So Much to Talk About

One thing I love about the Elementary School students is that they're never at a loss for words. I can't think of a single time recently when I've asked them a question and gotten crickets chirping. Usually the problem is that we run out of time to get to everyone who wants to chime in! This is a wonderful time of life, when their minds are basically doing the opposite of what happens every time my family tries to plant a garden in Texas. In other words -- growing and expanding constantly. They have thoughts, they have opinions, and what they don't have much of yet is self-consciousness. Golden.

Last week at school, we had several juicy discussions. In Tuesday launch, I showed them a YouTube clip about Eric Liddell, the famous Olympic runner and missionary to China whose story is dramatized in the movie Chariots of Fire. In the movie, Liddell tells his sister, who's concerned that his running hampers his ability to follow his missionary calling wholeheartedly, that "God made me to be fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure." I asked the children when they have experienced "being in flow" which they defined as "when you work hard but it doesn't feel hard because you're having fun," and "not wanting to stop." We considered that when we get into a state of flow, we are tapping into the way God made us. When we express Him in the way He has designed us to do, we feel His pleasure.

On Wednesday, we re-visited our previous discussions of our four God-given needs: love/belonging, power, fun, and freedom. We brainstormed different ways that each of us fills our power "cup," from learning new things to helping others who aren't as far along in a skill to beating Mrs. Diller in Khan Academy energy points! We also talked a bit about what happens when our God-given need for power and capability is taken to an extreme. Ben reminded us of Lord Acton's quote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

On Thursday, at their request we brainstormed the ways we fill our fun "cup." They were fairly popping with ideas! As a Guide, I felt heartened to hear of how many things at school feel fun to them. Having special things on the schedule like Pajama Day and Secret Santa clearly delights them! It was also interesting to notice as a group an overlap between Love/Belonging, Power, and Fun. The more capable we become in math, the more enjoyable it is (just ask Miles!). Helping others who aren't as good at math is a way to show love, but it also makes us feel powerful in a healthy way because we're using our skills for good. And it can be fun!

Of course, it's also worth considering what happens when needs collide. What if it's fun for me to sing "Drops in the Ocean" at the top of my lungs during studio maintenance, but that steals others' peace and makes them feel unloved by me? (Purely hypothetical, of course?!)

Looking forward to another bracing week ahead, learning alongside your children. See you at Exhibition!

From the Trenches of Writer's Workshop

... or would that be Writers' Workshop? Since there are writers, plural, in the workshop? Hnmmm, something to ponder.

Anyway, that's an excellent segue to the topic at hand, which is the question "What the dickens is my elementary-aged child doing every day in Writer's/Writers' Workshop?" (Henceforth to be abbreviated as WW.)

Every day after P.E., we assemble for WW. I rarely ever make participation mandatory, although it is strongly encouraged for Level 4 and 5 learners, and we warmly welcome younger learners as well. It heartens me to see that nearly all of the children choose to participate, even if they're more quietly absorbing. Because when I say "participate," I really mean it! WW is not student-directed, but it is extremely interactive.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I usually throw a sentence up on the board for them to chew on. Sometimes it's their copywork sentence for the week. I gather the copywork sentences from "The Arrow," which is a literature-based series of units published by Brave Writer. So for four weeks each session, they're copying sentences from a single piece of literature, which helps them practice grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence mechanics in a natural setting. The two remaining weeks, I pull copywork from other sources -- so far, it's been Bible verses.

So, back to the sentence(s) on the board. These sentences become a springboard to talk of many things. Some days I write the sentence fraught with errors, which they come up and correct ("Sentence Doctors"). Usually on one of the days, we do a bit of grammar work, identifying subjects and verbs, clauses, etc. Here I rely on those who have previously had some exposure to Essentials of the English Language to remind their classmates of the definitions of various parts of speech, sentences, clauses, etc. Other times we've discussed similes and metaphors, alliteration, hyperbole, and the art of naming characters. We've brainstormed quality adjectives and verbs to replace "Banned and Boring" ones, and we've looked at how renowned authors leverage those kinds of words to spice up their writing.

In planning these conversations, I'm guided by teaching helps from Brave Writer's "The Arrow," and also by my own love of grammar and language. Oh, and lately the children have been enjoying and requesting contests -- simile contests, alliteration contests, etc. I believe a poetry contest is in the offing.

(Full disclosure: Sometimes -- but not all the time! -- jellybeans make an appearance at WW. But surely that is not the reason so many students choose to participate. Surely not. It must be their untarnished and unquenchable love of learning!)

On Thursdays, we typically do free-writing. Everyone gathers 'round with Chromebook or journal in hand, and I give them a prompt. The only rule is that they keep writing. Worrying about grammar, spelling, and choosing the perfect word is out of bounds. We (yes, we -- I participate) just WRITE. We've written about pineapples, gratitude, letters to book characters, and the siege of Jericho, to name a few topics. After 5-10 minutes, anyone who wishes to may share.

