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.