school ready | guest post :: FARM SCHOOL : part two

As promised, part two of Chey's lovely post on her oldest son's school, The Farm School:

The Farm School also places importance on this time of transition, when adolescents become independent contributing members of their community.  A time when they need to make their own mistakes as messy as it may seem.  For example - packing their lunches, picking out weather appropriate clothing, or keeping up with assignments. 

school ready| guest post::FARM SCHOOL | part one

I am so thrilled to have Chey from the blog the other side of the pond....and back bringing us a wonderful guest post about the Montessori school her oldest attends. I could only dream of such wonders for my oldest! Reading about this school is the perfect way to start off your week! (this post is so delightful and full of wonderful photos I am splitting it up between this Monday and this Thursday!) 

For the last three years I home schooled our 2 boys while we lived outside of the U.S. (they perviously attended Montessori school in Colorado).  We were very lucky in that they were able to return to Montessori, one in their old school and the oldest in a Montessori school that is K-12.  Our oldest is attending a very unique school that has the only curriculum like it in the country (we really are so lucky) - it is called the Farm School and is for years 12-15.

seven | school ready :: a guest post

A guest post on homeschooling, from Sarah Elwell, a poet and writer. If you haven't visited Sarah's blogs, Knitting the Wind, or gnossienne be prepared to have your heart stirred and soul moved. What I especially love about this post, is that there is so much to take away from it, whether you are homeschooling or sending your children to a more traditional school. We can all benefit from the different ways our children learn...especially in nature. 

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When I first began homeschooling, I didn't appreciate how vast our classroom would be. I had no internet in those days, and all my understanding of homeschooling was based on the scant few books I found at the local library. But the thing I did not realise back then, although I take it for granted now, is that when your heart is open to the world around you, the world opens its heart to you too.

Not even the best traditional school could provide the expert tuition children receive simply by being out in the daily life of regular society. From professionals to homeschooling parents, adults are endlessly welcoming and they actually like to share their knowledge. Firemen, paleontologists, zoo keepers, butterfly farmers, forensics officers, artists, potters, sportsmen, shopkeepers, ornothologists, geologists, historians, writers, flax weavers, lion wranglers ... There's no way one teacher, no matter how dedicated and brilliant, could replicate such breadth and depth of experience. And I don't see how any school could justify the resources needed to provide all the field trips homeschoolers can do easily and often.

And there's another great teacher from whom homeschoolers learn: nature. For example, our local homeschool group, on a woodland walk to sketch autumn leaves, found a stony river and the children spontaneously built a dam, learning about physics in the process. There was no need to insist on the leaf-sketching, nor to hurry them off at the end of an hour. We mothers sat in the sunshine, picnicking, discussing lesson plans and good books, while our children got on with their learning, socialising, and sheer fun.

Because they have regular opportunities to be outdoors, knee-deep in (and heart-full of) nature, a homeschooled child can develop a good weather eye, or an instinct for bird behaviour, or a deep connection with plants. They can sit for hours in the garden, counting bird species. They can go swimming in the sea on summer afternoons while school children are sweltering in classrooms. I know homeschooling children who forage for wild food, hand-rear baby birds, run backyard weather stations, tend their own vegetable gardens, and are experts on local wildlife. They may not necessarily know all the important dates of history (although then again they might) but they do know how to truly engage with the natural world.

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Thank you so much Sarah!  xxoo

six | school ready:: a school, a zoo, whats right for you

When I was a young girl I attended a private parochial school. It was small, and very, very traditional.  I was, especially back then, a very much an out-of the box type of learner. On one hand I delved into books and art with great ease while simultaneously afraid that I would be called on to answer a math problem in front of the whole class. In all honestly, I would have much rather spent time cultivating gardens and friends than spend any true time on homework. I was a bit of a (okay, huge) day-dreamer, lost in stories, books, history, and science.  Perhaps because I was an unexpected type of child, one that didn't quite fit the devout feminine mold many of the Sisters' thought young girls should be, but I always felt slightly off kilter there. As if the whole world was trying to put a very round me in a very square hole.

So there are days when it surprises me that all three of my children attend traditional public schools. On the plus side, the schools are very different from the one I attended, and it is certainly a very different sort of world than the one I grew up in. I feel that we are quite lucky that the boys have access, not just to a wide variety of learning tools and instruction, but also to wonderful differences in learning, cultures and people.