What I love is that despite the wide range of writing ability, most kids are eager to share their work. I love that they don't seem to feel abashed by the roughness of what they've produced. We try to create a positive atmosphere that encourages everyone, because my main goal here is convince every child that he or she can enjoy writing and not fear it. Underlying that, of course, is the deeper desire for them to find beauty and pleasure in words, and ultimately, in the Word Himself.

The next step is to teach the revision process, starting with the oldest children. This feels experimental to me, since I've only done this one-on-one with my own children before. Please pray for me to have wisdom in how to carry this out with several students at a time. Hopefully as they grow, they will prove to be great editors for one another!

A Thanksgiving Memorial

“In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea[b]when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” Joshua 4:21-24

In our history readings recently, both Middle School and Elementary School have covered the story of Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. In that story, Joshua directed the people to take twelve stones from the river and to make a permanent, mobile memorial of God's provision, power and faithfulness to them during their years in the wilderness. 

On the day before Thanksgiving break began, the whole school gathered during lunchtime in the parking circle. Each person brought a stone, collected from the beautiful wooded land God has provided for us. We took it in turns to share one thing God has done for us that we're thankful for, and then piled up our stones as a memorial. 

Many of the kids and staff expressed thankfulness for the community God has given us, and how He's using it to shape our hearts and help us grow up into Him. Of course, one person thanked God that UT's football team beat OU this fall. Gotta love the way kids can keep it real! 

Are You a Good Pit Crew?

During Morning Launch this week, I shared with the children my personal highlight from attending the Formula One World Championship race a couple weeks ago. I'm not at all oriented toward cars and car racing, but I sure do love me a good metaphor, so when I saw those pit crews in action, and then watched three-time champion Lewis Hamilton catapult himself into his crew's arms immediately after his photo finish, I knew I had a great moment to share.

The point was, I hope clear: Behind every world champion auto racer is a flawless crew working the pit stop, each member highly fit, trained, focused and strong -- oh, and willing to be anonymous to the cheering crowd.

I commented to the children that although each of them is on their own journey -- we could look at a day at school as a few bracing laps around the track -- each of them also has daily opportunities to be a good "pit crew" to each other. How can they quietly and diligently support one another in being and doing their best?

Their ideas included minimizing distractions during Core Skills and offering words of encouragement for successes and consolation or advice for disappointing moments. The question "Are you being a good pit crew?" became a quick way for them to recalibrate themselves during the week. (Maybe I should also use this question when the room gets stinky after P.E.?;-))

Hopefully over the weekend, at home with their families (or coming to race a few laps at the schoolhouse workday!) they'll have plenty of opportunities to practice stellar pit-crewmanship. (New word. You read it here first.)

The Physics Quest Begins

 (The Launch Padders inspire with their water balloon slingshot.)

Besides the agonizing decision of whether to hold school when the forecast called for torrential rains and flash flooding (Kids: "I hope we get stranded at school! It would be SO FUN!") and then the weather said, "Oh really? I didn't get that memo," the biggest challenge we faced at school this past week was ...

... well, I'm not sure. Was it the porting of all the Chromebooks onto the new Google Education accounts, which caused all of us to exercise that perseverance muscle yet again? Weren't we all done with perseverance? (Answer: Never!)

... or was it the new skill of learning to work in groups? We launched our Session 2 Physics Quest on Tuesday, splitting the kids into six groups of five in a mix of ages and genders. They're having to tackle some challenging "Learn-to-Know" and "Learn-to-Do" material, but along the way they're learning soft skills like:

• Taking ownership of the quest paperwork, including putting your name on the paper, answering the questions, and keeping track of the packet and flashcards instead of leaving them for the studio maintenance crew.
• Reading the instructions to figure out what the day's deliverables are. 
• Prioritizing deliverables. Oh my stars, it is so fun to spend an hour coming up with a team name and T-shirt-worthy logo, but what if that means that you have only ten minutes to research, make your flashcards, and answer the big challenge question of the day?
• Including everyone in the learning. As I walked around observing the groups, I noticed that some of the kids were engaged in what was going on, and some were checked out. Some were trying to drive the bus, while others were meeting their designated leader's questions with blank stares. Nearly every group was struggling at some point and in some way with communication. 

While it was tempting to get a bit discouraged by this, I remembered (and reminded my class during Wednesday's closing group) that the art of working with a group is something that many adults still find challenging to master. How often does God yoke us together with one or more persons whose temperament, learning style and speed, and experience differ from our own, and then ask us to plow together? 

(Coaching Ben through his Physics Quiz during "Rain School" day.)

