Happy Birthday, Melissa Wiley!

prairiethief_coverMelissa Wiley was born December 17th. In celebration of her birthday we’re making a special offer. The Arrow for The Prairie Thief is:

Half price today only: $4.95! OFFER HAS EXPIRED

Melissa has authored numerous books for kids and teens, including The Prairie Thief, Inch and Roly Make a Wish, Fox and Crow Are Not Friends, and the Martha and Charlotte Little House books (prequels to the Little House on the Prairie series).

In The Prairie Thief, readers “experience life on the prairie—with one fantastical twist!” From Melissa’s website:

Louisa Brody’s life on the Colorado prairie is not at all what she expected. Her dear Pa, accused of thievery, is locked thirty miles away in jail. She’s living with the awful Smirches, her closest neighbors and the very family that accused her Pa of the horrendous crime. And now she’s discovered one very cantankerous—and magical—secret beneath the hazel grove. With her life flipped upside-down, it’s up to Louisa, her sassy friend Jessamine, and that cranky secret to save Pa from a guilty verdict.

Last year we interviewed Melissa. She talked about influential authors, the unorthodox use of language in literature, the importance of a good copy editor (a “second set of eyes”), how she started her lovely blog, Here in the Bonny Glen, and much, much more. If you missed it the first time you can listen to the full podcast here!

We recently caught up with Melissa and she told us that she just recorded her often-asked-about-but-hard-to-find book, Hanna’s Christmas, and here it is!

You can read more about how the recording came into being on Melissa’s blog.

So, enjoy the holiday story then take advantage of this special Arrow offer today!

The Arrow is a monthly digital product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel. It’s geared toward children ages 8-11 and is an indispensable tool for parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.

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Poetry Teatime: Turtle in Paradise and Rice Krispies

Poetry Teatime

We read Turtle in Paradise while having sweet tea and Rice Krispies treats. Our 9yr old daughter had surgery the day before so we are keeping things simple.

Our children are 11,9,7,4, & 1. The boys look forward to Tea Time Tuesday as much as the girls.

I try to change up the decorations with what we have around the house. This time I used the felt food from our pretend play collection.

We love Brave Writer!!!

Thanks so much

~Linsey

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Visit our Poetry Teatime website!

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Trust your hunches

Freewriting

Freewriting!

I shared with a collection of homeschool parents here in town. It felt good to be in a living room, with parents who have decided to spend all their time with their kids. We admitted that part of why we keep going in home education is that we, the parents, go through our own “educational renaissance” as we teach our young. Learning becomes a passionate obsession! For everyone!

The hardest part of being a home educator in the 21st century is that the proliferation of available materials and ideas is overwhelming. It’s as if the variety of choices undermines your ability to rest with the choices you’ve already made!

So my encouragement to you is this:

Trust your hunches.

When I talk to moms, I’m often amazed at how little they credit themselves with their special knowledge of their kids. I listen to detailed accounts of a child’s journey through handwriting, talking, reading, thinking, sharing—with the struggles highlighted, but also balanced by small bursts of growth or signs of progress that would absolutely be missed in a school setting.

This attentiveness is characteristic of dedicated parents at home with their kids all the time. That attentiveness makes you uniquely qualified to make judgments about what is working and what is not.

The only thing standing in your way is self-confidence!

So let me “back you up.” Yes, you’re right!

It makes perfect sense that you might want to test your child for a learning disability at 13 when he seems so stressed by handwriting. Why not find out if there are therapies or helps for him that he might find supportive and beneficial?

It also makes perfect sense that you are hesitant to test an 8 year old who is starting to notice reversed letters, even though she hasn’t completely figured it out yet. You see progress, you want to wait, you don’t want to assign labels: I’m with you. Keep going. See what happens in six months or a year or even two.

It makes sense to take a break from math and to trust that in a month, the brain may have grown and fractions will seem less daunting to all of you. You aren’t negligent. You are being careful, open, trusting, and hope-filled.

You’re right about your child’s original passionate story writing. You don’t need to edit it or revise it. It’s okay that it is fun for your child and you don’t treat it like a school project. That’s the right instinct. You can teach the skill called writing with less-emotionally charged material. That’s good sense.

You know when the days are long and tedious. It’s smart to change the setting or the routine. You can tell yourself that there is no “getting behind.” You do what you can and you do it as it makes sense and as it produces joy and life. You know what that is.

