the community, and make sure we are relating to it.<br />
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<b>Emotional and Spiritual Counseling</b> (30 min/day) is family prayer, it's breaking up fights, it's a long phone call with my son across the country to hear all the nitty-gritty about his day. It is studying the scriptures, and meditating, and listening. And breaking up more fights. (Lest you be impressed, if my kids would just stop fighting with each other, it would save me a good 10-15 minutes per day!)<br />
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And <b>Nursing</b> (10 min/day) is taking care of the physical bodies of my family - hair cuts, rubbing feet, rubbing backs, making sure the little guy DID shower AND got all the dirt off, clipping toenails, and telling my girl to go back and clean behind her ears.<br />
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As it turns out, I <i>DO</i> have a full time job, as I always suspected. MY total was 7 hrs and 30 minutes/day. Obviously, I don't do ALL these things every day. So I took the total time spent per week (or per month) and then divided that number by 5. Yes, I know there are 7 days in a week, but most jobs (at least the ones we aspire to) are 40 hrs/Mon-Fri jobs. While being a mom IS around-the-clock work, no one can truly work all the time and maintain health and sanity for long. If we only expect everyone else to put in a good 40 hours, perhaps we should understand being on call ALL THE TIME does not mean a mom needs to be active and productive in that role ALL THE TIME.<br />
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This list, while one may be tempted to shrug it off as "just living life," only represents the tasks related to ensuring OTHERS live life, and live it more abundantly. It doesn't include time for eating or sleeping. Nor does it include time for SELF care - time used to have lunch with girl friends, or take a relaxing bath, or read a good book just because the mom finds it interesting. Sure, I get to eat the food I fix for my kids, as one example, but if I was cooking just for me, it would take a LOT LESS time and effort (as evidenced by my "Bran Flakes" cereal diet in high school). And if someone was going to cook FOR me, that labor would be THEIR job, for which he or she would be compensated. Same for party planning, or tutoring, etc. It is part of life. But it IS work.<br />
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And we might be tempted to dicker or bicker about what time is "worth it." For example, do I really need to spend 1.5 hours every day CLEANING? What a waste, right? As those throw pillows are just going to land on the floor AGAIN. We usually agree that at some point, the toilet needs to be cleaned, but do the insides of the cupboards need a wipe down on a semi-annual basis? Well, if you are asking me about YOUR house, I would say that's up to YOU. The times listed above are what those tasks take me to reach BOTH acceptability and satisfaction.<br />
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Which brings me to my next point. Acceptability and Satisfaction. Those are two important words. Here is a picture to illustrate:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2rrcJThA4ZE4BlgjvxBPK9E3oo3OhyphenhyphenbcrnRf83AI7eBndUQfoIrVJ2vkBwueJfU_b1PamtFTMWq3VY300y9F_0Co3qf2g1Hw8TnvhwPDA7QLQ56hDcx9zZsGIe9D7amfnU246HcucIRl/s1600/20190406_101549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc2rrcJThA4ZE4BlgjvxBPK9E3oo3OhyphenhyphenbcrnRf83AI7eBndUQfoIrVJ2vkBwueJfU_b1PamtFTMWq3VY300y9F_0Co3qf2g1Hw8TnvhwPDA7QLQ56hDcx9zZsGIe9D7amfnU246HcucIRl/s640/20190406_101549.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I took this picture after arriving home one day, and my husband proudly announcing he and the kids had "cleaned the kitchen." This IS the AFTER picture. AFTER their cleaning.<br />
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Now, to be fair, I'm sure if there was a before shot, it probably consisted of more dirty dishes - probably a sink full to overflowing. Maybe more trash on the island. Maybe the trash which is not pictured got emptied. You can't see it from here, but the sink is full of larger, rinsed items, probably waiting for the dishwasher when it's current load, which they started, is done. So the kitchen is <i>more</i> clean. It may have been moved from unacceptable levels to more acceptable or tolerable ones. There was likely unfinished food on the island that was thrown away. And now, at least, the dirty dishes are rinsed, instead of hardening with old food.<br />
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If acceptable was the ONLY standard at play, this may meet it on some level. No rotting food. Yay. But this is not satisfactory, at least to ME. Not at all. So while the kitchen may be less gross, the efforts of my husband and children did not equal a job that needs no further attention. To experience the <i>satisfaction</i> of a job well done, clearly more work is needed. Because a clean kitchen looks more like this:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEN5Db8gRPA0jYVLlrc2QUpn5vD0t0qVYzNRM2IcVLKXrpmH_Y3KY1WA0F79ymzO5ljmMDsyyqJp9tHbeuc51SVzA5RiNSp0oDr0JeJbOjAlhHCq5Pz1irBJ7HC3OvG9hzXy76cUJkyG7O/s1600/IMG_1565+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEN5Db8gRPA0jYVLlrc2QUpn5vD0t0qVYzNRM2IcVLKXrpmH_Y3KY1WA0F79ymzO5ljmMDsyyqJp9tHbeuc51SVzA5RiNSp0oDr0JeJbOjAlhHCq5Pz1irBJ7HC3OvG9hzXy76cUJkyG7O/s640/IMG_1565+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Well, probably not EXACTLY like this. The bar stools wouldn't be perfectly lined up. There would still be papers stuck to the fridge. But you get the idea...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Now, it's no use pretending that they are the same. AND there is no use pretending that we should all be OK with jobs that are merely acceptable. Sure, people often have to settle for acceptable to preserve sanity. But when we do, there is no true peace that comes from having a task </span><i style="font-size: medium;">completed</i><span style="font-size: small;"> to </span><i style="font-size: medium;">satisfaction. </i><span style="font-size: small;">Things will feel "undone" - whether it's a kitchen that needs more work, or a crying child that needs more attention, or that nagging feeling that we need to be doing something more for someone we love. Leave enough things undone, or unsatisfactory, </span><span style="font-size: small;">and guilt and unhappiness begin to build. And THAT tears through peace, focus, and contentment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">But what if you ARE satisfied with an acceptable kitchen? OR you have an insanely high standard for satisfaction when it comes to throwing an amazing birthday party for each child, EVERY YEAR? There is nothing wrong with that! No matter how we divvy it up, we all have the same amount of time, and each care-giver spends hers according to the needs of her children and her own values. (I, for example, do NOT value Birthday parties AT ALL. Much to the disappointment of my children. They'll get over it!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">However, while we all have the same amount of time, we are NOT wired to be in production mode for the same amount of time. To expect the output of all women to be equal would be like expecting the income of all professions to be equal. We</span><span style="font-size: small;"> marry school teachers and attorneys. The spouse of a school teacher isn't frustrated when the teaching salary isn't an attorney's income. Some women are wired to be power-house CEO's and when they unleash that energy in their own home and with their families, they wow us with multi-</span><span style="font-size: small;">faceted</span><span style="font-size: small;"> accomplishment. If you are not the Steve Jobs of your home, neither are most of the rest of us. There isn't a <i>wrong</i> way to do any of this work. Just wrong-headed expectations that your approach and my approach will look the same. Every parent is different - different strengths, needs, and energies, parenting different children with their varying strengths, needs, and energies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I should add too that this post has been awfully unfair to care- and support-giving dads. In many households much of this work is accomplished by both parents or more exclusively by a father. When both parents work (or even if one or both parents don't), kids may take on the responsibilities I've outlined below. My guess is that there is a restructuring that occurs - that the tasks are still being done by someone, taking more or less time, and that the time saved or not spent is used in some other way that serves the family. And there is nothing wrong with that. I think my point is that caring for a family TAKES TIME. However it is accomplished, whomever it is accomplished by, it is a task. A whole host of tasks. Big tasks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We (my hubby and I) sometimes speak of a restructuring - of him doing more, of expecting more from the kids, and of me doing less in favor of doing something DIFFERENT (that makes heaps of money, ideally). And I'm not opposed to any of those ideas. But the truth is: I love my job. I love THIS job. I do it because I think it is important, and anything important is worth doing yourself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I can, and have, and do occasionally outsource all sorts of this work. I want my kids to grow by participating meaningfully in caring for our home and our family members. I like the perspective my hubby brings into emotionally supporting our kids. I don't want or intend to hog all of this to myself. (And frankly I need the additional support more often than not.) But back to satisfaction, caring for my family in these ways is deeply satisfying to MY soul. I feel in tune or in sync with my kids, with their needs, and I can adjust (mostly) seamlessly to do more or less of what is needed at the moment the need arises.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And the work DOES change. Nursing moms may have less time for academic support. Empty-nesting moms may have fewer kid-created messes to clean. That IS the beauty of this job too, and what makes it so hard to define. Not only is it different person to person and day to day, it also varies year to year, season to season. But it is ALWAYS holding the world together, making the world go round, BEING the world to someone you love dearly and needs you to do "it all," whatever that "all" happens to be. I'm so blessed this is MY work! I love it and never want to retire! Here's to 40 more years!</span><br />
