Rituals and Traditions

As we finish up Session 5 one day ahead of schedule (when we move, I will miss every aspect of this schoolhouse except the agonizing decisions over whether to cancel school in the rain!), I'm reflecting on the highlights thus far. In several ways, this was perhaps my favorite session. At least, the last two weeks were. It was so gratifying to see them, even those who struggled with focus for the first few weeks, diving into their Ancient Greece projects and feeling the satisfaction of producing their own best work and presenting it to their peers and parents. This was real engagement.

One thing I've seen unfold in our classroom over the year is a core of rituals and traditions that holds our culture together. It's like a community liturgy that helps the kids to feel secure and connected -- and hopefully loved.

(Miles is a Master Hugger.)

• The daily schedule. It rarely changes. 
• Launches and closes -- nowadays punctuated, every single time, with our "Konichiwa Circle." We go around the circle, bowing respectfully to one another and giving hugs. They will not let me forget this!
• Birthday ceremonies. On or near a classmate's birthday, the "Birthday Jar" sits out all day. We all fill it with notes wishing them happy birthday and highlighting what we love about them. At closing, someone reads the notes aloud to the birthday child, we clap however many times correspond with their new age, and we sing "Happy Birthday."
• Call and response. At Quuddle before lunch, especially since we've been focusing on self-control, I say to them, "I am a king!" They reply, "For I know how to rule myself." At closing, the very last exchange is this: "The Lord be with you!" "And also with you!" 
• The chore jar. This is a new one -- studio maintenance jobs are written on Popsicle sticks. Everyone draws one each afternoon, places the stick in his or her pouch on the door, and is responsible for that chore during Studio Maintenance. The two Cleaning Champions supervise. 
• MPH (Math Power half Hour). When this is done each day, the Worker of the Week chooses a quick activity that gets everyone running around outside, or dancing inside on a rainy day, for five minutes (timed by Abigail). 

We still have plenty of little wrinkles to smooth out during an average week, but my hope is that they feel the mess and effort are worth the work, because they're invested in belonging to a strong community. 

Enjoy your break, and we'll see you in Session 6! 

Who Are We?

What a week!

I don't know if it was all the mold in the air or the number of deep discussions we had over the course of three days, but by Thursday afternoon, I was sure ready to take a nap! I bet some of your kids were as well. Let's see if I can hit the highlights of this full-to-bursting string of days.

• Who Are We? For Tuesday's launch, I put this sentence up on the whiteboard: "We are a community of _________ who _______________." The kids had lots of suggestions on this one, but the general consensus from their input was this: "We are a community of peaceful, godly heroes who love learning." I reminded them that they were chosen for this school because we believed this about them and saw that spark in them of the love of learning. This set the tone for the rest of the week. Do heroes who love learning say "What do I have to do?" or do they ask "What do I get to learn?" 
• Passionately Curious. We discussed this quote, which tied directly into the above conversation about love of learning. 

During the week, when we noticed an example of passionate curiosity, I pointed it out. (Grandmother Johntz, for example, inspired us with her passionate curiosity about pottery!)

• Neville Longbottom's Shining Moment. During Diplomacy, we watched two clips from the first Harry Potter movie wherein one seemingly weak character stands up to his friends to try and prevent them from breaking school rules and costing their House valuable points. Neville is later celebrated for his courage, which Dumbledore (the headmaster) points out as being even more impressive than standing up to one's enemies. We talked about the difference between standing up for what is right and true, even if it causes conflict, versus choosing to die on the hill of opinion. The existence of God is worth respectfully fighting for. Integrity in the use of school property is worth a courageous stand. A preference for popcorn over potato chips, or the beach over the mountains, is not. :-)

• Loving Truth. After Writer's Workshop, one child asked why we needed to learn to parse and diagram sentences. I gently reminded her of the discussion from Point #1 by asking "Who are we?" But then I asked the kids who created us ("God!") and how ("in His image!"). So if we're made in God's image, aren't we designed to love truth? Does this mean just the truth that God is God, or does it include every bit of truth, including that two plus two equals four, and the subject of "Cyrus bakes chocolate cakes" is "Cyrus," the verb is "bakes," the direct object is "cakes," and "chocolate" is the adjective modifying "cakes?" And if the latter is so, isn't it enjoyable to discover truth, because we're acting according to our design? (I'm sure she was so glad she asked.)

