22nd Nov 2021

Thinking about Homeschooling ?

Here are some ideas based on the 4 pillars of Simplicity Parenting

Environment

Simplifying school resources, learning to make do with what we have or using what already exists
Making things we need as part of our learning
Understanding making things as part of the economy (productivity outside the monetary system)
Learning how to fix things as part of our education - a dying art that could prove to be invaluable in the next generation
Making things to give to people (presents)
Understanding the true value of things and so feeling gratitude rather than entitlement
Learning the freedom in living simply as we grow into adulthood - not having to work in a system that doesn’t support us - the less money we need the more freedom we have
Making the home environment a place we all enjoy (especially the parents)
Learning to take care of our environment

Rhythm

When we are learning at home it is much easier to fit the rhythm of family life in with the rhythm of school life
We are more able to create a rhythm that works for our family. We have our own breathing in and breathing out times according to the natural pulse of our family group.
The rhythm of the daily tasks of life become part of the rhythm of the school day eg. children clean up their learning space as part of school.
We are able to focus more on work in the home as part of the rhythm of the school day. That way our children get to learn to take care of their environment as a central part of their education
We have plenty of time to teach our children these important tasks as we are no longer having to squeeze them around the rhythm of the school day

Scheduling

Important developmental activities like sitting around reading, going on nature walks, making up plays, inventing new games, writing letters, cooking, growing things, learning an instrument, or making up a play all come from lots and lots of open ended down time
Children have the chance to be ‘bored’ which allows them to dig deep inside themselves to a place where they have a lot of great ideas for hours and hours of creative activity and learning experiences. They will have a lot more opportunity to get lost in their play
We have time to schedule into the children’s day things that we think are important instead of having to squeeze them in around a 6 hour school day (or missing out on them altogether)
We get to spend down time together as a family
We have time to watch birds nesting, pick flowers, learn songs together, play board games, stay in contact with our extended families, make presents for people
We have time to make a lot more of our own food instead of buying it which is better for us, better for the environment and a lot more delicious - hommous, sauerkraut, pasta sauce, jam, cakes, bread………….
We learn about having fun not just being entertained

Filtering out the adult world

Children get to stay in a more protected environment for a bit longer
They are not travelling in the car as much
We can focus on making our homes child centred but adult led.

In order for the home environment to function we will need to establish ourselves as the warm and loving authority within the home

This is a wonderful opportunity for parents and something that is so often forgotten in the busyness of life

September 3rd 2021

A Healthy Emotional Diet

Long after our children are weaned they continue to feed off our emotions. That is why it is so important right now to stay out of our ‘fight or flight’ response as much as possible, to be a safe harbour for our children and to prevent anxiety from polluting their childhood. ‘Simplicity Parenting’ author Kim John Payne explains how children’s learning and development functions can be ‘hijacked’ by stress. As parents our task is to create filters to protect our children from the deluge of adult information, pressures and concerns and to allow them to grow up with a sense of confidence and trust in the world.

We protect our children by regulating our own internal world as well as by being conscious of the adult conversation our children are exposed to. Children do not have the mental faculties to process a lot of adult information. For a young child this information does not prepare them for the adult world, indeed it is the gentle experience of a protected childhood that provides them with the resilience and strength of character that allows them to deal with the harsh realities of life as they grow up. The words of the adult world can be experienced by children as emotional and verbal clutter, what they mainly hear is the emotion running through the words and if this emotion is fear, our children will feel afraid.

So we need to be very careful right now. Just as we would not expose our children to physical dangers, we need to use the same vigilance around emotional dangers. We need to create boundaries around the adult world, taking care of these concerns ourselves and meeting our responsibilities as adults while honouring the sanctity and freedom of childhood. Children need to relax knowing that we are capable of taking care of the adult world for them. We need to be careful that the adult information they receive is processed so as not to cause them any alarm and that they are not privy to any inappropriate adult conversation.

It is so easy in these turbulent times to forget about what is most important, like our children’s emotional wellbeing and development. We do not want worry and fear to pervade the atmosphere of our family lives. We need to be the strong foundation for our children and to move through the world in a way that sets a good example because when they are young it is our actions that really count.

So it is important as parents that we exercise discipline. Simplicity Parenting recommends that we limit our exposure to media that informs rather than alarms. This will help us to navigate this territory calmly and to stay grounded for our children. It is so tempting to get caught up in conversations and media that reinforce our views about what is going on right now but as parents of young children that is a luxury we can’t really afford. We need to put our children first in this situation, to be there for them as much as we can and to be a ‘lighthouse’ for them in turbulent seas.

