Universal Slack

I want to introduce you to a most useful concept

Granting Universal Slack

I just got off the phone with Janice, who had to tell me that a surgery for our big rescue dog had to again be rescheduled to some date that is not yet known.  I said of course, and that I hoped she was staying well in these crazy days.  She almost cried, and said "Thank you for making this easy" - because other folks had been making it hard.

So, don't be that person.  Don't make it harder for anyone else right now.  Things kinda suck at the moment.  They just do.  It's hard enough, grant folks some slack.  Grant Universal Slack, to everyone.  Including yourself. 

Universal slack means acting with patience regardless of how you're feeling.  It means remembering that nothing about the current state of affairs is anything like normal, for anyone, and we're all just doing the best we can.  Universal slack means granting it to someone who isn't ready to reciprocate.
It means remembering that what is really important is how we treat each other, and that real character is shown when things aren't going your way.  And it's ok to screw up, just try again.  and again.

We're going to figure this out together, somehow.  Somehow, some day, we'll be on the other side of all of this mess.  What we'll remember is how we stood together, how we treated each other.

So cut each other some slack, ok?

I love you enough to share some cuteness
Here's a picture of two of our foster kittens

and our eighty pound rescue dog who won't be having surgery anytime soon

Make bad art

The act of imagination is an act of survival

To learn is human
To engineer is human
To create is human

Create because it feels good, not because the product is good, but because the process is.  It fufills a basic human drive to effect change, create, express.  It's good to feel good. But, if you need an excuse, make art because making art is good for us, like vegetables and exercise level good.

Remember when you were little?  You'd make something and not know that it was "bad"?  Mud pies were real.  You'd draw a picture and it was so satisfying, no, it didn't look like what you'd intended, but it felt good to do it, you liked the colors, the shape, the way it felt.  You'd hear a song, it gave you shivers, and then maybe you'd sing it, with no thought to if you were "good".

Then, probably, somewhere, you got feed back that didn't feel so good.  You handed someone a picture and the tone when they asked "what is this?" stung. Or your fourth grade music teacher told you to just mouth the words instead of singing. 

When I was a little kid I would sing, all the time.  Real songs I'd heard (or mis-heard), songs I made up, pretty random, but to me it made sense.  It was comforting.  Some time in 6th grade I learned that maybe this wasn't socially acceptable. (ya, late bloomer here)
[I think it was when I got peeved with a friend on the play ground and loudly sang at her "Anything you can I can do better, I can do anything better than you!"  You get a certain sort of rep when you do shit like that.]

Even as a teen my brother and I would play a game where we would only respond to each other with snippets of song.  Huh.  Firelord and I found ourselves doing that when the full implications of COVID19 started to hit us.  "It's the end of the world as we know it" "We didn't start the fire, 'cause the worlds been burning since the world's been turning" "Staying alive, staying alive"
So, ya, I guess I haven't really outgrown it.  It feels good.

There's research out there that shows that art is good for you. 
Making art is good for you.  The  objective quality of your work is irrelevant. 
Play.
Make art because it feels good. 
Call it a mediation if you need an excuse. 
Do it to stay sane. 
Do it to model for your kids and community this oh-so-valuable survival mechanism.

learn anything, go anywhere - virtually

I am one of those awful people who leaves stuff out so I can see it and be reminded to deal with it.  It's a mess, but it mostly works for me.
I do the same thing with tabs on my browser, but when I opened my computer this morning and realized that I had 52 tabs open, I knew I needed to do something.  Even I have my limits.

Here it is, a list of some of the resources I've found in the last couple of days for keeping a kid busy at home.  I was going to sort it all out in, write several {absolutely brilliant} blog posts with specific topics and ages in mind.  But, fuck it.  I don't have time and I'm moving on.

So here's a brain dump, I hope you have some fun poking around.  Oh, and check out your local library's website.  They'll almost certainly have many resources there like Kanopy, Hoopla, Overdrive, Flipster and Mango

Remember that this is not all about your kids.  It's about you too.  You never know, you might find something of interest here for you too.


