Hobo Mama

Time 2020-11-18 09:04:04

Web Name: Hobo Mama

WebSite: http://www.hobomama.com

ID:119852

Keywords:

Hobo,Mama,

Description:

My 9-year-old learns art techniques origami by practicing them over and over and over. When I was new to the world of homeschooling, and pedagogy in general, I heard about the term teaching to mastery, and it perplexed me. The idea is that you teach something until the student understands and retains it. You test as you go along, but if the student doesn t score highly on any given test, you adjust your teaching style and go over it again. What perplexed me was that there were teachers not using this technique.It makes sense in a homeschool situation. Or, in other words, the reverse makes no sense. There s no reason I would, say, teach my child fractions, have them be confused and doing them all wrong, and then say, Welp, that was all the time we have for fractions! On to geometry. You get a fail on fractions. I wouldn t hold my child back a grade in homeschool in some punitive sense, and, conversely, there s no time pressure to move up at a certain pace. We can speed ahead of things they ve got down pat, and slow down for the more frustrating bits.But then I remember my experiences in school, where teaching to mastery was not the norm. You kept up or you flunked out. I was strong academically, so my two personal examples were in art and physical education. Fortunately, both were graded more on effort than skill, but I remember being criticized in art class more than learning how to complete assignments. In P.E., I remember being ignored most of the time. I wasn t worth bringing up to scratch, I suppose.AstronautRotating with no axis,unfurled tetherkeeping you in place.The atmosphere around youunbreathable,so air comes to you.Extraterrestrial glowilluminatingthe dimnessAs you spin and twirl,no upside downor right side up,Weightless,waiting,your hand beforeyour faceWaving to Earth.If you ve been staring at bare paper-products aisles in distress, I have some suggestions to brighten your day. You can cut down or cut out your use of toilet paper while maintaining your comfort and convenience. I recommend a mix of family cloth, a bidet attachment, and, optionally, a much smaller quantity of toilet paper or wet wipes as needed, such as for guests -- in the future, when guests are a thing again. You might remember I first tried family cloth, or reusable cloth toilet paper, several years ago after a lot of debate and skepticism. I m glad to report I ve kept using it, but I admit I didn t get my family fully on board until this coronavirus epidemic! Necessity is the mother of getting your kids to use less toilet paper, apparently. Happily, this transition is going very well. I think we can stick with it, so I ll share my updated thoughts on managing family cloth for a whole family.Well. We re in a global pandemic. All over social media are posts encouraging you to make the most of this time your children are off of school. There are many tips on how best to continue schooling while you re isolated at home as well as memes to let off steam about how much teachers should earn, how cooped up everyone s feeling, and how no one s taught to carry the one anymore. (Is this true? I m too old to have realized this.)As a parent who s been homeschooling for my children s full schooling years so far, I want to offer my take on how best to homeschool right now for those of you thrown into schooling at home. Don t worry, I ll be gentle. Seriously. Because:This is not homeschooling. If your kids are usually in school full time, what you re doing right now is not any form of regular homeschooling, which is intentional and planned and much less panicky on the whole. What you re doing is crisis schooling. It s stress schooling. It s not vacation, and it s not not vacation. It s weird, and you re distracted and anxious, and your kids might be, too. This isn t normal even for homeschooling families because all our classes, co-ops, excursions, and social interactions are canceled. All children are missing their friends and routines and stimulation, whether they re already used to homeschooling or not. You re missing yours. Maybe you re still working full time in an essential (read: stressful) job. Maybe you re trying to figure out working from home. Maybe you re out of work and worrying about how to pay the next bills to come due. Maybe you or loved ones are sick or recovering. Maybe you or your kids have disabilities or other special needs that make it hard to miss out on the services that make your days more manageable. I feel you. But only figuratively and from a socially mandated distance. Whatever you do right now with school, it s fine. It s really, really fine. You don t even have to Make Every Moment Special , which is its own form of unnecessary pressure. Kids can be bored. Kids can use screens. Kids can play the day away. Kids can fall behind in schoolwork. If your school has gone virtual and is laying on the pressure, you have the right to ask for dispensation and excused absences right now. Because:Alrik has discovered the joys of Google Slides (PowerPoint-like presentations). It all started when he made me watch multiple inane YouTube videos that were quizzes purporting to help you discern things like what color you should dye your hair, but then all the questions would be things like, What kind of flowers would you grow in a garden? and If you could be any type of animal, which would you be? Now choose from these three options. To celebrate the nonsense, I made my own quiz that I forced my family to complete:Feel free to total up your numbers, and do let me know which animal you are!I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.Read more about my family and me here, and join the hobo parenting movement.

TAGS:Hobo Mama 

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