My 3rd grader, Sam, is a motivated and excited learner. He loves new ideas and happily shares his latest school projects.
And yet, on this, his 36th day of doing school from home, HE IS SO DONE.
He used to initiate his daily work, check off tasks with a vengeance, and display his finished assignments with pride.
Now he requires constant cajoling, reminding, settling, and checking.
We have only two and a half more weeks of school for this year, and I have adapted the mantra We Can Do Hard Things. Especially for two and a half weeks.
Maybe an acronym will help: WCDHTFTAAHW. It's kind of long and difficult, but then again, so is the week.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
We Attack At Dawn
The kids have been engaging in some excellent imaginative play around here.
It involves Legos and pop music and pirate hats and princess dresses and a stuffed cat. It usually begins with one of the kids saying, "We attack at dawn." It starts after breakfast, ebbs and flows around the other activities of the day, and ends when we make the kids go to their separate rooms for sleep.
I do not grasp the full depth of it, and I love it intensely.
It involves Legos and pop music and pirate hats and princess dresses and a stuffed cat. It usually begins with one of the kids saying, "We attack at dawn." It starts after breakfast, ebbs and flows around the other activities of the day, and ends when we make the kids go to their separate rooms for sleep.
I do not grasp the full depth of it, and I love it intensely.
Saturday, May 09, 2020
What The Future Holds
I have no regrets about these years as a stay-at-home parent. It's been wonderful and meaningful and also hard. This year, in particular, I have found a sort-of balance with teaching preschool, volunteering in schools, and implementing daily healthy habits of body and mind.
Sometime in late February, though, I felt the urge to look for a job outside the home again. Something in education that would offer added purpose, challenge my intellect, and still allow for the balance it took me so long to appreciate. Maybe in academia? Maybe in a school? Definitely something with a teaching component.
Just as I was beginning to sort out my thinking on what a job like that might be, the pandemic took over and an opportunity to teach Kindergarten and 3rd grade appeared. I could not pass it up. Like, literally, passing it up was not an option.
So for eight weeks now I have been supporting my own kids in their at-home learning, as both a parent and a teacher. This has been rewarding and also terribly difficult, as anyone in the same position might attest. This has also thrown my outside-the-home job search into new relief. Do I want to start a new job when the likelihood of teaching 1st and 4th grades next year is so high? Maybe. Do I want to work from home while also teaching my motivated but also needy kids? Definitely no.
So I'm sitting here in limbo, like so many others, wondering what the future will hold. Hoping that things will become clearer very soon but not counting on that either.
Sometime in late February, though, I felt the urge to look for a job outside the home again. Something in education that would offer added purpose, challenge my intellect, and still allow for the balance it took me so long to appreciate. Maybe in academia? Maybe in a school? Definitely something with a teaching component.
Just as I was beginning to sort out my thinking on what a job like that might be, the pandemic took over and an opportunity to teach Kindergarten and 3rd grade appeared. I could not pass it up. Like, literally, passing it up was not an option.
So for eight weeks now I have been supporting my own kids in their at-home learning, as both a parent and a teacher. This has been rewarding and also terribly difficult, as anyone in the same position might attest. This has also thrown my outside-the-home job search into new relief. Do I want to start a new job when the likelihood of teaching 1st and 4th grades next year is so high? Maybe. Do I want to work from home while also teaching my motivated but also needy kids? Definitely no.
So I'm sitting here in limbo, like so many others, wondering what the future will hold. Hoping that things will become clearer very soon but not counting on that either.
Friday, May 01, 2020
The Stuff That Really Makes Us Happy
Because for a minute it seemed like we might all have more time during the Great Covid Quarantine, my sister-in-law suggested we take an online Yale course called The Science of Well-Being. The professor, Dr. Laurie Santos, teaches how to be happier by applying what researchers know about happiness from psychological science.
I believe in and support science, so I agreed.
It's possible I'm missing some key take aways due to watching TV while also viewing lectures (that's what the Yale kids do, too, right?), but here's what's sticking with me so far:
1) Our intuitions about what will make us happy are totally wrong. Not only do we want the wrong things (aptly called miswanting) but we also think those things will make us happy for longer than they do.
2) There's this thing called Hedonic Adaptation, which means that we get used to things and then they don't make us happy any more. A new car, for example. Eventually (and sooner than you'd think), it's just the car you have.
3) Because we don't adapt to them, experiences make us happier than things. Even though you might want to extend that vacation, it's the shortness of it that makes it so great.
4) Our reference points, those completely irrelevant standards against which we compare ourselves, are also totally wrong and have an intense impact on our happiness. Dr. Santos has a lot to say about social media here, as you can imagine.
5) We can intentionally engage in practices that make us happier. Dr. Santos says we'll learn the details of The Stuff That Really Makes Us Happy next week. I'll be returning for that lecture. Obviously.
If you want to take this course, I'm pretty sure you still can.
I believe in and support science, so I agreed.
It's possible I'm missing some key take aways due to watching TV while also viewing lectures (that's what the Yale kids do, too, right?), but here's what's sticking with me so far:
1) Our intuitions about what will make us happy are totally wrong. Not only do we want the wrong things (aptly called miswanting) but we also think those things will make us happy for longer than they do.
2) There's this thing called Hedonic Adaptation, which means that we get used to things and then they don't make us happy any more. A new car, for example. Eventually (and sooner than you'd think), it's just the car you have.
3) Because we don't adapt to them, experiences make us happier than things. Even though you might want to extend that vacation, it's the shortness of it that makes it so great.
4) Our reference points, those completely irrelevant standards against which we compare ourselves, are also totally wrong and have an intense impact on our happiness. Dr. Santos has a lot to say about social media here, as you can imagine.
5) We can intentionally engage in practices that make us happier. Dr. Santos says we'll learn the details of The Stuff That Really Makes Us Happy next week. I'll be returning for that lecture. Obviously.
If you want to take this course, I'm pretty sure you still can.
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