Godly Play

I am so excited I can barely contain myself. Just a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about our church Sunday school and wishing there was a different way of teaching it. The reason I started thinking was because I received a call asking if I would teach again.  I said no to teaching this year because this is my first year of homeschool teaching and thought I would be overwhelmed. I've been a Sunday school teacher, and followed a curriculum and did what the book said, and it was fine. But after experiencing the Montessori way of learning academics, I wished there could be a Montessori way of learning about Christ and the Bible.
Well, I had no idea!
There is such a thing, and our church is starting Godly Play Sunday School this weekend!!! (There will also be traditional grades Sunday school.)
I am so excited for Sean.
And when I mentioned it to my friend Shane, she said her little boy Jacob-Joshua had been in a Godly Play Sunday school in Germany and she was looking for one here. She tried one in another city that didn't quite get it right, she said. So I think they are going to visit our church soon.
I feel like it is a validation for me in a way, on my decision to Montessori homeschool. Sean's academic and faith education will be based on the same philosophy of learning.
If you want more information about Godly Play check out this site.
Here is a description from our Sunday school letter:
The Godly Play classroom is designed so that children can use and explore everything in it. It is a safe, engaging and loving environment where what children say and do is valued and respected. The walls of the classroom are lined with shelves, each containing baskets of stories made out of beautiful, natural materials. Children are thus surrounded by the biblical story in the classroom.
And this:
During the "work" time children are invited to use the enrichment materials of the classroom to further explore the story. These include books, maps, and art materials, as well as the stories themselves. During this time, besides having fun, the children are linking up the religious language of the story with their own inner understanding, which helps them understand the story and makes it come alive. This makes sense, because in so doing they are entering into relationship with God--opening themselves to grace.

Rain and home work

Here comes the rain again...

Rain puddled onto the bottom of a metal bucket I plan to use as a planter.

We have had a little dose of fall with a cool 59 degrees and hard rain last night and today. Makes me want to curl up with a bowl of soup and watch some cool old movie. But I can't. I've got fours stories to write. Maybe later on the soup and movie.

I enjoy working from home. It is something I have wanted to do for years, and prayed that someday I would be able to do it. I have freedom to work in my pajamas if I want to, and I can go to my refrigerator whenever I want. I control the temperature here. I can't tell you how many times I just wanted to leave work because the office was soooooo cold. 

Karen and I have had conversations about this. We've both admitted to spending some time with our hands under the hot water faucet in the bathroom just to get warm. I shocked co-workers at one office because I actively sought out the maintenance guy to remedy the problem. I was shivering, and they were also cold but looked at me like I was crazy when I placed the call. I believe I left early that day because nothing was done about the temperature.

There are other positive things about working from home. If my child is sick I don't have to get permission from anyone to take off from work, and if I need to write a story at midnight, I can do that. It makes so much more sense to me to work this way. I believe I am more productive working from home. 

Working from home has made homeschooling Sean possible, and for that I am so thankful.

The only drawback, and I wouldn't even go so far as to say negative, is that I never feel like I'm "off from work." Work is always right here. I don't get a lot of down time from it, and it is always on my mind. 

But I try to think of it as a hobby that I get paid to do. I enjoy my work, and try to grab moments here and there to think of something else. Like when we go to the beach, or I take Sean to a museum.

Life is Good. I'm enjoying the ride.

Change is in the air

Sunday was beautiful, so we spent a little time at the beach.

Sean found this cool log lodged on some rocks, and he loved balancing and walking across it. I tried not to think of the jagged rocks below and just let him be a boy.

There is a different glow when the sun rays hit the water, and the chill in the air as the wind picks up is telling me to enjoy every summer moment possible before autumn arrives. We have had a very warm and pleasant summer, so I should not be as disappointed when the rain comes. There have been summers here that we didn't put on a pair of shorts the whole season, and this year we've worn them every day.

Soon the grass will be green again, and I'll be racing to get it cut before the rains come. We'll be chopping carrots for our carrot stew, firing up the pot for our beans and cornbread, and baking breads.

But we still have a little bit of summer left, and we will spend as much of it as possible at the beach.

