Category Archives: Home Schooling

Peter Pan and a Most Refreshing Sleep

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My two youngest and I headed to Norman for Thanksgiving two days early and returned the day after my husband and our oldest headed home.  Franklin and Bailey are tied to the school calendar while Caden, Emma, and I enjoy the flexibility of a home-school schedule.  As our travel days were officially school days, I checked out Peter Pan on CD for the drive.

Written by playwright J.M. Barrie from his original play, Peter Pan is both a familiar story that my children enjoyed (with some challenging vocabulary and structure), and a story with some interesting ideas for adults to gnaw on.  I love these kinds of reads.  I’d not read Peter Pan and have particularly enjoyed thinking through one of the scenarios Barrie presented.

The beginning of the book introduces the reader to three siblings, John, Michael, and Wendy, and their parents Mr. and Mrs. Darling.  While the children do not tell their mother about Peter, who begins to visit them at night, Mrs. Darling knows the name Peter both from her own childhood and from her nightly arranging of her children’s thoughts and experiences from the day.

It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day.  If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her.  It is quite like tidying up drawers.  You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight.  When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.

I found this idea, a mother sitting beside her children unpacking and airing out the day, re-arranging experiences and thoughts, and hiding naughtiness, hoping it would stay hidden, to be interesting.  I’ve thought about this idea off and on for two weeks.  I certainly don’t assume to know anything about the author and my mind’s wanderings might warrant correction from a theologian, but this idea has been comforting to me.  I’ll explain why.

I love the idea of my Heavenly Father sitting beside me every night helping me understanding and make sense of my day, clarifying and correcting while allowing for discernment.  I imagine Him arranging my thoughts (and problems I might be wrestling with) with His finger, much like the technology of touch screens allows us to grab and move apps on our iphones.  I choose to believe He “airs out” my day for me, refreshes me, and allows me to start each day with new joy and strength.

I often go to bed worn out after a day of work on a project, or lay down thinking about a problem or situation.  When I wake up, I have a solution.  During my sleep, I’m given an idea:  a plan or process for completing a project, a new approach, or the perfect last lick.  While I do believe my mind works better rested than worn out, I believe too that God is ever present and ever active in the supernatural and I believe He downloads into our life (and mind) when we are willing.  In fact, I often pray that I will recognize and act on His will for my life.  Maybe my sleep is one of the few times in my day that God can hold my complete attention.

Job 33 – 14 For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.  15 He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds

I also often wake up in the middle of the night with a praise song playing in my mind, as though a portion of a known song, (6-10 words), is stuck on repeat.  I will go back to bed and wake in the morning with the same song playing.  I think the song has, quite literally, been playing all night long.  The words are always in line with whatever my spirit is wrestling with.

For example, most days I’m sure that this new season is exactly what God has been prepared me for.  I am usually able to stay focused throughout my day and am confident at the end of the day with our home school experience and my Me and Thee Studios progress.  But occasionally I doubt myself all day long.  I had one of those days earlier this week and remember being discouraged when I went to bed.  I don’t remember the song God placed in my Spirit but I think it was a known song and the gist of the refrain was that God is in control and that He has ordained my steps.  Jeremiah (31:26) says of revelatory dreams, “At this, I woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very sweet.”  My song filled my thoughts every time I woke up throughout the night and when I woke up the following morning I remember thinking, “Thank you, God, for Your faithfulness in bringing me peace.”

I pray God is generous in unpacking and airing out your days as you invite Him to reveal His will in your life.

PS – The roll out for our collection of faith-based leveled readers is right around the corner.  Our final anthologies go to press in mid-December.  Check out more about Me and Thee Studios, our original praise and worship music, and our faith-based Early Reader Collection at http://www.meandtheestudios.com/.  Don’t miss the “Store” where you will want to reserve your “early bird” collection(s) and receive our 10% discount (available only until 12/31/13).

What in the World is a Home-School Co-op?

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I was invited to join my friends at James Elementary for their quarterly luncheon.  I appreciate having been invited.  I enjoyed 15 years of sitting in the faculty lounge during lunch, solving the problems of the world with these women and I certainly miss the friends I grew to love and 20 minutes of mid-day adult conversation (I’m sure Franklin wishes I had more adult conversation, too).

While visiting about life with my friends, the subject of home-schooling could not be avoided.  I often feel guilty when I’m asked how our year is going.  I know that I am tremendously blessed to be at home with Emma and Caden and that our rich curriculum is the envy of many of my friends who wish for so much more than the “adopted core” and the approved “pacing guide”.