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Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-67849319543957833852019-10-06T18:25:00.000-07:002019-10-06T18:25:21.341-07:00A Day at Public School: Our Report<div class="_2cuy _3dgx _2vxa" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A local charter school had a "Bring a Friend to School" day. My oldest daughter was invited and I thought it would be a great opportunity to find out, at 13 years old, what public school was all about. I then managed to find a buddy for my 7 year old who had been begging to go to school. I figured this was a much easier try-out than getting him registered just so he could go and change his mind. And then I realized my middle daughter, 10 years old, would feel left out, so I f<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">ound a buddy for her too. Here is our report.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiucQFUzGfj65EUla7ZvoEEwWwsz4mxBaI6-A0_FiRC13LQJguq9tkNJh6ahIhJODgg6bsuxalCcFDzpuBl4BF3kVAEQFRKp2xSflrXT7y-QbYo1vpUXzWPXyg86xnQHa6L44scIujnlTZw/s1600/20190927_074708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiucQFUzGfj65EUla7ZvoEEwWwsz4mxBaI6-A0_FiRC13LQJguq9tkNJh6ahIhJODgg6bsuxalCcFDzpuBl4BF3kVAEQFRKp2xSflrXT7y-QbYo1vpUXzWPXyg86xnQHa6L44scIujnlTZw/s320/20190927_074708.jpg" width="240" /></a><span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;">Everyone had fun. And especially grandparents wanted to know what the kids thought. My 13yo said she thought it seemed kids in school were learning answers compared to her library homeschool class which she said seemed to be more focused on learning how to THINK.</span></div>
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<span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;">My VERY social 10yo said she liked "grammar" best because it was easiest. I'm not sure what that means because I don't teach "grammar." Felt behind in math (all the kids did) and how much she needed to write, and write quickly. Said lunch was way too fast. Was bugged by having to stand up when the teacher rang a bell, only to have to sit back down when she rang the bell again. Would only consider going back if she could go once a week. Dream on, dear!</span></div>
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<span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;">My little guy DOES want to go back. He did have an easier go of it as they only allowed kids his age to stay for one hour. During which time we did 30 minutes of gym and 15 minutes of recess. I asked to stay an extra 15 minutes just so he could be there for something academic - he got to sit while the other kids took a math test. So I was surprised at his interest, but loved his reason he wants to return. When I pressed him he just said, "If I could catch up to what the other kids know, I think going to school would be an interesting challenge." It's the best reason I've ever heard.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLOv8cqwPt2UN2LmkBrGnW9LUbbJgEqcPg5LhFmqd5GJbyNcCyEqWVDupyG9a7AQZmdp4sezd1WCucsUAkKGHhmtTnOZPrVTphyHDXPjIXWbhq_qIyRffXvi5LkoEdv-ufqnGY_ZGUxlUM/s1600/20190927_090436.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLOv8cqwPt2UN2LmkBrGnW9LUbbJgEqcPg5LhFmqd5GJbyNcCyEqWVDupyG9a7AQZmdp4sezd1WCucsUAkKGHhmtTnOZPrVTphyHDXPjIXWbhq_qIyRffXvi5LkoEdv-ufqnGY_ZGUxlUM/s320/20190927_090436.jpg" width="240" /></a><span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;">I was NOT interested, and left NOT interested in having my kids in an institution. First, I will clarify that this school seemed well run, supportive of kids, and had a positive atmosphere. Furthermore, there are necessities in mass management I understand. I just don't want my kids to be mass managed. I witnessed a kid getting in trouble for going the bathroom probably 5 times while I was with my little guy in class. Clearly, he either has a bladder issue or is disengaged - neither problem being addressed by the aid threatening to not let him go next time. Didn't like that after 30 minutes of gym time, the kids had to the count of "3 banana split" to get a drink. What if they were more thirsty than that? So they lined up for drinks, to go inside, to go outside, to leave the bathroom, to go to gym, to leave gym. My 10yo said, "they spent a lot of time getting into lines." In fact, in the 30 min of the academic time I observed, the same academic learning and instruction could have taken about 5 min at home.</span></div>
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<span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;">Oh! And gym time was following the teachers instructions: "Now jump rope! Now do slides! Now hop on one foot! Now do push ups! Now skip!" It was varied, but meaningless cardio. Not even instruction on HOW to do push-ups, or skip, etc to build a skill set, let alone allow the kids to play or come up with their own physical challenges. I was just there for one day, granted. But considering it seemed that all the other kids knew the drill, I don't think this day was out of the ordinary. I had to smile every time the kids were stopped by a whistle from doing one movement and moved on to the next at the confusion of my little guy whom I could tell didn't feel he'd had his fill of skipping yet, and then not enough jumping rope, and then not enough walking backwards, etc.</span></div>
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<span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;">Finally, most interesting to me was math. This school prides itself on being one grade level ahead in math. But when it was time for the math test, the teacher went through the test on an overhead projector, question by question explaining the test. Which may seem like a wise thing, but when you are telling the kids what equation to execute to solve the story problem it really smacked of teaching to the test and seemed to echo my 13yo's observation that it was all about answers and less about thinking. I guess that is what parents expect: "Help the kids do well on tests." It may seem like a worthy goal, except it isn't very often in life that someone hands you a page of meaningless numbers and asks you to do sums.</span></div>
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<span class="_4yxo" style="color: #4b4f56;">So I think we are going back, at least me and my little guy, for another bring a friend day. Because I like that he likes interesting challenges. And now I'm curious how long he would find school to be an interesting challenge!</span></div>
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Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-33595412884142284772019-09-21T09:42:00.000-07:002019-09-21T09:42:19.245-07:00Shifting Perspectives on Weakness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kRqdb16iQ6bkrR8kXJ9yzrZ-10CXo1gBgeDmZO5_XNPGgDYb4vrKZZ9XvUTkiqBjJkbRGDnz6TPlFmY4SVflBLWaxcBFHyxDtV4j-oTscy-qMX9m0tU9K4f2nqoEC0VK7HBlZEjT2jbC/s1600/20190510_215447+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kRqdb16iQ6bkrR8kXJ9yzrZ-10CXo1gBgeDmZO5_XNPGgDYb4vrKZZ9XvUTkiqBjJkbRGDnz6TPlFmY4SVflBLWaxcBFHyxDtV4j-oTscy-qMX9m0tU9K4f2nqoEC0VK7HBlZEjT2jbC/s320/20190510_215447+%25281%2529.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
The handsome young lad on the left is my oldest child. This blog is incredibly outdated, so let me update readers, briefly. This boy moved away from home when he was 13. He wasn't FAR away - only about an hour and a half drive - but he left to pursue more intense ballet study with Ballet West. In the 3 years he studied there, he lived with host families, completed his school work on his own, made his own breakfast and lunches, and took public transportation to and from his dance classes which lasted from 1:30pm until about 7pm Monday-Friday.<br />
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This was SO MUCH to manage at the tender age of 13 and I worried and prayed for him constantly. He survived. In many ways, he thrived. He certainly grew as a dancer! This picture is of the cover photo of his end of the year performance, when, at not yet 16 years old, he danced the male lead of Sleeping Beauty.<br />
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As his parents, we have observed this son's dedication to ballet. It is thrilling to us, because everything indicates that this will be a very viable career option for him. And this is a career he can (and essentially needs to) begin sooner than later. Dancers don't perform generally into their late 40's and beyond, so in some respects, it is 'now or never.' That being so, however, we are aware of the need to have other skills and a rounded education to support oneself and a family BEYOND a performance career.<br />
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So we have "pushed" school. Not demanding he get good grades - we still mostly "homeschooled" all the rest of his "high school." And high school is in parentheses because at some point, he went beyond where we could effectively challenge him academically at such a distance, and this point seemed like a natural "graduation" mark. So he did "graduate" and moved on to college. Or more accurately, taking ONE college class. Online. (I'll post about THAT later.)<br />
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But we noted he was not nearly as driven or disciplined academically. And some of that, we realized, was his age, and some was our failure to provide the hand-holding that is present for students his age still in high school. But more and more, we felt like his weaknesses included over-confidence and a disregard for thorough preparation. My husband and I, both type A's, tried to convince this son that he would be wise to develop some of that type A, uber-driven approach to the rest of his life. And then, to imprint the value of what we were saying, I told him about all the type A dancers that filled professional ballet companies. (If you haven't read elsewhere, I was a professional dancer myself.)<br />
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Anyway, I was sharing this ongoing struggle with a dancer friend of mine and she had another perspective. She said that she thought it may be his laid-back, low stress attitude that will prove his longevity in a dance career. She reminded me of all the type-A's that stress out, whose overly critical view of themselves leads to burn-out or worse: unintentional self-sabotage. And I could remember that happening too. With her wisdom and encouragement, we sent this now-16 year old off into an even BIGGER world: Boston.<br />
