It’s Home Education Week …

in Nebraska. It’s also Home Education Week in Florida.
Dana at Principled Discovery has provided suggested writing prompts for every day this week for those who are participating in Home Education Week. This is Today’s prompt:

Looking Back Sunday, March 30

Share your personal history…before you were a home educator. What was life like? Think about things you miss and things you and your family have gained.

Even though we are Michigan Home Schoolers, I feel like celebrating with the Nebraskans and Floridians.

 

Before I discovered my abilities in home educating, I was looking forward to my kids going off to school and leaving me alone to clean my house, have complete thoughts, and watch soap operas every weekday. I could not wait for my kids to start school!

Mr. N had suggested, numerous times, that I go to college to get a teaching degree so that I could teach our kids at home. My reaction the first time I heard this was, “NO WAY.” I could not imagine what I’d do with those kids all day, every day. I couldn’t imagine sitting at the table or at a desk for 7 hours a day doing schoolwork.

When Dub was little, he was tough as nails. He had to know what was going on at all times. He was a hand full and I couldn’t imagine keeping him busy on a full time basis until he grew up.

Before I became the huge fan of home schooling that I am today, I did not appreciate my kids as much as I should have. I was one of those, “I can’t wait to get them out of my hair” people. Don’t get me wrong. Everyone needs their space, but sometimes I think we mistakenly treat our kids like challenges to overcome. Home schooling helped me understand what comes naturally to other mothers.

Since we’ve taken this previously dreaded, very active, hands on role in our kids education, we’ve discovered that real life is rich with learning experiences. Dub’s desire to know what’s going on has been a huge benefit in his education. It has been a joy to watch him learn. We are still fighting the guilt that comes from being raised in the traditional schooling method - and not schooling the kids that way, but the best times we’ve had bore little resemblance to our own experiences with school, and the benefits far outweigh the guilt.

If I had to do it all over again, I would embrace the idea behind Mr. N’s suggestion to become a teacher. Right off the bat, I would throw myself headlong into discovering my kids’ learning styles and nurture their natural sense of wonder and their sensitivity toward God.

One great and encouraging thing about home schooling is that we don’t have to wait until next year to change our program. If we see that things are not going well, we can shift gears right now and not waste six months.

I’m rambling now. Sorry to ramble. I’ve been feeling rather rambly lately. I’ve got about five or six posts that sounded good at the beginning and then got all rambling and nonsensey, so there they sit, in the draft bin. *sigh* Anyway …

Happy Home Education Week, Nebraskans and Floridians!

 

 

If you don’t read anything else today

read HeyJulieBaby’s post from yesterday, and then read her sister’s comment.  You’ll know the one.    Grab a Kleenex.

WFMW: Barking Dogs

Last week, a commenter named Cindy asked how to get her dog’s barking under control:

… Do you by any chance know how to get a dog to stop barking? My black lab barks at anything: people walking past the house, people walking across the street, the neighbor cat. The biggest problem is that he barks at everyone that comes to the door. He barks, growls and gets his hackles up no matter who is there (except family and then he just barks). I can’t open the door because he is charging the door and carrying on. He hasn’t bitten anyone, most of the time he just backs away when they come inside, even though he still is barking. Any ideas?

That has got to be really annoying for you and your guests! I don’t have specific answers for your situation, but I would like to point you in a direction that I have found helpful.

I have learned a lot about my dogs’ behavior by watching The Dog Whisperer, with Cesar Millan, and It’s Me Or The Dog, with Victoria Stilwell. I highly recommend checking out their websites.

Your barking dog reminds me of one of the first episodes of It’s Me Or The Dog that I saw. I don’t remember the specifics of the problem with the dogs, but I do remember that they were naughty around other people and other dogs. It seems like there was barking or excessive pulling on the leash in social settings, or both.

The first thing Victoria did was to establish who was in charge. (It wasn’t the dogs!) Later, she took one of them on a walk and had someone else walk a strange dog in the vicinity. When the dog she was handling started to bark, or in other ways freak out, she turned and walked the dog away from the strange dog. When the dog settled down, she’d try approaching the strange dog again. She did that repeatedly until that dog learned that if it wanted to be introduced to a strange dog, it had to shut its yap and behave. You might try something like that with a willing victim friend at your door.

Victoria talks a lot about speaking the dog’s language. She demonstrates time after time on her show that she does not need to resort to beating the stuffing out of a dog to bring it under control; she resorts to body language and tones of voice that the dog understands. For example, she looks a dog in the eyes and gives it a cold glare that means, “You can fight me, but I will win.” She also says that tone of voice makes a big difference and recommends using a firm lower tone of voice rather than a shrill, whiny. The tone of voice needs to convey strength of will and command attention. Whines are easily, sometimes happily, ignored. Fewer syllables is good. A firm, deep “Hush!” is better than a higher pitched, “Noah! Quit that barking! You noisy beast, shut up! Noah, hush! Be quiet or I’ll kill you, you stupid* dog!”

* Obviously I’m pulling this scenario from the deep recesses of imagination. For one thing, Noah is not stupid. For another, he doesn’t have a barking problem.

When watching Victoria in action, there is no question about who’s going to win the contest of wills.

Anyway, Cindy, it sounds like something in your actions is telling your dog that his behavior is okay or that he is the boss. I highly recommend checking Cesar’s and Victoria’s websites and watching their programs, if you can, for help in retraining yourself and your dog. Dogs bark, and that’s okay. They’re supposed to, but what you’ve described seems excessive.

To read about what works for others, visit Shannon @ Rocks in My Dryer.

Happy Easter!

We had a beautiful cantata at church this morning. Ordinarily, we sit towards the front of the sanctuary because we are easily distracted. Today, however, we sat in the very back. I think the choir and orchestra blended better from a distance. It was very beautiful.

We had dinner with family today, but not without some drama, and that’s all I’ll say about that! I am so glad all of us were able to make it this time. It has been a long time since Mr. N has been to a family holiday dinner.

Today, during the family Easter egg hunt, I captured this robin in flight. It was so bright that I couldn’t see what I was shooting, just that there were some birds in the vicinity.

There are probably a million spelling and grammar errors in this post, but I am just tired enough that I don’t really care.

Happy Easter!

More Ducks

Buttercup and I stopped by a park to feed the ducks this morning. She’s more of an indoor person like myself, but we have an attraction to ducks that seems genetic. There’s something about them that is so fascinating. I think it’s a mutation of that gene that causes people to watch flowing water for hours on end.

I can’t wait to have free time to just sit there in my lawn chair and “shoot” ducks.

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Later today, much better light, and more time on my hands,
“Is there dairy in that bread, eh?”

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I was sitting in the van with Buttercup. She was really, really tired and didn’t want to get out, but I thought she’d get a kick out of seeing water fowl up close and personal, from inside the nice warm van. I wanted to see if the swan would take bread from me, instead of off the ground from me. I lost my nerve, as you can probably figure out.

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