Minecraft Crazy vs 1000 Hours Outdoors

In the last month, we have really revved up our homeschooling schedule. We have had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of creating community for ourselves with other homeschoolers. While we have been a part of an awesome co-op, a number of women I hve grown to know in the past year have come together in a very intentional way to create a social group for ourselves and our children. Among one of our first endeavors was to challenge ourselves to get our kids outside All. The. Time. Everyday. With Spring finally here, we've barely been inside and Minecraft feels like a friend who has gone on sabbatical.

 

Many a family finds life upended by a child's absorption with computer games. You may find his behavior has deteriorated as he constantly negotiates for more screen time, neglects his chores, and speaks of nothing but the game. Know that it's normal for kids this age to fixate on things, and their obsessions are usually short-lived. Computer games can be addictive, however, so stick to your guns about gaming time limits. Explain that it's your job – no matter how unfair he thinks you're being – to make sure he's healthy. Too much computer time is as bad for him as eating candy for dinner every night. It may also help to figure out why he's so attracted to the game. Does he like to immerse himself in a fantasy world or get caught up in the competition? Or does he like it because his friends are playing it, too? Once you uncover the reason, you may be able to steer him to more productive ways to get the same payoff, like playing board games with you or reading sci-fi books together.

 babycenter.com Your 6-year-old now

I read this newsflash (hardly) back in the dark days of Winter and wondered if I would ever get James outside again. Now that Spring is here, we are doing Nature studies, watching birds, playing, tennis lessons...and more playing. In case you were wondering, for kids, play is learning. It's actually educational for them to go outside and play in the dirt. Jump in mud puddles. Run around like maniacs to their heart's content. For you readers that need to see the evidence-based reasons, here you go: 1000 Hours Outdoors. 

Many of us in our community group have boys. If you have ever seen a group of boys up close, you will come to the conclusion that they desperately need time outside to run around and play and pretend...and wrestle. I told the other moms last week that I was going to set up a wrestling ring in the backyard and invite everyone over for wrestle mania homeschool-style. They all laughed!! And no one said, "That's crazy!". They said, "When! Let me know! We'll come!!". Moms know. 

We are attempting 1000 hours outdoors!!!

Gratitude and Random Observations in my Life

It's been a wild and crazy Fall season so far and the Christmas holiday is now upon us. Writing a blog is difficult to do sometimes because there is so much going on in life and inside my head that finding time to sit down and work it all out seems nearly impossible. But lists are manageable. I like lists. Very much. So here goes my attempt to share things that I am grateful for and some random observations I want to record for the ages.

Homeschooling

1. I have discovered over the past months that James really LIKES handwriting. I was so worried that he would dread it and I was mentally prepared for that to be our struggle. Nope. Not even close. Wanna know what he groans about? Math! I take some of the busy work out of it by writing for him. He counts and builds large numbers with the blocks and I write down his answer on the worksheet. I even color the blocks. I just want him to think about counting and not missing numbers and now focus on addition and building numbers. He counted to 100 the other day! It was a wonderful experience to see him working hard to do it. 
2. James loves the word games we play. He is developing pre-reading skills and he likes the word games where he gets to talk (his words). In the beginning, he struggled with understanding rhyming words and so he started thinking up pairs of words he thought rhymed. So, since about September, he will randomly say to me or Chris, "Hey! Tree and bee rhyme!" as an example. 
3. James read a new word the other day from the TV! We were watching "The Incredible Hulk" (the 1970's show) and he saw G-R-I-F-F on a tombstone and asked, "Does that say Griff?". I couldn't believe it!!! 
4. James is just now (like in the past week and a half) starting to draw. I have Nana to thank for that. She sends James that great magazine Ranger Rick Jr. (formally known as My Big Backyard). Each issue has a page of drawings that kids have submitted...and they are all his age. He is very interested in knowing the ages of the kids and what they have drawn. It's been a great influence. 

Raising Boys

1. I've been doing a lot of reading about raising boys and parenting in general. A couple of them seem to contradict each other but when reading these books, I have to be aware of what I already know about my child and what will and won't work. That Love and Logic book will not work right now. I know this after reading Beyond Time Out From Chaos to Calm I realized that I need James to do as I say. If it's 40 degrees outside and he is refusing to put on a coat, then he is not going outside. Love and Logic tell you to let the child make the decision and learn from it that way...natural consequences. That's all fine and dandy....when they are older but not at five. A five-year-old can't be expected to even remember that harsh lesson. They are simply not mature enough to learn from their mistakes the the first time.
2. And can I just vent for a second???? Well it IS my blog so here it is: Why do books advocate taking home the child who is in public having a temper tantrum???? I don't get it! When James did that, I would  a.) ignore it or b.) talk to him and let him know that his behavior would not be tolerated. I NEVER let his behavior prevent me from getting my groceries or eating dinner out. Why give a child that kind of power???? There is a c). Chris gives him a "talk". (I don't know what is said but it works. I've seen my brother-in-law do this with my nephew too. Very enigmatic.) Chris and I have taught him how we expect him to behave in public. Ok. I'm done.
3. An inspirational book I have been reading is called Boys Should be Boys: 7 Secrets to Raising Healthy Sons. The most precious thing I have learned is that boys James' age will easily accept and believe in God. This is a critical time in his life in which I should be instilling my values and his father's values now. While we don't go to church, we talk about God, I have added devotions to our lessons and we pray. Our lives are too hectic and I feel guilty that church is being put on hold. Being at church as a little girl is something I still remember. It helped to develop my character and who I am too. I really want that for James. I think I may have to come to a point where I simply will not work on Sundays so that I have the energy to get up and go to church and also have time for rest and time with family. Perhaps I just found my New Year's Resolution. 
4. James will tell me NO for just about everything I ask him to do (he doesn't get away with it though) and then, on a new day, he will latch on to me like a monkey and say he wants to hug me for 1,080 years. It's always 1,080 and I have no idea why. Whether he is talking about percent as in, "I love you a thousand and eighty percent" or going to time out, "Do I have to stay in my room for a thousand and eighty days???". 

