Mrs. Kalscheur, who appeared to be in her 30's, and is the mother of eight children, said that the three most common things people say to her when she is out in public with her family are:
1) You're amazing...
2) You must be a Saint...
3) You must have the patience of Job....
Her responses to the three well intentioned observations above are:
1) She's not.
2) She isn't.
3) She doesn't.
Her talk was mostly tongue in cheek, comical illustrations from day to day life proving why she claims that she is none of the above! We all had a few good laughs.
The next talk was given by Dr. Catherine Moran, (who looked like a million bucks, I might add, in a salmon colored skirt suit) on "Overwhelmed,Unmotivated, Disobedient, Under-challenged, or Just Plain Lazy?"
This Homeschooling Mom of five, two of whom she adopted from the Ukraine, is an expert on Learning Disorders. She quoted someone named Mel Levine who said that " Homeschooling will not make your life easier, just more fulfilled."
(I will highlight her points in a list):
Try to preserve self-esteem and optimism in the child.
Build their confidence and reward good behavior.
Under-challenged children should be pushed to actually have to learn something difficult, because later in life they will not know how to "learn" if eveything came too easily to them.
Unmotivated children should understand that it is "safe" to fail.To remove fear is to make it safe for them to attempt something.
The main things to teach are: perseverence, determination,obedience and diligence.
Praise your child, especially the effort.
Break projects into small achievable bits to reduce procrastination.
Praise them when they don't think you are looking.
LAZINESS is a VICE!
How to work hard is the greatest thing to teach your children.
Don't allow them to be whiners and complainers.
Don't train children to live the easy life.
Don't enable them to be lazy!!!
Each person is gifted with one of the Virtues and with one of the Vices.Train them to try to overcome their most prominent vice.
Always act in a considerate, kind and thoughtful manner and teach your children to do the same.
Well, Duty calls. I would like to share the thoughts of three more speakers in my next post.
