Everyday Educator - Jazzing Up January
00:00:00.000 | (soft music)
00:00:02.420 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:06.060 | of the Everyday Educator Podcast.
00:00:08.660 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:10.340 | and I am excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:13.780 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:17.020 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:19.700 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:23.000 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:25.040 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:27.140 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:31.140 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:34.780 | But don't forget,
00:00:36.140 | although this online community is awesome,
00:00:39.400 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:44.400 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:48.400 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:52.200 | Well friends, I'm super happy to welcome you
00:00:55.840 | to this podcast on what is here at my house,
00:00:59.400 | a really cold January day.
00:01:02.780 | And lots of you, I happen to know, are under snow cover,
00:01:07.420 | and I'm really jealous about that and slightly bitter,
00:01:09.940 | but I'm happy for you to have some snow to play in.
00:01:13.780 | I remember Januarys from my college years
00:01:19.820 | as sometimes full of snow.
00:01:23.200 | I went to college in North Carolina,
00:01:24.980 | and I remember one year that we had snow
00:01:28.100 | every Thursday in January.
00:01:30.740 | It was delightful 'cause we had people to play with.
00:01:34.140 | But another thing that I remember about Januarys
00:01:38.780 | when I was in college is something
00:01:41.060 | that my college called a January term.
00:01:44.680 | It was a time sort of in between the fall semester
00:01:48.900 | and the spring semester when we all came back to college,
00:01:53.780 | but we didn't jump into our 15-week semesters yet.
00:01:58.560 | We were all ready to come back and be with our friends
00:02:02.500 | and probably do something with purpose,
00:02:05.940 | but not necessarily to jump into something
00:02:08.580 | that was in our major or was highly academic.
00:02:12.780 | And so they had these things called January terms,
00:02:16.300 | and it was for a short-term pursuit.
00:02:21.300 | So it lasted about a month,
00:02:23.460 | maybe six weeks, a short-term pursuit
00:02:26.400 | of something interesting that you might not study otherwise,
00:02:31.400 | something totally outside of your major,
00:02:35.700 | maybe something not even particularly academic,
00:02:40.060 | but it was a cool way to get back
00:02:43.980 | into the routine of college,
00:02:47.740 | back with your buddies,
00:02:49.140 | doing something together that was interesting,
00:02:53.340 | but not as academic as we had had before.
00:02:56.560 | So I want us to talk about together today
00:03:00.340 | ways to jazz up January as homeschoolers.
00:03:05.340 | And I've got one of my favorite homeschool friends,
00:03:09.780 | Amy Jones, with me today,
00:03:11.540 | and we are gonna brainstorm some ways
00:03:14.100 | to jazz up January for you and your homeschooler.
00:03:17.300 | Amy, thank you so much for coming.
00:03:19.380 | - Oh, thank you.
00:03:20.780 | Talk about getting out of the doldrums.
00:03:22.620 | This is gonna be a delightful conversation.
00:03:25.940 | - I'm gonna enjoy it.
00:03:27.540 | You always have such great ideas
00:03:30.140 | and such fun memories to share
00:03:32.500 | that I know that all of our listeners
00:03:34.980 | will be eager to capitalize on your brainstorming with me.
00:03:39.980 | Let me ask you,
00:03:42.900 | what were January days like for you as a homeschooling mom?
00:03:47.360 | I know your kids are grown now,
00:03:49.820 | but those January days are really memorable.
00:03:53.060 | Did you and your children ever get stuck in a rut
00:03:55.940 | in January?
00:03:57.340 | - Yes, absolutely.
00:03:58.940 | I mean, I used to think you had the summer
00:04:01.960 | and to look forward to a new school year
00:04:04.340 | and there was all that energy and excitement to get back,
00:04:07.900 | but then somehow January,
00:04:10.540 | in Tennessee, it's not snowy most of the time.
00:04:15.900 | It's just gray and cold and wet
00:04:19.740 | and you're coming off Christmas,
00:04:22.540 | you're a little tired.
00:04:24.980 | Usually there's somebody that's got sniffles or sneezes
00:04:29.980 | and you haven't seen your buddies in a while
00:04:34.660 | and you probably overspent a little bit at Christmas.
00:04:37.980 | A little depleted in all areas.
00:04:41.660 | And then just looking,
00:04:43.660 | one of the things I think that it discouraged me at times
00:04:46.660 | that I allowed to discourage me was,
00:04:49.220 | oh, what we didn't get done last semester,
00:04:52.660 | we need to get done this semester.
00:04:54.500 | And I just remember feeling burdened by anticipating,
00:04:59.340 | oh, we're already behind the eight ball.
00:05:01.360 | And that was unfortunate because that's not true at all.
00:05:05.520 | The law directs our steps.
00:05:07.540 | But yes, we would be,
00:05:11.100 | I would sense the doldrums invading our home
00:05:14.620 | and those early January days, absolutely.
00:05:19.020 | - So how did you get back to that?
00:05:22.040 | We always talk about the daily delight of family learning
00:05:25.260 | and it is delightful, but when you're in the doldrums,
00:05:28.540 | well, Amy, how did you and your family get back
00:05:31.380 | to that daily delight of family learning?
00:05:34.740 | - You know, it really started with me
00:05:37.800 | and of course with my husband
00:05:40.040 | that I really needed a perspective shift myself
00:05:44.700 | and just spending a little time, extra time with the Lord,
00:05:48.100 | I think helped me be relaxed,
00:05:51.900 | not feel anxious or overwhelmed or down
00:05:55.240 | and to just recognize all that God had already been doing
00:06:00.240 | in our home, that sort of energized me.