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He is now living across the country, training with the Boston Ballet. Still loving ballet. Still making his own breakfasts and lunches, doing his own laundry, maneuvering through the city on public transportation, and living with a host family. And still showing a lack of discipline and focus when it comes to school.<br />
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But here is what happened.<br />
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My 16 year old boy was asked, with his class of 12 other men, to understudy company roles in the ballet Giselle. Not because the company intended to USE him. They had understudies already, assigned for different casts. But it is part of a trainees training to begin to work with the paid pros, and so my boy was there. His peers told him he would never BE used - that if anyone was injured, they would use first the full company members from other casts, and next, the members of the second company (like a farm team), and THEN someone from his class, and that extreme need was inconceivable. Beyond that, they were not even assigned which spot TO learn, so that means you learn every spot, which REALLY means you don't learn any spot. So he is in rehearsals with all the other older boys from his class, plus all the even older dancers from the second company, AND all the company dancers, and the artistic staff, guests to set the ballet, etc.. Learning fast steps and complicated traffic patterns.<br />
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And low and behold, there was a rehearsal with a company man missing. So they asked for other company men to fill it, but they were in different rehearsals, and because they were gone, the second company men were already dancing too. They nearly left the spot empty, when someone pointed out the trainee men were there. So they asked all of them, "Who knows this?"<br />
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And that is when my over-confident and under-prepared son gave it a beat (likely because he KNEW he didn't know ALL of it, and also in-part because of a migraine he was suffering, impacting his peripheral vision) before he raised his hand. He, the youngest person in the room FULL of around 50 adult professionals. And he stepped in, learned on the spot, did his best, and "faked it 'til he made it." My boy, at 16 years old, was rehearsed for an hour with one of the top 5 ballet companies in the country. Because he had NOT learned it is safer not to try when you are unsure. Because he had NOT learned you have no right to be confident unless your preparation is perfection.<br />
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I am beginning to learn the wisdom of my friend's perspective. I am beginning to see that those things that I may regard as weakness, my child may use as a strength to fuel a bright future. It was the message of so many older posts: trust the process. I suppose I need to never let go of that trust.Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-87092086923534052592019-04-07T16:48:00.003-07:002019-04-07T16:50:53.010-07:00Reason 43: Find the Strength to be Home-Centered, Church SupportedThis is a buzz phrase right now among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It reflects a current spiritual emphasis on individuals developing their own relationship to Jesus Christ, receiving guidance in their own lives FOR their own lives.<br />
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The phrase was introduced to the membership at large at an interesting time for me. I had just decided, after some exploration and research, to homeschool the part of my 15 year-old's education that most other homeschooling members of my faith DO relinquish to outside authority: seminary. (Seminary is a class offered to youth of high school age to familiarize them with the books of scripture and doctrines of the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ.)<br />
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I had a host of reasons for this decision which I won't get into here, beyond to simply state that I felt I could be the one to best accomplish my objectives for my son: that he develop his own relationship with God, that he find relevance to his life in the scriptures, and that he begin to prepare for the responsibility all believers have to "give an answer for his faith."<br />
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Interestingly, I announced this to my extended family and was surprised at the level of push-back I received. It reminded me of the passionate push-back flung my way when I announced 10 or 11 years ago that we would be homeschooling the kids' academics. I won't go into the expressed counter-arguments either. I would just add that the push-back shocked and discouraged me. I didn't feel discouraged nor uncertain about my decision, but I felt incredibly discouraged that there seemed to be such dismay at my choice to manage our own way through a non-essential (being that it doesn't pertain to salvation) program of the church.<br />
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And then a few months later I was IN the Conference Center when this shift in emphasis was announced. Observing that feelings about my choice to homeschool seminary may be a little raw, I didn't say anything about the announcement. In fact, I doubted that anyone else had made the connection that was evident to me: that we ARE IN FACT responsible for our own progress in the gospel and that this progress CANNOT be outsourced effectively to anyone or any program. Finally one brother pressed me to share my perspective on the announcement, which I was actively trying NOT to interject. I chose to say simply, "I felt validated."<br />
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In subsequent church meetings this has continued to be an emphasis - that the home is the primary source of instruction and church programs and classes are secondary to it. And of course, I love this change! But NOT because of the validation of my spiritual choice, but actually because it validates how we do academics around here!<br />
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So many people, when they find out we homeschool, say something to the effect of, "Oh, I could NEVER do THAT." I want to state clearly, AGAIN, that <b>if I can homeschool, anyone can.</b> I have never been to college. I have an embarrassingly short fuse. And the idea that I can prepare my children, alone, for the daunting expectation of a successful life is as intimidating as preparing them, alone, to get back to God.<br />
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Every religious person can see and FEEL that they have not educated their children in faith alone. No matter your religious creed, families enjoy the support of church structure, church teachings, and inspired mentors. And this is precisely how my children are educated temporally. I am not standing in front of them, day after day, hour after hour, singly filling their heads with the facts that will fuel success in their lives. I wouldn't WANT that, I couldn't offer that. I have honed the skill to recognize my weaknesses - like my own troubled times-tables, or my disinterest in anything scientific - and found BETTER, stronger resources to make up for my kids what I lack. I have not become a math expert, or a hobby scientist. Nor do I expect that I SHOULD merely because I want my kids to have joy and proficiency in math or science, anymore than I expect another parent who wants her child to dance to become proficient in the technique of classical ballet. I am the expert dance teacher helping my students become better dancers. And I FIND experts to supplement where my knowledge is inadequate.<br />
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Incidentally, that is a LOT. Like MOST of everything they learn, they learn from a better source than me. Still, I think of their learning as home-centered because we, the parents are in charge. Without waiting on school policy or the PTA, we chose the curriculum, chose the instructors, set the pacing and establish the priorities. And much of the instruction does, in fact, take place in our home, or in the homes of their friends. Perhaps I could say their educations are home-centered, expert-supported? I like that. And because I've been practicing this approach in the education of my children, the church's shift to a home focus seems natural and delightful to me.<br />
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Now, one worthy question remains: will my children receive the education they need to face the economic realities of their futures? That is an excellent question that I do NOT have the answer to yet. (Check back in about 15 years.) But my hope it will all work out is as sure as my hope that if I diligently do my part, my children CAN find their ways back to God. And that is a lively hope!<br />
<br />Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-53929496717162362932016-12-18T15:14:00.000-08:002016-12-18T15:15:19.232-08:00New Reason Number One: FUN!!!Truly, there isn't a number one reason why WE homeschool. An earlier entry mentions "Socialization" as my number one reason. That I can help my children to be "socialized" to the kind of environments that reflect future realities (that they will need to interact with people of different ages, different backgrounds, and who have different objectives), not to mention that I get to have a relationship with my children NOW (teaching social skills by MY example instead of allowing them to haphazardly glean social norms from peers), is certainly one of the things I love most about homeschooling.<br />
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But increasingly as we are out and about, living our lives and serving in the community at times when all the rest of the children are locked away in institutions, and when I see eyes widen when I answer that my kids are not with the rest because we homeschool, what I really want to make evident (and what should be inherently evident if you watch us for a few moments), is that we homeschool to have FUN!<br />
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Somehow, no one wants to believe that fun is a reason. Either they don't believe I'm REALLY having fun, or they don't believe THEY could have fun with their children. Maybe most adults don't talk about fun as a value, or if they <i>think</i> fun is important, they would never admit it. So they laugh as if I've shared a joke.<br />
