They Will Bloom

Time To Adjust

Relax and Trust

As Big As The Sky

Mums

While giving a talk at the Yarra Junction Library, a member of my audience asked me why a boy would want to be at home all day with “boring old mum”.

I told her that I was an only child and there was nothing I would have liked more than to spend my school hours in the company of my mother.

Mums are fun to be with.

 They know us well and are smart enough to leave us alone when we need to be alone. They make us laugh, and they know how to peak our curiosity. They know how to challenge us in such a way that we rise to the challenge. Mums make excellent teachers because by definition a good teacher cares about her pupil and knows how to pass on a love of learning.

I really want this mum and any other mums (and dads, for that matter) who are reading this to understand how important they are in their child’s educational life.

You are their guiding light educationally. You introduce them to language (good and bad), to numbers, art, drama and a myriad of other things that will excite them for the rest of their lives.

I have an eclectic taste in music having grown up in the 60s and 70s. My love of classical music comes from my mum, and my love of 40s music comes from my dad. I can set the seat on a bicycle to the correct height because my professional racing cyclist father taught me how to do it. My house is full of books because my mum read to me and led by example when it came to reading books for pleasure.

From Boston Blackie to Charles Laughton to Errol Flynn, my parents introduced me to the fabulous world of the movies.

My dad had an amazing head for numbers and because I wanted to be like this amazing man I learned to like them too even though they didn’t come as easily to me. As a teenager, my competitive streak made me want to be better at things than he was and this drove me forward when the work was too hard and the pressure to pass exams was almost too much. The male ego is an amazing thing and my dad knew how to use this knowledge to spur me on. In the end, I was better at some things but he was always smarter than me in the things that mattered, and I learned what it is to be a man by watching his example.

Possibly the mistake that the woman asking the question was making was assuming that her job is to entertain her child.

 It’s not.

Her job is to do what my mum did — to make sure that the tools for learning are close at hand, to suggest, to challenge, to occasionally show the way when the need is obvious, to answer questions or, more importantly, to show where the answer might be found, to sometimes make sense of the world, to instil a passion for language and numbers, to put history in perspective, to cherish laughter and recognise sadness, to listen carefully, and many other things besides.

Above all your job is to create a warm, safe place where learning can begin to grow and flourish.

It is said that ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’.

I prefer to believe that the parent, mum or dad, who inspires a child, improves the world.

Terry Barca is the author of ‘SCHOOME: An Adventure in Home Schooling’.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/451993

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/schoome-adventure-in-homeschooling./id894050919?mt=11

http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B00LARZ8CC?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Paperback & Hardback

Advice to Self

Someone wise once asked, “If you could go back and visit your ‘young self’, what advice would you offer? My answer would be, ‘relax, everything is going to work out.’

When we decided to homeschool our two boys, all those years ago, we had to take a leap of faith — we had to believe, without any concrete proof, that this would all work out for the best. It did, and all that knowledge is yours for the reading. You don’t have to wonder because the proof of the process is between the covers of SCHOOME.

If you are weighing up your options, then you would do well to read my book and see what our experience was like. I wish you good fortune and if you do decide to ‘take the plunge’ you are in for the ride of your life.

Terry R Barca Dip T.P.

LOved it or Hated it

 

Katie’s Magic Glasses

Something needed to be done!

Katie had a problem and she was looking for a solution.

The problem — very few people could see her friend Andrea.

The solution — a pair of magic glasses. At least, she hoped this would solve the problem.

Katie’s grandma supplied the magic glasses.

“Anyone who wears them will be able to see your friend very clearly, just like you do now. Be careful who you allow to use these glasses. Not everyone deserves to know your friend.”

“Where did these glasses come from grandma?”

“That’s a very good question Katie.” Katie liked asking good questions — you get the best answers that way.

“My grandma gave them to me a very long time ago. They were in the purple velvet lined case that they are in today. That case has kept those glasses safe for all these years. I knew that one day, one of my ancestors would need them and here you are.”

Andrea was a good friend to Katie, but she was not like Katie’s other friends — Andrea was invisible to most people. Only a few people can see Spirits.

Andrea grew up in the same street as Katie, but this was a very long time ago. When she was about Katie’s age she became very sick, and the doctors in those days did not have the amazing medicines that we have today, and so Andrea died. Everyone was sad — her mum most of all. As time went by, her mother and father and her brothers and sisters lived out their lives and joined Andrea in Spirit. They were very happy to see her again.

Andrea loved being a little girl living in this street way back then, so whenever she can she comes back and visits.

Katie was the first little girl who was able to see Andrea when she came for a visit. They hit it off straight away and became very good friends.

Everyone likes to make new friends, so Katie’s friends asked to meet Andrea. They were not frightened to meet her, but they did not have the ability that Katie had, so they could not see nor hear her.

Grandma’s glasses solved the ‘seeing’ problem.

When Katie told her friends about these magic glasses they were very excited and there was a lot of discussion about who should go first.

In order to decide, they played a game and the winner got to go first and decide who would go next. Michael won the game and he was amazed at how pretty Andrea was.

“She is dressed in unusual clothes and she has a beautiful smile. I wish I could hear what she is saying,” said Michael.

“I’ll translate for you,” said Katie, but she soon got very tired of that.

“Andrea is going to draw her words onto paper when I get tired and that way, whoever is wearing the glasses can talk to her,” said Katie.