Open Culture lists free and education media on the web

PBS listed 19 museums you can visit from home
Paris Musees has thousands of images you can access for free
Broadway shows you can access from home
list of virtual field trips
Adventure Journal has a list of live feeds of animals
U.S. National Parks virtual tours via Googles Hidden Worlds of the National Parks
Geoguesser is a fun geography game G
List of other Google maps games

50 birds and the sounds they make
The NYPL is offering an app that lends e-books for free

There are many free courses on line
Crash Course has some really amazing/fun/wonderful educational classes/videos
Disney Imagineering in a Box
Ivy League Courses on line for free
Coursera also has many free on-line classes
the Khan acadamy has free on-line educational classes and videos
Doodle with Mo, lunch art for kids on the Kennedy Center's youtube channel

Giant list of ideas for being home with kids
Here's a website of Virtual School Activities, virtual tours of museums and zoos around the world.
Amazing Educational Resources is a website of crowd shared found resources
Engineering ideas for kids to try at home
another crowd sourced list of ideas

Netflix has tons of documentaries and educational videos (hint, anything w/ David Attenbough is excellent)  Also, I just learned that you can do a Netflix party!

And finally, if your school is going to make your kid to school at home, you might find this helplful -the  Parents guide to Google Classroom

Sudden Homeschooling

So, here are a few notes I made for myself when brainstorming for emergency homeschooling - no complete thoughts here, but perhaps it will spark something for you (or for me to flesh out!)

chill the f out

routine vs schedule
neighborhood community/support

chores
  you are useful you are appreciated you are notice you are an important member of the family

acting things out, making up stories
make videos?

whereto find how to pick educational videos - kanopy
david attanbough, crash course


read aloud
make stuff - art, write, comic books (both)
 exercise - dance party, hoolahoop!, juggling, poi,

audio books (librivox, library, hoopla,
hand work/ crafts - crochet, knit, art, weaving
scheduling
math (place values) real life - money, cooking,  books -beast acadamy, a o ps, math u see (videos)
legos
games
creativity
library - what do they have at your local one? free stuff, e stuff
virtual museums
google
nature watching
music - practice an instrument, chord charts, free songs
art - so many links!
google map games, geoguesser
languages duolingo, muffy,
science - how does soap work?  what is a virus?

Where to start when emergency homeschooling?

I've been postponing this post because I didn't know where to start, and then I thought, well, neither does anyone else.  This is a crazy situation, one that no one alive in this country has faced before.

So, for my friend who is stuck at home with a 6yo....
How do you get through these first few days of COVID19 social distancing/shelter in place/quarantine?

Again, ease in to this, and consider this first bit (and maybe all of this) as enrichment rather than "school".  School is boring, enrichment is fun and interesting.

Think about the difference between a routine and a schedule. 

A schedule has a specific time at with specific things need to be done.  It's great when you're trying to coordinate people who have busy lives and other things going on. It keeps you on track and helps you be accountable to other people.  It's not so great when you're in a flow, immersed in an activity and you don't have anywhere else you need to be.

A routine, on the other hand, is a series of actions that you do almost habitually.  Rise, let the dog out, eat, brush your teeth, wash your hands after the using the toilet, etc.  A routine is flexible and also easy to remember because you do what you've always done.

When homeschooling, a routine is much easier to manage than a schedule.  You need a schedule for things like lessons and appointments, stuff outside the home.  You're not going to have those right now, so think instead about how to create functional routines that will meet everyone's needs.

Exercise - build this into your routines, and do something more than once a day
When my boys were young they would often bicker, and when they made me crazy, I'd give them laps to do around the yard.  They always came back united in their resentment towards me, and a little less grumpy, so win/win!

If your child is like mine were at that age the first thing you need to do is to give their physical energy somewhere to go.  Seriously, children (and adults) are much nicer when well exercised.  Hey, and join in if you can

Some ideas:
jump rope
calisthenics
dance party!
trampoline if you have one
jumping on the bed if you don't (bail is way more than a new mattress will be when this is all over)
bike ride
hoola hoop
yoga
video workouts

Google for  indoor exercise for kids, yoga, dance, etc.. you name it, it's out there.
Get onto Facebook and look for  groups that fit your kids interest, during this crisis most gyms are shutting down and many are offering free videos and live stream workouts on their pages.
Pinterest is another place to find ideas.