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Well, we can all laugh at outrageous things, can't we? If we've gone to school, perhaps the idea that history, geography, or social studies can be fun <i>is</i> outrageous. Folks seem baffled that what we study comes from books from the library, and we know WHAT to check out based on what we are interested in and what <i>looks</i> interesting. (Not everything we are interested in looks interesting, and not every thing that looks interesting captures our interest, and that's okay.)<br />
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If we've studied the same rules of English grammar for 12 years, it may seem like an outrageous suggestion that good writing is born from reading, and not from an obsessive breaking down and deconstructing of tired sentences.<br />
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What seems outrageous to me is that in all the times I surely griped about studying my times tables and whined I hated math, that no one took 2 minutes to comfort me with the fact that when you have your 2's, 5's, 10's, and 11's down, that there are only about 28 facts left, and that there is a trick to the nine's and once you know the trick, you're left with only about 22 facts and that is SO MUCH MORE palatable than 144 facts to know! Why did no one sing me crazy skip counting songs? Why did no one attempt to teach me stories to help me keep my facts straight? Instead, I was left to suffer, and muddle through, and believe I didn't muddle very well... but it didn't matter anyway because math wasn't very fun and why would I ever do it when I was a grown-up and could CHOSE what I learned and did!?!!<br />
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Is school today the same as it was for me? If a teacher sang songs about math and read great books and made learning something FUN, would it be cheating? A friend of mine told me that a pre-school teacher frowned on using a video in her classes which engaged 3 year-olds and taught them to recognize their letters and sounds. Why? Perhaps in her mind, parents shouldn't pay <i>her</i> if they could plop their kids in front of a fun video and have them master in a few weeks the same material she slaved away to teach (and with less successful results too) over a period of several months? If this teacher's perspective seems valid, might it not also be true that we complicate A LOT of learning in school to justify all the time and expense we spend on school? Clearly, fun is not the current primary objective of our school systems. But have you considered that filling time and filling buildings may be? And if that is what we are truly filling, and not so much brains with knowledge or minds with understanding, is it a shame or shock that homeschooling for us would look almost nothing like public schooling?<br />
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Maybe all the grown-ups that laugh about homeschooling being fun learned best in school that learning isn't very fun, and if we say it is, we must be pretending for some child's benefit (but the adults know better, wink-wink).<br />
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<br />Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-84940539064131784392016-12-18T12:59:00.002-08:002016-12-18T12:59:40.681-08:00Reason #274: The World Becomes Your CurriculaI wrote this post years ago and discovered it today. I'm not sure why I never posted it, but I hope it speaks to you, NOW. Enjoy!<br />
~Steffanie<br />
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Recently, my big kick has been expanding the vision of what homeschooling can be. While we <i>can </i>do school at home, there are many reasons why our family has not taken that approach. Really, the impetus from moving away from that model was a child for whom that model meant constant battles of will and the risk of turning her off from learning.<br />
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But as we gradually stepped away from worrying about what we learn compared to everyone else and when, what I came to realize is what I actually already knew: children are EXCELLENT learners. From the moment they are born - from before they are born! - they are learning and shaping their own understanding of the world.<br />
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We adults do it too, but not as fluidly. Perhaps some of our sluggishness when it comes to taking in new information AND allowing that information to mold what we know or think we know comes from our school experience. In school, we learn what the teacher is prepared to teach, regardless of our personal interest in the subject. We learn the same things in the same ways as everyone else. Our learning is measured with letters and numbers which are supposed to represent how much or how little we can recall of the information.<br />
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Instead of learning about the subjects, very often what we learn is that learning happens when someone else has something they think is important and they speak it at us. If the words coming out of the mouth aren't especially interesting, we also learn that the subject is "boring." There may not be any authority figures in our lives who have words to say about anything <i>we</i> might otherwise be interested in, so additionally we learn that those things have no value. So we begin to group subjects and even life experiences as important and unimportant. What is important comes out of an authority figures' mouth and when we can repeat the concepts, we are given a number or letter. The number or letter are, in fact, MORE important than even the concepts.<br />
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Even when we have left this school context, we keep segregating knowledge and experience this way: <i>this</i> is important because it pertains to the numbers of my employment, while <i>that</i> is unimportant because no one is measuring or talking about it.<br />
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Perhaps one-year-olds are so much better at learning because they haven't learned yet about our segregation of information. Naturally, much of what <i>they</i> must esteem as important is based on the actions and even words of others. Do you remember taking your little one to hang out for a while with a child just older than him and noticing afterwards your own child trying new things and seeming a bit older himself? But your child did learn from another CHILD. And there were no tests. You didn't even need to suggest to him that he watch the other little boy and see if he could do or say some of what he saw and heard.<br />
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Learning happens. Or it will, if we haven't killed the skill. Why are we fixed on an arrogant system which assumes that the words coming from 12 years of text books and professionals are what really what matter in life? Or is it our own arrogance which assumes a child cannot perceive what learning is necessary and crucial to a happy, productive, and full life? Do our letters and numbers we assign to a child's learning teach them the essential nature of what they are learning? Or do they mostly teach that the letters and numbers are really what count?<br />
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The world and life itself are so full of knowledge and experiences to be had. If we <i>must</i> give a curriculum, why can't it be just that? "Kids, today I am going to learn something new and have an adventure. Would you like to join me?" In fact, when you homeschool, that CAN be your curriculum. Embrace and enjoy it!Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-39512758331498367002016-02-18T14:54:00.002-08:002016-02-18T14:54:50.298-08:00Reason #15: Homeschooling and Language ImmersionThis post begins with my confession: I was once very tempted to put my kids in public school. That moment came when I found out the Mandarin Immersion programs already in place in select elementary schools in Utah was coming to OUR area. Of course, it was coming too late for my oldest two kids who were past 1st grade, where immersion students begin the program. But for a moment, for the sake of the language skills of my younger two, I seriously considered public school. For a whole day.<div>
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In the end, I came back to where I had begun: sending my precious 6 year old off to be raised by strangers for the bulk of her waking time, sinking all her best energy, playfulness and imagination into a one-size-fits-most, fairly confining system, STILL didn't seem like the best formula for growing a healthy, happy, active, and imaginative child. Even if now it <i>may</i> grow bi-lingual ones. </div>
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But I liked the bi-lingual idea! I learned Mandarin Chinese on my mission in to Taiwan when I was 21, and I suddenly was envious of the idea that kids, but not MY kids, were going to get to be bilingual in their YOUTH! So I decided right then and there that our homeschool would just have to do Chinese too.</div>
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Now, I actually don't very often compare our "school" experience to anything done in school. I avoid drawing comparisons for a whole fat heap of reasons. But in this one tiny area - language study by immersion - I decided if we were going to homeschool, we'd one-up our approach. We were going to learn Chinese IN TAIWAN!</div>
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So that's what I've been up to for all these months. Now I'm home, I thought I'd let you know how it went: AWESOME!</div>
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Taking your family of four kids, ages 3-12, to a foreign country can be an intimidating experience. But the freedom to do it, the ability to live with that kind of adventure and commitment is actually a big part of WHY we homeschool. We believe experience trumps "learning about...." We, with our children, can KNOW, instead of just "knowing THAT...."</div>
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We went for 3 months and extended to 4. We went without employment imperative. We went with almost ZERO contact with anyone IN the country. We made friends and found friends as we went. We learned by experience, and trial and error. </div>
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In preparation to go, I did work on Chinese with my kids for about a year. Knowing that they were going to USE it, in a MAJOR way, provided some of their interest. We made the rest happen with bribes, routine, and short lessons that were as fun and creative as I could contrive to make them.</div>
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I poured my heart out to the Lord for ALL of it - that Chinese would come, that we would get to go, that we could find someone to stay in our home while we were away, and that we would have a miraculous, life-changing time while we were there. God answered each plea with miracle after miracle.</div>