Family

1. I have recently felt very grateful for my mother and all she does for me. She helps my sister and I quite a bit and rarely, if ever, says no to a request. I have been working extra hours and she has been really wonderful in letting James spend the night on short notice. It's good that he likes going over there too. Too often the relationships of mothers and daughters can seem complicated but it doesn't have to be.
2. This Thanksgiving I realized that I love the traditions that are being created as an adult at my parent's house. After dinner, me, my sister and my Mom are left at the table to talk. We talk and talk until something breaks the spell. This Thanksgiving, it was my Mom tipping over her crystal goblet and it shattered all over the table. :) It was kinda funny. James and my nephew chase each other through the kitchen and into the den over and over again. My Dad tickles James relentlessly...just like he did to me and my sister when we were little. 

I know I have forgotten some valuable observations and other significant thoughts but the clean laundry is piled up so high on my bed right now I won't be able to get the sheets on it later. It's been nice to take a few minutes to write. Granted I started this post about 2 hours ago. I ate lunch int he middle of it.  Then James came running in from outside to say he needed a coat and stole the strawberries that I was eating. He wanted enough for him and Regan (our neighbor) and two forks. Sigh. Smile.

Raising boys, Teaching Boys

The assumes that I am working with boys plural, but I have just one that I am raising and teaching. I think this topic fits all boys no matter where or how they are schooled. As James and I have been doing our lessons these past 2 weeks, I have made some keen observations about his readiness for academics. As we concentrate on math, reading and writing each morning I have discovered the following:

1. James does not yet possess the fine motor skills to write some of his letters. (nor the desire)
2. James has yet to understand what rhyming words are. It's hard for him to match two rhyming words together. When we play rhyming word games, he will make a guess then look at my face for clues to whether he is right or wrong. He even sings, "Rain, rain go away, come again another time.". 
3. Math is boring right now. He gets it. All that counting cubes is slightly mundane. (I can turn this into a positive)
4. He loathes coloring/crafting unless he gets to use "gadgets" or if it's messy.

So, first, please see here that one of the beauties of homeschooling is that I can observe my child upclose and personal and adjust academics accordingly. As I have talked with some of my mommy friends over the summer, I have often repeated that if James were going to public school, I believe Chris and I would have made the decision to hold him back a year. He just turned five in July so he is a "young" five-year-old. He is not ready for a 6-hour "work" day. Not only have I considered what would be expected of him academically , I have also considered his desire to learn. I believe this can not be ignored. I remember taking a workshop once during a retreat at work and the presenters talked about willingness and abilities. Exceptional abilities may not matter so much if the person with said abilities has no willingness or desire to apply them. I would expect this is doubly true for children. I am also taking into consideration that James is a red-blooded American boy. He needs to move. He needs to talk. He needs to catch bugs outside in my garden. He needs to play and pretend that he is a monster robot coming to attack the house. He needs to pretend to be my newly found dog that I must care for and play with. With all that being said, I plan to make some adjustments to our lessons.

1. We will continue handwriting lessons but we will take it slower. We won't learn a new letter everyday but only when he has mastered the current letter. I am also acting as his scribe. For example, during math, I don't care if he can write his numbers right now. We will get to that. I want him to focus on counting. I will write the numbers. When  I do this, he gets excited because he gets to "teach" Mommy. Another thing I have started is letting him tell me what to write for him. Sometimes kids need to be free from the process of writing their words so they can think about what it is they want to say. So, we sent birthdays cards to 2 people last week and I helped James write a letter to each person. Granted it was only about 2 sentences long but they were HIS thoughts. HIS words. And I made him sign his own name.
2. Recognizing rhyming words are a very important pre-reading skill. Nursery rhymes are being pulled out and dusted so that we can sing more. I have a CD and everything. 
3. For our math lessons, I may skip some of the lessons so I can find ones that will be challenging for him and keep his interest. 
4. As for crafts, I don't know if I will ever get this child to do crafts on a regular basis. I have to accept that. He IS doing crafts in his Animals class on our Legacy Friday co-op days and he is participating...but he is doing the bare minimum. Last Friday, they were supposed to glue feathers on a picture of a dodo bird. James glued 3 feathers. That's it. He was proud of himself and really he loved learning about the dodo bird and then educating me about it. 
5. One more thing we did yesterday was to pull out jigsaw puzzles. James was never really interested in doing them but I thought it was time to introduce them again. We had a great morning doing the puzzles. For some reason that I can't articulate right now, it seemed to fit with the rhyming words struggle. I figured that if he can visually look at puzzle pieces and find the ones that go together, maybe he can also start to auditorally match words that rhyme.

In addition to these little changes, I am reading a great book about boys. I just started it and I really like it. Boys are amazing creatures and need to be understood from that perspective. I can not expect to do justice by James academically if  I don't look at him as a whole person.