a wee bit of daisy smashing (part one)

Awhile back, the keynote speaker at a homeschooling conference I attended said one of the most important things you can do when homeschooling is have a written down list of goals. And by goals, she did not mean "what I want my kids to academically acquire this year". She was referring to something a little more like how I hope my children and family grow and gain from this experience.

So I attacked the assignment like the dutiful student. I will share with you what I wrote down awhile back as long as we have two agreements.

A) You will remember this was written when I was still furiously fighting for the daisy chain.
B) You won't laugh at me.

MamaTea's Goals For Homeschooling

1. I hope that my family grows to understand that we are free to express ourselves and truly be who we are.

That my friends, is the beauty of life all wrapped up into one little happy smiley dreadlockish phrase...right? Free to express yourself and be who you are. I should tattoo that one right across my forehead.

However. Even though the intention was positive…the reality of it only worked on paper. You see, free to express ourselves was wildly misinterpreted by two youngish boys named Iggy and Ooky. Those two boys weaved themselves through that goal and found it to mean running the length of great grandma's house screaming, because they felt like singing (and they were expressing themselves). Or falling down on the floor and having a two year old fit because I said you've had enough eggnog...and they were angry...and expressing themselves. Another favorite for freedom of expression was freaking out uncontrollably at bedtime because they were uncomfortable with the lack of light. Ah...self expression.

Did I mention that one or both of my children have been referred to (in the absence of their company, of course) as The Negotiator and/or The Manipulator?

Goal numero uno, as lovely and pretty as it was, needed to be rewritten. And so...MamaTea rewrites goal number one as: We value self expression and true-to-self living BUT will also live in a way that grants respect to the boundaries of others.

In simpler terms, darlings, there is a time and place for everything. When its time to be goofy, go at it. But when its time to chill, its probably a good idea that you take it down a notch. Or three. Or a hundred. Or you should probably just stop all together.

Freedom of expression, indeed. Whose crazy idea was that? ;-)

And by the way Manipulator and Negotiator...I know that you know what the time to chill is. If you don't, the intense glare I am shooting you with should be clue enough.

Gee. Sometimes i feel like I'm just a big daisy smasher. Don't you?