Wading Thru My Head

"Responsibility is an invitation to give what you can because you can. Compassion is the art of pure feeling. Friendship is meeting yourself in another form and holding on. "
-taken from Little Big Minds by Marietta McCarty

"Loving friendships provide us with a space to experience the joy of community in a relationship where we can learn to process all our issues, to cope with differences and conflict while staying connected"
-Bell Hooks, All About Love (quoted in Little Big Minds)

Philosophy and children a natural match. Children are still able to look at the world in such a way to make philosophizing a natural event rather than forced or uncomfortable. Being able to talk about death, love, god, friendship matter of factly without the hang ups and the baggage that we as grown ups usually do. Really most grown ups just don't.

In homeschooling my children I have struggled int he past year to figure out what is the right path for me and my children. Traditional formats I have found (from Sonlight to Oak Meadow) do not work as I am scattered and cannot adhere to a set curriculum. By my personality free flow order I found works best and the kids like it too. but it needed a focus. I am a thinker, analyzer, obsessive person- which if not tamed could be my down fall, but harnessing it into something that could help my children grow and thrive in this culture could be a great gift.

I was beginning to lose hope on finding a path that worked for us. But a client of mine mentioned this book at an appointment- Little Big Minds. She had hear the author interviewed on NPR a day previous and thought of me immediately. She, being an educator her self, has credit in my book as someone who might know a thing or two about the subject of teaching kids.

I ordered the book and it sat for a couple of weeks on my desk and on my to do list. I picked it up last night and read the intro and browsed through the book in it entirety and I love it. I cannot wait to jump in and play around with it with my kids.

It is not a format or curriculum. It is just a way of looking at the world and how to apply it to children. The biggest thing with me and my kids in their younger years is I don't know how to relate to them. I know that sounds odd but I am not a good "player'. Meaning I don't play well. I try to work on it but little kids and me are a challenge.

I was chatting with someone recently about this and she shared with me that generally there aree two types. Those who are good with their kids when they are young and not so much when they are older and the opposite. I am the opposite.

This book is opening my eyes to how to engage with my super chatty son and maybe how to reign in my fiery daughter. Also it seems to open my eyes to step out of survival mode of parenting/working/life and "be" with my kids and others.