Another blog

I've started a new blog to chart our Montessori journey. Anyone interested in lower elementary Montessori links, resources, materials, and our experience with Montessori homeschool can follow us at Montessorielementaryathome.blogspot.com

Schoolin'

I knew before the school year ended that I could not afford to keep Sean in his Montessori school. As much as a I wanted to, and looked over our budget many times to figure out a way, it just wasn't possible.

So we toured a public school that I had visited and written stories about. It was small, very close to the size of his Montessori school, and had a family feel. But it had that public school feel to it.

One example: Rules that didn't make sense to me. This particular school had drumming circle for extra curricular activity, but you couldn't participate until 4th grade. Sean has had a full drum set since he was 4. That rule just ain't right.

He has spent three years in a school that encourages the child to do what they love to do, and enjoy their work. They research what they are most interested in, and have a lot of freedom to choose the materials they want to work with, and activities they want to participate in. It has given Sean a sense of responsibility for his own education, and the confidence to succeed.

I asked myself, "so you take a child who loves music, and I mean loves it, and can mimic the sounds, and hold the beat, and you put him in a room with bongos and drums and then tell him he's too young, can't touch it, can't play, sorry?"

No.

So I decided to research other options. I got online. I found WAVA, a virtual school that is done at home and part of the state public school system. Something about it seemed rigid. It felt like public school, at home. Their idea is x minutes in a chair = x amount of learning.

Well, I don't feel like I learned much sitting in a chair when I was a kid. I think there's a better way.

That's why I put him in Montessori to begin with.

So I figured I'd just put him in the school he is supposed to go to that is within our boundary. I've heard the teachers there are good, experienced, there's an accelerated learning program there, etc.

But I just didn't feel right about it.

I went back to the computer and did more research and found there are people who do Montessori homeschool. I kept looking into it, and decided that was the answer. Montessori homeschool.

I also ran the idea past his father, because though we are no longer married, he is his father and I believe if he wants to participate in the decision he has that right.

He was all for it and offered to split the cost of materials with me.

I found an inexpensive curriculum online through a certified Montessori teacher, and got a book on the subject and I'm assembling the materials. A lot of it is free pdf downloads, and all you need is a printer and some card stock. (They suggest laminating the card stock, but we aren't doing that.)

Sean already knows the routine of how to handle the materials, and how to work independently, so I hope this will be a way to continue his education with the Montessori philosophy and that we will both enjoy it.

We plan to follow the local school year calendar, so we will begin Sept. 2, unless we get the materials I've ordered from ebay and others sooner. Sean is excited to get started. He said today, "we'll start as soon as we get the stuff." He has been involved in the selection. Whenever I find something I wonder about, I ask him if he's seen it before. Usually he says, "Oh yeah! I want one of those."

It took me a while to make a final decision, because I want him to have social time with other children. I prefer a mixed age group, like the Montessori schools, so we are visiting with a family tomorrow for a play date, and I joined a meetup group that will meet the first week of September. There are more than 20 who belong to that meetup group and I'm anxious to exchange ideas and for Sean to meet some new friends.

I'm going to look into joining the YMCA here because they have homeschool P.E. twice a week and it is very popular.

I hope to find others who use Montessori, but so far I've only met some online. Most live pretty far from us.

I'm excited about this new adventure, and so happy that Sean is so excited too.

Sean's best friend's mother is a certified Montessori teacher and she has offered to provide help and advice when I need it. What a blessing!

I have this on my wall and try to read it often, especially on those difficult days when everything seems to be going wrong.

If a child lives with criticism, 


he learns to condemn.


If a child lives with hostility, 


he learns to fight.


If a child lives with ridicule, 


he learns to be shy.


If a child lives with shame, 


he learns to feel guilty.


If a child lives with tolerance,

he learns to be patient.


If a child lives with encouragement,

he learns confidence.

If a child lives with praise, 


he learns to appreciate.


If a child lives with fairness, 


he learns justice.


If a child lives with security, 


he learns to have faith.


If a child lives with approval, 


he learns to like himself.


If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,

he learns to find love in the world.

Amanda Cater

Karen's Day today

Today is Karen Lim's birthday and I hope she is having a great day.

I wanted to scan an old photo of her to include with this post, but my printer/scanner seems to be taking a day off- maybe permanently.