00:06:03.540 | And it also just not feeling isolated.
00:06:07.460 | I usually reached out to a few
00:06:09.500 | of my close homeschool buddies and said,
00:06:13.020 | hey, can we get together and brainstorm a few of these
00:06:18.500 | like something fun to look forward to?
00:06:20.580 | And believe me, when you get all these homeschool moms
00:06:23.460 | together, just two or three ideas start popping,
00:06:27.100 | things that they didn't have time to do, they'd love to do.
00:06:32.060 | So that really energized me.
00:06:34.860 | And then also just having a really honest conversation,
00:06:39.100 | especially with my older kids, like, hey,
00:06:41.940 | what are some things that you would love to try or do
00:06:46.500 | or kind of miss out on?
00:06:48.540 | What kind of things would you enjoy?
00:06:50.480 | And really trying to hear what their hearts desire is
00:06:55.160 | because they get a little down
00:06:57.080 | and some people are a little more affected
00:06:59.820 | by all this dreary days.
00:07:02.220 | - That's true.
00:07:03.220 | - And with them and just really hearing
00:07:06.060 | or recognizing they're lonely right now.
00:07:09.620 | And we need to, even if the house is still,
00:07:14.980 | there's still Christmas ornaments stuck around.
00:07:17.620 | - Yes, yes.
00:07:19.340 | - It's been vacuumed in a while, whatever.
00:07:22.180 | We need to kind of plunge into our mental health
00:07:26.340 | and get just kind of reset button with just recognizing
00:07:31.340 | God is with us, he's got something great planned
00:07:35.620 | and being open, what is it?
00:07:38.340 | And just trying to kind of incorporate some things
00:07:41.620 | that we were hoping to do, didn't get to
00:07:44.900 | or just some new adventures that come up.
00:07:47.980 | So those were the kind of things that we did.
00:07:50.140 | - Yeah, I love that.
00:07:51.620 | I love that you are encouraging us all to be real,
00:07:56.620 | to recognize that we all take stock
00:08:02.180 | and tend to major on what went wrong
00:08:07.260 | or what we didn't finish or what we're disappointed in.
00:08:10.960 | And that our children sometimes do that too.
00:08:13.620 | And they look back and think, oh, I left that undone
00:08:17.220 | or I could have done a better job.
00:08:18.800 | And now there's a whole new semester that has,
00:08:22.660 | wow, some really daunting things ahead of it.
00:08:25.160 | This is gonna be hard or I'm not,
00:08:27.420 | I feel unsettled or uncertain about this.
00:08:30.460 | And just looking at one another
00:08:32.860 | and recognizing that there's some anxiety,
00:08:36.420 | whether that's because of seasonal affective disorder.
00:08:40.020 | I had one daughter who was very affected by long dark days
00:08:45.020 | and that dreariness of the weather seemed to work its way
00:08:49.540 | into her mindset and into her perspective.
00:08:52.540 | And it really does affect our willingness to do hard things
00:08:56.540 | and her willingness to work.
00:08:58.600 | And so I really appreciate you being upfront and real
00:09:02.180 | and saying, look, mamas, look around at your house,
00:09:06.180 | look around at your children, look into your own heart
00:09:09.460 | and realize that you might need to do something different
00:09:13.100 | to shake things up.
00:09:14.580 | And I love your suggestion that you ask your students,
00:09:20.580 | especially your older students, what are you missing?
00:09:25.760 | What is something that you've always wanted to learn
00:09:29.580 | or you feel like you're missing out on
00:09:32.660 | because I really liked that.
00:09:35.300 | And we're gonna explore that in a few minutes
00:09:37.540 | because sometimes what we come to this podcast for
00:09:40.180 | is concrete, practical ideas.
00:09:42.260 | And so we're listeners, we're not gonna leave you
00:09:45.100 | just feeling better about feeling bad.
00:09:47.900 | We're gonna actually give you some good ideas
00:09:52.100 | about how to jazz up your January.
00:09:55.020 | Let me ask you, we talked about some of the signs
00:09:57.960 | that you might need a January term,
00:10:00.620 | that you're just not maybe as motivated as a mom or dad
00:10:04.280 | or your students aren't motivated
00:10:06.400 | or you're seeing the downside of everything
00:10:11.400 | or you're just, you're tired.
00:10:14.200 | I think it's really smart to acknowledge that the holidays,
00:10:19.200 | while they may be holly and jolly, drain us.
00:10:24.900 | They drain us a lot of times.
00:10:26.920 | I feel like sometimes we need a little space in January
00:10:32.600 | just to get back to equilibrium.
00:10:36.020 | - Yeah, that's a really good point.
00:10:37.840 | I think we do.
00:10:38.680 | I think I remember a conversation,
00:10:43.300 | I think James Dobson did a long, long time ago, of course.
00:10:48.300 | And he said, one of the primary quote, task, jobs,
00:10:53.840 | responsibilities of a mom at home is to manage the holidays.
00:10:59.260 | So that should be one of your,
00:11:03.120 | that's one of your key responsibilities.
00:11:05.960 | And it does, frequently doesn't get recognized.
00:11:08.960 | And because it's Christmas and everybody's happy.
00:11:12.440 | But a lot of times the mom is doing the scheduling,
00:11:17.440 | the cooking, the arrangement.
00:11:20.040 | And I think post that holiday season,
00:11:24.300 | even moms need a little tender loving care
00:11:27.040 | to recognize, hey, we just came off a holiday
00:11:31.000 | that could have gone well, we've had them go well.