• Glass Half Full. I shared this clip from the TED Radio Hour with the kids in Wednesday's launch, and I could see their eyes grow wide at the thought of living in the conditions this woman described. We live such comfortable lives! Her parting thought about gratitude and its connection to optimism led to another round (we do this now and again) of "What are you grateful for today?" I love that their hearts are so full of gratitude for their very many blessings!

Three Strikes

We had a very enlightening closing discussion on Wednesday, when I showed the kids a time-lapse video from two thirty-minute segments of the morning. Although Core Skills is meant to be quiet and focused, most of them saw that they moved in, out of, and around the living room. They talked to each other. They attempted to break Milam's concentration as he put the finishing touches on his arduously attained Spelling badge. They discussed the painted griffin over the fireplace and bounced a ball. They juggled flaming torches. (OK, just kidding on that last one.)

Many of the kids who were quite sure they hadn't been distracting or distracted that morning reconsidered their assessment upon watching the video. Don't we all struggle with self-awareness? Thanks, Nest Camera.

In all fairness, the video worked its magic. Next day, at their request I showed them video from the same half-hour segments from Thursday morning. They were all proud of their improvement!

That said, we have taken a vote and implemented a three-strikes system in Elementary School to help us take our level of freedom more seriously (it's a level of freedom that even the MS'ers don't share at this point, so should we able to abuse it?). The deal is that any kind of distracting behavior -- wandering around, talking to people about non-urgent matters, online chatting with each other, sharing music, or receiving a warning for any other reason -- results in a strike. If you earn three strikes, you lose the privilege of working in the living room, lounge, or rented outdoor space, and instead work at your desk in the classroom until you show you can handle a higher level of freedom.

They unanimously felt that this system would be more fair than everyone losing the freedom to choose their work space. And I prefer this option to becoming the Stereotypical Grumpy Librarian. (They assured me they know exactly what stereotypes are, thanks to Dude Perfect. All right, then.)

Onward and upward, into the new week!

Beautiful or Not?

At the end of the day yesterday during closing, we played a little game called "Beautiful or Not?" I showed the kids the following pictures from their day, and here's the feedback they gave.

 Verdict: Not beautiful. Lots of stuff on the floor, including school headphones, trash and couch cushions. Lunch bag left on coffee table. Gage, as God's creation, brings a certain beauty to the scene, however. :-)

Verdict: Not beautiful. More stuff lying around, including Chromebooks and a school library book, both of which we are supposed to steward faithfully (that morning in launch, we talked about being entrusted with small things so that one day God can entrust us with big things.)

Verdict: Beautiful. These two girls are using their Project Time wisely to study together without distracting anyone around them. 

Verdict: Beautiful. Three students keeping the studio as a sacred place for learning (Covenant Item #1) by reading and researching together side by side, again without distracting each other or anyone around them. 

On the subject of caring for the environment, we saw a marked improvement in ES studio maintenance this week after I talked to the kids about how it still felt like my responsibility at 3:00 to determine whether the work had been done and whether we were ready for inspection. I wanted to transfer that ownership to them. They agree to volunteer as leaders each week to oversee the cleaning of our room and bathroom and make sure all jobs are done by 3:00. Camryn and Milam stepped right up and did an exemplary job as cleaning leaders this past week!

On the subject of Project Time, I've enjoyed seeing the enthusiasm with which the kids are approaching this opportunity to delve into their particular area of interest about ancient Greek history. They are eager to research, they are learning to take notes, and they're developing loyalties to their Project Clans: Troy, Athens, Mycenae and Sparta (which by far has the coolest clan badges and spirited cheers to date! They're raising the bar for the rest of us.)

