Maryland Homeschool Review: Year 2

Today I passed my third homeschooling review for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and I didn't even worry about it.  I felt much more confident than I did last year when I showed up for my first ever review.  I thought I'd take a minute to share what made me feel relaxed and confident before heading into the meeting.

1.  I knew the rules.  Simply put, I only need to show two dated samples for each of the eight required subjects (Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, Art, Music, P.E., Health) for each of my two children. I have two children currently under review (1st- and 3rd-graders), so I need to collect and show 32 total samples of instruction. There are no bonus points for including more samples, and there is no judgment regarding the type or grade-level of instructional materials used.  The samples do NOT need to be workbook pages or samples from formal curricula; anything that shows that you offered instruction in those subject areas will suffice.

2.  I simplified the product.  Last year, I spent days reflecting on our semester, sifting through work samples, selecting items, arranging a variety of print and digital materials, and then printing them all out, stuffing them in laminated sleeves, and inserting them into 3-ring binders.  This year, I used my cell phone to take pictures or screenshots of each sample, opened a Google Slides document, and inserted the images into the slideshow. I also added Subject Heading divider slides (Health, Art, etc.) to keep myself focused; the whole endeavor took about an hour, and I was ready to go.  I brought my iPad to today's review and was ready to present!

3.  I used a variety of work samples to give the reviewer a taste of our homeschooling style.  This is by no means required, but I'm proud to share how our family does it.  Each of the three reviewers I've met so far have seemed genuinely kind and interested in how I'm teaching my children.  At first, I was concerned that they might try to "catch me" making a mistake or doing something wrong, but have sensed nothing but open-mindedness and curiosity from my reviewers.  Some of the types of samples I included were:

• a play program we attended at Imagination Stage
• math workbook pages
• typed summaries and photographs of field trips (Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Sandy Spring Underground Railroad)
• screenshots of subject-area YouTube playlists I created
• a typed list of books read by each child last month 
• photographs of my children engaged in active play (rock climbing, swimming, etc.)
• drawings created by my children

My children were excited to join me today and talk with the reviewer about school.  We got all of the necessary check marks and went on with our day.  I've considered switching to an umbrella program to avoid going through these portfolio checks, but I actually kind of like being forced to stop for a moment, reflect on our progress, and share our work with someone else. 

If you'd like to take a look at the document I made for the review, please click here.  If you're preparing for your review, good luck!

Journey Toward an Organized Home: Japanese Style

I received Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up:  The Japansese Art of Decluttering and Organizing as a Mother's Day gift this year.  Was this a hint?  I've always been fascinated by pristinely organized rooms, storage solution magazines, and decluttering detoxes, but have never had much success with keeping my own home in such a state of order.  Kondo's manual impressed upon me that if I followed her program, this time would be different.

If the decluttering program itself is as pleasing and gentle as her writing, then I believe her.  I finished the 224-page book in less than 24 hours (while working full-time and caring for three children under five), so that in itself was magic.  And then I completed the first step of her program:  shirts.

Rather than focusing on what to get rid of, Kondo emphasizes the importance of what to keep.  She insists upon the magic of being surrounded only by those things we love.  To decide what is worthy of staying in the home, she asks the reader to take every item from the same category (in this case, shirts) and gather them all in one place.  I dumped out the contents of three under-the-bed storage bins, cleared out my dresser, and removed every shirt, sweater, and jacket from its hanger.  When I heaped them all together, I was shocked by their abundance.  The pile stood two feet tall and dwarfed my 45-pound 4-year-old daughter.  And remember, that's just the shirts.

Feeling mildly disgusted with myself for accumulating so much, I got to work.  Kondo's method involves taking each item into the hands and asking, "Does this spark joy in me?"  Having never before practiced this method for decluttering, I was at first tentative.  Does this spark joy? How would I know?  The first few items I threw back in the pile, still uncertain.  But then I felt it--as I held a shirt in my hands, I experienced a certain lightness in my chest, a small half-smile forming on my face.  Odd, I know, but holding that shirt, eyeing it, considering it, actually gave me a feeling of joy.  It became the first shirt in my "keep pile," and I thoughtfully plugged away at the rest, being sure to thank each discard for the warmth or pleasure it had once given me.

As my garbage bags of giveaways grew (I had to return to the kitchen for more bags; my initial assumption that two would be enough was incorrect), I started worrying.  Am I getting rid of too much?  What if I have nothing left to wear to work? Shouldn't I consider an item's practicality, too?  But Kondo's words reassured me:  holding onto things based on fears of the future or the sentimental hold of the past would never bring me joy.  In fact, several of my belongings did quite the opposite.  I felt tethered to gifts of the wrong size of those that didn't suit my taste.  Kondo encouraged me to recognize the piece of clothing as the gift that it was, the gesture of kindness from another, and then part with it with gratitude.  My grateful goodbyes resulted in three kitchen-sized garbage bags tautly stretched over my discarded shirts, transparently holding their innards like so many sausage casings.