00:11:34.320 | And just to give yourself a little space,
00:11:38.040 | but also think, I just keep thinking of renewing my strength
00:11:43.040 | and just saying, Lord, give me the new strength,
00:11:49.600 | new excitement, joy, because that is,
00:11:54.080 | as the doldrums come in, you can,
00:11:56.360 | you counter that with your own joy and thankfulness.
00:12:00.060 | And I don't think we need to be happy, happy, happy,
00:12:03.680 | pretend, but sometimes I would kind of allow myself
00:12:08.680 | to get a little blue when I thought,
00:12:14.040 | you know, a good cup of hot cocoa will go a long way.
00:12:18.260 | And I think those simple little things
00:12:22.080 | that we can add to a day, just change it up a little bit,
00:12:26.780 | gives people a sense of a little brightness.
00:12:33.160 | And I think we as moms have the privilege actually
00:12:36.720 | of bringing that into our home, that there's a lot of hope
00:12:40.440 | and there's a lot of joy to look forward to.
00:12:42.480 | So yeah, you're right, you're right about that.
00:12:44.880 | - Yeah, yeah, I can close my eyes and see listeners
00:12:49.080 | out there waving their hands.
00:12:50.740 | Yes, that's me, that's where I am.
00:12:53.440 | Those are the signs that I need a January term.
00:12:57.420 | I need something to jazz up January.
00:13:00.240 | So let me ask you this.
00:13:01.200 | What could, 'cause I told you what J term was like
00:13:05.040 | for my college, it was like four to six weeks
00:13:07.760 | of you signed up, it was a class, you did go,
00:13:12.660 | but it was stuff you probably would not have signed up for
00:13:17.360 | otherwise, it didn't necessarily fit in your major
00:13:21.120 | or anybody else's major maybe, but it was something
00:13:24.840 | that would pique your interest.
00:13:26.760 | What might a January term look like for homeschoolers?
00:13:31.760 | And maybe you don't agree, I think that this early part
00:13:37.040 | of January is the perfect time to try a J term.
00:13:41.640 | What could it look like for homeschoolers, Amy?
00:13:44.640 | - Oh, you know, I think it's really great
00:13:47.360 | to give yourself permission.
00:13:49.040 | I think Lee even alluded to this.
00:13:51.680 | You aren't governed by the curriculum.
00:13:55.280 | You are the, you are the governor.
00:13:58.340 | So I think it is really great to give yourself permission
00:14:05.000 | to say, okay, over the next two weeks before,
00:14:07.680 | you know, challenge starts up or nation starts up,
00:14:11.380 | we are gonna really do some fun things.
00:14:14.320 | And this is, you've probably been maybe listening around
00:14:19.320 | or asking your students, hey, what are some things
00:14:23.920 | that you guys would like to do?
00:14:25.480 | And just sort of plunge in.
00:14:27.520 | I know for us, there were little hobbies
00:14:32.520 | that the kids really wanted to do,
00:14:34.760 | but we quote, never had time to do.
00:14:36.800 | So we did a little, I know my daughter
00:14:40.280 | wanted to make doll clothes.
00:14:42.320 | You know, she was in the American doll phase of her life.
00:14:45.880 | And so I just called some moms and said, hey,
00:14:49.400 | you have a girl, you know, this age, come over,
00:14:52.840 | we're gonna have a couple of sewing days.
00:14:54.520 | You're gonna make a pillow case.
00:14:55.880 | I mean, I can make a pillow case.
00:14:57.420 | (laughing)
00:14:58.660 | - Yes, yes. - I can make a pillow case.
00:15:01.760 | And we just gathered, you know, materials
00:15:06.680 | and just had like a three day.
00:15:10.520 | It doesn't have to be weeks and weeks.
00:15:12.060 | You know, you can see Friday, we're gonna get together
00:15:14.800 | and we're gonna show off what we're gonna make.
00:15:17.800 | You know, we're gonna buy some fabric in.
00:15:19.600 | And I honestly was not the primary source of this.
00:15:24.600 | I tapped my good friend who is a seamstress and said,
00:15:27.520 | hey, would you mind moving it?
00:15:29.700 | I'll get the materials of you.
00:15:31.120 | And she's like, I'd love to do that.
00:15:32.760 | And one year I, some homeschool moms
00:15:37.720 | that were particularly good at like one made pies.
00:15:41.420 | I said, hey, can we come over to show us how to make a pie?
00:15:45.320 | I'm not a good pie crust maker, you are.
00:15:47.760 | And they're like, yes, one person loved making chicken
00:15:51.000 | and dumplings.
00:15:51.840 | I said, hey, would you mind us coming over
00:15:55.360 | and we'll all bring some chicken or whatever you need
00:15:57.780 | and help us make dumplings.
00:16:00.120 | And you know, that's the kind of thing is to grab the,
00:16:04.120 | it's kind of recognized on what's in your very community.
00:16:06.900 | You know, if you have someone that can, you know,
00:16:09.520 | cut flowers or I don't know,
00:16:11.600 | know how to clean a silver platter, whatever it is,
00:16:15.040 | it can be random, but just gathering people together
00:16:18.760 | and going, hey, let's spend like this next week or two
00:16:23.520 | and just tapping into each other's giftedness in it.
00:16:27.240 | And one of the dads, he wanted his sons
00:16:31.940 | to know how to change the oil in the car.
00:16:33.640 | So I said, hey, would you mind our sons,
00:16:37.200 | if I gathered the sons together or our daughters
00:16:40.880 | to know how to serve the car?
00:16:42.720 | And he goes, I'd love that.
00:16:44.080 | So he parked a bunch of you, we got some,
00:16:46.200 | he was even instrumental in grabbing some widow's cars
00:16:49.440 | from our, we live in.
00:16:50.960 | - Oh, what a great idea.