Update on Diplomacy

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on our weekly Diplomacy sessions, which is what I've taken to calling the half hour we spend on Tuesdays to work slowly through the discussion-based book The Young Peacemaker. 

We've now talked about ...

• How conflict can be a slippery slope 
• "Peace-faking" options such as denying there's a problem, blaming others for the problem, or running away from the problem.
• "Peace-breaking" choices such as put-downs, gossip (talking to others about the problem instead of addressing it with the party we've offended or been offended by), or fighting.
• "Peace-making" choices, like choosing to let the offense go because it's not that important, or working it out (with an honest conversation over deeper issues, or with alternatives like compromise or rock/paper/scissors for problems like who sits in the front seat or where the family will stop for breakfast tacos!). If we want to have the conversation but we feel scared or stumped, we can ask for help (coaching, mediation, or arbitration).
• How God is with us in difficult things like conflicts with other people (as He was with Daniel when he had to respectfully ask to be served vegetables rather than the food from King Nebuchadnezzar's table).
• The good things that can come of walking through conflict and learning to handle it wisely. 

As usual, the children have all kinds of insights. And of course, we have opportunities to "walk the walk" all week long, as I imagine you do at home! Please pray for us as we continue on this journey and learn to climb off of the "slippery slope" -- or walk around it all together!

The Great Salsa Slam

Following on the heels of two terrific mama-led projects (painting and mosaic stepping stones with Mrs. Banister), our Project Queens of the day, Mrs. Outlaw and Mrs. Blair, bravely led the ES Griffins through an afternoon of designing and producing their own brands of homemade salsa. How is this botany-related? Well, as Mrs. Outlaw pointed out to the kids, you can make delicious salsa using only ingredients grown in a garden!

While the Middle Schoolers were busily planning tomorrow's botany lesson for their ES counterparts, our people were doing this:

Lots of chopping!

(Mr. Blair and a couple LaunchPadders had to get in on the action as part of their afternoon Spanish immersion experience.)

Time to taste! These guys had a salsa that blew smoke out Mrs. Blair's ears ...

After bottling their salsas, they all had enough leftover to give each other (and any other takers) samples. We had to guess the ingredients that had gone into each recipe, which challenged our discriminating palates!

I'm so grateful to the moms who have given their time and creative energy to make these projects happen, including dealing with quite a lot of mess and what can feel at times like borderline chaos. The kids have such a wonderful time making the magic happen, and I know they feel your love to them in these acts of service. Now, which of them will have a hero's journey that includes populating the world with fresh salsa stands???

Tuesday: Targeting Transitions

A couple weeks ago (already!) I noticed that the energy in the room seemed to be noticeably swelling -- and not very productively -- around every transition in activity. Reporting math scores, changing out the Writer's Workshop pods, arriving for Quuddle -- all these moments and more seemed to take longer than needed because of all the chatter and movement around the room.

I asked the kids whether they were happy with the level of chaos during times of transition, and gave them some examples of our transition times. They readily reported that no, they could do better. Starting immediately, they began alerting each other to those opportunities: "Guys! This is a transition!"

We still have lots of room for improvement, but I've enjoyed seeing them take up the reins of responsibility for this one. Since I'll be out this Thursday, I've challenged them to prepare in specific ways for a student-led day. We've discussed what that would look like and how to maintain order rather than chaos. On Thursday afternoon at closing, they decided that on Tuesday (tomorrow) they would Target Terrific Transitions.

We had a couple of funky days last week because of the rain, which gave us a chance to really "stretch our rubber bands" in managing schedule changes and yes, transitions! Here are a couple shots from our Project Afternoon at Megan's house, and from Thursday morning when the Middle Schoolers taught the Elementary Schools about plant dissections and other botanical wonders.

See you tomorrow! 

