I ran into a old school friend of mine the other day in the parking lot after shopping with my daughter.  We stood and chatted for a while and inevitably the questions come up;  “How many kids do you have now?” And, “Wow, you have six, what are their ages?  Oh, so how many are in school, then?”  Then she found out that we homeschool.  In my experience, this either intrigues people or they are ready to walk away.  She was neither fully engaged in the conversation nor standing outside of it.  We chatted a bit more about it and she made a comment that we (meaning her and I) survived public school.  This got me to thinking.  I want my kids to do more than just survive.   I want my kids to succeed, to have the better than I had, to make learning a lifestyle.

As homeschoolers, we have to fill out paperwork to register with the state.  In that paper work, we have to declare what hours our kids will be “attending school.”  In our school, we feel that learning takes place from the time we wake to the time we go to bed.  You never know when a “teachable moment” will happen.  We have had math lessons at 10 pm and we have had history lessons at 8 am.  Even bad dreams in the middle of the night provide opportunity to teach.  You have to take those moments when the questions arise or something happens in life that you can use to teach.  Use those moments, as well, to teach and train in character as well as facts.

There are many reasons why we homeschool but one of the top reasons is to create life long learners.  We desire to have our children be people that, throughout their life, will enjoy learning and know where to go to find out information and look back at their education as one of the greatest times in their lives.

No matter your educational decisions for your children I encourage you to have them do more than “survive.”  Take the time to get to know their likes, dislikes, learning styles  and their strengths and weaknesses.  Whether they’re in public school or your dining room every day, they are depending on you to help them learn how to learn.  You are in the best position to influence their learning style.

Recently, my husband and I had the luxury of going to this years homeschool conference in our town and, much to my delight, it was an answer to prayer.  We have one little guy that has always been what I call a hands-on learner.  Traditional methods are hard for him.  Sitting down to a workbook is not his cup of tea and would only frustrate him and me.  We know he is an extremely intelligent kid.  He has always had a huge vocabulary, but would often use phrases in confusing ways and not be able to follow two or three-step instructions.  I felt like I had this bright kid locked in side this brain and I just needed to find the right keys to get him out.  I don’t feel like we are dealing with insurmountable learning disabilities just glitches. We sat down to listen to Dianne Craft, one of the featured speakers at the conference and immediately found relief.  We could see our son in the pictures that she painted of children with the same glitches as him.  

She has a book called Brain Integration Therapy.   In her book, she teaches you, the parent, to help retrain your child’s brain to move things such as writing from the right side of the brain to the left side.  Dianne Craft also talks about what she calls  The Biology of Behavior. This is how our gut and the gut-ecology, as she called it, can determine how we feel, act, behave and even learn. Yeast over-growth is the main culprit along with insufficient serotonin. Come to find out that these two things are related. I invite you to take a look at her site www.diannecraft.org and read through some of the handouts she has.  She lists other resources as well for further reading and investigation.

Dianne Craft has a Master’s Degree in special education and is a Certified Natural Health Professional. She has a private consultation practice, CHILD DIAGNOSTICS, Inc., in Littleton, Colorado.

One thing I detest is potty training.  I love having it done but the process…UGH!  Until now.  I was lamenting to a girlfriend of mine about how I feel about potty training and she said she hated it to but she found this e-book called 3-day potty training  by Lora Jensen and how helpful it was.  So I immediately jumped aboard.  Anything that can get this process over with in three days is the thing for me!  I was ecstatic to say the least.  My little one was about 26 months old when we took the plunge, much younger than my others were when I trained them.  I was bound and determined that this was going to work.  We poured over the book and got everything in place.  We waited for just the right weekend to begin.  Day 1 was a disaster, she peed on the floor all day long.  I went to bed doubtful of the method and knowing I would be up all night but we followed the plan.  She did it, she stayed dry and made it to the toilet in the morning.  Over the course of the next two days you could see the light go on and she knew what to do, her  ”Ah Ha” moment that Oprah talks about, I guess.  

Since then we have had minor setbacks where she would have days that she had accidents.  We just got back on the plan and then we were fine again.  I made the mistake of waking her up at night and taking her in to go potty.  It doesn’t seem like a bad thing, she would wake up dry and I didn’t have to change the sheets in the middle of the night but yet she wasn’t being trained, I was.  When I would forget to wake her, her bed would be wet.  So I got the book back out and reread what to do at night.  It worked!  She is doing so well and she is so proud of herself waking up dry in the morning and not having to go to the bathroom at all in the middle of the night.