Mudspark Life Learning

My daughter earned her first homeschool badge, Healthy Eating, by writing the following essay, her first ever essay.

I caught myself thinking this morning - Why is this parenting stuff so hard? Why didn't I read everything I needed to know before my kids were born and get it all figured out long ago? (As if that were even possible.) Then I realized how I let myself learn about any other subject as I go - while writing a book, keeping chickens, gardening. I don't see it as a failure, but a journey deepening into something I value. Somehow learning to parent as I go feels like a failure. And into my mind popped the image of my daughter (age 7) melting into a pile of self revulsion because she can't draw or play piano or spell a word perfectly the first or second or third time. Hmm, I thought - while my response is less dramatic, it's the same pattern. Expecting myself to be beyond perfect from square one. Time to let myself grow as I go, even as a parent, and to show my daughter my process. I've tried to show her my mistakes and learning in other areas - sewing, cooking,

I'm reading articles in the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of Home Education Magazine about how other homeschooling and attachment-style parents are working towards not controlling their children. They are seeing how their fears have gotten in the way of letting their children grow into people who realize their own self control, aware of their own limits and their choices for honoring those limits. I feel myself resist a little against their words. This morning we had yet another explosion from my 7-year-old. It set off the whole house. I'm tired of her being the center of everything, the "spoiled brat princess." My response has been to ignore, stepping in only if she can't bring herself down. Usually she can't. So I offer empathy, which usually sends her distress higher. She's a bit of a drama queen. She started crying yesterday, for instance, because her imaginary sister isn't even real, so she is so very sorry and sad that she is all alone in the world. I wan

After a friend of mine went to Yellowstone this past fall and her daughter collected jr ranger badges, I got me a homeschooling idea. I discovered that on ebay one can purchase girl scout badges for about $1 a piece. Some of them say something, like "gardening" while some of the older ones are just images - a bird, a butterfly, a horse. So we're doing some nature study these days with that same friend, and I've purchased badges for our girls to earn. We're pretty unschoolish, so while my background in outdoor education peeps its head out of the backpack now and then, mostly we just explore and play. We might develop a website someday based on this idea - homeschool badges - where homeschool families can gather online, earn both literal and virtual badges, and get ideas to connect with nature (and other badge-earning projects). But for now we're just keeping it small. Thought I'd pass along the idea!