Balanced Learning

A friend and I went to see "Race to Nowhere" last night.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a documentary about burned out students and concerned parents.  What an eye opener!  I tried to watch it both from a parent perspective and that of an educator.  It was the end of a professional development day where the focus was on the student's learning, not the teacher. 

As a parent, I was a little distraught.  I watched the students in the movie talk about the hours of homework they have every night, and the pressure they are under, beginning at a young age and accelerating as they speed through high school.  I kept thinking about my daughters, and how I don't want them to be focused on college and their careers at a young age.  However, the reality is not my desire.  Grace is already thinking about college, her career, and her choices in school with regards to that.  Her enrollment in courses for this year in seventh grade and next year in eighth grade are directly related to her career aspirations.  Now, if you know Grace, you know she is driven to succeed.  This is her drive, not my drive or Aaron's drive.  We want her to be successful, and we try to advise her the best we can, but we do not push her.  After all, she pushes herself enough that we don't need to.  We suggest that she choose electives that she wants to take because she finds them interesting, not because they will look good on a college application.  After all, she's only in seventh grade, and her college application is a long way away.

As an educator, one thing really stuck out in my mind.  Are the children learning?  And by learning, I don't mean applying a formula to solve math problems, but are they learning to be problem solvers?  Are they learning how to live life?  Are they learning to develop a project, implement it, and analyze the results?  I can imagine that spending hours doing homework might make a student cram information into their brains, rather than actually figure out how to use it in real life. 

Now, in life, we aim for balance.  A balanced diet.  A balanced check book.  A balance of academics and extra-curricular activities.  Balance between work and family.  With my kids, I'm aiming for that too.  I'll continue to do what I do - encouraging my girls to make great choices at school, but still play on the weekends and enjoy their childhood!  After all, they are only children once.  As an educator, I'll continue to keep student learning at the forefront, and make my lessons real and relevant for them.

Playing catch up here!

So, I have been a bad poster lately.  My apologies.  We have just been so busy with ice storms and sickness in our house!  But, we're finally on the mend.  In the last month, Kaitlin has had two rounds of strep, we've had five days with no school (on school days!), and I've had a really nasty cold.  Despite all this, life has still managed to go on.

Quickly cooling cupcakes on a snow day in Texas!

We spent our snow days in the company of our neighbors - traipsing back and forth to each other's houses and keeping each other company.  I already mentioned this in my last post, but I'll share pics now of some of the crafts we worked on.....

As you can see, I got a little desperate on day three and had to bust out the sewing machine.  The girls had a great time crafting!

For Valentine's Day, the girls made crafts for their teachers - fleece scarves!  This was a fun craft.  I cut two pieces of fleece, ten inches wide, and sewed a straight stitch down the middle.  Then the girls cut fringe and tied it.  They  turned out "sew" cute!  The girls enjoyed making them, my pocketbook enjoyed the price, and the teachers enjoyed the gift.  All good!

Tying the fleece

All finished!

Getting ready to tie the fleece

So, enough of crafting!  The girls are great - getting back into the swing of things at school.  I think they are really glad to be back and into our normal routine.  Last weekend was filled with Girl Scouts, birthday parties, and for Kaitlin and I, a special treat to the Justin Beiber Movie.  It was a special treat for her.  I went for the company, not the content!

Oh Baby, we're ready for the movie!

Iceapalooza in Texas

We were iced in four days this past week when a horrible winter storm hit North Texas.  A few were williing to brave the roads and get out, but this mommy was not willing to brave her driveway!  While the street in front of the house was mostly dry on day three, our driveway remained covered in over an inch of ice.  To back the van out of the garage, I have to make a pretty drastic turn and hope I don't run off the edge of the driveway and into the ditch, or perhaps even my neighbors' house.  I decided it wasn't worth it.  After all, my neighbors like us and I wanted to keep it that way!  So, the ice began at about 4:00am Tuesday morning, and we did not leave our neighborhood until around lunch time on Saturday.  How did we survive, you ask? 

It was what I call "Neighborfest."  That's right folks.  "Neighborfest."  We played at eachother's houses, we crafted together, we let the kids entertain eachother while we played Scrabble Slam or just talked.  We shopped at the grocery store for eachother, cooked for eachother, and tried to pass the time when it was too cold to play outside, and too icky to go anywhere fun.  Thank goodness for neighbors!  I imagine that early settlers in the new frontier did this same sort of thing.  It's hard going it alone, but when you go it together, as a team, it really lightens the load for everyone.

I'm not going to get all philisophical on you, but I will tell you that you need good neighbors.  If you don't know yours, get to know them.  Whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and walk them over and introduce yourselves.  You'll be glad you did!