Session 4, Week 1: Worms, Rocks, and Monet

Our first week of Session 4 started off with a pleasant bang! The first Tuesday morning of every session, we gather for All-School launch, and this time the main item on the agenda was choosing gifts to send to World Vision using points converted to dollars from last session's Shark Tank Quest. We sure enjoyed seeing the teams' excitement as they chose their gifts. At the end of the day, we reconvened to report on their choices, and found that our school would be sending a mosquito net, a well, several chickens and ducks, ten fruit trees, and a goat. Hooray!

I have high hopes for the ES Griffins' enjoyment of this session's quest. The Botany/Gardening Quest is hands-on learning at its finest! Mrs. McDonald has worked her tail off preparing twelve project days in which the ES and MS will work in combined teams. Already, they're tasting, smelling, feeling, seeing and thinking about what they're going to grow and why. Oh, and having several pounds of worms arrive at the school ready for tending caused quite a stir!

In Wednesday's launch, we introduced Reed and Louisa to the concept of Big Rock goals, with Ben and Meg demonstrating the best way to fill a jar with rocks, pebbles and dirt. Springboarding off of that, each one set a Big Rock goal for the session and wrote it down (somehow, writing seems to make intentions more purposeful, don't you think?). Abigail and Camryn volunteered their time on Thursday to transcribe all those goals onto a poster. Just one of the many responsibilities that they are taking over for themselves! I must say that some of them set some pretty ambitious Big Rock goals for themselves this session. If you haven't already, ask your child what his or her Big Rock is, and how they decided on that goal.

Our Wednesday afternoon art projects didn't turn out QUITE like the sample I found on an art blog (fancy that!), but thanks to Mrs. Banister's volunteer help, they did go smoothly and the children seemed to enjoy painting outdoors, taking their cues from Impressionist painter Claude Monet (perhaps the ultimate painter-gardener!). We watched a couple videos on the life and work of Monet, and took note of the fact that he didn't create art in order to instruct or inform, or even to be understood, but to inspire love -- love of beauty, love of the natural world.

I hope these moments we share together, living out of our nature as image-bearers of the Creator God, will inspire a bit of that love as well -- joy in the process and in the creation, regardless of the results.

Writer's Workshop Update

As you all know, this session we started incorporating writing curriculum from the Institute for Excellence in Writing once a week in the Elementary studio. So far, it's gone swimmingly. The book "All Things Fun and Fascinating" serves up paragraphs on topics that cater to kids' curiosity, and they're either adopting or honing the skill of making Key Word Outlines. I've enjoyed seeing children who are a bit farther down the road with this skill help those to whom it's brand new.

One of the Writing Badge requirements for Level 3 and higher is a certain number of "polished papers." We've been using the last couple weeks of this session to hold their hands and gently guide them toward a polished paragraph. Today, nearly everyone chose their favorite Key Word Outline from the past few weeks and worked for about 15 minutes to transform it into a simple paragraph.

At the end, I handed out checklists which will be their rubrics for spiffing up those rough paragraphs and turning them into polished work. This process can occur at any time of their choosing, but paragraphs are due next Thursday. This assignment is optional, but strongly encouraged for anyone working toward their Level 4 or 5 badge. Completing a paragraph each session at the suggested time means no one need scramble to crank out paragraphs in July!

If you want to help your writer at home with revising his or her work, feel free to email me a request for the rubric so you can have a backup copy. Oh, and one more thing -- now that we have sixteen children in the class, I've started running two shifts of Writer's Workshop, each with eight children. Group One meets at 10:30 and Group Two at 10:50. The children prefer it this way, and I see the effect on their level of focus.

Onward and upward!

A Jar of Jellybeans

You know what's great about jellybeans? Yes, they're candy. True, they do contain sugar and food coloring. From a nutritional standpoints, there's nothing to love there. BUT: they're tiny! One or two little beans can give a child an instant happiness boost, and it's not like you're handing them a Snickers bar. Also? They're colorful and fun to look at. Ergo, I find myself using them for illustrations with some regularity.