We, the staff, are a great example of that. Just like the children, we've spent the past several years in an environment (full-time homeschooling) that didn't demand too much of that particular skill. We've spent the past six months starting a school together, and every single day God is tempering us with one another. I'm grateful that He is infinitely more patient and undaunted than I am. And when I see the kids stretching to accommodate one another, cheering over each other's quiz results, or, in the aftermath of the recent 360 surveys, going out on a limb to ask each other for help, prayer, and feedback so they can grow in character, I think I taste some of His joy as well. 

Chatting Through History

Here's how we "do" history these days in the AI Elementary School: after an all-too-brief lunch and recess period, we scramble into our places, the kids with sketchbooks or Thinking Putty in hand, and I read aloud to them from the Mystery of History, Volume 1.

It may sound a bit dry, and I've considered, a time or two, whether to chop it in favor of one of the other things that we'd love to squeeze into our day. But in reality, this short block of our day seems to yield so many delightful rabbit trails. Usually one of the kids volunteers to be the Researcher, which means that he or she has their Chromebook open and ready to Google any photos or definitions we need. (What does the Great Pyramid at Giza actually look like? What are the other Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? What is the official definition of a desert?)

We almost never stay strictly on topic, and I'm seeing the kids become increasingly comfortable with that. They look at me when a discussion strays, to gauge whether this is a valuable tangent or whether we've been sidetracked into silliness. As time goes on, I hope their own internal meter registers that kind of discernment.

This week we got only a few paragraphs into our chapter on the Ten Commandments and the Tabernacle when we had to stop to discuss what the Ten Commandments tell us about God and why He would give His people a bunch of standards He knew they wouldn't be able to live up to. (Can we in our class even live to our 4-item Covenant one hundred percent of the time?)

In the course of the discussion, during which Camryn pointed out that God wanted His people to figure out that they needed Him, I asked why God didn't just tell them that they weren't capable of keeping the law. Why did He make them find out for themselves? Aliya remarked that that was "very Acton" of God.

Maybe we're all getting to be Acton students after all.

Doing Excellent Work

Sometimes blogs -- and any facet of the social media juggernaut -- get a bad rap for presenting only the most attractive aspects of our lives. People rightly complain that allowing them to peek only that the shiny, photogenic moments of our lives leaves them with an incomplete picture. Worse, it can invite comparisons that lead to insecurity. 

Here at AI, our days are strewn with more than our fair share of lovely, picturesque moments. Every day I feel grateful to arrive here in the morning on this parcel of wooded land God has given us, working side by side with women and men who pour out their hearts in prayer before we start our day, and watching the children stretch and grow, stumble and soar. They are funny, smart, kind, engaging, and lovable. 

(Rumor on the street: everyone just wants to eat these two on a spoon!)

But they are also sinful humans. So are we. So am I. We all fail each other -- fail to live up to our covenants, fail, in my case, to fully lean on Jesus' name. Selfishness and complaining rear their ugly heads -- in all of us. Every single day, I find myself wondering how to deal with situation X or Y wisely, often not praying enough, often looking back later and repenting for not being slower to speak or act. 

Here's one of the moments from this past week that you wouldn't normally write to the grandparents about. 

We're working hard to set a high standard for care of our school environment. This means holding the line on a simple rule: Project Time, a.k.a. Major Mess Time, is over and Free Time begins WHEN YOU HAVE CLEANED UP. On Tuesday, the above photo shows what happened. No names were called out for unacceptable work -- only for "above and beyond" work. (My goal is to give much more attention to their positive choices than to their mistakes.) I simply posted that sign in the studio at the end of the day and silently let it do its work. One girl approached the poster, recognized her role in the mess, and said, "Oh. That was me. I should have done a better job cleaning up my work." I just smiled at her and told her I agreed. Again, they're smart kids! 

(Note to self: Try this at home???)

Someone suggested giving you a brief list of topics we discussed here at school during the week so that you can follow up on them at home if you wish. So, in case that's helpful to you, here a few conversations my diminishing memory has cobbled together from the past several days: 

• Stonehenge took probably hundreds of years to construct, given their equipment limitations. Would you start a project if you knew it probably wouldn't be finished in your lifetime? 
• When you were working on your marble mazes, what did you learn from the times when you tried something and it didn't work? 
• What's the difference between reading and skimming?
• If God asks us to love Him with one hundred percent of our mind, heart, soul and strength, what does that say about how we do everything else we do, like working on core skills or doing a project?
• What is the most disgusting part of mummification?
• How are the Egyptian and Christian views of what happens after we die alike? How are they different? How do we take treasure with us after we die? 
• If someone says something teasing to you in fun ("drops a grape") and it bothers you ("feels like a watermelon'), how do you politely let them know? When does teasing become rude?
• What's up with the Lost City of Atlantis?