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We lived life not only immersed in a different language, but in an entirely different culture. For all the language progress we made (or didn't make) these lessons in culture made the deepest, poignant impressions. At the end of 4 months, if I were to pie-graph our learning in this experience, language would be only the tiniest slice.</div>
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That being so, and bilingual children my goal, the adventure continues. While we were IN Taiwan, we interviewed tutors to teach the kids back in the states in exchange for free room and board in our home. So now we are back, our house guest gives the kids a half-hour Chinese lesson each day, tailored to each child, addressing their strengths, weaknesses, and interests in the language. And because we homeschool, without too much fuss, we can add this into their schedules already full with dance lessons, swimming lessons, acting class, piano lessons, makers club, American Girls club, performance rehearsals, etc, AND get to enjoy quiet evenings at home together around home-cooked meals to boot! Only now, some of the dinner conversations are in Chinese!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mass Rapid Transit - the road oft traveled</td></tr>
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So, I <i>was</i> tempted, for the sake of learning a language, to send my kids to school. Once again, it turned out that with a little creativity, homeschooling provided the learning experience I thought I wanted, and so much more delight and LIFE beyond it!</div>
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If this reads a bit glossy, or like I'm bragging, I want to set a few things strait. First, my kids might have better Chinese if they were in a Chinese immersion program. Second, I realize that not all families can pick up and move to another country. I used to think MY family couldn't. Miracles were referenced because that's what occurred. My point here is that I might have made a different choice. I might have sent my 3rd to a public school so she could be bilingual. I'm betting if that is the choice I made, she would BE bilingual now. And if I had done that, we would not have been able to spend 4 months in Taiwan. We would not have been able to meet our tutor there who is now teaching ALL the kids. And IF she were in school, she would NOT be in dance class, or swimming class, or doing many of our extras, because school would take up that time and energy. Even aiming for language fluency, we chose to take the road less traveled. And that is making all the difference.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hard to beat a road less-traveled than this one!</td></tr>
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Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-21687918921525975422016-01-20T18:47:00.000-08:002019-11-11T09:38:04.815-08:00MY Screwtape Letter for the Unappreciated MomI LOVE the Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. So OF COURSE I clicked on one that popped up on Facebook that said it was for the "unappreciated mom." Generally, I don't feel unappreciated, but we all have our moments, and I hoped to find wisdom for the next time I felt discouraged in my mother-work. Well, I didn't like it AT ALL. Though it had moments of insight, overall, I was more offended by what I read. I don't want to go in to the reasons here. But I found myself wishing there was a better letter - one that would encourage a discouraged mom, instead of adding guilt to her discouragement. So I wrote one myself! Enjoy! (And if you hate mine, maybe you'll like the one which inspired it, so I'll include a link to it at the end.)<br />
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Oh, and mine is for the Discouraged Mom. I think I swapped the two because though we can feel both unappreciated and discouraged, I'm not seeking to help moms feel appreciated. Their families, friends, and even society simply need to appreciate moms better. But while that appreciation may take a while, meanwhile, I do wish moms to feel ENCOURAGED now. So I guess MY letter addresses what one might plot to keep a mom from finding encouragement.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Dear Wormwood,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I congratulate you on helping your patient to feel an obsession with comparison. I call it the ever-present measuring stick. I am writing to point out that though you may think it helpful that she is focused on trivial measurements (things like the number of cute outfits in her closet compared to other moms), even comparisons of a deeper nature (like the well-being of her family to other families) can serve our purpose to lead her to discouragement and despair. The despair over perceived inadequacies of meaning can, and likely </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> be as debilitating as the despair over frivolities.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In fact, the BEST measurement is the feeling that even her discouragements don’t measure up. She offered to watch the children of a friend whose husband has been diagnosed with cancer while the friend ran errands. You can taint every bit of joy she may feel from that service by suggesting to her, in her moments of exhaustion, that she is far too ungrateful because at least her husband isn’t terminally ill. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These measurements of “righteousness” or “worthiness” are far greater tools of defeat! Let her concern herself with ALWAYS measuring her own acquisition of our enemies attributes with those around her! Not only will these never </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">feel</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> trivial, but she may begin to believe that discouragement IS sin and weakness failure, making our jobs all the easier! (Has she seen the recent Facebook post that suggests discouragement IS giving in to the evil one? I’ve been pleased with the time your subject spends on social media, and this idea, as well as a host of other measuring sticks to depress souls are easy to find there.) </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If her discouragement is a passing thing that will go as her children become more independent, don’t ever let her know of it’s natural easing, nor of the cycles of rest and productivity. Not only may this knowledge comfort her during the discouragement to come, but she is so much more easily manipulated if she has the expectation that she can always be ANYTHING - even happy, or fulfilled, or serving others. Thus both phases, when not seen as part of a cycle, work to our advantage: even the good times can, with your help, set the expectation that selflessness and service need never be followed by rest and quiet moments to herself.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps keeping natural things like cycles and her real needs from her gets to my point: above all you must keep her distracted from seeing things as they really are. Our enemy, if the humans would ever be quiet enough to hear Him, often asks them to look, and then He fills their minds with light and knowledge - an understanding not only of themselves and those around them in the very moment they really look, but also a vision of how things may really be. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t be so foolish as to congratulate yourself on keeping the real needs of those around her from her attention. Her family and even strangers may feel her love, even as she meets their wishes and whims and misses the bigger picture. This love has a power to fill in the gaps of what she does and the greater good she could have done. Our enemy is skilled at taking the meager offerings of his minions and working miracles with them. And besides, she may come to realize on some level that she can’t fully understand anyone perfectly but herself.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This can become dangerous for you if she ever tries to understand herself perfectly. She may be quite hurried now, but beware of any quiet moment, even a discouraged, overwhelmed, and giving-up moment when she really examines her heart and comes to know how </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">she</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> really is. If she ever stops to acknowledge how overwhelmed she is, she might recognize the expectations we have helped her to have aren’t based in reality, or on her skills, talents, or interests and DO something to change either her expectations OR her circumstances. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She has learned from our enemy to value selfless service. You skillfully turned that into a vague feeling that she should do for her family what they are capable, certainly much of the time, of doing for themselves. If she ever awakens to the realization that she can ask for help, not only have we lost in creating the sense of overwhelm for her, but by doing and serving their mother and wife, her family will grow as well, and that will make our work with all of them all the more difficult.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though it may be effective to suggest other woman get by just fine without the help she needs, better to keep the idea of even recognizing her own needs as far from her conscious mind as possible. Keep her discouragement, her loneliness, her need to be understood as vague a feeling as possible. You’ve done great work on building resentment, as she doesn’t ask for and so doesn’t receive the assistance she needs. But don’t let her mind even acknowledge that she FEELS resentment. Better to keep that pleasant pit of bitterness in her heart growing unnamed than to have her ever suspect what it is and where it comes from. It’s so much more likely to remain if the pain in her heart only ever causes guilt that she feels pain at all!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, aside from the conscious awareness of her measuring sticks and a perfect knowledge of herself as she really is at the moment, there are a hundred other truths our enemy might reveal to her about herself and the people around her to bring all our progress to ruin. It has been sheer genius that you have caused her to feel she </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">builds</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> her relationship to Him by listening to what others have to say about Him. There is so much other distraction in social media, anything she might come across there will be incredibly diluted. But even her sense that she should study His words can be yet another measuring stick, and if so used, may keep her worrying she hasn’t read her scriptures “enough” instead of noticing she feels overwhelmed with worry and just </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">talking</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to Him about THAT. Let her </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">feel</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “spiritual” by reading a few nice thoughts about the enemy here and there, and never really connect to Him with honest, sincere, and open prayer. Given such an opportunity, He is likely to fill her heart with peace about herself, not to mention the clear ideas about how she might help herself grow AND serve the people around her, and then so much of our work on her, as well as on those she influences, will be lost! Continue in diligence!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your affectionate uncle,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Screwtape</span></div>