(Image source here.)

This past Wednesday in morning launch, I introduced to the children the idea of the Emotional Bank Account. I told them that in every one of their relationships ("look around the room and meet every pair of eyes"), there is an account where they make deposits and withdrawals. We discussed some ways we make deposits, demonstrating by putting jellybeans into a jar: Giving compliments. Sharing our things. Helping with math problems. Keeping promises. Apologizing when we do wrong. Offering forgiveness.

Of course, we can also make withdrawals: Teasing. Touching each other's things without asking. Being rude. Singing loudly after being asked to stop. Lying. Excluding.

With their permission, I used two of the children as an example. Let's call them B and C. :-) Last week, B had teased C during closing when she admitted to not cleaning up her project area properly. I reminded the kids that C had said she wasn't offended by that teasing. (It wasn't malicious, but with different children, it could have felt hurtful.) I asked them why they thought B was able to tease C without C getting offended. Pointing to our two jars -- one full of beans, one almost empty -- I asked, "Which jar represents B and C's relationship?"

Since B and C have been friends for several years and have many "deposits" accrued, the teasing withdrawal didn't even register. However, if over those years B had made fun of C's choice of outfits, and C had broken one of B's toys and then blamed him for it, and B had tried to boss C around, and C had formed a club that excluded B ... well, with such a low balance to start off with, that teasing incident would have gone a lot differently, no?

Cyrus came up with the fun idea that during that day, each child would have a cup and would come to me each time someone made a deposit in their relationship, asking me to put a jellybean in that classmate's cup. There was some discussion about whether rewarding kind behavior creates impure motives, but it was ultimately agreed that doing this for just one day would be fun, harmless, and potentially motivational.

I enjoyed having the children approach me all day with good reports of one another, lobbying unselfishly to have each other's cups tended with jellybeans. "Abigail deserves a jellybean. She shared her Hershey's kisses with me." "Milam and Reed persevered on their project all the way through free time. That inspired me." "Hope made a deposit when she gave me a hug." Why does this matter? How does it relate to reaching higher in math, spelling, and economics? Well, don't we all learn more easily in an atmosphere in an atmosphere of love and kindness?

I hope this illustration may be useful around your homes in the days and weeks ahead. Asking "how can you make a deposit here instead of a withdrawal?" is a great calibration. If your house is anything like mine, balances in the jars among siblings fluctuate more than the stock market!

That's Generosity

As you probably know, every session at AI we zoom in the lens on a different character trait. This session, in tandem with our Entrepreneurship Quest, we're highlighting generosity. (Why do we seek to make money and succeed in business? To get rich and chase the American Dream, or to glorify God by sharing freely our newfound resources? How can we be generous with everything we have -- not only with money, but also with compliments, with encouragement, with time, with skills, with ... um, candy?)

Last week in one of our morning launches, I shared with the kids the very moving story of Rachel Beckwith, a 9-year-old girl who wanted to raise money for charity:water in lieu of birthday gifts. Initially disappointed at not meeting her goal, she soon afterward was the victim of a terrible car accident. As she lay in the hospital in critical condition and eventually passed away, her small campaign for charity:water went viral. In the wake of her death, over one million dollars was raised for wells in Africa. This sweet girl was responsible for bringing clean drinking water to over 37,000 Ethiopians.

Many of the children's hearts were obviously touched by the story of a girl their age whose life and death inspired generosity in so many. And without any prompting, Josiah remarked, "You know, I think we should stop complaining about the way the water in the schoolhouse tastes funny. [And that, my friends, is a whole 'nother saga!] For the people she was trying to raise money for, our water would probably taste GREAT."

Hear, hear.

There was much excitement last week over Thursday's Snack Mix Wars, which is just one of the challenges along the way to each project team's creation of a mini-company. Some of you may have wondered, what happens to the profits that the kids made off of all the kindhearted mamas (and dad, and a few siblings)? And what about all the points they're earning along the way by completing challenges and (ouch) documenting their work?