00:16:52.880 | - Signing them up and just going through
00:16:55.040 | and showing everybody, this is how you do it.
00:16:57.400 | And it was January, super cold, but they didn't care.
00:17:00.880 | They love being together, being outside
00:17:03.120 | and the dad was just super good at that.
00:17:05.740 | So I think just giving yourself a lot of freedom
00:17:09.960 | to look at the non quote, non-academic world.
00:17:14.120 | I mean, we can do a lot of academic stuff too.
00:17:16.680 | That's really fun, geography, deep dive into things
00:17:19.800 | that you've wanted to tackle.
00:17:21.380 | But I think sometimes thinking a little outside the box
00:17:24.800 | and giving yourself permission to say,
00:17:27.300 | this doesn't look like school.
00:17:29.520 | - Yeah, the tradition.
00:17:32.540 | - Well, but the Lord, he's shaping all of us.
00:17:36.800 | And part of it is building community
00:17:38.840 | and then recognizing each other's gifts.
00:17:42.880 | So those are one part, but then there's the other part
00:17:46.140 | of saying, hey, we wanna,
00:17:48.200 | like if you have an essentials child,
00:17:50.160 | let's, we've been doing history and American history,
00:17:53.160 | especially in cycle three this year, let's pick a person,
00:17:58.160 | let's pick an event and grab some books and dress up,
00:18:03.440 | do some kind of write up a drama.
00:18:08.280 | The other day, my daughter being homebound,
00:18:11.800 | they wrote a ballad, how fun is that?
00:18:16.160 | Dang it, and performed it all looking goofy and dressed up.
00:18:19.800 | But it's that sort of thing like, okay, what do we,
00:18:23.600 | like, is there a piece of literature?
00:18:25.180 | Like maybe we haven't done poetry, maybe we're all tales.
00:18:29.200 | Maybe we wanna dive into a region
00:18:33.080 | like we did a Japanese culture day
00:18:36.080 | where we had a tea party and all the children,
00:18:40.600 | including the guys, which weren't thrilled at it,
00:18:43.240 | but dressed up, we ate squid,
00:18:46.880 | which I don't know if they, that's very Asian day.
00:18:51.880 | And it was so much fun because people brought,
00:18:55.640 | they each had to bring a fact
00:18:57.520 | or a artifact they'd created or part
00:19:00.960 | and just have like a sharing time of what we learned
00:19:04.360 | and really, and then we prayed for someone
00:19:07.040 | had been a missionary to Japan and we prayed for Japan.
00:19:10.120 | And I thought, well, that was a really fun day
00:19:14.880 | of just focusing in on something
00:19:17.440 | and like those timeline cards are great for that.
00:19:20.720 | - Yes, deep dive history is super fun.
00:19:24.760 | Because a lot of times, I know with my kids,
00:19:28.000 | during the semester, you're going through the work
00:19:31.040 | and you're touching on these things
00:19:32.600 | and my kids would a lot of times ask a question
00:19:36.000 | that I would think that probably has,
00:19:39.760 | that's an interesting tentacle
00:19:41.160 | and we could chase that a long way,
00:19:42.680 | but we also need to do X, Y, and Z today.
00:19:46.400 | So maybe we're not, go back and find those things
00:19:50.120 | that your kids or you wondered about.
00:19:53.160 | It is so nice to have the freedom to chase a rabbit
00:19:57.520 | as far as he'll run.
00:20:00.560 | I just think that I loved what you said about,
00:20:03.280 | so you've been studying, so your challenge A student
00:20:06.640 | is getting ready to study a certain region
00:20:08.880 | or draw in their cartography a certain area of the world.
00:20:13.640 | Pick a country from that area
00:20:16.400 | and then do things you never would have taken time to do,
00:20:19.640 | like sew a costume or find out about the music
00:20:24.640 | from that country.
00:20:26.040 | Like what's that country's national anthem sound like?
00:20:28.560 | What instruments do they use?
00:20:30.800 | Could you find some or make some and play it?
00:20:35.120 | It's just so, there's so many directions to go
00:20:38.760 | and I think when our children are little,
00:20:42.000 | they are interested in so many things
00:20:45.360 | and they can riff off the main tune so easily,
00:20:50.360 | they can find all of those side harmonies that go with that.
00:20:54.600 | And I think that sometimes in our effort
00:20:57.920 | to help our children do hard things,
00:21:00.480 | we stifle the opportunity to chase
00:21:04.440 | all of the daily delights.
00:21:06.960 | And so a January term is perfect
00:21:10.040 | for getting back to those daily delights.
00:21:12.800 | Let me ask you this though.
00:21:15.080 | What about, 'cause I hear what people's concerns might be,
00:21:20.080 | what about the challenge kids?
00:21:22.080 | All right, isn't it hard to take a break
00:21:24.880 | from the regular course guide for those older kids?
00:21:28.480 | I know it is, I've had that situation.
00:21:31.440 | So how do we include our challenge kids?
00:21:34.400 | Amy, what would you say?
00:21:36.320 | Oh, I think again, one of the things
00:21:39.120 | is just helping them, like talking to them.
00:21:43.080 | For my children, especially when they were at that age
00:21:47.600 | of early middle school, high school,
00:21:50.920 | they loved being with friends.
00:21:53.520 | And I had little ones as well as high schoolers.
00:21:57.480 | And sometimes high schoolers,
00:21:59.480 | especially you have smaller children in the house,
00:22:01.960 | they get a little weary with the three year old
00:22:05.240 | and just the rhythm of their little day.
00:22:10.240 | No, we have nap time now, that sort of thing.