1 Feb 2021

When Schooling at Home Rhythm is your best friend

Rhythm is the key to discipline, the secret Steiner schools have always understood. It is also the secret to making children feel secure, it is a message to their nervous system that some things are still the same in the world and that the life they know really matters.

As parents many of us have a tenuous hold on the sort of rhythm and discipline children experience at school but this is a wonderful opportunity for us to reclaim our dominion as we bring school into our home. Home Schooling last year may have been a bit chaotic or formless but we can change our approach this time mapping out for ourselves and with our child/ren (if they are old enough), what home schooling is going to look like next week.

As our children have the school rhythm already built into their body clock it can be good to stick with that as much as possible. Even at home children can be dressed and ready to start learning at the usual school time - making sure we are free ourselves at this time to get everyone set up and not preoccupied with our own work. Younger children can also go to their play area at this time as though they are doing their ‘work’ too.

Outside of school times it may help to engage our children in as much of the home life as possible to keep them occupied and to make our own lives easier. I suggest giving children as many tasks as they can manage like preparing food, cleaning up their rooms daily, packing away the dishes, looking after the garden etc. I would also suggest a long family walk every day for at least an hour and as much outside time as possible especially at this beautiful time of your when the Earth is waking up from its winter sleep. This way we can wear our children out a bit and get some good exercise ourselves which we all need.

In order to establish our authority we need to give directions to our children that they can understand and follow. We must be careful not to disguise our directions as questions or requests. I always think the teacher’s ‘now it’s time to…..’ works very well. Once we have established these actions over a few days they will become habits. Also if we try to talk to our children as little as possible, we will see how many unnecessary things we say during the day. If we only speak when necessary, we will notice how much more our children will listen.

So long as children have good solid blocks of our undivided attention they should also be able to cope with blocks of time while we do our work. When we do spend time with them we can spend that time doing household chores like hanging out washing or putting it away so that we have the chance to get things done while also being with them. If we spend our time doing chores with our children they will be even happier to have some ‘downtime’ to just play while we leave them alone.

As much as possible, resist the temptation to put children in front of screens as this overstimulates them, reduces their capacity to entertain themselves and sets up an addictive process where children are constantly wanting more screen time. If we allow screen time to increase during lockdown we are bound to regret it when lockdown is over and we have to reduce it again. If we need our child to be occupied in the afternoon for a while without us, audiobooks are a good compromise – we can use the opportunity to expose our children to some of the classics we may not have had time to read like ‘Swallows and Amazons’ or the ‘Narnia’ series. Just remember we do not need to entertain our children and a bit of boredom is normal in life. Some bad behaviour and fighting amongst siblings is inevitable and letting it ‘play out’ for a little while without intervening may be necessary when we are home together all day. When we can’t take it anymore its probably time to go outside for a while!

Jan 2021

Back to School

Getting into the Rhythm of School life

As we look at the school year from the beginning we all understand that the best way to set your child up for a successful school life is to get them to school calmly with plenty of time to play before the bell goes.

So how does “Simplicity Parenting” help you to achieve that?.........

What we recommend is that you sit down quietly and look at your days........

Start with wake up time

What time do your children need to wake up in order to comfortably get to school 15 minutes early?

Work backwards from there

Preschoolers to 7 year olds need 11-12 hours of sleep
8 to 12 year olds need 9-11 hours
Adolescents need 8-9 hours

So from there you can work out the bed time

A good balance for a 7 year old for example, would be sleep by 8 and up at 7

So once you have worked out your bedtime, work back 2 hours to dinner time – 6pm for an 8pm bedtime.

After dinner it is best to keep a regular routine – bath and a book or story.

The younger the child the easier it is to establish a rhythm. No matter what the age the secret is “Start small, stay close, insist and follow through”. This means you cannot get distracted as a parent so I highly recommend you turn your phone oft between dinner and bed.

Once this rhythm is established it will take you all the way through to high school because you will just be able to put the new activities in as the sleep time lessens.

One last benefit from this way of parenting is that rhythm builds discipline into family life. We have dinner because it is ‘dinner time’, we go to bed because it is ‘bedtime’ we get in the car because it is ‘time to leave for school’ – this saves so many arguments.

It may sound like a grind to have so much structure but ultimately this is the path to freedom because it actually creates space to put in things you want without feeling pressure, they just need to fit in around the structure you have created.

Good luck and blessings for 2021.

27th April

The New New Normal

Everything feels so strange right now and, for some of us, overwhelming - everyone’s experience is so different. There does however seem to be a common thread emerging, the idea that, like other disasters in history, the corona virus crisis has revealed what is not working in society and opened the possibility for change. In some ways we, as individuals and as a collective are now at a fork in the road.

