Concerns
Gillian’s been having, for lack of a better term, behaviour issues the past few weeks. It started about two weeks before Kelly arrived for her visit. We were definitely busy during that time and had several activities, including two different weekend events for Girl Scouts. I tried to make sure she was well-fed and well-rested, and was determined to wait it out.
Of course, between Kelly being here (deviation from routine #1), Jacob’s birthday (deviation #2), and Jacob’s party (deviation #3), things didn’t really get back to normal like I’d hoped. Now that Jacob is walking even more and getting into everything in sight, it seems like we’re not going to be getting back to normal, at least not how Gillian conceives of normal.
She told my mother this weekend that sometimes she gets lonely, and sometimes she gets bored. I could see where both of these could happen easily. I’m not the most social person in the world, and I don’t like driving for miles just to go to a park where some people may or may not show up to play. As far as boredom, while we ‘do school’ in a fairly structured way, it doesn’t take up a large part of our day. If we start by nine, we’re done by eleven; if we start by eight or eight-thirty, we’re often done in even less time - between nine-fifteen and nine-forty-five. Sometimes we’re quite busy during the day, but in practice, we have one La Leche League meeting a month (down from two; the one that stopped was the ‘better’ one, and had older kids for her to play with while there), one API meeting a month (it remains to be seen what age range will be present there), and one park day per week. We also have Girl Scouts every other week.
I’ve come up with a few thoughts that could help alleviate both both boredom and loneliness. The first is the easiest to implement. Gillian is very interested in learning Spanish, and we already have several resources for learning it. I think we’ll start (again) with La Clase Divertida, use the Teach Me… tapes and other CDs, and try to find other interesting resources through the library. It will definitely be an extended unit-study type thing, only without labeling it ’school.’
Tomorrow we’re going to a park date with some other MDC mamas. Ideally, I’d like to expand it and make it a weekly event (maybe even post it as an event on the CHE-NGA list and the SecularHomeschoolersinGA list). That would give her a reliable opportunity for interaction with other kids, and hopefully she could build some friendships.
I want to discuss with Judi the idea of having a playdate with Eva-Marie on the ‘off weeks’ from Girl Scouts. Gillian & Eva-Marie could easily play from the time Eva-Marie gets out of school until five o’clock (when Girl Scouts would end), which would be around two hours, allowing for transportation. That would be another regular contact.
I think I also need to re-read some information on eclectic homeschooling and unschooling. Part of homeschooling is having the time after ’schoolwork’ is done to explore those other areas, and I need to make sure that I’m helping her to do that as best as I can.
Other ideas?