In particular, several of my friends were interested in our home-school co-op.  Until this year, I certainly had no idea what the Portales Christian Home Educators did on Friday mornings, though I knew several home-schooling mommies who were (and are) a part of the group.  I wonder if you might be curious as well.

This summer I struggled when deciding to commit to either the Clovis or the Portales co-op.  Ultimately, we decided to try the Portales co-op for the year after speaking with Julia and Sarah, the group’s coordinators.  They shared their vision of a geography focus for the year and their desire to expose the kids to various lands and cultures every week.  This was right in line with what I planned to focus on for the year for our home school.

As an unexpected bonus, Chris Harrell, a local retired educator who is as creative and musical as he is “Curious” and hands-on teamed with our group in a dynamic win-win.  Chris has begun presenting educational and creative library programs and is using our children as his program guinea pigs.  He opens our Friday morning time together with our co-op anthem and original songs that introduce the topic of the day.  He brings in manipulatives and realia, saving us moms hours of research and run-around time.

We began our year at home, studying Portales and, of course, the peanut.  From that first week we’ve taken an ever-expansive approach, moving on to Roosevelt County (and the Roosevelt Rough Riders), New Mexico (making a salt dough topographic map with each child), the Southwest (creating individual Native American hogans), the Navajo (and Samuel Tso), and on to Latin America (and Latin instruments).  Chris is good to incorporate music, science, and construction whenever he can.

The co-op encourages anyone to contribute as a guest-educator.  My mom goes to church with Ms. Julia and knows many of the kids from Sunday School and Awanas.  “Grammars”, an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, presented on The United States the week of Constitution Day.  An Aunt of one of our co-op families is originally from Brazil.  She shared a fascinating presentation of her native country during our Latin America focus.

Several of us have worked with Dr. Kathleen Donalson, a reading professor from ENMU.  Kathleen spent 2 hours with our children, teaching two mini-lessons for parents on 1) segmenting words into sound boxes for spelling support with younger readers  and 2) comprehension strategies for older readers.  She and her son Jake will return in 2 weeks to share about Africa and their mission trip last summer.

Emma has presented twice for co-op and our family presented this past week.  Emma shared a presentation she created last year on Samuel Tso, a Navajo code-talker, and prepared a lesson for the group on Ballet Folklorico.  Emma had the chance to participate in the Dual Language program K-5 in Portales and was fortunate to learn several dances with Senoras Garcia and Iturralde.  She taught the group several steps and showed the authentic dress she wore.

As we’ve moved across the Atlantic to Africa for the month of November, our family shared the fascinating facts we learned last month about large African mammals on November 1st.  Side note – I think I learned the most about the hippopotamus.  Did you know a hippopotamus is 16 ft long and 5 ft tall?  We measured it out on our living room floor.  They’re huge!  Did you know their tusks (I didn’t even know they had tusks) are 30 inches long and their mouth is the biggest mouth of any land dwelling animal?  Did you know they can run 40 mph for sustained distances?

Our time together has been focused and academically rich, but having a multi-age group of peers has also been an unexpected and important benefit for our family.

Initially, Emma was unimpressed with co-op.  In the cluster of “regulars”, she is the oldest girl.  There is one other girl close to Emma’s age and 4 boys roughly her age but there are 15 or so children aged 5-8.  Emma was sure that, being one of the oldest, there would be nothing she would enjoy or benefit from – that co-op would be geared for the “little” kids.  No need to feel sorry for my kids, but I’m one of those, “get your big girl panties on” kinds of moms.  I gave her a “we’re going to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem” speech and encouraged her to find a way, be it attitudinally or other-wise, to make her co-op experience everything she wanted it to be.

I’ve been pleased to watch her participate more as she’s become more comfortable with the group, but I also think she’s found that many of the other kids, particularly those younger than herself, are bright, curious, and knowledgeable about many, many topics.  I love that she’s learned a thing or two from the younger kids including her little brother during our time at home.  Our co-op experience (and home-schooling in general) has given Emma a better understanding that one’s age is not something to be prideful about.  Wisdom is certainly no discriminator of age.  There’s room at co-op, and in life in general, for everyone to have the opportunity to be the “smarty-pants” and more importantly, the wise counsel.

If you home-school in Portales and aren’t a part of the Portales Christian Home Educators, or you’re curious and are a “smarty pants” in a particular area and you’d like to share your talents with a group of 20 curious kids, message me on Facebook and come join the fun!