00:22:13.000 | So what I really tried to do with at that level
00:22:17.880 | is to just bring, be with people like--
00:22:23.160 | Yes, that's great.
00:22:24.320 | And just let's have a chili cook-off.
00:22:26.640 | I mean, like I said, the dumpling person,
00:22:31.640 | we did a chili cook-off at their house,
00:22:35.280 | just where people came in.
00:22:37.120 | Of course, the guys put through in hibernaries
00:22:39.880 | like you couldn't believe and--
00:22:41.600 | Oh, gosh, yes.
00:22:43.040 | You have to eat the hottest thing in the world.
00:22:44.600 | But just having a time where they're together
00:22:48.720 | and science experiments that you have
00:22:53.720 | either done the previous semester
00:22:57.320 | or are participating this next semester,
00:23:00.760 | there is no rule against doing a science experiment
00:23:04.360 | multiple times.
00:23:06.440 | So trying to saying, okay, we've got chemistry coming up.
00:23:10.760 | Here's some of the experiments
00:23:12.920 | that we're gonna be looking at next semester.
00:23:16.120 | Let's see if we can gather people together
00:23:19.720 | and see if we can do this.
00:23:21.840 | Let's see if we can work this out
00:23:23.320 | or even doing something along the same lines
00:23:26.440 | that mirror that unit that you're doing.
00:23:31.040 | Something that's a little bit hands-on,
00:23:34.360 | off the beaten path, but they don't feel like,
00:23:38.600 | oh, I'm gonna get behind.
00:23:40.400 | And you're looking at spring semester,
00:23:44.480 | a lot of times kids are getting ready for the ACT or SAT,
00:23:47.600 | they're getting all that.
00:23:49.680 | So I think trying to,
00:23:52.840 | for us it was being with other students
00:23:56.880 | that we were actually accomplishing quote, quote,
00:24:00.920 | accomplishing something, but we're also doing it
00:24:05.120 | in a really kind of lighthearted way,
00:24:07.800 | like covering a piece of literature that we're gonna read
00:24:10.120 | or something that even watching, we had our challenge class
00:24:15.120 | was mainly boys for a while and so we watched
00:24:22.280 | Pride and Prejudice much to their dismay.
00:24:25.280 | - Oh, yes, yes.
00:24:26.960 | - But it was fun because we did it together.
00:24:31.760 | It was something they knew they were gonna be anticipating
00:24:35.760 | doing for the semester so they didn't feel
00:24:38.800 | like they had lost quote, time,
00:24:42.040 | but also just hearing what are some skills
00:24:45.520 | they would like to do because we also,
00:24:49.040 | like one of our children, well, two of our sons
00:24:53.120 | were very interested in electronics
00:24:54.920 | and so they spent one particular period of time,
00:24:59.840 | it wasn't the full weeks, but of spending half the day
00:25:04.520 | building a computer and just sort of tinkering with it,
00:25:09.520 | having friends over that knew the incident,
00:25:12.240 | which I did not, what little things to plug in where
00:25:16.440 | and what, and so one of our son's friends
00:25:21.440 | was really interested in shooting those little discs
00:25:26.640 | that flow up in the air.
00:25:27.600 | - Oh, yes.
00:25:28.920 | - They would go practice shooting in the afternoon.
00:25:31.200 | - Shooting clays.
00:25:32.120 | - Yes, and that was something they wouldn't have done
00:25:37.000 | if they hadn't had the extra time.
00:25:39.360 | So just looking for avenues of their own exploring
00:25:43.920 | in a way that usually is with some other friends
00:25:50.200 | and we did, I know one good friend set up
00:25:55.000 | this very elaborate aquarium in his,
00:25:57.640 | so he all went over and I had a son
00:26:00.400 | that was really interested in that
00:26:02.120 | and how did you go about it and just explained it to us,
00:26:07.120 | just kind of shared with us how he went about doing this,
00:26:11.480 | how he maintained it, what was required, he loved that
00:26:15.240 | and we did too, it was something that we wouldn't have taken
00:26:19.360 | the time otherwise to do and of course,
00:26:21.520 | there's tons of volunteer things,
00:26:23.320 | they can volunteer at a shelter or you can,
00:26:27.240 | anything like collecting food,
00:26:30.880 | get them involved in the community.
00:26:33.120 | We have a couple of thrift stores here that love it
00:26:36.880 | when you collect canned goods or especially in January,
00:26:41.760 | coats, shoes, ministries that are really eager for you
00:26:46.760 | that need an extra pair of hands
00:26:48.520 | because usually volunteers aren't clamoring.
00:26:51.880 | - In January, you're right.
00:26:54.560 | The animal shelter here in our county really loves
00:26:57.880 | to have volunteers and so, or just calling and saying,
00:27:02.640 | hey, can you tell us a little more about the services
00:27:05.120 | that you provide?
00:27:06.000 | Usually people are eager to share that.
00:27:09.680 | Nursing homes, usually after the holidays,
00:27:12.960 | people aren't, they're lonely.
00:27:15.120 | - Right, right.
00:27:16.600 | - So just getting, tapping into opportunities for service
00:27:21.480 | or learning something that you've been kind of interested in
00:27:24.760 | or something that you don't know anything about,
00:27:27.280 | those are really good thing.
00:27:31.920 | I just feel like it's a time you can say,
00:27:34.920 | okay, in the next two weeks, we're just gonna do the,
00:27:39.800 | if you wanna keep doing, whatever it is that you feel like
00:27:44.120 | we need to maintain this for the first two hours of the day,
00:27:48.880 | we want the academics cared for.
