Pandemic Home schooling

I am feeling it for those worried about school in this "shelter at home" time.  Working in a bookstore I have chatted daily with panicked parents grabbing workbooks by the dozen, and there is not time to really help them.  There was a women in today, filling a basket with workbooks for her preschoolers...I bit my tongue.

A month out of school will not destroy the trajectory of said student, unless it helps one family discover the perks of homeschooling and they then pull a student from a bad situation.  Mostly a month off will most likely give children a bit of breathing space.  I was a homeschooling parent for 24 years.  I was the product of a private school system, and never dreamed of becoming a homeschool parent, how that happened is a long story, visit the beginning of this blog for more info, but over those 24 years I did learn a thing or two.  The first and most important thing I learned, and for the sake of your "stay at home education" survival you need to consider, is that children are learning machines, and mostly you need to get out of the way.

This is not always an easy process and you only have days, I had years to recover from my personal  educational indoctrination, you need to trust me on this one.  It will all be okay, even if not a single worksheet is completed.  Learning does not always require quiet, a pencil, paper, and a teacher lording over the process.  Learning can take on an infinite number of shapes, you need to stop trying to shove it in a box.  This is hard I know, but oh so fun to watch. 

Homeschooling and school at home are two different things.  Trying to recreate the school day schedule at home, 40 minutes on this, 3 minute transfer time, 40 minutes on the next subject, 10 minute mid-morning break, another 40 minutes on that, then 24 minutes for lunch...  Please do not crucify your children with this.  The time to complete a day's worth of lessons for a child at home is just a couple of hours, if you want to cover the material they do in a public school day.  So if you feel obligated to fill out the work sheets relegate this task to before lunch hours, and then you can devote the rest of the day to some real learning.

How hands on you are as a parent is totally up to you, I encourage engaging with your kids, but if circumstances preclude this, that's okay, strew the path and learning will happen.  I happen to enjoy crafts and don't mind mess, this is the perfect time to try some new crafting with kids, and this counts as learning.  At home tasks are also ready made lessons, from laundry to preparing dinner to scrubbing the bathroom, each offers a life skill, or several, which kids need to learn, and if you have young ones they love to help.  If it takes longer, thats okay too, it's school, and your toilet is clean.  Games are learning, almost all of them, let them play board and card games, join in if you feel like it, or just take pictures, so you remember.

Let them be bored and let them create their own entertainment. Like self-soothing to sleep, this is another life skill your children need, how to appropriately amuse themselves.  The line on video gaming is up to you, bad day, let 'em go, but limiting video will help with the calm in the house and also help to build the creativity.  It is all okay.

Finally I strongly encourage read-alouds.  Pick a book, it doesn't have to a picture book even if they are young.  My mother used to read long chapter books to me and my siblings when we were quite young. She actually read aloud Moby Dick (I do not encourage this as an appropriate selection) when I was just 8 and my brother 9, the other 4 children listening were all younger. She also read Heidi, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Black Beauty, Peter Pan and more.  I know that my younger siblings at 2 and 3 don't remember all the stories but they remember being a part of that storytime.  And if you have a busy body that needs to move a bit during storytime, offer them some paper and crayons, or something to quietly play with while they listen, it will amaze you how much they listen and learn.  So pick something that interests you as well as something that might appeal to the kids, if you need ideas I can give you a list.  And just read.

This will all count as school, and read-alouds should include teenagers if they live at home.  If all you have is teenagers, you can even do an audio book together and work on a puzzle, cause everyone loves a good story.

Mostly you just need to breathe and enjoy the extra time with those that won't be small much longer.  It will all be back to a new normal shortly, and the kids will be okay.

Toilet Paper Math

I understand that some folks out there are hoarding toilet paper because they are panicked and need to have at least a modicum of control in their lives and they have chosen to control the roll.  I am hoping that this group is actually smaller than buying indicates, allow me the fantasy.  I want to assume that a major part of the problem is that an abundance of bathrooms and the only partial use of the home during the day has led to folks being unable to properly estimate their actual toilet tissue use.

Here I can help! You see I haven't lived in a house with more than one bathroom in over 40 years, with only one to restock the math becomes easy.  Keep in mind that additional bathrooms will not increase the actual daily usage, extra rooms do not equal extra bowel movements, just more places to clean. We have also homeschooled from the start and I have one college graduate, she moved away, a second almost college graduate (May!!) commuting to school, and a third in college, the two students are still at home.  So we have years of bathroom use, with all the bodies at home a lot of the time, and with a mostly female population, which does make a paper difference.