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Here's the one that ruffled my feathers: <a href="http://www.onepeterfive.com/a-screwtape-letter-for-the-unappreciated-mom/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=postplanner&utm_source=facebook.com">http://www.onepeterfive.com/a-screwtape-letter-for-the-unappreciated-mom/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=postplanner&utm_source=facebook.com</a>Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-10991133572817749422015-02-14T12:41:00.001-08:002015-02-14T12:41:52.208-08:00Steffanie's Favorite Valentine CookiesThese combine peanut butter and chocolate, two things that like good couples are okay separate, but just SHOULD be together. I love these cookies, and by my standards, they are healthy too. (I haven't bought into fat being bad, and I think sugar in moderated quantities just makes life sweet.) So here you go! We'll call the recipe my valentine to YOU!<br />
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
CREAM TOGETHER:</div>
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<b>2 packages dark chocolate Dove hearts (apx 32 hearts)</b></div>
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(you've seen this recipe before with kisses, but Dove is better chocolate, is heart shaped,</div>
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AND dark chocolate has all the anti-oxidant properties for a great excuse to down a few more!)</div>
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<b>1/2 c. butter</b></div>
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<b>3/4 c. pure peanut butter </b></div>
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(again, no preservatives or added anything but a great punch of protein)</div>
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<b>1/3 c. sugar</b></div>
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<b>1/3 c. brown sugar</b></div>
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<b>1 egg </b>(go Omega 3 eggs for more reasons to love these cookies)</div>
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<b>2 tbsp milk </b>(local milk, anyone?)</div>
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<b>1 tsp. vanilla</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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MIX:</div>
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<b>1 1/2 c. flour </b>(whole wheat works but will make the cookies drier and more crumbly)</div>
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<b>1 tsp baking powder</b></div>
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<b>1/2 tsp. salt</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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Add dry to wet ingredients. Form dough into small balls (the smaller the better balance of chocolate to PB) and roll in <b>sugar</b>. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 8-10 minutes. Put chocolate heart on center of ball and press down slightly immediately when cookies come out of oven. </div>
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Let cool and chocolate melt through and reset. Then ENJOY!</div>
Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-90911535801975407992015-01-06T12:25:00.001-08:002015-01-06T12:25:43.451-08:00Personality and LearningI've written elsewhere on this blog about my second child, oldest daughter. Our experience today with cursive - a subject she wanted to work on to have fancy writing - reminded me of her little 10 month old self.<br />
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She was a determined mover who developed her own system of getting around - she crawled backwards. It wasn't efficient, and she struggled to get where she wanted. Worse, she would often wedge herself under chairs, side tables, and a couch of ours. Adorable, but understandingly frustrating to her.<br />
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So the three big people in her life - her dad, me, and her older brother - did what we could to show her the "correct way." We modeled, we cheered, we inscentivized, and we even moved her body for her. Despite our best efforts, she hardly made any progress. I still remember the first time she did crawl forward on her own. She cried as if it was torture, as if each leg and arm movement caused pain and represented an unwilling surrender. <br />
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Interestingly, she hardly used her new-found skill of forward crawling. A few days later she mastered walking. She walked BEFORE she turned one, which beat the record of her older brother who had no problems crawling, but didn't walk 'til around 13 months.<br />
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I can't help but smile at her current frustration with cursive, and her insistence that she can just lift her pencil, move it to the spot she needs to finish the letter, and call it good. SHE IS BEING TORTURED, she is sure. Maybe next month she'll write a book. :)Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-88939693917039602572015-01-02T10:15:00.000-08:002015-01-02T10:16:01.640-08:00Blessed BedtimeI love homeschooling because being with family gets to be the natural state of our lives.<br />
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I've heard many moms remark that they can't wait for the winter school break to be over so their kids can get back to school. I remember feeling excited to GET back to school as a kid because I was sick of being at home!<br />
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So do we homeschoolers ever get sick of our families and being with them ALL THE TIME? Despite the impression a few glowing blog posts may convey, the answer is YES!!! That is why I LOVE bedtime! Many of the homeschoolers I know have comparatively early bedtimes for their kids. I've often felt this is possible because we get all day to do all the things we WANT to do - family time, lessons, playing outside. Whatever it is, we get it done and can then BE done! <br />
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But I also think early bedtimes (at least for ME) mean mom is ready to be "off the clock," doing whatever it is she WANTS to do which is NOT meeting a thousand real and perceived needs generated by her handful(s) of children.<br />
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I've been asked before, and wondered before homeschooling myself, "don't you ever need a break?" I can honestly now answer YES, and I get it when my kids go to bed. It's yet another GREAT time of day to be a homeschooler! :)<br />
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<br />Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-63817724305502958092014-12-28T16:34:00.002-08:002014-12-29T14:38:02.573-08:00A Simple Christ-Centered Christmas TraditionI LOVE TRADITIONS! And I love celebrating anything and everything. So, in my enthusiasm to scoop up anything fun and meaningful to incorporate into my family's lives around the holiday, I've picked up some burdensome traditions that had to be abandoned. (PJ's on Christmas Eve is a perfect example. That one just doesn't work for us. Not all of us NEED a new pair of PJ's every year. And if we don't NEED them, PJ's for 6 is so pricey just for the sake of of tradition.)<br />
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After a few rounds of such failures, I've learned to be a lot more choosy about what I happily announce will now be a yearly part of our celebrations. I try to steer clear of traditions that are wasteful of both resources and time. If it's not something I can pull off year after year, I may chose to not even give a tradition a shot.<br />
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I've learned that both time and money ebb and flow at our house, so I was pleased to begin a tradition this Christmas that is inexpensive, simple, takes little time to pull off AND to prepare, and is Christ-centered.<br />
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Like most parents, I've been hunting for ways to put more of Christ into Christmas. At some point, probably while reflecting on my own childhood THRILL at opening presents from Santa, I let go of expecting my kids would find reverence for the Savior on Christmas morning. But allowing children to BE children, as Christ himself exemplified so well, I thought if we put more of Christ into Christmas in all the days leading up to it, letting Santa have a morning wouldn't be terrible. (Honestly, it's pretty magical in it's own way.) And by focusing for the rest of the season on Christ, it would likely leave a better impression and be more meaningful than, for example, forcing the kids to sit still to listen to Luke 2 before gifts can be unwrapped.<br />
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So here's the tradition already!<br />
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I found a box with a lid I covered with wrapping paper. I wrapped the lid separately so it could just be removed and replaced without having to tear paper. (When I first thought of this tradition I began collecting boxes - mostly shoe boxes - and was hoping to assemble 24. Then I realized I would have to wrap all 24 boxes, and doing so year after year would not only be time consuming, but paper consuming. So I opted for ONE box we opened on the 24 days leading to Christmas.)<br />