00:27:52.280 | But then this part of the day,
00:27:55.360 | we're gonna be looking at these things
00:27:57.760 | or doing these things and for our older kids,
00:28:01.360 | it was doing something with other homeschool kids
00:28:06.360 | that seemed to be the most exciting thing for them.
00:28:11.360 | I couldn't have, we didn't have a party every day.
00:28:14.000 | (laughs)
00:28:14.840 | - Right, right, right, right, right.
00:28:16.920 | - But it was fun.
00:28:18.280 | And usually moms in the same desperate situation
00:28:23.280 | are also, you pool your energy.
00:28:27.040 | And of course that always, I know for me,
00:28:30.000 | just being around other moms,
00:28:31.400 | it always brought me a little bit out of my hole
00:28:33.360 | and was encouraging and laughing
00:28:37.480 | when things did not go right.
00:28:38.880 | We could mutually encourage each other.
00:28:40.960 | So that was always a good time.
00:28:42.720 | - That is so good.
00:28:45.120 | So many practical ideas.
00:28:48.520 | I think that is awesome.
00:28:51.040 | I think you have brought up some really good ideas.
00:28:53.480 | If you've got little kids in essentials,
00:28:57.080 | then you know that you guys are working
00:28:59.480 | toward faces of history.
00:29:01.720 | So a January term might be the perfect
00:29:05.120 | deep dive time for that.
00:29:07.280 | And so beyond just researching your person
00:29:10.880 | and starting to write your paper,
00:29:13.640 | you're gonna do that, right?
00:29:15.360 | But do with a deep dive.
00:29:16.640 | Like you were saying, learn how to sew the costume,
00:29:20.200 | make the costume, go on a citywide scavenger hunt
00:29:24.920 | through all the thrift stores that you have
00:29:28.640 | to find implements for your costume,
00:29:31.680 | old jewelry that you can sew into,
00:29:35.480 | the robes of a king or a queen.
00:29:38.720 | You could write a play about your history person.
00:29:42.680 | My kids used to love to write plays.
00:29:46.080 | Oh my goodness.
00:29:46.920 | At the drop of a hat, they would write play.
00:29:48.920 | I remember one year for her birthday,
00:29:51.520 | my older daughter, what she wanted for her birthday,
00:29:54.960 | she never had a regular birthday party in her life.
00:29:57.440 | And what she wanted one year was
00:29:59.240 | she was going to write a play and all of her friends
00:30:02.800 | were gonna join her at her party and put on the play.
00:30:06.280 | And so we kind of had to talk her down a little bit.
00:30:08.560 | Okay, so you're gonna come on this one day
00:30:10.560 | and you're gonna want people to know their lines
00:30:12.720 | and they're not gonna know their lines.
00:30:15.000 | You can't, okay, so if we want to do a play,
00:30:17.400 | we've got to pick a story that people know
00:30:20.080 | and you have to let them have,
00:30:22.760 | I knew her controlling nature.
00:30:24.760 | I said, you have to let them be able to control
00:30:27.480 | the script a little bit.
00:30:28.800 | And so we actually did,
00:30:31.280 | we took the little red hen and rewrote it
00:30:37.240 | as the brave little princess.
00:30:41.920 | And so she, everybody that was coming to her party
00:30:46.240 | had a part assigned.
00:30:47.320 | We had a court jester and the court guard
00:30:50.240 | and the giggling princess and the pretty, pretty princess.
00:30:54.400 | And so all the different people and, you know,
00:30:56.960 | will you help me do this?
00:30:58.440 | No, and that, it was just, and so we acted out the play.
00:31:03.000 | We still have the movie of that play,
00:31:06.500 | but what a fun January term for an eight, nine,
00:31:10.880 | 10 year old to do, you know?
00:31:14.220 | I loved your idea about volunteering.
00:31:17.200 | That is so good.
00:31:18.480 | Find out, you know, you can even do a study
00:31:22.040 | for your older students, your challenge students
00:31:24.680 | might want to do a deep dive into
00:31:26.800 | what is that local nonprofit all about
00:31:30.100 | and how did they become a nonprofit
00:31:32.680 | and what are the tax implications of that?
00:31:35.200 | And how do you set up something like that?
00:31:37.600 | And how do you assess the need?
00:31:40.220 | Learn about what they do,
00:31:41.580 | but also you could write an ad for that.
00:31:44.380 | If you've got a child who is very creative writer,
00:31:47.780 | write an ad for that nonprofit
00:31:50.700 | and research their business model.
00:31:53.180 | I bet all of you live somewhere
00:31:57.400 | where there are tourist sites.
00:32:00.900 | Now you might not think of it as a tourist site
00:32:03.220 | 'cause you live there and you never go visit,
00:32:05.840 | but be a tourist, become an expert on a local site
00:32:10.100 | or a historical site or even a business interest.
00:32:14.300 | You know, the company that is the biggest in your town,
00:32:18.580 | find out about it.
00:32:19.800 | Why might somebody want to come and see that?
00:32:22.280 | Interview somebody, you know, you could make a map.
00:32:25.740 | We have national parks close to us.
00:32:27.960 | You could make a map of that
00:32:29.440 | and see how well it matches the map
00:32:32.100 | that the park service made.
00:32:33.680 | You could pretend to be a tour guide for that.
00:32:38.060 | You know, we mentioned you could learn a song
00:32:41.580 | from another nation or about the instruments
00:32:45.100 | from another nation.
00:32:46.180 | You could learn a craft.
00:32:47.460 | I loved what you said about getting somebody to come
00:32:51.220 | help your girls make doll clothes.
00:32:53.300 | Like I'm like you, Amy, I can make an apron
00:32:56.980 | and I can make a pillowcase.