So my estimates may be a little high for an all male household, but it will not leave you empty handed. With four females and one male daily use is one full (double or triple) roll of 2-ply tissue. This increases only slightly one week per month, add 2 rolls to be sure.  Now you need only adjust for single ply if you opt to make that choice, your number of rolls will increase quite a bit.  Only two people in the house, cut those numbers by at least half.  You have 8 at home all day, then double everything.

If you want more accurate numbers for your house, you only need to have everyone use just one bathroom for a 24 hour period, put in a fresh roll at the beginning of the test period and see what is left at the end.  You should have a spare roll in the designated bathroom, just in case you are using single ply, or have a larger than average household. Now you are ready to shop.

You want stock for 30 days?  Here I would need about 32 rolls of tissue for the 30 days, 45 days? 47 rolls, 60 days? 64 rolls.  There is no way I would need a pallet full of toilet paper for this 2 month period, if would merely take up extra space in the basement. So do your math, and you will have on hand exactly what you need and more space for storage of bottled water.

If you do the math and find out you have overbought, feel free to take it back to Target, or share it with your neighbor who failed to estimate accurately, or was unable to purchase the proper amount because someone else followed some poorly thought out numbers. 

Too Old Too Soon

Of the last 30 books I have read from the young reader classification, all the protagonists are 5th or 6th graders and 11 years old.  WHY??  And in most of these fictional accounts the youngsters behave in a manner much older than most 11 year olds that I know.  I taught 8th graders for 40 years and the books are attempting to move these kids into high school before they are ready.  I also just spent an overnight with 12-16 year olds, and I still believe the books are making their characters way too sophisticated, the 12 year olds at the event just confirmed my beliefs.

The behaviors that belong to older junior high or early high school, appear in these books with baby aged main characters, I can tell you no 13-14 year old wants to read a book about an 11 year old.  All publishers need to do is put all these kids in 8th grade and they would appeal to a much larger kid audience.  Everybody wants to read about kids their own age and those who are older.

So we are left with the later junior high kids moving to teen/young adult titles whose content is at times not appropriate for their age, but more importantly they miss out of all the great reading still available in the kid section.  So would someone please start writing for all the 13 year olds out there??

Lenten Psalm of Awakening

Too lovely not to share, we opened relent with this one and it offers food for thought.  It has been three years and I continue to ignore this spot, maybe it's finally time to wake up.

Lenten Psalm of Awakening

Come, O Life-giving Creator,
and rattle the door latch
of our slumbering hearts.

Awaken us as you breathe upon
a winter-wrapped earth,
gentling calling to life,
spring.

Awaken in these fortified days
of Lenten prayer and discipline
our youthful dreams of holiness.

Call us forth from our prisons
of past defeats and disappointments
and our narrow patterns of being
to make our ordinary lives extraordinarily alive
through the passion of our love.

Show to us during these Lenten days
how to take the daily things of life
and by submerging them in the sacred
To infuse them with a great love
for you, O God, and for others.

Guide us to perform simple acts of love and prayer,
the real works of reform and renewal
of this overture to the spring of the Spirit.

Loving God, help us not to waste these precious Lenten days
of our soul’s spiritual springtime.

Adapted from Edward Hays, Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim

Questions...

Why is standing up for what you believe a bad thing? If you believe certain drugs and devices cause fertilized embryos to be destroyed, and you believe that destroying embryos is the taking of innocent life. This makes those drugs and devices tantamount to murder in your opinion.  Forcing someone to take innocent life or to pay for the taking of it seems unreasonable to me.

Why is birth control a right?  I do see it as a responsibility but I don't see it as a right, we are not morally entitled to birth control.  It is something we have available, and in many cases causes more harm than good,  If someone chooses to use birth control why is society compelled to be responsible for that person's behavior.  Sex is a choice, although there are many that would have you believe that we are incapable of control over this physical urge.  Sex isn't necessary to live, millions live without it and survive just fine. Yes, yes, it is necessary for new life, I mean not necessary after you are conceived.  I just don't think this is an area where we need government telling us what to do.  As is the case with most health decisions.  But we have already sacrificed our freedom over our personal health care, so we are stuck with interference.  So when government says I must kill someone, I think it's important to say, no.