Throughout her book, Kondo insists that if the reader properly declutters once, according to her guidelines, then it will never have to be done again.  I've only taken a small first step in that direction, but am already hopeful about the possibilities.  She has allowed me to imagine a home where I can quickly find what I need and am surrounded by only those things that make me happy, a home permeated with a sense of peaceful joy.  How to get there?  I guess it's time to move on to Step 2:  Pants & Skirts.
  

Goldman Family Principles

My husband and I have been spending some time articulating the values and principles that we feel are most important for our family to live by.  As the parents of two young children, we thought it was a timely conversation; as a non-religious family, we want to solidify our core values and begin to think about how best to impart those to our youngsters.

We started with a list from Donna Skeels Cygan's book The Joy of Financial Security.  After individually narrowing down the checklist to our top 20 values, my husband and I went through them together to develop a common list.  We found that many items on the list could be grouped together, like Public Service with Charity, Volunteering, Giving Back, and Generosity, which made it easier to keep our list at 20 values.  Here's our combined list, in no particular order:

Service
Appreciation of Beauty
Equality
Willingness
Honesty
Curiosity
Serenity
Creativity
Optimism
Open-Mindedness
Humility
Financial Responsibility
Kindness
Patience
Courage
Cooperation
Acceptance
Tolerance
Clarity of Communication
Healthy Living

We then wanted to unpack those values, defining what they each mean for our family and how we can incorporate each one into our lives.  At first I thought that some sort of hierarchy flowchart in Word or PowerPoint would work well, but after playing around a bit, I found Prezi to be the best tool.  You can take a look at my work in progress here.  Then I decided to make a Wordle as a handy and pretty reference sheet for our values (see image above).  I plan to print it in color and hang it somewhere in our house--maybe the upstairs hallway?

First Snow day of the Season

Eating icicles

Journey Toward an Organized Home

"Keeping House" is a term I always thought was quite old-fashioned.  Certainly not something with which I needed to concern myself.  But as I find myself growing into more of an adult in many areas of my life, I find that my expectations for my home are maturing as well.  I don't want miscellany strewn across every flat surface, collections of never-used utensils crowding the kitchen drawers, or colored pencils mixed in with the markers.

It's not as though I qualify for the show Hoarders.  In the six years we've lived in our three-level townhome, we've done multiple closet cleanouts and trips to Goodwill or one of those funny donation boxes on the side of the road.  But I often feel as if I'm playing Whack-a-Mole:  one pile of clutter gets cleaned and two more pop up. I launched a search for help de-cluttering my home and came across Home Storage Solutions 101's 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge, which instantly appealed to my competitive nature.  Fifty-two weeks? Pshaw!  I could probably complete the challenge in 52 days!  Or maybe even less!

And with that, the challenge began.  Week One was certainly a success.  According to the challenge, my focus this week (day) was to be on de-cluttering the kitchen counters and sink.  I didn't take "before" pictures for this one, but will for the coming projects.  The most helpful advice from the challenge website was to broaden my definition of "clutter," specifically to remove all appliances, etc. from the counters that aren't used at least on a weekly basis.  That suggestion helped me justify moving the food processor to our shelving unit.  I also pulled out all duplicate and never/rarely-used utensils and appliances and put them all in a box to freecycle.  These two simple moves created enough space on the counters for the cutting boards to lay directly under the knives (why hadn't I thought of that before?!) and for a few "pretty" touches that make me feel so peaceful and happy whenever I walk into the kitchen now.  I used a china pot for our basil and some porcelain wedding gift bowls to hold our fruit, garlic, and onions.

The other finishing touch that I love is the hook and dishrag hanging next to the sink.  We don't have a dishrack, so drying pots and pans are often all over the counter.  Now, I just lay the dishtowel on the counter while I wash, dry the dishes immediately, and put them away.  It's such a simple change, but it keeps the kitchen clutter-free.

German Christmas in South Riding: Part 1

Now five months in to our first year with an au pair from Bavaria, our family is practicing some popular German traditions.  For the first Advent Sunday, we invited friends over for sweets, coffee, and hot chocolate.  Hannah, our au pair, shared some German cookies sent from home, which paired nicely with the Candied Pecans shared with me by another fledgling blogger.  Chocolate-covered pretzels and wedges of a Toblerone bar rounded out the spread. After lighting one of the four candles symbolic of the four Sundays of Advent, we spent a few hours of our Sunday afternoon visiting with our back-alley neighbors the O'Neills while their son and our daughter ran around the kitchen with boxes on their heads.