Your fantasy homeschool, the one that lives in your brain, is a worthy aspiration. Of course not every day will be the peaceful, focused, stress-free, joy-filled acquisition of skills and information. Some days will feel like a slog. But each day that you consult that fantasy in your mind is a day when you might work to bring an aspect of it to life.

  • You can create warmth and affection today.
  • You can stimulate new ideas with a new project or tool.
  • You can find a playful way to cover the same material that used to be known only through books.

It’s okay to use Charlotte Mason’s idea of “short lessons.” You can teach the concepts in brief, focused lessons, and then move on—trusting that over time, the accumulation of exposures will result in mastery and learning. You know what works for you and your kids. Then do it. No guilt allowed.

It’s okay to switch curricula you are using just because you are bored of it. You’re a part of your homeschool. If you aren’t excited, you can’t expect your children to be. Create the conditions that produce the enthusiasm you imagine in your head!

My point: You all are much better at understanding what you need in your home than you realize. You stop short sometimes because the ideas you have are unorthodox. Remember: You’re a home educator. You are already unorthodox!

Keep going!

I trust you. You prove to me over and over again that you are good at what you do. How do I know? I work with your kids. And 9 times out of 10, they amaze me. The Tenth? Blows me away.

Cross-posted on facebook.

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Behind Closed Doors

Sad woman at ChristmasNo one knows what happens in your house. You don’t know what’s going on in your friend’s home.

The rosy, twinkle-lit home down the street may hide the stale tension between parent and child, husband and wife, even without financial struggle or illness. The holidays are dreaded, but you would never know. The loneliness of transition from teen to young adult or middle-age to senior happens in multiple generations all at once, and shows up during the holidays—each person feeling misunderstood. It can be hard to get across that street to find each other in new ways. So normal, so rarely talked about, so deeply felt as failure.

Some families are heart broken at this time of year over a young adult child in prison, or another addicted to drugs or alcohol, or the failure of yet another child to wait until adulthood to start a family.

In other families, fifteen+ years of marriage reveal the deep flaws in both parties—not everyone navigates the challenge of overcoming them well. Not every marriage weathers the storm of familiarity and accumulated hurts.

The holidays are sold as a guarantee of nostalgia and family-centered joy. If your family is suffering (for any reason), television advertising and your friend’s Christmas letter may be just enough to put you over the edge into despair or depression.

I like this reminder:

“Nothing is what it seems.”

Behind the “good” are layers of challenge and personal pain points tolerated, stood, endured, resented, and not always overcome. Each family has its own distinct blend of wonderful and terrible. The holidays often accentuate both.

Behind the “bad” are the threads of what was imagined, hoped for, and loved—both aspiration and realization, loss combined with gain. A mixture of goodnesses survives “in spite of,” which mitigates the “bad.”

If this year is tough (not how you wanted it, not how you imagined it, not how you expected it to be!), hold on. It’s only one year. I liked what a friend said about Thanksgiving. She said if you are struggling through the over-burdened-with-expectation event, call Thanksgiving by its other name: “a Thursday.”

You can do that with any holiday this season. You get to let one go in your lifetime, if you have to, if that helps.

In the meantime, you can hold out for glimmers of good. Finding the good in a year gone wrong takes persistent attentiveness. You might be too tired. I know I’ve been some years.

I like to tell my day: “I don’t have the energy to make today good. Instead, surprise me.”

Then, a tiny part of my heart looks for the surprise. When it comes, I pause and am grateful (to the extent that my energy affords me). It doesn’t always work, but even in my darkest years, the surprises showed up sometimes. They made a difference (stuff like a satisfying phone call with a friend, an early bloom, finding my favorite chocolate on sale, a long hug from my teen at home).

If you feel alone in your “behind closed doors” shames, I wanted to throw out a life ring into that sea. You’re not alone. Hold on. This too shall pass. You can get through it. You will find a way. Maybe not today. Maybe not this December. But you will, eventually.

Be good to you.

Keep going. It’s just “a December.”

Image © Citalliance | Dreamstime.com

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Friday Freewrite: Temporary

Best snowman ever!Image by Upsilon Andromedae

Write about something you made that didn’t last long.

New to freewriting? Check out our online guide.

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