Tag Archives: Parenting

A New Hope – and Reality

We moved to the pacific northwest almost 11 months ago. Many things drove the move, but the single largest factor was my children. My eldest was graduating 8thgrade at a school that only went to 8thgrade. She and our family had really struggled to find an education system that felt safe, academically challenging, arts focused and seemed to really understand where my child was developmentally. My younger was struggling a bit at school, we are still getting our arms around her specific learning needs.  We looked at a few options nationally and decided on a school in the Northwest. My husband loves being close to mountains, I like being driving distance to an ocean, even one that is not friendly. Continue reading →

Dealing with Trauma – A New Phase

A little over two weeks ago my eldest daughter was attacked by a dog. Not bitten, attacked. She is ok. Physically she’ll make a full recovery, but emotionally we are all still adrift.

Without getting in to the specifics of the trauma, since then I have noticed a marked change in her behavior and how she responds to dogs. While the self-preservation instinct that has been triggered is completely justifiable, it breaks my heart to watch her react to dogs this way. She’s matured in a way that trauma often forces and it causes a breathtaking ache in my chest to watch. She woke up last night twice with nightmares. This has become one of those moments I knew was coming when I can’t kiss her and make everything better and it is much worse than I imagined it would be. Continue reading →

Bumming Myself Out

Today, I’ve been resisting the urge to blog, since it’s the end of January in MN, which for those folks who aren’t in the know, means it’s cold, dreary and without enough light. This means I’m a little grouchy even on a good day.

With that as my disclaimer, I am launching in to a complaint session about our education system. I watched the documentary “Waiting for Superman” the other night (again) and while I realize, as with any documentary, there are always critics, and  others crying foul as in here.  I am not informed to launch an all out debate about the merits on any one movie. My point, simply here, is that there many things portrayed in this movie that ring a little too true to my life experience, and that frustrates me. Continue reading →

A “Typical” Day

This title is a bit of a misnomer, since in the two months that we’ve been doing this we’ve had very few days that end up as planned, and almost no two have been the same, and yet, I do feel like we’ve established a rhythm.

We were fairly lucky in establishing a “routine” within the second week of school. I’ve been told by other, more experienced, home-schooling mothers that it takes anywhere from a month to a year to feel like you know what’s going on. I feel like on most days I have a pretty good handle on what needs to be done and a plan on how to do it.  Some days, it feels a little out of control. Continue reading →

Anxiety Rears it’s Ugly Head

Had conferences with our teacher today. It has been so strange when the teacher seems totally happy. Even the mere word conference sends my child in to a fit of anxiety.

I explained to her that today’s conference would likely be much different than most, because since she was home with me I could honestly tell her that she was doing splendidly. She did seems to calm down a bit after that.

We have moments every once in a while. It hurts to realize how much anxiety she was carrying about school on a day to day basis. Again, I am so thankful we’ve found this program.

Hope all is well in your conferences too.

-CM

Oh, you have a “Spirited Child”

How many times have I had someone say that to me? Many more than I can count.

I go round and round with that term. I haven’t decided if I think it’s condescending, an attempt at labeling my child in a positive way, or if it’s just another way to make her feel like an outsider. While I find that I’m constantly amazed by her academic skills, her maturity at least in a traditional school setting seemed to fall to the lowest common denominator. Continue reading →