There are times, though that I wonder what it would be like to homeschool them. I used to have idyllic daydreams about this when my firstborn was quite little, but then, it slowly became clear to me, that there were so many people out there with so many gifts that it seemed a bit selfish to keep them home, forever and always in my arms, or at least that is what I told myself. Yet, as I said, I still wonder, and in my wonder, I feel the same sort of delight I feel when gardening, as well as a scratchy panicky feel as in when I have to do a math problem...

How do you approach your child's education? What is important for you? (side bar note, over the summer and up until school started I was seriously considering keeping the Middle home... trying to get him what he needs (speech therapy and literacy skills) at home seems daunting, yet at the same time, I wonder if perhaps I would actually get him what he needs).

Please look for more guest posts on this series, school ready, in the coming weeks. Some will be on non-traditional schools, homeschooling and the like. I am hoping we are all able to engage in wonderful discussions on school (or un-schooling), on what works and on what doesn't for each of us and our children.

Finally, my husband sent me this article the other day. The title alone, School is a prison, makes me scared to read it, but I will, if you will. xxoo

five| school ready:: from Angels Have Red Hair

Hello! A Guest Post on the subject of school from Jo of Angels Have Red Hair. 

I adore Jo's blog. She always has a spectacular tale to tell or fabulous insight on 

her two adolescent young men. Her posts always make me smile. 
I hope you enjoy the lovely perspective she brings us:  

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My boys are very alike ... physically.

Sometimes people think they are twins ... twins that are different heights and at different stages of physical development.

But who am I to blame them ... I clearly had some "pretend twin" fetish back in the day ... see what I did here ...

and here ...

and again ...

somebody STOP me ...

... those poor, poor children.

But that's where the similarities end ... in fact if I hadn't been present during the conception, pregnancy and birth ... I'd swear they weren't related at all.


They don't think alike ... they don't act alike.  They don't have the same view on life.  They don't like the same things ... well unless you count the things that Master 16 likes and Master 13 decides to like too ... in the hopes of irritating him.  But perhaps ... most different of all ... are their attitudes towards education, learning and school.

Master 13 is a bit of a plodder ... he's a middle of the road student.  He does what he has to do ... and not one iota more.  He doesn't excel ... but he doesn't fail.  He's slow and steady ... but he rarely wins the race.  And you know what ... he doesn't care.

Master 16 is the opposite ... he is a high achiever.  He likes to come first ... he likes to win awards.  He likes to be challenged.  He has a competitive streak a mile wide ... and it all seems to come so easily to him.  He cares ... he cares a lot.

So I thought it would be an interesting experiment to ask them a series of questions relating to school ... and see just how different they really are ... or not!

Besides everyone would like a little insight into that strange and mysterious entity ... the mind of a teenage boy ... wouldn't they?

What does school mean to you?

Master 13:  Absolutely nothing.

Master 16:  Education, friends and access to the canteen.

How could school be improved?

Master 13:  The classes are okay ... but it would be better if they got rid of all the bad kids.

Master 16:  Zero homework and zero school uniforms.

Tell me something you have observed about school.

Master 13:  There is a lot of gum on the floor.

Master 16:  All the PE (Physical Education) teachers are really good looking and school is a very intense and extreme example of different social ranks.

Tell me something that's good about school.

Master 13:  It's pretty boring ... but I do like seeing my friends.

Master 16:  Socialising with friends and working with the teachers in the academic classes ...they make sure the students are well supported and are motivated to make sure they do well.

What is the very best thing about school?

Master 13:  Friends, fun science experiments in the lab and PE prac.

Master 16:  The social factor.

What about the academic side?

Master 16:  What about it?

Tell me something that's bad about school.

Master 13:  Sandwiches for lunch.

Master 16:  Wearing a school uniform.  I hate it.  We are encouraged to be our own person ... but how can we be when we all look alike.

What is the very worst thing about school?

Master 13:  Homework ... I think I will organise a rally against it.

Master 16:  The toilets ... they are rank.

What would you like to change about your school?

Master 13:  I'd make school shorter and holidays longer.

Master 16:  I'd put soft drinks and eftpos into the canteen.

Do you like learning new things?

Master 13:  I find it pretty easy to learn things ... as long as I'm not distracted ... I get distracted a lot ... but it's really not my fault ... what's for dinner?