The answer is that we're so passionate about encouraging generosity that each team is going to use their funds to choose a gift from the World Vision catalog to send to others! All that snack mix hawking, diligence with the dreaded paperwork, and initiative in completing bonus challenges means pigs, goats, chickens, a mosquito net, or maybe a well, sponsored by each of the project teams. In fact, the team with the most points from ES and from MS gets to have their contribution DOUBLED. Moms and dads, feel free to join with us at home in building excitement for this opportunity to be generous!

Treasure Hunting

(A role-playing moment from the Entrepreneurship Quest, kicked off this past week.)

This week, we've been pondering gratitude. Last weekend my family and I had the privilege of attending a concert of the African Children's Choir, where it was brought home to us just what a priceless privilege it is for the children of the choir to attend school and receive an education. Scarcity breeds appreciation, and they realize that education is their ticket out of poverty and into their dreams of becoming a pilot, a pastor, an accountant, a mechanical engineer or a midwife. Yet our own kids are chauffeured to school each morning in comfortable cars, laden with healthy lunches and snacks. Education is not scarce. So can we blame them if they sometimes fixate on what's missing (the project teammates they would have preferred, the seat assignment they would have wanted, etc.) instead of what's there?

So Wednesday morning during launch, I handed each of the children a marker, pencil or pen. There was no rhyme or reason to who got what. And what they got was what they got. We went around the room and each expressed something to be grateful for about the particular gift they had received. For some, it was easy ("I got a pink marker and it's my favorite color!"). For others, the muscles of gratitude and imagination got to stretch a bit. Abigail dug deep to point out that her gray marker reminded her of God being light in the darkness. Meg thought her brown marker could be useful should she ever want to draw a dog!

Then we practiced a bit with other scenarios. How could we be grateful for a disappointing team assignment, or something else that falls to our lot, unwelcome? I challenged the children to "treasure hunt" during the day. And what do you know, during Core Skills my extremely fizzy bottle of kombucha made a big mess when I tried to open it, foaming all over my jeans and the carpet. As some of the children leaped to the rescue and we sponged up the mess, Josiah remarked that we could be grateful that the kombucha didn't explode on my Chromebook!

I've noticed an unfortunate tendency in myself as a guide, which is that I am affected easily by the emotional and relational fluctuations in the room. If something has gone awry in the afternoon, I go to the staff meeting wanting to vent about it, or go home feeling defeated. I allow that one thing to cloud the truth and beauty of the rest of the day, and forget the good that God is bringing out of even (especially?) the harder moments. Just like the children, I need a conscious reminder to give thanks in EVERYTHING, and to turn my eyes away from what is missing to what is already there.

So here are a just a few reminders to myself -- some of the many moments this week that deserve my real focus -- that may bless you as well.

• Caroline telling me, "Mom, ever since the break when I was missing my classmates so much, I've really started seeing them more as Stradivariuses." [A reference to a launch about how each of them is more valuable and precious than a Stradivarius violin.]
• Ben explaining to our visiting child what a session is: "It's six weeks of school." Me: "And Ben, what happens at the end of the six weeks?" Ben: "We have to take a break. It's horrible." (!) Murmurs of general assent from the class. Genevieve: "I know, I was SO BORED without you guys over the break!" [I can't imagine too many schools where a conversation like this takes place!]
• The loud cheering and big hugs when Cyrus and Milam walked into Thursday morning launch a few minutes late after being out sick for two days after the break. 
• Aliya and Abigail mentioning our visiting child being a highlight of the week for them. 
• The rush to fill the jar of Character Call-outs on Thursday afternoon. 
• Gage running to check on a younger boy who was hurt during GaGa.

The math, spelling, grammar and writing are happening. But perhaps more importantly, they are learning through ups and downs to love one another, and for that I am truly grateful. 

(DEAR time reading buddies)