Heart to Heart

We are all finally feeling better after three weeks of illness. I finally have my energy back, which is the most important thing. Because you know….the functioning of our household really does revolve around Mom. My two guys rely on me completely and when mom is down, the house falls down. Now it is time to wean ourselves away from the unlimited tv, dvr, netflix movies, video games, and the internet and get some perspective back into our lives. We have been unschooling which basically means James has been picking and choosing what he wants to learn about and most of that has been through, you guessed it, electronics. But, you know, he doesn’t lean toward the twaddle, basically because we don’t have it in the house. What I mean by twaddle is the mindless stuff like sponge bob, rugrats, etc. I don’t allow him to watch live tv because there are too many commercials, even on the kid’s channels. Everything we watch is recorded on the dvr, dvds or video’s. He is only allowed to go on Mom approved internet sites and if they aren’t in his bookmarks, he doesn’t get to look at it. We don’t have playstations, Xboxes or any of that ilk and neither do I plan on ever having them. Watch me eat my words later. But, I feel like I’m making excuses at this point.

As SWB said during one of her seminars “when a child watchs the tv or plays a video game, they aren’t thinking. They are being passive or reactive to what is appearing before them.” I believe that because TV is my grand escape. When I have had a hard day all I want to do is “veg” in front of the TV. I go into a passive mode. We all have been in passive mode for the past three weeks and it’s time to get our buts in gear.

So………

MFS, who is oh so wise, said in her blog speaking practically

Excerpts

“One refrain among parent-teachers is that life sometimes (for some, often) gets in the way of schooling. Without entering into the "life is the education" debate, let me just suggest -- ever so gently -- that one needs to be careful about letting life derail the home education train.

What keeps our train on the tracks, then, is remembering that we have an obligation -- in fact, a legal responsibility -- to educate our children. While homeschooling certainly gives us some flexibility in terms of coping with life's challenges, it does not give us a "pass" on getting the job done. Teachers in traditional classrooms, for example, also experience life's upsets, great and small, but if our children were their students, we'd have every expectation that despite the other demands, those teachers would teach our children.

And so we must have the same expectation of ourselves.

Life happens, but the teaching, learning, coaching, studying, and all the rest must continue.

Put the children's education first. Force it to the front of the line on your mental to-do list. Once this becomes a mental habit, you will be better able to discern when it's acceptable to let life creep into the day.

So eloquent.

We have been derailed but will be getting back onto the train this week. Autumn is here. We had our first rainfall yesterday and the air feels crisp, clean and cool. Time for a new beginning. Time to reorganize. Time to make some new goals and work towards achieving those goals for me, Father and James. I don’t feel we have been accomplishing much, but usually when I write it all down found that we actually did.

However, I am feeling in the need of a kick in the pants to do better and re-evaluate.

This weekend will be spent in getting my house in order, re-evaluating lessons plans, and working up our schedules. I really really really need a schedule and so does James. He thrives on schedules…always checking what has to be done next and reminding me of appointments and things we need to do.

I found an excellent article by John Charles Ryle who was an Anglican bishop in the church of England in 1880 called “The Duties of Parents” based on Proverbs 22:6

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Did you read it? Good. Time for me to get to work. You too!!!! Go – Get.