This video below provided the most laugh out loud moments I’ve had all week. Oh my! It was so funny! Only other mothers will laugh at it too, sorry dads and kids. It features Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com fame and Ginny Yurich of the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.
Oh my goodness! As one YT commenter on the video said, “I want to go have coffee with these two ladies every week!” I do too, only for me as a Word of Wisdom observer and coffee abstainer I’d substitute a protein-based carob drink or herbal tea.
Click to watch above. If you must only listen and not watch because you are multitasking, such as shucking corn, LOL (watch the video to get that inside joke) go ahead and do so, but at the 38:43 mark, you have to pause your work and watch Sarah’s body language as she reacts to Ginny’s story. She tells of the neighbor across the street she had when she was growing up. Sarah’s reaction is so hilarious to see!
Anyway, the two nuggets of truth in this video are homeschooling gold! As a veteran homeschooling mom of 30+ years, I heartily agree!
Here they are:
- Read aloud to your children every chance you can get. For me it was: while the children did the breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes, during morning basket, during closet/Spark Station time, while riding in the car (use audiobook if you are driving, if someone else is driving, then read aloud to them yourself) and then at bedtime. I never thought to do it while we were outside, but now that I have listened to this podcast/video, I wish I had! For schooling, reading aloud is the number one thing to do, regardless of where your children attend school, because it’s cheap, it’s fun, it changes their brains, it makes happy memories, it teaches them many things, it develops empathy, and it strengthens the bonds between parent and child.
2. Let/send/make your children be outside more. You don’t have to program the outside time with yard toys and play structures. As Ginny’s homeschooling girlfriend Angela told her, “Bring food, water and a friend” when you go beyond your backyard. Aim to get 1000 hours each year. Ginny gives so many reasons/benefits as to why outside play is SOOO important for children. Getting that time in is easier than you think!
Watch Ginny with Emily of Really Very Crunchy Mom fame discuss what outdoor time is worthy.
Did you know that the average American child spends 4-7 minutes a day outside and 4-7 hours on screens! That’s awful! Let’s change that! I’m so pleased that My married daughter, Virtue, has done Forest School the past few years with her boys to get them outside. They meet all school-year long, rain, snow or shine.
My favorite quote from the video “Mother Nature is another mother to my children.” Ginny said that when she took her children outside, she could count on having uninterrupted time to read a book while they played, as opposed to when she was inside and her book reading was interrupted. That’s true! Except I always have had girlfriends when I’ve taken my children to the outside beyond our yard so I always talked with them. When my older kiddos were younger we did weekly city park play dates for the La Leche League Group I was a part of. My children had so much fun with their friends and I had so much fun chatting with my friends. As my brood got older, and I retired from being a LLL Leader, those park play dates got replaced with our homeschooling co-op weekly summer park days. I’ve heard it said that many cases of ADHD are really a nature-deficit disorder.
This podcast/video episode of RAR reminds me of a different podcast I listened to a ways back where the guest told this story of how a few times a year, she and her mom girlfriends would gather in one of their homes with the babies and toddlers. Then they’d tell the children to play like they were Boxcar Children, aka orphans for the day. They sent the children to play outside all day. They were allowed to come to the door “begging” for food for their lunch. Sounds so much fun! I can see how my children, and my nieces, who had an orphan-playing jag for months, would have loved doing this, with the right group of friends. It might be dangerous too. I’m thinking of one particular time when I would not have trusted one of my sons with a certain friend for a certain time, unsupervised, LOL.
Ginny says that at about the ages 11-13, your children will naturally start just visiting with friends in a circle instead of actively playing when you go outside with your friends. That’s perfectly normal.
After you watch the video above, I highly encourage you to get the books by Sarah and Ginny pictured here in this post. They will help you so much on your homeschooling journey. As I’ve written over here, the only things you really absolutely need to successfully homeschool are a math curriculum and a public library card, for reading aloud. A homeschooling co-op on top of that is nice.
Want more about reading aloud? Go here and here. Aside from teaching your child about God and Jesus Christ and how to pray, it’s the best thing you could ever do for your child. Getting them out in nature for long periods of time is the next best thing.
If you do those things, your homeschool year will rock! I promise!