Since his book was published in 2009, Simplicity Parenting author Kim John Payne has spoken about the ‘new normal’ of ‘too much, too fast, too soon’ but since the very foundations of our society have been uprooted, we sense the possibility of a “new new normal”. Like the words recently posted on a Japanese subway ‘We can’t return to normal because the normal we had was precisely the problem’.

As things start to wake up again and the restrictions of the corona virus begin to be lifted we can take a moment to ponder what we would like to take with us from this strange time into the ‘new new normal’. Using the 4 pillars of Simplicity we can consider how we have been less attached to the unimportant things in life and more committed to the important ones, that our priorities have shifted and we can turn our direction however slightly towards living a life in accordance with our own values.

Firstly let us look at stuff, many of us have realised how much time we waste shopping, how good it is to use what we already have and how slowly our bank account goes down when we stay home. Being at home amongst the stuff we already have makes us realise how getting rid of things makes us happier than acquiring them.

Rhythm has also taken on a new meaning with no teachers and no school to do the work for us. Rhythm is the secret of discipline (how teachers manage 30 children at once) and without the rhythm of the school day, family life can become formless chaos. For teachers and for parents, rhythm is our best friend and the return on investment on the time we put into establishing rhythm in our family life makes it well worth the effort - getting your child to ‘school at home’ by 9 am can be a lot of work at the time but it makes the rest of the day a lot more manageable.

Scheduling

So many people I talk to are enjoying slowing down and the forced de-cluttering of their lives, realising that time is more valuable than money. We are tricked into thinking that we need to work harder to buy more things and so the treadmill goes round and round faster and faster and we don’t know how to get off. For the past few weeks many of us have been thrown off the treadmill only to discover that so many of the things we love doing don’t actually cost money at all!

What we have seen during this time is now nice it is to have days with nothing on, to go for a walk together as a family, to have open ended time at home to pursue our deepest passions or have an afternoon nap.

Filtering out the Adult World

The general view of self isolation seems to be that virtual reality is incredibly useful but that it doesn’t come close to the real thing. Real human connection feeds the soul and it is worth safeguarding even during this crisis by putting screen free time into our days.

Soon the time will come when we can return to business as usual and there will be pressure on everyone and everything to ‘get back to normal’. But this is our big chance, this crossroad, this moment of truth when the world has stopped, to define a new version of normal, to enjoy the fruits of the ultimate de-cluttering, to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives easier, our hearts warmer and our children happier.

9th April

Easter - a shared family holiday

As we move into a 4 day Easter break which may well be the quietest time our families have ever experienced, it may work to create some structure around the days to hold everyone together as a family unit

Simplicity Parenting recommends creating ‘anchors’ of rhythm in the day, and the Easter break may turn out a lot smoother if you create say 3 rhythmical activities throughout the day for the whole family to enjoy together.

3 activities that come to mind are

A nice long family walk (in the morning)

Walks have become quite exciting now that they are basically the only thing you can do out of the house so it’s a great opportunity to get the kids walking, enjoying some outside nature time and also get some exercise for yourself. Hopefully it will be a chance to wear young children out a bit as well so that the rest of your day may be a bit more peaceful.

A family game (in the afternoon)

If your morning walk is challenging enough you might be able to get a siesta in the afternoon, then everyone can gather around in the late afternoon for a cup of tea and a family game. Make it something everyone loves to play – I always find ‘Uno’ a winner as it seems to be as much fun for adults as children but your family may already have a favourite, memory games are also fun for the whole family. The most important thing is that the adults enjoy playing it as much as the children so that the enjoyment is shared as well as the game.

A shared meal with everyone at the table

This can be the focal point of the day, whichever meal it is and everyone can be involved in preparing for it and cleaning up afterwards. You can talk about what you all want to eat the day before so that everyone is even involved in the menu. When you are all sitting down you can talk about things like what you were all doing last Easter, the things that are different about this Easter, what other people might be doing or what you are going to cook tomorrow! Parents can even talk about what they did over Easter as a child.

You may have other anchors you want to create in the day but 3 simple things should give your day enough structure to hold it together no matter what happens the rest of the time. This will also give the children a sense of security knowing it is still special family time and that you are all able to celebrate together no matter what happens. Try to do as many things as you can that you normally do at Easter - “What makes it feel like Easter?” is a good question to ask everyone. Who knows, despite the involuntary nature of the simplification this could be the Easter you have always wanted. As Clarice Bean’s mother says when asked if she ever gets bored ‘the chance would be a fine thing’!

