Homeschooling Sixth Grade With a Traumatic Brain Injury, Assessing, Evaluation and Planning

It is now 4 years since the TBI for Dax. He is not the same as before the accident and his headaches and memory loss continues to burden him. My heart hurts for him and the emotions I have around this whole situation as a mother sometimes makes it seemingly unsurmountable. But I remember to be compassionate with him and teach him to be compassionwith with himself as I work so very hard to model this. (in this moment as I write this I grieve deeply and hear voices of my past say "get over it" "suck it up" "it could be worse". These do not help my friends) To use tools like Tonglen meditation and to remember OMMS - Obstacles Make Me Stronger, this helps. And so I teach him this and his incredibly kind and patient brother Ryder holds the space for him as well. And so I am blessed. And I shift the perspective to something more positive. 6th Grade. I remember my 6th grade well. A significant turning point in my life. I am honored and humbled to be able to support Dax as his mom, teacher, guide, friend. PIANO will continue in a big way, in spite of his feeling like he is not progressing. Compared to his brother he feels he is not, yet he is and as we listened to his recordings he was overjoyed with how far he has come. Ms. Anita has been a blessing sent to us and so I sacrifice to make sure they both have weekly piano lessons. Wise choice for anyone who has had a briand injury - piano was one of the things I researched early on - that it can help with brain rewiring. KETO - this is a challenge with Dax's additction to carbs. I can't keep honey in the house for my tea or he will eat it all in one sitting. So salmon is for breakfast, which he loves thank goodness. And I've become very good at finding good fats to feed his brain as well as supplements like the gotu kola. Things that are now a staple in our home. Earth schooling - this is such fun with Alexander the Great and the Olympians being studied this year. All of our academics will be around these topics and the 8 blocks are laid out well enough. We'll do a bit with the Waldorf Essentials as I like the daily layout that fulfills my "checklist" for academics. Finanical Literacy continues - this is crucial at all ages. It's a good reminder for me and the boys can point out when I'm not looking at my P and L and going by the numbers. A few adjuncts such as public speaking, youtube channel building, fitness and geology. We'll dive in for unit studies. Our list of 6th grade books is a rich one - I'm excited for Dax now. He's finally at a place that he has fallen in love with books - good books. That list is on the site here if you want to see recommended reading for 6th grade. SPANISH - we'll finish level 1 this year. Conversational. For Ryder he'll choose which language he'll focus on for the next 4 years. FRENCH - because this is my joy, we'll still play with French a bit. Pepe Pig while obnoxious still works. I prefer my French movies though. Rubix cubes. Chess and many other board and card games. Yoga and Qi Gong, likely will advance to the next level here and will be a life long benefit. Electronics - Dax is clear he wants to be an engineer. And he's so good. He can take apart his very complicated car and rebuild. He's built and continues to build numerous things from electronics to mechanics. I am beyond proud of him. Lots of BRAIN GYM. This makes a huge difference for Dax. Doing movement patterns, crossing the midline, balancing the brain. Oh how grateful I am for the tremendous innovation and support we have as parents and teachers to help our chidren. Overall, focusing on the positive, focusing on what he can do well and supporting him in areas that are a challenge: Multiplation tables. His memory is the biggest challenge here and I can see him struggle. He just says "mom, I just can't remember, my brain hurts and it just doesn't stay there". So hard for a mom to hear, but that he recognizes the challenge and can now be calm and easy with himself as he gets older is so important. His frustration about his memory has lessoned and he now can mostly take the time to calm his breath and be present, go to his room and just be. This is his emotional intelligence and for that, wow, I'm in awe. I'm beyond grateful and proud of my blessed boys. Dax has overcome so much. He hates and complains every time about the twice monthly doctor visit - what can I do? I think it helps but I don't know. I would rather have that money to buy food or to take us to chipotle for dinner. Sacrifices. Choices. The life of a human. The life of a mom and a family. In the midst of all of this COVID. How do we do it? One day at a time. One breath at a time if needed. We each must do the best we can and remember that we have everything we need - we are whole and if we can just center ourselves, find the eye of the storm and seek that regularly during this time, well, my hope is that truth, goodness will prevail. We will miss all of our summer camps this year - Aikido, Animation, Horsemanship, Volunteering at SPCA. Will next year find out in a new masked separated world? Who knows. For now, I celebrate Dax in 6th grade and our journey begins.

