Describe the last thing that made you laugh out loud.
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Archive for October, 2014
Friday Freewrite: LOL
You are the right person for the job
A mom wrote:
We never feel like we are doing enough, yet at the end of each day, we are exhausted from doing too much.
Do you know that feeling?
That is a crazy-making feeling right there. We are perennially worried that we are not accomplishing enough toward our children’s educations, yet each day is overpowering in its demands on our emotions, time, and mental energy.
This is where you have to rally on behalf of your self.
If you are exhausted and spent, it is because you have used an extraordinary amount of energy toward managing your home and your children with an intention to educate all day!
You can’t do more than that!
Can you channel your energies toward more productive uses? Perhaps. Some days, for sure. Some days, NO WAY.
Trust that…
that output is working secretly, invisibly, on behalf of your children.
your worry is evidence of your profound love and devotion to your children.
your neuroses will drive you to bettering your homeschool little by little, year by year, and that will be enough.
one day, you will be at the end, you will know that it is right to be finished, and it will be time to do something else.
For now, lean into home education and trust yourself. You are the right person for the job. Your kids are lucky that you are their mother. You bring unique gifts to them. Identify them. Celebrate them. Stop looking at your deficiencies. Blaze a different path—the one that is right for your family.
Your homeschool should look like you and your family…and no one else’s.
Trust.
Make movie night a hit!
6 Fun Ideas to Turn Your Home into a Mini-Movie Theater!
Invitations
Design an invitation like the one in the photo above, or check out how Meg (who blogs at whatever…) did it using a simple poster board taped to their bedroom door.
Movie Night Passes
Here are some nifty movie passes you can print by Jamey at Dabbles and Babbles.
Concession Stand Tickets
Cheryl at moms & munchkins shares printable concession stand tickets and has a cool idea for how to use them:
At the beginning of the week, you could let your kids know that there will be a family movie night happening this week. They will have the opportunity to win tickets for the concession stand. How do they win the tickets? That’s up to you! Some ideas are to earn tickets by doing something kind for someone else, tickets for an accomplishment (in school, in sports, etc.), etc.
Homemade Drive-In Theater Cars
Make adorable cardboard cars for kids to sit in while watching a flick. Stacy at Not Just a Housewife shows you how.
Party Popcorn
This candy popcorn recipe sounds delish! All you need: popcorn, melted white candy melts, and sprinkles. From Amy’s at she wears many hats.
Review Cards
Afterwards, when the lights go up, your kids might fill out review cards like these (which encourages writing!):
Enjoy!
Check out our online Movie Discussion Club (kids and parents can participate!).
Images by Personal Creations (cc)
Need help commenting meaningfully on plot, characterization, make-up and costumes, acting, setting and even film editing? Check out our eleven page guide, Brave Writer Goes to the Movies. Also, tell us about a film you and your kids watched together (along with a pic if you have one) and if we share it on the blog you’ll receive a free copy!
Poetry Teatime: Brings us all together
We LOVE Tea Time. And thanks to a schedule change the college student got to join us for tea.
I love how Brave Writer brings us all together.
Thank you!
Cindy
Image (cc)
Visit our Poetry Teatime website!
Pay day!
Whenever I share about a great moment in one of my kids’ lives, my friend says, “Pay day!” We were homeschoolers together for years. She has 8 kids, I have 5. We have had our share of challenges and doubts, like any parent. Home education is unique in how it puts pressure on us, though. We feel every set back more deeply—after all, no one blames the “school system” when our kids are behind.
We home educators have a hard time not blaming ourselves. When our kids struggle, we assume that it is up to us to figure it out and handle any challenge. We worry—can’t remember that some years are years of struggle for a child who, with a little time and maturity, will figure it out just fine (whatever “it” is)!
Home education doesn’t always show the fruit we want to see in a single year or handful of years. Some kids who say they don’t like home education discover as adults that, in fact, they appreciate having been homeschooled.
Not only that, we don’t get paid. Not in money. Not in credible experience for a resume. Not in vacation days or bonuses. We provide this service to our families out of sheer conviction that this form of education—this method—has a shot at providing our children with a preferred environment for learning and family bonding.
Chutzpah out the wazoo!
So, on those days when a child suddenly surprises you with an achievement or a good report out in the world, THAT’S when we get paid.
Your child tests well on the Iowas? Pay day!
Your child gets into college? Pay day!
Your daughter is chosen to be the lead in a play? Pay day!
Your son builds his own computer from scratch? Pay day!
Your mother finally reports that she is amazed by your 10 year old’s vocabulary? Pay day!
The library selects your child’s poem to display on their wall? Pay day!
Your son’s soccer coach selects him to be team captain because of his maturity? Pay day!
The child who would not learn times tables with the math book suddenly knows how to calculate percentages because of online gaming? Pay day!
You’ve worked for three years to help your poor child to read, who has begged to read every day since she turned 5, and is now going on 9 and finally read her first book aloud to you? PAY DAY!!!!
Your adult child tells you that his scholarship interview went well in part because he shared about poetry teatimes? Pay day!
Your adult daughter uses your methods for appreciating art in a museum with under privileged kids as a social worker? Pay day!
Your kids know how to study when they get to college because they know how to teach themselves anything? Pay day!
Your children are bonded to each other and look out for each as adults because they are close? Pay day!
There are dozens of pay days happening all the time. What are yours? How can we help each other to call them out when we see them?
You do get paid. Pay attention. Then, take it to the bank—your emotional bank—and make a big deposit.
You’re doing it!
Well done.