What would have happened if enough people said, "I don't think killing Jews is a morally responsible thing to do," and refused to cow to Hitler.

Don't Miss Honora Lee

I interrupt the dress business to return to a favorite topic, books, or a book to be specific.  I have no question where my daughter got gets her distractability. 

I have found a great inter-generational book group title.  ACB With Honora Lee by Kate DeGoldi a charming book that can name feelings and frustrations for many kids but I am afraid they won't pick this one up by themselves.  So it might be one to foist on your children during a car ride, but you need to have a copy of the real book on hand as well so you don't miss the pictures.  For your artsy ones the pictures give much to explore and to think about, a little insight into how Perry's brain might work.
Perry is the young lady with well intentioned busy parents, and a mother whose mission is to make sure her only child doesn't miss a learning opportunity.  Perry is saved when a scheduled class is cancelled and convinces her parents that she can use the time to weekly visit her grandmother Honora Lee, who has pretty severe dementia, at the Santa Lucia nursing home.  Grandma cannot remember her son, calls Perry a boy, bullys other patients, and because of a history teaching special education and reading, has a love for all things alphabet.  Perry decides to write and illustrate an alphabet book for her grandmother, through which we meet all the wonderful residents, and workers at Santa Lucia.
No real conversations seem to occur between Perry and Honora, yet real connection takes place.  Perry is a struggling student she offers grandma another chance to teach, though neither seem to be aware of this delightful happenstance.   Perry is a bright and quirky kid, looking to build her family bonds, as life at home is a bit too much about structure and not enough about relationships her well intentioned parents often miss the mark. The book is touching, funny, informational, with lessons in kindness, patience and the dignity of all folks. You will love Perry's gentle indomitable spirit, ever forgiving nature, and most of all her compassionate heart.

Once upon a time...a Dress.

This is currently consuming my time so it will therefore become blogging fodder.  A dress made it's appearance on stage in 2007 along with my children it was their first Thin Ice production, Oliver.  We had found in our collection an antique item, late 1800's, that fit our Mrs Sowerberry.  It was a black silk and really lovely but we discovered as rehearsals progressed that it was a bit fragile, required daily repair, and there were some sort of mites living in it, as our young actress daily came away with new bites after wearing the dress.  Yes, we made her wear it, yes we cleaned it, yes it continued to be a problem.  Needless to say it has not made another appearance on stage, but ended up sealed in a bag hoping to suffocate any other critters or eggs that might still reside in it's folds.

Just recently we moved the costume collection and unearthed the dress from it's bag, and whatever died left the dress musty and moldy.  I said I would take it home to launder it.  I started with a cold water vinegar bath, just soaking, hoping that would kill off the mold before I washed it.  Well lo and  behold the water turned jet black instantly and rinsing didn't help it continued to turn even plain water black.  The fabric was actually disintegrating.  I removed as much water as I could, as gently as I could and hung the dress, or what remained of it to dry in the sun.

With no hope of ever using the item again as a costume and because it was a beautiful dress I decided to deconstruct the thing and make a pattern from the pieces.  The bodice was fully lined and the lining fabric was a cotton that proved a little sturdier that the silk dress fabric.  So between outer and inner pieces I hope to come up with something that will make constructing a like item in the future possible.

Deconstruction has proved interesting and it appears that our dress had a history before it made it to the big time.  I have also learned a little about the historical dress construction and need to study up a bit to find out about materials.  But it has also explained how Polly, in The Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, could actually save and reuse thread.  I began using only the "Good" thread years ago but now know it is a poor substitute for thread used 100 years ago.  The cotton stuff used in this dress was made to last, they also use a cording to make mini piping that was a cotton twist heavier than button and carpet thread but not as heavy as a string.  Of all materials that were used in this dress the thread was what was in the best shape.

I found the bodice had been interfaced, only around the neck, not the back where I would expect reinforcement of the placket for the hook and eye closure.  There also appeared to be a correct way to sew on hook and eyes, all were identically stitched in place.  The sewing in this garment was amazing hand work so fine and uniform on a couple of seams I thought I was looking at machine stitching. That interfacing though, I believe was a light cotton batting, seemed to be a perfect location for critters to hang out unnoticed.  It was powdery in spots and I had to scrape parts of it off the dress lining.  So I will only imagine what interfacing pieces should look like for my future pattern.  I did take photos.  Will post later.

So if you aren't bored to tears at this point I will continue to write about the dress, join me if you wish, or go away, your choice.