2nd April

1st April

Staying warm and close in our families

Social distancing laws will encourage us to examine what creates warmth and connection in our lives. There is no question regarding the link between warmth and immunity but emotional warmth may now also be a factor to be considered. As we approach the Easter holidays our attention will no doubt turn to how we can create warmth and connection in our homes.

Strong family rhythms are the ‘glue’ that holds our families together. Bed time is a good place to start so that everyone stays in synchronicity with each other. I recommend for now that your children keep their regular bedtimes throughout the holidays, parents also need to model strong bedtime rhythms. I recommend having at least a ten hour period where the phone is on ‘do not disturb’ so that you have an hour away from screens before bed to keep your natural body rhythms in tact (of course this also applies to children and teenagers). Also it is good to have an hour of ‘quiet time’ in the morning before the phones start to ring (or beep).

Keep mealtimes regular and connected with everyone sitting down together (no phones). Make them as ritualistic as possible so that they have an obvious beginning and end, this will help to keep everyone present physically and emotionally. Try to engage in conversation about how everyone is going and what things you are all finding different/difficult and what you are enjoying about this strange time.

Bringing love and goodness into the home life and a sense that ‘we are all in this together’, trying to help each other, will also warm the atmosphere of the home. Encourage children to help with family chores, creating beauty, order and cleanliness in the house - keep this high on the list of priorities by modelling it yourself. Creating the home as a pleasing space says that you all matter as a family and that you are all caring for yourselves and each other.

Children can be instructed (not asked but told) to make a daily call to the grandparents or someone who lives on their own to see how they are. This will help children with gratitude and expansion rather than shrinking into self obsession and entitlement.

Be aware of not letting screen time get out of control. The usual restrictions (from the ‘old’ life) should still apply as we need plenty of time without screens to create the emotional warmth of just being together connected as physical beings in our home environment.

Finally try not to worry about your children getting ‘down’ or bored. That is a natural reaction to the times we are in and it is always tempting as parents to try to ‘fix’ it with a ‘good idea’, a chocolate or some extra television time. Just being there as a warm and loving presence is the best remedy.

25th March

Rhythm and Discipline in the home

Now that most of our children are learning at home, parents will be looking to find and maintain a strong rhythm in their daily life. Rhythm is the secret key to discipline schools have always understood, it is also the secret to making children feel secure, it is like ‘a warm blanket’ we can wrap around them. It is a message to their nervous system that some things are still the same in the world and that the life they know really matters.

As parents many of us have a tenuous hold on the sort of rhythm and discipline children experience at school but this is a wonderful opportunity for us to reclaim our dominion as we bring school into our home. Most of us have had school at home for a few days now and it may have been a bit chaotic or formless but it is never too late to map out with your child/ren what the week is going to look like from now on. If you need some authority behind you, I’m sure ‘the school’ would be happy to take responsibility for the directions you are giving your child/ren.

As your child has the school rhythm already built into their body clock it is best to stick with that as much as possible. Insist that your child is dressed and ready to start learning at the usual school time, make sure you are free yourself at this time to see that everyone goes to their assigned place. If you have younger children as well they can also go to their play area at this time.

Keep to the morning tea and lunch times of school, and depending on how particular the instructions are from your teacher, you can do reading and projects first thing, music, art and craft after morning tea and then an outside activity in the afternoon. Outside of school times we need to engage our children in as much of the home life as possible to keep them occupied and to make our own lives easier. Children should be given as many tasks as they can manage like preparing food, cleaning up their rooms daily, packing away the dishes, looking after the garden etc.

The other secret we need to know is how to give directions to our children that they can understand and follow. We must be careful not to disguise our directions as questions (‘would you like to?’) or requests (‘could you please?’) use terms like ‘now its time to’ or ‘you need to’ so there is no ‘wiggle room’. As Ronald Morrish says in his book ‘Secrets of Discipline’ “start small (small request), stay close (don’t get distracted), insist (no room for arguments) and follow through (make sure it happens again next time)”. Once you have established these actions over a few days (it takes longer the older the child) they will become habits. Also try to talk to your children as little as possible, you will see as you try to do this how many unnecessary things you say during the day. If you only speak when necessary, you will notice how your children will start to listen to you.

For children in kindergarten or younger, the rhythm will of course be very different but it is still good to establish a predictable daily rhythm as advised by your teacher or playgroup leader. You can even say to your child ‘you need to play by yourself now until I finish my work’ (this time will depend on the child’s age) and they will know that they cannot disturb you for that time. So long as children have good solid blocks of your undivided attention they should also be able to cope with blocks of time while you do your work. When you do spend time with them you can spend that time doing household chores like hanging out washing or putting it away so that you have the chance to get things done while also being with them. If you spend your time doing chores with them they will be even happier to have some ‘downtime’ to just play while you leave them alone.