Karen is one of the easiest people to hang out with, go on a road trip with, and go shopping with. She knows how to laugh and she loves the Lord. She is a great friend.

Karen taught me everything I know about Hallmark Christmas ornaments, and some other Hallmark paraphernalia. She also taught me a lot about Beanie Babies, and I still love them today. Although I don't have as many as I once had.

She also taught me about spyin, and some other things with catchy words that I won't define in this post lest we be held responsible.

She knows what I mean when I call and say, "Huh! I'll be down 'ar," and "What's yer brother gonna do for ya, hold yer hand?"

She knows a lot about a lot of things, but both of us agree, when we want to buy a boat we talk to Jerry. 'Cause Jerry knows about buyin' thangs.

Happy Birthday Karen!!

Life of an Executive editor

This has been one of the most stressful work weeks so far. Not the worst, because I've had some bad ones, and have even shed some tears over the years. It's been rough, but I realized this week why I have the fancy title and make the big dollars -LOL!

Because I work for a non-profit, there are different rules about things, especially politics. So when a community member wanted to create and pay for a negative political ad - a double truck, and for those of you who are not newspaper folk that means two full pages side by side, I had to think hard. It was also a local, community campaign. I'm talking small community here.

I not only had to think, I had to do some research. This process took about 2 1/2 days. I'm a slow thinker, yes, but that wasn't what took the 2 1/2 days.

First I knew I had to approve the ad before it could run, and made that clear through the ad rep to the customer. Then the ad had to be pre-paid, and check clear the bank prior to publication. Not a problem. As I researched a bit more it looked as if we couldn't run the ad at all, based on the code I was reading pertaining to non-profits.

The customer was not happy.

I then researched more and found something in our guidelines that led me to think maybe it was the type of ad that if we ran it, it would require him to pay for postage. Our paper is mailed, and this had to do with non-profit stuff, so he would have had to pay postage at the regular postal rate of more than $1 a copy. We mail more than 8,000 copies. Yes, the math was looking scary for this person.

And he was not happy.

I assured the ad rep I was continuing to do some research on the topic.

Oh, did I mention this ad came in on Monday - deadline day?

I decided I needed someone with legal experience to look at the code and tell me if we would be allowed to run it. It seemed we should if we ran political ads in the past, and we have.

So I called on someone with such experience. It was late, I don't know, maybe 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. He assured me that we could run it and it would not have an effect on the non-profit status.

Then as I started to really read the ad and wade through it for possible libel, I again wanted some help. I consulted with that person again, the next day, and though there were a few things in the ad I had questions about, there was only one item that he said could be a problem.

I again talked to the ad rep, and the customer agreed to omit that item.

This was Wednesday, I think. It could have been yesterday morning because my days have all run together now.

At the same time I was doing the research, trying to find the person to consult with, and calling my assistant editor and chewing it over with her, stories and photos were coming at me left and right.

Also on deadline day, I got a call from an ad rep who was in the hospital and couldn't contact her customers nor could she get to her paperwork to turn in her orders for ads. Guess who had to do that?

I'm getting off topic--sort of.

There were other problems with advertising this time, but I'll keep it to this one.

In the middle of this, the customer threatened to sue if we didn't run it. Now that didn't scare me, and I put it out of my mind as I tried to get to the answers I was seeking. Some people on the board were quite frustrated with that, and I was fielding those E-mails too.

The president of the board sent an E-mail message that stated the decision was mine, and they would support me in the decision.

Meantime, stories were piled up ready to be edited, and I had a couple or three of my own that I was supposed to be writing.

On top of all of this, I had a serious E-mail exchange with a staff member that turned into a topic for our staff meeting. And as you can imagine, the staff meeting was this week too. Last night in fact.

I had to collect my thoughts, put them on paper, and present them at this meeting. I was ready for anything. (No worries, there's a liquor store just around the corner from the office. I could hit it on the way home.)

I didn't need the bottle.

The meeting was the highlight of the week. I think it's the only thing that has gone really well this week.

It's Friday, and I still have to proof the paper this weekend. But for tonight, and a little bit of tomorrow, I'm going to relax.

Then I just wait for the bombs to hit after we go to print.

Even with all of this craziness, I like my job.