STRATEGIES

Homeschooling is hard! I'm sure it will get easier as we get into it, but it's hard to settle in with a restless 4-year-old and an unpredictable 10-month-old along for the ride. Last week was particularly stressful because of this, and because we were trying to catch up the work we had missed when we went to Louisville. However, I had a conference with my local teacher-mentor at the end of the week, and that was very encouraging. She assured me that we are progressing just as we should, Mali is doing very well, and I can consider more of our day as time spent homeschooling. Even though we have a predetermined plan for each day, she encouraged me to log "supplemental" hours, which can include anything educational (which is all of life, right?). So, baking, games, playing outside, exploring. . . they all count towards our homeschool hours.

Still, I met the weekend eager to find some strategies for helping Greta to be more independent while we're doing a lesson. I asked her what she especially likes to do and considered what she could/would do by herself. I drew a visual list, so that when she's wondering what to do, she can easily go choose one (please forgive my lack of drawing skills!!).



She has really enjoyed drawing and comes up with some really great work, but lately she asks us "what should I draw?" I know she can come up with some good ideas on her own, but in order to get her thinking about it, I pulled out some of our books that have lots of pictures in them, hoping she will take off from there.



One day I covered our coffee table with paper and set out coloring, popsicle sticks, tape, glue, yarn, and stamps and told her to do whatever she wants. It worked pretty well, and I was struck by her approach.



Clearly she came up with a vision, a plan, and carried it out. The result was a very orderly piece of art, and she told me in great detail about each part. It was interesting to contrast this with another work the girls did together. Greta scribbled all over it, and it was a chaotic cluster of lots of different things. This is telling of Greta's personality: she is very good at figuring out how she wants something to work and coming up with a solution or a plan. She's good at following through, too. However, if she looses control of her plan (say, a sister joins in the fun) she spirals into a sort of chaos. She operates this way with other parts of her life, not just art, but I find it particularly interesting to have visual evidence of it.