00:32:59.460 | One time I made a Hawaiian shirt for my husband
00:33:02.660 | and it was like the fluke of life
00:33:04.780 | that all the wild patterns matched up.
00:33:06.740 | I don't think I could ever do it again,
00:33:09.500 | but I have friends who are beautiful seamstresses
00:33:12.820 | and I have a mother-in-law who knows how to knit.
00:33:15.940 | And so, you know, if you wanted to learn woodworking
00:33:19.260 | or bonsai gardening or jewelry making or candle making,
00:33:24.260 | there are all kinds of things that we could do
00:33:29.280 | with our children.
00:33:31.000 | And that's part of what I want to encourage all of us to do
00:33:35.580 | is to use the January term as a time of family learning,
00:33:40.580 | where you do something altogether,
00:33:43.140 | where everybody's not doing their own little thing
00:33:46.420 | and you're just the puppet master that supervises.
00:33:50.300 | - Good, yes.
00:33:52.340 | - I like it that we could all choose something
00:33:55.020 | that none of us know a lot about
00:33:58.340 | and we could learn in front of each other.
00:34:00.480 | - That's such a good, that's a good analogy, Lisa.
00:34:04.100 | That's right.
00:34:05.080 | It's a great time to connect with each other.
00:34:08.480 | And one, I remember one time we did just,
00:34:12.740 | we all created this goofy game, board game
00:34:17.860 | of all the quirky things that dad did.
00:34:21.980 | And, but it was a thank you, you know, like dad,
00:34:25.260 | you know, take three steps back
00:34:27.140 | because we have to listen to dad sing that song again.
00:34:30.820 | And we, by the time he got home, we all played it.
00:34:34.480 | And it was just so fun,
00:34:36.900 | like that kind of thing where you're together
00:34:39.500 | or, you know, when you were talking, I was thinking,
00:34:43.180 | we had a good, a neighbor down the street
00:34:45.780 | that was a Korean War veteran.
00:34:48.940 | And we all marched down, planned a day and interviewed,
00:34:53.940 | but what was it like?
00:34:56.720 | Share that story.
00:34:58.260 | And there are people in our life, grandparents or aunts,
00:35:02.500 | uncles, even us as parents, you know, interviewing like,
00:35:06.740 | hey, what was, give some fun book you read
00:35:11.040 | or something that you share together as a family.
00:35:16.040 | I think that's a really good insight that it's not,
00:35:19.740 | like you said, it's so easy to get just kind of isolated
00:35:23.920 | in your own world with your own work,
00:35:25.840 | even if you're living in the same home.
00:35:27.900 | Really spend that time going,
00:35:30.980 | hey, let's all go and do this thing together
00:35:35.900 | and recognize the fun of being together.
00:35:40.560 | And I think that's a great, great insight to reconnect,
00:35:45.560 | to join us. - Yes.
00:35:49.540 | - And then just to be praying,
00:35:51.660 | one of the things that we did try to maintain
00:35:53.860 | was the same kind of rhythm of the home,
00:35:57.340 | even if we were doing different things
00:35:58.840 | like just having a time in a devotional.
00:36:03.540 | That was always something,
00:36:05.580 | there's always something fun to do that's different,
00:36:08.240 | but also some of my children really gravitated
00:36:12.240 | toward like the consistency of things.
00:36:15.400 | So we did consistent mourning routine,
00:36:19.260 | you know, to pray together and be together and connect.
00:36:23.460 | And even in those cases,
00:36:25.020 | you can change up your devotional time.
00:36:27.820 | You can do, I know we did missionary stories
00:36:30.120 | for a couple of weeks.
00:36:31.140 | - That's good.
00:36:33.100 | - It's a little different, but I think there's,
00:36:35.580 | I think part of it is you don't have to be a camp counselor
00:36:40.180 | and all of a sudden you're exhausted after two weeks.
00:36:43.180 | - Yes, that's great.
00:36:46.100 | - But saying there are little things
00:36:49.220 | that don't require a tremendous amount of energy
00:36:52.340 | that can build and that your children,
00:36:56.180 | especially as they're energized,
00:36:58.420 | I found like I was energized.
00:37:00.140 | The hardest thing was pushing, getting it going,
00:37:03.100 | but once you got it going,
00:37:05.180 | then they kind of clicked in and took it on.
00:37:09.300 | And sometimes in directions I wasn't anticipating,
00:37:11.500 | but that was fine.
00:37:12.500 | And so I think that helps to know,
00:37:16.100 | okay, let me just get something going.
00:37:17.780 | And sometimes Lisa, things just fell flat.
00:37:21.580 | - Absolutely.
00:37:22.420 | I think that is, thank you for sharing that.
00:37:24.460 | We don't want everybody to think that everybody else's stuff
00:37:27.620 | always works out well and mine hits a brick wall
00:37:31.700 | or a pothole.
00:37:32.620 | No, I mean, I can remember things that did not go well
00:37:37.620 | or that we got in the middle of it and the kids were like,
00:37:41.220 | why are we doing this?
00:37:42.620 | This is terrible.
00:37:43.940 | I mean, it doesn't always fly.
00:37:47.740 | But if you can laugh together and just that,
00:37:51.020 | and then just stop, there were times when I stopped
00:37:53.500 | and I would just look at them and say,
00:37:55.100 | this is not really very much fun, is it?
00:37:56.940 | And they would say, no mama, it's not.
00:37:59.380 | And I would just throw up my hands and say,
00:38:00.980 | well, then let's go do something else.
00:38:03.140 | This is not what it's all about because,
00:38:06.020 | and this is important.
00:38:07.580 | And this is kind of what I would like for us to end on.
00:38:10.780 | What are we, why are we doing this?