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Anyway, each night before bed we turned off the rest of the lights and gathered around the Christmas tree. Whose ever turn it was, chose the Christmas song, which we would sing and then chose another family member to open the box. Inside was a picture of Christ. (We used the pictures from the Gospel Art Kit book sold at the LDS distribution centers.) When it was your turn, you chose which picture it would be the night before, and once the box was opened, you shared with the family the "gift" from Jesus Christ the picture represented. (For example, my newly baptized daughter chose a picture of the Savior being baptized, and talked about the gift of baptism. My older son chose a picture of the Last Supper and spoke of the gift of the sacrament.)<br />
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Whomever opened the box got to take their turn choosing the picture, song, and present-opener the next night. I encouraged the kids to chose the family member whom they saw exhibiting Christ-like behavior. I don't know that the kids caught on to this aspect of the tradition, but I wanted to encourage kind, patient, gentle behavior. So when a family member was chosen, I encouraged everyone to share how that person had acted like Christ that day.<br />
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This was definitely a tradition to repeat. It was simple, took little time, and added meaning to each day leading to Christmas. I especially liked that not only were we discussing Jesus daily, but the kids were sharing THEIR understanding of Him and, in theory, feeling encouraged to be more like Him too. I hope the lasting impression is that Christ IS the gift. His very life and the sacrifice of it blesses us SO much!<br />
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Happy Holidays from my family to yours! May the coming year bring sweet moments with your children and precious, quiet moments to feel of Christ's mercy and grace.Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-36617314373437872862014-12-04T12:12:00.002-08:002014-12-04T12:13:49.667-08:00It's the MOST Wonderful Yams of the YearApologies for two recipe posts right in a row. And happy belated Thanksgiving, BTW! Thanksgiving generally means a few phone calls from in-law sibs, and my own sibs who can't get a hold of my mom, wanting "that yam recipe."<br />
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Now YOU are thinking, "Actually my family isn't so into yams or sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving. If we serve them at all, it's out of traditional obligation." Actually, that is how most people felt who request I share this recipe with them. THIS recipe will change your mind and heart about yams. They are the most wonderful yams of the year - so good traditional obligations will melt away and you will hunt for excuses to whip them up and delight your family and friends with their yumminess!<br />
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Once again, so this recipe is an easy go-to for my family who never seems to write it down in any place worthy of keeping track of...... ;)<br />
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<b><u> Sweet Potato Casserole</u></b><br />
(I know it's called sweet potato, and that is how my aunt, who first shared the recipe with my mom, makes it. So when SHE comes to Thanksgiving, we have BOTH. My preference, having tried both - though not in a blind taste test, which I love doing BTW - is to make this with yams. I think they are a bit more moist. Anywho....)<br />
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Scrub and bake for apx 1.5 hours at 400 <b>3 BIG yams</b><br />
(Put a sheet of tin foil on the oven rack beneath the rack with the yams on them. As they cook they will release their sugars which harden and blacken and the tin-foil makes for a fast, easy clean-up. You want to bake these 'til they are soft all the way through. When they cool, they will be reduced in size and the skins will easily slip off. I usually do this step a day before I make the casserole, and if I'm not using the oven, I just leave the yams in it 'til I'm ready to make the rest.)<br />
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After you have skinned the yams and placed them in a large bowl, blend in with an electric mixer:<br />
<b>1 cube of butter</b><br />
<b>2/3 c. milk</b><br />
<b>3 eggs</b><br />
<b>1 tsp vanilla</b><br />
<b>1/2 c. white sugar</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Spread the yam mixture evenly into a 13x9 pan and then in a smaller bowl mix:<br />
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<b>2 c. brown sugar</b><br />
<b>1 c. flour</b><br />
<b>1.5 c. walnuts</b><br />
then cut in:<br />
<b>1.5 cubes of room temperature butter</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Crumble this mixture on top of the yams and bake everything in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes, or until the yams are heated through and the topping is melting slightly and getting crusty along the edges. Serve warm.<br />
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<br />Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-31990653011552161092014-11-13T20:38:00.000-08:002014-11-13T20:42:59.458-08:00Perfect Doughnuts for the FIRST SNOW!I LOVE the first snow of the season! I love homeschooling so I can revel in the magic of it with my kids and/or listen to them whine, "When are we going to get the snow gear out so we can go play?!"<br />
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The first snow, and really all good snow storms, feel to me a bit like Christmas. (Is it any wonder I love winter?) There is something magical, unexpected and beautiful in a good snow storm. So this morning as I watched the flakes grow in size and felt my excitement, wishing my kids would hurry and wake up so they wouldn't miss it, I thought how cool it would be if we celebrated the first snow with a tradition.<br />
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Because I love to celebrate anything with FOOD, and it WAS breakfast time, naturally I turned to wondering what I could whip up that would be special and symbolically appropriate for the vision outside. The recipe I thought of WAS perfect. Sadly, we lacked an adequate supply of sour cream. But I'm going to share the recipe with you, just in case you'd like to stock-up for a magical snow moment of your own! (If YOU have a tradition at your house to celebrate the first snow, please share it with ME in the comments below.)<br />
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Anyway, I came across this recipe when my family studied Israel, so these are called Israeli Doughnuts. Feel free to rename them something more inspiring. And lest you have the same weakness I do with recipes involving yeast, fear not. These take no time to rise and contain none of that fickle leavening agent! Which is why I love them! The joy of doughnuts without the work of traditional bread dough! (Or rolling, or cutting, or flouring any surfaces... at least not on purpose.)<br />
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<u>Israeli Doughnuts</u><br />
<u><br /></u>
1 C. powdered sugar (used after the doughnuts are cooked)<br />
Oil (I use olive b/c we're used to it - used for frying the doughnuts in)<br />
<u><br /></u>
<b>Mix</b>: 2 1/2 C. flour<br />
1 tsp. baking powder<br />
2 Tbs. sugar<br />
1/4 tsp. salt<br />
<br />
<b>Then combine:</b> 2 eggs<br />
1 1/2 C. sour cream<br />
1 tsp. vanilla<br />
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Stir the wet into the dry until very wet dough forms. Drop dough by tablespoons in hot oil. (If the oil is too hot, the inside of the doughnut will be raw.) Turn doughnuts over so they brown on both sides. Shake hot doughnuts in a bag with apx. 1 C. powdered sugar. OR, if you are celebrating a good snow storm, as I hope to have many opportunities to do this winter, better yet, stick some powdered sugar in a sifter and let your kids take turns snowing on their plate of doughnuts!! YES!!! (Best if eaten warm.) Enjoy!Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-71278937219189413752014-11-05T08:25:00.000-08:002014-11-19T16:18:07.065-08:00Reason # 444: Going With the Creative FlowI LOVE not having to start the day by telling everyone to hurry up because we need to get out the door at a certain time, being fed, looking presentable, and taking with us all the necessary items to get good marks.<br />
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Despite my desire to have us practicing Chinese by 8:30 in the morning, the kids, since the weather has turned cold, seem to need some extra sleep. Or maybe it's just me.... so we're going with it. And having let go of starting the day on a directed learning activity note, I've found the kids naturally get off on a creative foot, if given the chance.<br />
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Yesterday my 5 year old and I were snuggling and I asked her what she dreamed about. She launched into this fabulous story about a little fairy that came home in her pocket and saved the land from the Snow Queen. It was so darling, I typed it up for her and sent it to all the folks she loves before I even got out of bed.<br />
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This morning when I got up, I found my oldest working on an article for the local homeschooling newsletter, so after helping him with a few ideas, I came downstairs to find my girls happily playing. "Mom!" they announced. "We're playing doughnuts!" They had found two shoe boxes and filled them with their socks which they had rolled like various pastries. (Girls with appetites after their mother's heart.)<br />
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What is the value of playing doughnuts? I'm not sure. But I can't help but revel in the sweet creativity and imagination that drives dreams and doughnut games alike.Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377785217516580148.post-34976623685018760212014-11-01T09:27:00.001-07:002014-11-01T17:48:26.711-07:00Field Tripping in Northern UtahAfter reading my previous post about bad homeschooling days, you may wonder why I would want to even homeschool, let alone TAKE my children anywhere. Maybe YOU aren't wondering that. Maybe I am. Don't you get sick of days when everyone is fighting, and for ridiculous reasons? Like accidentally being smacked with a baggie of carrots.... Why are we swinging baggies of carrots around, anyway? And can it really hurt so bad the neighbors across the street are wondering if they should call 911?<br />
