What the?

December 11, 2007 By 4 Comments

Where did he go? My little boy seems to have turned into a young man over night.

Seriously, he’s 8 years old. But he suddenly seems to have turned an emotional corner. He’s seems…mature. And I’m not the only one to notice it!

The past few weeks since my own personal “getting it” the way I responded to him was completely different. But I still assumed it would take him a bit to see my changes and not hit me with the knee-jerk reactions to things. I guess not.

He’s been logical, thoughtful, funny, calm, rational…mature. The past week has just been so nice! We’ve been so nice! No arguments, no battle of wills..I understand not to push and prod and he understands when things aren’t exactly how we’d like them.

Last night he requested I come in and see the online game he had been shown by a friend earlier that day. I replied down the hall that I was feeling kinda ill, my body was sore and my allergies were killing me and said I wasn’t really in a place to get out of bed. Could I see it tomorrow?

:clunk:
:bang:
:rustle:

Here he comes down the hall with the computer chair in front, banging the miscellaneous contraband strewn through my home.

“Hop on, Mom.” I was too sick to walk so my baby offered me a ride! How could a momma resist that? He pushed me all the way back across the upstairs, knees tucked to my chin to avoid any bruising, to see what he was up to. I offered to walk back since he made me feel much better by his gesture. But before I left he asked me,

“Mom, we should plan a date. Just the two of us. Maybe we could go to the park or to a movie and just spend time together?”

Me and my baby have a date set for Thursday to see “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and just “hang”! I couldn’t be more happy! :D

Filed Under: Things To Remember Tagged With: ,

Where has this child been?

July 30, 2007 By 3 Comments

Z has turned a corner. I’m not exactly sure when it happened but since it has been building momentum like the snowflake gathering girth down a snowy mountain.

It was approximately a week and a half ago when I started to notice a small shimmer of light from the corner of his eye. It was quickly followed by an outburst of creative imagination. This outpouring of colorful fabrication lasted only a moment, but with it brought a refreshing gust of cool air that seemed to blow clean the dusty corners of his then shadowed mind.

Since then it has shown itself blossoming and at an amazing rate! You can hear the creaking of the rusted wheels attempting to turn faster and faster as this sleeping giant awakens. You can see the gleam of ingenuity in the eyes shortly before it spills from the tongue. The cognizance is apparent in his surprising inquiries and cunning responses.

He’s asking questions! What a word means, how something works, why certain people react in certain ways, cause and effect.

He’s playing! He’s reenacting movie scenes, making sounds while he constructs a Transformer out of K’nex and converts it into a menagerie of options, drawing cartoon characters, making up stories of passersby and “What If’s” of scenarios.

And more! So much more!

I know to many these fresh childhood moments seem commonplace and nothing to get in a tizzy over. But these exciting advancements have been so long anticipated! These are remnants of a child we’ve long missed, a passionate creativity we thought floundered, a bright young existence diminished through the mundane monotony of coerced learning, i.e. formal private education.

Just days shy of 8 months of “deschooling”, our beautiful child with his beautiful mind and happy essence has returned. The once tattered fiber of our home has been carefully and lovingly restitched into brilliantly patterned curiosity and fun!

I wrote this poem months ago in hopes of it someday being true and it is! It really is!

Filed Under: Organic Learning Tagged With: ,

And so it begins…

July 17, 2007 By 4 Comments

This first post will mark my descent into life. For so long I (and subsequently the rest of the family) have lived a life not my own. It has been a turbulent journey with more bumps and head-on collisions in the last nine months than I care to share (or maybe at another time).

One recent change in our lives has been the decision to homeschool. Our idea of homeschooling has changed and continues to change drastically since we first embarked almost 8 months ago. I have found myself between two versions of home education (at the moment) and am determined to keep myself open to whatever G-d has in store.

It’s not easy.

To give a title to what we do would probably mean calling us unschoolers, although I’m not 100% there. Taken from Wikipedia, “unschooling is a form of education in which learning is based on the student’s interests, needs, and goals”. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. It’s really about nurturing a developing soul and encouraging him/her to grow without boundaries. It’s considered radical which fits me well, but as I said I’m not a 100% unschooler…yet. ;)

We are finding the balance between the two opposing forces. Funny how my whole life has been about emotional, spiritual, and mental balance; physical balance being where I still need the most improvement!

So for the benefit of friends and family, I will blog our journey into this unknown. With all it’s stumbling and probably at least a few wrong turns, I still have faith we will get to where we are meant to be.

Here’s a little background…

My son, Z. is 7, turning 8 in August. He was placed in a private school at the age of 5 and we withdrew him in December of ’06. His total 2 and a half years in the “system” dramatically changed who he was (or at least who he had been). He went from a naturally curious, gentle-spirited and empathetic 5 year old to a negative, pessimistic 7 year old. At times I regret not pulling him out sooner (or sending him at all) but life is a lesson and I’m thankfully for what we learned. Our experience confirmed our current choice.

I was public schooled through the 9th grade when to my dismay I found that education had slowed to a crawl to allow for others to catch up. With the support of my mother, I never went back and unschooled myself until graduation. I really think it was more deschooling, decompressing from the school experience. I settled on a GED because I really didn’t care about what others thought I knew or didn’t know and almost a year after that enrolled in massage school. My work as an independent massage therapist gives me the flexibility to allow Z. to learn in freedom while still allowing me to have a personal creative outlet.

Where are we now? Justin, Z. and I are in Vegas as we have always been. I am stoking my creative writing embers (so long been doused) while with determination and occasional exhaustion trying to stoke Z.’s as well. This blog is for the benefit of both and I’ll attempt to update our happenings as often as possible. I have another just for my poetry, organicsis.blogspot.com, if your interested. And maybe Z. will even blog a little with me!

Til then, wish us luck!

Filed Under: Organic Learning Tagged With: , ,
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