00:38:13.060 | Why are we trying to jazz up January?
00:38:16.180 | It's not so that we can make ourselves
00:38:18.260 | crazy camp counselors, like Amy was saying.
00:38:21.540 | It's not because we're trying to add something new.
00:38:24.300 | The whole point is that we want to make connections
00:38:29.300 | with our family.
00:38:30.740 | We wanna do something different together.
00:38:34.140 | We want to rekindle that spark, that joy of family learning
00:38:39.140 | that we've been trying to keep burning all this time.
00:38:44.620 | We want to be together.
00:38:47.460 | Here's the deal, homeschooling is a journey
00:38:52.220 | that we take with those we love.
00:38:54.820 | And here's the truth and you all know it,
00:38:57.380 | journeys are more pleasant when we pace ourselves,
00:39:01.540 | when we make use of all the rest stops as needed,
00:39:05.900 | they're more pleasant if we notice the scenery
00:39:08.980 | as we go along, journeys are more pleasant
00:39:12.620 | if we take time for conversation and reflection.
00:39:17.020 | So jazzing up January is not one more thing
00:39:20.380 | to put on your list, mom, dad.
00:39:23.220 | Jazzing up January is about taking a deep breath,
00:39:28.180 | finding joy in learning together,
00:39:32.060 | and giving yourself a little rest and reset
00:39:36.060 | before you jump both feet into second semester.
00:39:40.660 | Amy, what last words of encouragement
00:39:43.220 | for weary homeschoolers looking for inspiration
00:39:46.700 | do you want to offer?
00:39:48.700 | - Well, I think you just said it so beautifully, Lisa.
00:39:51.620 | And I think that just recognizing
00:39:55.060 | we're sort of all in this little weary period together
00:39:59.740 | and that the Lord is our strength.
00:40:02.380 | He is anxious and eager to renew us.
00:40:05.740 | And he has a vision for our next semester
00:40:08.660 | so we don't have to have it all together.
00:40:10.780 | And I think you said, just like you said,
00:40:13.440 | just kind of stepping back and thinking,
00:40:16.140 | why are we doing what we're doing here?
00:40:18.500 | It's not to fill out a transcript at the end of the year.
00:40:23.180 | It's really, there's so, so many,
00:40:26.660 | and we could have a whole other conversation about this,
00:40:29.140 | but there are hundreds of other beautiful things
00:40:32.980 | that happen within your family
00:40:34.620 | that you will reap the fruit of for years.
00:40:38.980 | That little goofy thing you did that didn't go well,
00:40:44.100 | you will laugh at that, like, oh yeah, mom, I remember that.
00:40:47.940 | But that's a memory that holds together
00:40:51.100 | and that inspires your child as they have a homeschool
00:40:55.520 | and things can go well there,
00:40:57.740 | they can look back and go, yeah, we remember that.
00:41:00.120 | That you are building, I think of as we're building a family
00:41:05.120 | by the grace of God, that is a heritage.
00:41:10.760 | We're building a heritage of generations as you,
00:41:14.620 | and you probably see this with your grandson,
00:41:17.020 | that your family, those little decisions,
00:41:21.500 | those encouragements, that togetherness builds,
00:41:25.080 | and it builds a heritage that your children reap
00:41:29.200 | in their families.
00:41:30.660 | And I just think, just to know, to recognize,
00:41:33.520 | it's happening, God is working,
00:41:36.480 | and even if things don't go well,
00:41:39.360 | that God is working in your family
00:41:42.240 | and that you can recognize, you can put things in priority
00:41:47.240 | according to his priorities and rest assured
00:41:51.440 | that other things will take care of themselves.
00:41:53.820 | But first things first, second things come.
00:41:56.660 | And I think I had to do that reset frequently,
00:42:01.360 | not just in January, but frequently to remind myself
00:42:05.300 | of God's good faithfulness in our family.
00:42:08.420 | - Oh, Amy, this has been so great.
00:42:10.460 | You know what, I think this might be
00:42:11.960 | one of my favorite podcasts of all time.
00:42:14.820 | I think this was a lot of fun.
00:42:16.620 | It ministered to my soul.
00:42:18.220 | I pray, listeners, that it has ministered to your soul
00:42:21.880 | as you are looking for ways to lead your family,
00:42:25.500 | to be joyful learners together.
00:42:28.780 | We hope that you will be blessed.
00:42:32.700 | I just wanna, I wanna mention one thing
00:42:35.000 | that I think might also be a blessing to your family
00:42:38.360 | is you are seeking to be a growing lead learner in your home.
00:42:42.380 | I've mentioned it before.
00:42:44.000 | It's the classical learning cohort.
00:42:47.760 | You can learn from a trained mentor
00:42:51.460 | who will help you to gather the tools of exciting
00:42:56.400 | that will excite your students
00:42:58.400 | and the tools that will help you assess
00:43:00.700 | your students' learning
00:43:02.380 | and help your whole family learn together.
00:43:05.540 | If you wanna find out more about how to grow your knowledge
00:43:10.220 | and skills as a classical educator,
00:43:13.420 | go to classicalconversations.com/cohort,
00:43:18.420 | and you can find out all about the classical learning cohort.
00:43:24.140 | Don't delay.
00:43:25.540 | Spring registration is happening now and spaces are limited,
00:43:29.720 | so that's classicalconversations.com/cohort.
00:43:35.640 | You guys go and jazz up your January,
00:43:38.720 | and I'd love to hear how it's going.
00:43:41.640 | See you next week.
00:43:43.300 | (gentle music)
00:43:45.880 | you
00:43:47.940 | [BLANK_AUDIO]