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Yes, sometimes I'm tempted to run away. If you are having one of those days, take your kiddos with you, and hit an adventurous learning opportunity in your running! It CAN* be just the thing to get everyone out of their funk. *NOT guaranteed to be just the thing, and if the field trip fails, I'm sorry. And you can cry on my shoulder! :)<br />
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Anyway, below are a few fun destinations in the Weber County area. Many of these are so fun, and so close together I'm thinking a good stay-cation is in order! A few of them are quite handy for killing time or pulling off the road while you wait for traffic to clear, so keep them in mind for all sorts of emergencies!<br />
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<b>Destination</b>: <a href="http://www.hill.af.mil/library/museum/" target="_blank">Hill Aerospace Museum</a> (right off I-15 near Roy)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The airplane of the Candy Bomber!</td></tr>
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<b>Time</b>: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9am - 4:30pm<br />
<b>Cost: FREE</b><br />
<b>Review</b>: I've had this museum in my sights for years, namely because we've driven past it on our way to Salt Lake for years, and as a homeschooling field tripper, I can't help but feel a little guilty passing somewhere year after year without checking it out. So finally we did! And WOW! A natural hit for me for the cost (free!) and lack of crowds on a Friday afternoon. AND I have a little guy who LOVES airplanes, and this museum is FULL of them. The kids were bummed they couldn't actually climb into any of the planes, but you can get up close and personal with the planes both inside and out. Aside from general airplane interest, it's a great place to learn more about the Cold War, women pilots, prisoners of war in Vietnam, or the beloved <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen" target="_blank">Candy Bomber of WW2, Gail Halvorsen.</a> The other thing I loved about this museum, that we didn't utilize this time around, was the Air Force Veteran Volunteers. We went completely unprepared with specific questions or curiosities. But we found quite a few volunteers available who seemed friendly enough I wished we were able to pause and glean their wisdom and experience. It's nice to know where to find great, living resources who are willing to share! We were there for almost 2 hours and barely laid eyes on it all! Due to an event at the museum that evening, we completely missed the flight simulation corner, which the family we were with raved about. But in general, Fridays are the best time for a random group of homeschoolers to catch it open. (Otherwise you can pre-arrange for it to be available for groups Tuesdays through Thursdays.) We also didn't utilize the photo treasure hunt on the desk near the entrance. I have loved such resources to maintain interest and keep us learning and moving through museums. I don't know if we learned a ton, but movement was NOT a problem. Seriously, so much to see we could go back another 3 or 4 times and still find new things we hadn't noticed before.<br />
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<b>Destination</b>: <a href="http://www.holytrinityabbey.org/monksday.html" target="_blank">Catholic Monastery</a><br />
<b>Time</b>: A great trip for the summer or fall<br />
<b>Cost</b>: FREE<br />
<b>Review</b>: Did you know we have a Catholic Monastery in our very own backyard? My kids were shocked to learn this, and excited to check it out after we'd learned a bit from history about some of the roles played by the Catholic church and of monasteries. I've mentioned the disaster of our field trip to the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in a <a href="http://2000reasonstohomeschool.blogspot.com/2014/10/bad-hair-and-homeschooling-days.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>, but that was due to MY kids having an off day. What should be said about this destination is this: It's a perfect day trip for the fall when the leaves are turning. It was a GORGEOUS ride there. And the town of Huntsville was darling and called to me to come play, relax, and enjoy the reservoir in the summer. As for the Monastery itself, there isn't much to see. The bookstore is small. If it had been manned by a monk, we may have enjoyed a visit, but a volunteer from the community was there and very occupied with another patron. Otherwise, we timed our visit just right and were able to catch a prayer period at 12:15. It lasted for only 10 minutes, which was 5 minutes too long for a 2 year old, but just right for a 5 year old. If I had older kids I would try to catch the evening Vespers at 5:30. Perhaps because we saw a minor prayer period, or maybe simply because there are not many monks left at the monastery (11 total, I think, at the time of our visit which is greatly diminished from the monastery's glory days), there was only a few monks who prayed Sext. So it's not <u>Sound of Music</u> in any way, shape, or form. But if you go with simple expectations, you will likely find it interesting enough.<br />
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<b>Destination</b>: <a href="http://www.dinosaurpark.org/" target="_blank">Dinosaur Park</a><br />
<b>Time</b>: We've had great luck in the off-season late spring and early fall<br />
<b>Cost</b>: Homeschool Rate of $3/person!<br />
<b>Review</b>: My kids, in breaking with the norm as I suppose, aren't that into dinosaurs. Not one of them. Not yet. So it's significant that they love this park. And who wouldn't? The dinos on display are in full color (rather than just the bones) posed around outside, so there is a sense of discovery as you find them hidden behind trees or tucked away into some bushes. AND there are sound effects to boot. The museum also offers "Field Books," to pull the less engaged through the displays to learn. The books are darling, free, and you get a treat for filling them out. Pre-readers will LOVE the playground. Heck, everyone in my group loved the playground. Give yourself at least a couple of hours, and bring food so you can linger and relax, while you enjoy all there is to take in. Rock and gem/geology enthusiasts will love the displays inside upstairs. MY kids preferred the fun holograms and Jurassic Park-like animatronics display found there too. If you leave wanting more, however, you should consider a family membership to the Ogden Nature Center - so keep reading!<br />
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<b>Destination</b>: <a href="http://www.ogdennaturecenter.org/contact-ogden-nature-center-staff/visit-us" target="_blank">Ogden Nature Center</a> (right off I-15 on Ogden's 12th St. exit)<br />
<b>Time</b>: We loved it in the early fall, closes at 5 on weekdays and 4 on Saturday, is closed on major holidays<br />
<b>Cost</b>: Adults $4; children ages 2-11 are $2<br />
<b>Review</b>: We passed the Ogden Nature Center on our way to the Dinosaur Park. Once again, that homeschool guilt kicked in: how could we just drive past a learning and exploration opportunity? So I made a mental note to return and check it out. Glad we did. First, it seemed pretty reasonably priced, and it felt like we had the place to ourselves. (As you've already gathered, I LOVE it when places meet these criteria.) My kids loved seeing the birds of prey and the walk-in eagle nest. We loved the observation tower and full size teepee. A trip to the bear den raised a bunch of questions and curiosity about bears, and I LOVE questions because they lead to more learning. We were in a time crunch, sadly, so we didn't make it to the tree house, which was most highly recommended by a five year old regular we visited with as we were entering. And speaking of walking in, the bird houses on the way to the entrance sparked fun discussion and imagination. We were there in early fall, but it seemed like a fun place to revisit throughout the year to note the seasonal changes. And the BEST part of getting a family membership to the Ogden Nature Center, aside from going back all year long, is that it's membership INCLUDES the Dinosaur Park Mondays through Fridays, but costs $15 less than the Dinosaur Park's family membership. SCORE! (Also included is Tracy Aviary on the first Thursday of each month, and another museum in downtown Ogden which we have yet to hit.)<br />
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<b>Destination</b>: <a href="http://www.treehousemuseum.org/visit/discounts/" target="_blank">Treehouse Museum</a><br />
<b>Time</b>: Important to note that during the school year, this museum closes at 3pm on Mondays<br />
<b>Cost</b>: Children 1-12 are $6, 13+ are $5<br />
<b>Review</b>: I confess that for this review, I'm drawing on my memory of this museum from a few years back. I believe it was one of the wisemen who gave us the gift of a family membership to this museum for a year, and we loved it! The slogan for Treehouse Museum is "Step into a story," and that is just what the exhibits invite you to do. It is a fabulous museum for kids who like to explore and pretend. That being so, my 10 year old was almost too old to enjoy it when we went back for a random visit after our membership had expired. (Almost. Not totally.) But for the 8 and younger crowd, it's a solid hit. I loved the cultural themed exhibits. What is cooler than stepping into a mini Mongolian yurt!? My kids gravitated to the dress-ups and stage with an Arthurian theme. Doll lovers would love the extensive doll exhibit. My littler people could play with the trains for hours. And the huge tree? Well, we could climb and explore that forever too. We were there often enough to get to enjoy some of the storytimes and other live presentations, which were big hits. This museum is almost always busy, and I definitely think the crowds cause it to lose it's charm. (Not a surprise.) So pick a solid school day, and you could even call ahead to confirm there aren't any field trip groups scheduled for the day you chose. There is NOT a lot of measurable learning to be done (though we love the imaginative sort), so for me, the cost doesn't deliver an educational bang for one's buck. But the kids will have a blast, so find a day that you can spend AT LEAST 3 hours there, and enjoy yourself. It's pretty much right across from the Ogden temple, so if you are LDS, go with a friend, and you can take turns watching the kids while the other mom hits a session! (The link above is actually to the discounts page of the website. Go there to get $1 off/person admission for visiting the site!)<br />
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<br />Steffanie Caspersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00521810773222103513noreply@blogger.com0