Chill, it's going to be ok

Folks out there are going to be spending a lot more time with their kids than they expected in the next weeks.  Us homeschoolers (and former homeschoolers) might have a bit of an advantage.

Although, to be fair, it's not the advantage I expected to have back when I envisioned the apocalypse.  

So, I will try to share some of my thoughts and opinions.  They're worth exactly what you're paying for them.  If they don't work for you, that's fine.

There is an emotional content to learning that is more important than technique, theory, or materials

There are no educational emergencies.  No one will die if little Susie hasn't memorized her time tables or Timmy doesn't know how to read by the end of the season.

Humans learn, all the time, like it or not.  It's what we do. 

Everything is learning.

Homeschooling is really just parenting.  Sending your kid to school is just outsourcing some parts of parenting, which is fine.  (Seriously, I'd outsource pregnancy if I could. pregger => 4/10 do not recommend, but the baby is nice) 

School at home is not homeschooling, and school at home sucks for all involved, so maybe let up on that  

Try to think about this time as fun enrichment, not make or break, not high stakes.  

You're a coach, and a cheerleader, not a professor.

Follow your kids interest, strew, explore, ask your student what their goals are and what they're curious about.  Luckily, even if we can't leave our homes, with the internet and web, we have the world at our finger tips.

You matter too, so be sure to organize so that you get done what you need to and still stay sane.  More on this later, but a friend once told me "If you're not using the TV as a babysitter, you're doing it wrong.  That's what it's FOR"  There's a time and place for electronics and that time is most certainly when a parent needs a break.  Don't beat the children.

I'll try to post every couple of days to answer some questions for a friend w/ a precocious 6 1/2 year old, but until I get to all those, you could take a peak at some older stuff.
I've written a lot about homeschooling, so you can check that out.  My friend J asked about our eclectic unschooly ways several years ago and I answered her here.   You can check out the pages over there in the side bar.  They were up to date a decade ago, but if I get some motivation I might fix the broken links.

SARS-CoV-2 triggered

The world is a different place than it was just a month ago, just a week ago.

This shock, this surreal feeling, this grief.... it's actually an old friend.  I remember you.  You've been here before.  But before it was just me.  Just me, my whole world suddenly upside down, suddenly nothing would ever be the same again.
Now.
Now.
Now it's all of us.  together.  Our worlds won't be the same.  This feels even bigger than 9/11, which happened only in the U.S., only in NYC.  Here in Colorado we cried, tucked in for a bit, then poked our heads back out of our shells comparatively quickly and carried on.

This will not be quick.
This will last for a year, or more.
A lifetime, or more.
Many lifetimes all at once
I find myself wondering...

Will this be what kills my 98 year old grandfather?  Will I be able to go to his funeral?
What about my 72 year old mother?

when my youngest graduates from high school, how many memorials will there be for the kids who didn't make it to graduation?  Will one be his?


40-70% of the population will get SARS-CoV-2.
1-4% of those will not survive not survive it.
Are you good with math?  Can you run the numbers?
I will help you.
329.5 million x .4 x .01 = 1.32 million people just in this country will not be here next year.  Because they'll be dead.  Everyone of those  will leave behind people who loved them and will never be the same.  That's the conservative estimate.  The other end .... the other upper end number is more than 9 million.

This uncertainty is something that other humans in other countries, other humans in most of all our history, have lived with.  But it't not something a privileged U.S. citizen has had to think about since vaccines for polio and measles were available.  Even if you are so privileged that you could chose to opt of of vaccines, you've had the benefit of the rest of us getting them and not exposing you to these diseases.

This surreal waiting, this almost nebulous fear?  That's an every day occurrence for some folks, even today.
The undocumented immigrant
The compromised cancer patient
The parent of that wee little premie

Most of us will survive.
History will record what we did, how we handled this huge test of our collective character.

We'll figure out what worked, what we could have done better.

I hope one thing we get right, or at least learn is that
we're all in this together, and we help each other out.