9th Grade Home School Preparations and Planning

My oldest will begin "high school" next year. We've wrapped up the general curriculum for his 8th grade and for the rest of April/May and June he'll be working on a course for presentation skills and public speaking, typing, violin, piano, and continuing to improve body mechanics and critical thinking skills. He'll continue with his math through www.kahnacademy.com and we'll begin learning Vedic Math with both my boys. Starting to plan in the spring before then next year is always the best idea. It gives you the time and presence of mind to evaluate strengths and weaknesses and lay out the whole 4 year journey ahead with an over arching purpose of seeing your child thrive and graduate as a competent, intelligent, happy, whole human being...add to this any of your own personal and family values, along with your child's deep interests. By this time I've already done life coaching and providing success principles to both the boys. As a trained and practicing Success Coach, it really helps to reverse engineer what their goals are and set up a healthy and nourishing learning style and frame work that will foster the child's interests and well being while also providing challenge and obstacles for them to get stronger and build capacity for resilience and understanding. This is where the Vision Quest was so powerful when Ryder was 11. If you haven't done a Vision Quest with your child and they are older, I'd suggest creating a ritual that helps connect them with their higher self, their inner powerhouse both physically and mentally/spiritually. You can align it with your beliefs. Ours happened to be of a heritage of Native and spirituality and we foster a unique allowance of the unique voice in each being as it aligns and interacts in harmony with the web of the universe.

Flipped Upside Down With COVID 19 - Homeschooling Has Become the New Normal For the World

While I personally am feeling a bit overwhelmed and sad that our world is in the current condition, my boys are happy, healthy and thriving. That is what is most important to me.

Knowing that the "world" has to home school now, I imagine it is a significant challenge for many but I believe it can also be a blessing in disguise.

Spring is here and the boys can ride their bikes and we can walk and hike but it's just not the same is it? I made extra effort to get all of us out on Easter Sunday to walk at a beautiful local springs. Smartest decision I made - we all needed to get out and get a fresh perspective. It's too easy to fall into being on the computer and getting fed doom and gloom. UGH! We must remember to lead by example - yes it gets hard for me. There is a part of me that is more inclined to go hide when I am directly attacked...that is something that annoys me about myself. But I would fight to the death for my children, and for the underdog. I worked extremely hard to make myself worth fighting for! (reminder to self ;-) You've got this girl!!)

My boys' dad is quarantined with us. There is part of me that cringes but part of me that is grateful, if not humbled as I navigate and am tested daily on my own values and purpose and mission in life while also focusing on supporting the best in us all.

Certainly this isn't my ideal vision, but we made that decision and know that there was Divine hand in it when Kelly fell ill in February and I was able to get him to the ER where they found he had a stroke and brain bleed. So again, a life or death situation saved by providence.

So I will be grateful for what is and believe it is all for the best while also focusing and aligning my thoughts with the future I intend to create by planting the seeds with each thought, each word...

Now while we go through this, I would definitely not want to be having my boys going back and forth to their dads. But it is a real challenge for my well being and focusing on raising boys with consistency and values.

Ok, so now, looking at what I'm doing with homeschooling I am reassessing. Ryder and I are sitting down to review his goals so that his high school reflects that.

At 14, he has finished the 8th grade curriculum and continues to speed up his typing skills and advance in piano and violin. He's such a good human being.

Connecting with friends from far away with a game of Dungeon and Dragons - what fun!

Dax made his little planes from balsa wood - I am in such awe of his abilities to create!

Morning pages are the first thing we start with - Julia Cameron's 3 Morning Pages and this is what I suggest everyone build in as a habit - it's not only therapeutic, it's so fun to read the pages later. We will read them aloud - with the kiddos permission, and my boys always get a kick out of reading what they wrote a few months and even a year back. Besides it really helps with writing skills.

We are reading Success Principles by Jack Canfield daily. 1 principle a day. Then discussing this and how we want to apply the principle. Both my boys enjoy this but Dax, who is 11, really appreciates this and likes having skills that can help him achieve his dreams.

Getting out in nature daily - we at least get out on our patio that over looks a water shed, with a pair of binoculars and our sketch books it's a great way to learn observation and being still.

We are doing our daily exercise routine and working toward handstands. I'm also starting to teach them Karate from when I trained. Starting with baby steps here. Just to get more movement throughout the day.

Reading good quality books is a top priority. I think it's super easy to fall into everything becoming digital and going to learning online, but I would be cautious on how much digital you invite into your home for this. It is not the only option for education - I promise! 

The most important is to be Present! Find a way to be present and intentional. This is so crucial during this time.

I wrote the PILOT Your Way method and guide to stress free families over a decade ago - when I read it again, I found myself appreciating the simplicity of this and grateful to be reminded of the power of simplicity.

Please grab a copy for you and your family.

If you need connection or support in homeschooling, just let me know. Reach out to me through my FB page or through my work that I do as a coach/speaker/trainer.

I'm here to guide self empowerment, free choice, awareness and taking back the controls (of body, mind, health, etc) from the inside out.

Peace and Blessings.

Stephana

PS I'm offering single coaching sessions at a significant discount from my regular rate. If you need clarity and focus and want intuitive and observant guidance or coaching, I've made daily times available.

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