Try to resist the temptation to put children in front of screens as this will just make their behaviour worse the rest of the time, reduce their capacity for deep play and encourage them to whinge and whine hoping for more screen time. If you normally have some screen time at night or on the weekend just stick with that, do not allow your screen time to increase as you are bound to regret it. If you do need your child to be occupied in the afternoon for a while without you, audiobooks are a good compromise – use the opportunity to expose your children to some of the classics you may not have had time to read like ‘Swallows and Amazons’ or the Narnia series.

This is not an easy time for parents who are going through their own anxieties, trying to work from home, managing different age children, sickness and trying to keep family life manageable. Of course it will be 3 steps forward and 2 steps back a lot of the time and we can’t do it all at once. Concentrate on school rhythm at first as that is already established and then add your own family rhythms one by one as you see where they are needed. Ultimately this will be healing and relaxing for the whole family and, once an element of predictability has been established there will be a lot more room for love, compassion, kindness and fun in the home.

18th March

Staying Warm and Connected

“All is well” is the message we, as parents, need to be giving to our children at this time.

We may need to assure them that good people who know what they are doing are working on this problem and know how to take care of people if they get sick. Also they may want to know that young people are not getting very sick from this and that ‘Grandma and Grandpa’ are being very careful.

Most of us understand the importance of keeping our children away from any news coverage of this ‘very scary stuff’ but we must also remember the importance of limiting our own exposure. Every media report we hear (even if it is information we already know) will trigger anxiety and release the hormones that put us into fight or flight. As our children’s hearts ‘beat to the same drum’ we can secure our children by staying as regulated as possible and use the time together to move into a much deeper connection with our children.

In his podcasts on Coronavirus Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, looks at the ‘Four Pillars of Simplicity’ and how healing they can be in the current situation whether our children are attending school or not. If you are already practicing even some aspects of Simplicity Parenting in the home, you have already built ‘your family’s ark before the social flood’ he says. If you have never been exposed to the ideas of Simplicity parenting there has never been a better time to start.

ENVIRONMENT

Because our children are going to be spending a lot more time at home and because, with the world ‘pressing in on them’, their cups will be full to overflowing, children will need plenty of space in the home. An orderly de-cluttered environment signals to a child at the bedrock of their nervous system that ‘all is well’ and that their parents are taking charge. Fewer and simpler toys create more space for the imagination and children can move deeper into play, this state of deep imaginative play also awakens the part of the brain that fosters collaboration with other children.

RHYTHM

With so much unpredictability we need to wrap ‘a warm blanket of rhythm around our children’. They need to know that home is a safe harbour from the world. We need to be more aware than ever of the rhythms of bedtime, dinner time and getting to school. A strong rhythm will give us as adults something to lean into ourselves and to regulate ourselves when it can feel like there is nothing to hold onto.

SCHEDULING

If you have been working with simplicity and your children have not been absorbed into the ‘fast paced life’ of the modern child then you are in good shape for this time because your children already know how to self motivate and do not need constant external stimulation.

Apart from the fact that so many extra curricular activities are being cancelled, children are going to need downtime and decompression time more than ever. For people who have felt that the pace of their family life has been too rushed this is the perfect opportunity to experience life ‘in the slow lane’. As things return to normal we can remember that the ‘new normal’ is not normal at all and we can be more discerning about what we return to.

FILTERING OUT THE ADULT WORLD

It is important that we protect our children from hearing about corona virus related information in adult conversations. We can prepare family and friends ahead of time by asking them to ‘help us out’ by being very careful what they say in front of our children. The questions we need to ask ourselves before we say anything to our children are ‘Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it securing?

Screens

We need to be extra vigilant about screens at this time because corona virus information is everywhere. Also children will be spending more time at home so they will be bugging us to have more screen time. More than ever we need to be ‘rock solid’ in our boundaries and resolve. Payne’s advice is to have less screen time than usual because we need to bring more calm into our children’s lives - to soften the edges and to increase our sense of wellbeing. If our children are older and too much screen time has crept into our family now is the perfect time to adjust that by telling them that ‘we need to be close together as a family’.

This ‘dark night of the soul’ could be a turning point in our lives if we stay awake and discover the opportunities to create something good out of a difficult situation. We have a chance like never before to take a reflective look at our values as parents and who we are as protectors of our children and the ‘gatekeepers’ of their lives.