Everyone agreed that this was a good idea, and after they each had a turn, they made a date to come back after school in two days so they could all play with Andrea again.

When the children had gone home Andrea talked with Katie.

“I like your friends. They were not frightened of me — which was good. They did look funny wearing those old glasses though. But I did not laugh at them because they were so pleased to see me. I liked Michael, he’s handsome and he reminds me of a boy I knew when I was alive. His name was William and he could run very fast and he always smiled at me. I like it when people smile at me. You have a beautiful smile Katie.”

“Thank you Andrea, I like your smile as well. Would you like to sit next to me at the dinner table tonight?” said Katie.

“I would but I don’t want to upset your mum and dad. I don’t think they believe that I am real,” said Andrea.

“Don’t worry about that, my grandma is coming to dinner tonight and mum and dad will listen to her if she says it’s a good idea for my special friend, Andrea, to sit next to me,” said Katie with a smile.

That night, all tucked up in bed after Katie’s dad had read her a story, she thought about suggesting that her mum and dad have a go at wearing the magic glasses. Before she fell asleep, she decided that she would wait for a little while and hope that they would believe in Andrea without having to see her.

Katie wanted this to happen more than anything else.

Andrea watched her friend fall asleep and she kissed her gently so as not to wake her. It was good to have a friend in the world of the living, and now she was becoming friends with Katie’s friends. She felt sure that there were many adventures to come.

Educating Kids at Home; Learning should be fun.

If you are a parent who wants to be more involved in their child’s educational experience than simply abandoning them at the school gate, then read on.

This will be the first in a series of articles aimed at parents who are looking for ideas and tips on how to keep themselves involved in their child’s education.

For the first five years of his or her life you were in charge of directing your child’s education, and you did a very good job.

At the end of this half-decade your child could walk, talk, add and converse. They know about colours and textures and music as well as dance and drama. They know that laughter is good and shouting is not so good. They know that they are supposed to share but most of the time they would rather not.

You did a very good job. Now, suddenly, it seems to be someone else’s job to teach all these things. The trouble is, you really enjoy this role and you are not ready for it to end.

You have suddenly discovered that your child now considers their teacher to be the only one who has the right to make them ‘work’; and you hit a brick wall whenever you try to introduce some learning task.

The fact is that children have had enough of formal learning by the time they get home from school. They are exhausted, hungry and probably a bit wound-up by the experiences of the day. They need a little time to ‘come down’.

So how are you going to be able to get back into their educational world?

The answer is relatively simple.

Children love to play, and they learn best through play activities. So you need to target your learning activities through games.

At a basic level this is going to be easy.

If you want to supplement your child’s Maths and English skills there are heaps of commercial games that they will love to play.

If your children work out that you are trying to ‘teach’ them you are done for! They just will not put up with it.

In their minds school is enough without you adding to their burden! So try and avoid the words ‘learn’ and ‘teach’.

Your two greatest assets are that children love to play and that they love to play with YOU.

In fact, they love to do anything with you.

Always remember that it is their interests that will lead them to the most efficient learning.

Even if the activity seems too far away from the areas that you would like them to be working in, be patient and trust that their interests will drive them to learn all the skills they need.

Let them pursue the things that interest them most.

One of my biggest passions is ensuring that young people gain an understanding of money. It concerns me greatly that schools spend so little time teaching students about money, finance, and investment.

Children are fascinated by money from an early age and I bet that you have told them: “Money doesn’t grow on trees!” Well, if it doesn’t grow on trees, where does it come from?

Have you explained to your children that it is important to ‘live within your means’? What exactly does that mean to you and your family? An opportunity to illustrate this point to your children occurs during the weekly shopping expedition.

If you run a budget (and why the hell wouldn’t you), explain to your children that there is a set amount of money each week for groceries. That is why you cannot buy everything that your heart desires.

Otherwise there will be a lot of month left over at the end of the money!

Here’s a tip that will address two problems at the same time.

When our boys were young we ran a very tight budget and every dollar was important. Like all children they would ask for things during the weekly shopping expedition and I had to say no most of the time.

To get them into the spirit of spending wisely and ‘value for money’, the boys were asked to do a survey of the supermarkets in our area to see which one gave the best value.

The boys wrote out a list of items that we often bought and we went around the various supermarkets writing down the prices. After each supermarket

had been visited in turn, the boys compared the prices (leaving out the specials) and discovered the ‘best value’ supermarket.

They were now part of the process and the idea of a budget meant more to them. They had a practical exercise to employ their maths skills and I was able to teach them a few extras as they needed slightly advanced maths to work out the answers. They never once saw this as me “teaching” them but rather they were learning the skills necessary to complete the task.

Around about this time we introduced a ‘reward’ system for the work done by the boys during the shopping trips. They knew that work usually has some sort of reward so they asked that they be allowed to purchase something for themselves during the shopping trip in return for packing and unpacking the shopping trolley. The ‘reward’ had to be under a certain dollar amount and the boys gave a great deal of thought to their purchase.

In this way the boys did their share of the shopping tasks and there was none of that incessant “Can I buy this dad?” that you often hear in supermarkets.

The boys learned how to make their purchase fit inside their ‘reward’ budget and I got a bit of peace, warm in the knowledge that I was teaching them something practical about money.

by Terry Barca

This was originally written for our local newspaper ‘The Foothills’

http://thefoothillsnewspaper.wordpress.com/

For more on this subject visit http://www.schoome.net