Master 16:  I like it.

Would you like to expand on that?

Master 16:  Everyone likes to learn new things ... don't they?  I hate learning new things ... said NO ONE EVER.

If you didn't have to go to school ... would you?

Master 13:  Probably not ... maybe once or twice a week ... in order to get a good education.

Master 16:  I would go ... but I'd take more days off.  It may be surprising ... but I actually enjoy school.

Finally, do you think school is important?

Master 13:  Well if you want to get a good job ... probably ... but if you only want to be a trolley boy ... not really.  

I didn't dare ask if he has investigated "trolley boy" as a possible career choice.

Master 16:  Yes.


Would you like to expand on that?

Master 16:  Yes, school is important.


So there you have it ... they are a bit different  ... but a bit alike ... just like twins.

I will finish with a quote from a wise and highly respected philosopher;

You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

You're on your own, and you know what you know.

And you are the guy who'll decide where to go.

Dr Seuss

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You can read more of Jo's lovely blog by clicking through here. xxoo

four| school ready:: play+create

“Play is the highest form of research.”

 – Albert Einstein

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” 

-  Fred Rogers

We are creatures of creativity, of creation, of building things up and knocking them down. We are the ripples on a pond lost on the shore, stalks of grass and hidden grasshoppers, storybooks and stars in an unpolluted night sky.  We are knees bent in sand scraping away at childhood. We are sandcastles left behind after a summer day. A red shovel beloved then forgotten. We create, we play, we knock it down and start over. It is a thread throughout human history.

Play. If I was to define the three legs of a stool upon which the seat of any child's education would sit it would be these three: love, reading and play. There is such an intensity, such necessity to our growth as humans to have play filled interactions. Playing allows young children to try on different personalities, work through emotions, as well as react to and understand their environment. I think it is just as important for us to play with our children as for our children to play well with others.

Playing with our children shouldn't be exhausting either (parenting is already exhausting)! So if you are struggling after a long day at work, or a long day being home with your children, I invite you to look at play in different ways. Play doesn't always have to mean sitting down to play tea party + dollies, or  playing with them in the sandbox as you are trying to get dinner on the table.  Instead, invite them into your activity. If you are cooking, invite them over to play "restaurant," if you are folding laundry (a mindless task) invite them to play along side of you acting out an imaginative story. Let them pretend they are wild creatures under the desk that you must tame while you sweep. Playing with our children should be fun. 

I am not saying this is always easy though. Sometimes the playing does backfire at our house. When the boys were little all three of them were notorious for being completely engaged in their made-up character, sometimes insisting for stretches of time that they be called by the character's name. Once my oldest insisted that each member of the family keep the names he had given them (cat and dog included). This lasted for weeks (as he was our first we probably over-indulged a little). However it got to the point that one day my husband turned to me and said,"I really miss being called just dad." Another time my middle was pretending to be a monkey. He had been a monkey all afternoon, eating bananas, jumping around, wishing we had a tree to climb. When it was bed time, he was still insisting on being a monkey.  My husband was working late and I had already gotten his baby brother in bed and was trying to get him to calm down for story time with his older brother. "But I'm a monkey and I don't haf to go to bwed!" he insisted.

"Well," I calmly explained, "all monkey's go to bed. They have to listen to their mama's."  

"Not me," he replied, "I am Curious George and Curious George neber, neber listens!"  

Sigh. There are somedays when a mama just wants her little monkey to listen.  

Parenting always has its surprising hiccups. 

~I have also asked some wonderfully insightful moms to talk about their experiences in parenting+learning+schooling. So please be on the look out for the guest posts that will be popping up over here from time to time! Our first one will be tomorrow!~ 

Here are also some links to wonderful blogs that have loads of playing+creating+learning. They are wonderful resources! 

Classic Play! started by Jennifer Cooper

Playful Learning started by Mariah Bruehl

Poppy Haus started by Heather Jennings 

I am sure you know about other great resources as well! Please share! xxoo

three| school ready :: read aloud

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."

— Emilie Buchwald

Reading aloud to your child is one of the greatest gifts you could give him or her. Our human instincts naturally crave story. We search for myth, meaning in almost all we do, so it is wonderful when we share stories and books with our children. My husband and I have been reading with our boys everyday since they were born. It is a part of their night-time ritual. They must hear spoken words strung together in story or they find it impossible to find sleep. In fact my youngest still falls asleep as we read.  Once, in a silly mood I calculated the hours we have read to the boys. The hours really added up (one-two hours a night for 13years = many hours), when I told my husband the number, he asked if we get a medal. The answer is of course, no, but we had a good laugh none the less.  Reading aloud has also created a desire in our children to know books. Knowing spoken stories, having exposure to a wide variety of words and use of language at a young age becomes the stepping stone on which children in general become readers themselves. So after all I said about love (still so important!) last week, I would have to say that reading aloud is the next step in helping our children become life long lovers of learning.  You also become their mentor, their guide when they start to read themselves. When they begin the task of sounding out words and taking a turn at reading aloud to you everyday.

As some of you may know, my middle has a learning disability. For him reading aloud is a chore, a most difficult one in fact. However, he hungers for stories and listens to hours and hours of books on CD's.  Be it as it may, he still needs to practice reading aloud. Every morning this summer, I have been struggling with him to get him to read out loud to me. Somedays it is pulling teeth, others days it goes a bit smoother. Yesterday was a particularly difficult morning and he flat out refused to read to me. So at lunch I told him and his brother this made up story: There once was a little girl who wasn't very good at running at all. "Mommy is this about you?" asked the youngest. "No," I said, "just listen." She was quite slow in fact, but she signed up to run in a race so that she could practice running. However, as the day approached to the big race, she became more and more anxious. Then my middle interjected, "Mom is this a true story? Are you sure it is not about you?" "Shhh, I said, it doesn't matter." Until the night before she was to supposed to run, she decided she just wasn't going to do it after all. She wouldn't run and pretend that the race wasn't happening. Then that night, she had a dream about a little wren caught in a storm on a mountainside. This wren was trying to desperately get back to her nest and her babies; and even though she was being torn apart, she kept on trying to fly back to her nest, because she knew it wasn't just about her, it was about something much bigger. The next morning, when the sun creaked in through her windows the girl woke up and knew. She knew she was, even with her self-doubt and fears, going to run in the race after all. She knew that there are some things in life that are just bigger than her.

After the story ended the younger two got quiet, mulling it all over, finishing up lunch.  I then asked the middle if he was ready to read now. "No," he replied, "I didn't sign up to read. but I do need to play this game, it keeps getting harder and harder. In fact, its much, much bigger than me. I feel like I am a wren in a storm and if I quit now I will never be able to do anything again." Then he giggled and tried to sneak away.

What a stinker.

little life lesson backfire. xxoo

Here is delightful link for children's books! I have found it to be a wonderful resource for all sorts of books, especially if I am looking for something different or there is project needed to be done. 

two| school ready :: navigating to sea, navigating to shore

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

~kahlil gibran~

our children :: the deepest, richest, most rewarding exhausting investment we have ever made. yet, often we feel like we fall short. not because we haven't hovered enough, or sang enough songs, or added enough enriching activities, but because in many ways we see all the trappings of life that they just can't avoid. the failures they have to make. the learning they have to do on their own. from the moment they come into our life, there is also this tension: the moment we have to let them go.

one| school ready :: a series

"A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting and when you are gone, attend to those things which you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they will be carried out will depend on him. 

He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities and corporations. All your books are going to be judged, praised and condemned by him. The fate of humanity is in his hands. Teach him well." 

 ~Abraham Lincoln~

So it begins. The return of school. The summer slowly closing down.

At my house,  books will soon be pilled into backpacks, pencils sharper than they have been all summer, new shoes donned. Perhaps at your house, the school year has already begun. For others, it has been in full swing since January, or perhaps it is a year round adventure. For my boys, the return of school is always met with excitement as well as apprehension. Each of my boys are unique and each one of them approaches the return to school in unique ways.  These very different ways have spurred a fair amount of internal dialogue lately, not just between my number one and me, but in my own heart as well. Thus, here you have my new series on this blog called  school ready. My hope is not only to share my thoughts on preparing our children for the world of school, and the world in general, but I also hope to provide a platform for discussion and links to wonderful sites. I also may get on my soapbox, so watch out! There are few things I am more passionate about than Education (well maybe the Arts and Humanities, but I really believe all three go hand in hand).  My hope in this, is that it spurs you all on to change the world for better...

Well at least our own small corner of it. xxoo