Decisions: Routine Versus Novel


Part of why homeschooling is starting so slowly is the difference between “routine decisions” and “novel decisions”.

I have four pairs of shoes by the back door and solid reasons and habits for which I choose when I'm leaving the house. That's a routine decision.
 
Should I decide to take up vegetable gardening I would have novel decisions to make:

  • container, raised bed, or in ground?
  • start from seed or tiny plants (with hidden task learning jargon for "tiny baby plants")
  • which vegetables to grow to start with? 
  • how many vegetables to grow? 
  • where to buy them?
  • use start dates listed in the catalog or look up Texas-specific dates?
  • how often to water?
Those decisions impact each other and have consequences. If I put a lot of resources into a fancy stone border for an in-ground garden I don't have to buy a lot of dirt, but it'll be hard to expand if I want more room in a year. How often I'm willing to water probably impacts which vegetables I should grow, but I have no feel for how often that is until I start.
 
So I'm puttering at the parts that don't have permanent consequences to figure out more about what works for us while continuing to read about available options.
  
Another reason homeschooling is starting slowly is that school instilled a lot of bad habits in my kid. Any complication or surprise in her computer setup triggers her to respond like she's about to get in big trouble; for example her optical mouse not working on the glass table. Some decisions trigger her to act like she'll get in big trouble if the results are unexpected; decisions as minor as what to type in the search bar. So I infer that school grownups were not fostering an easy-going problem solving mindset whenever my kid's creativity or accommodations differed from the planned class activity.
 
A month after deciding to withdraw my teen from public school, my first goals are taking shape:

  • Use low-stakes, lightly guided tasks to get my kid used to NOT getting chided nor dismissed 
  • Build a routine within which to do those tasks 
  • Debug stuff calmly enough times that she eventually joins me in the debugging
  • Try not to traumatize her further.
Related to that last bullet point, I'm making her play Tetris every day we do any homeschooling. That sounds weird but there is real evidence that it reduces the long-term psychological impacts of highly stressful events.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Science!

Image
Erlenmeyer flasks behind a wok in a kitchen cabinet I said in my last post that my kid's "understanding of concepts and facts in multiple areas of science is excellent." Already knowing nearly every fact and concept presented in our district's gifted science classes made those classes boring. The lack of intellectual stimulation meant there was no "hook" to make graphing or writing engaging. When people talk about 2e kids having "spiky" profiles or asynchronous skills, this is the disconnect they're talking about. If plotting points on a graph results in a surprising curve that furthers your understanding of a concept, then it feels worthwhile. Someone who already knows that curve and the concepts behind it will find plotting those points tedious. Practice is more effective when it feels worthwhile.  Our family is knowledgeable and science-minded so the kid learned some stuff from casual conversation. The rest, the bulk of it, came from YouTub...
Read more

Facts Versus Skills: Asynchronous Development

Image
  Photo by  Conscious Design  on  Unsplash Grownups who work with 2e (twice exceptional) kids talk a lot about spiky profiles and asynchronous development. Sometimes that means kids learn multiplication long before reading, or learn to analyze literature before getting smooth at arithmetic. But sometimes it shows up within a subject. Learning about a new topic often involves learning facts, concepts, skills, and the ability to notice details. When I started taking yoga classes I was okay at noticing and imitating the teacher’s arm and leg positions, but I didn’t notice whether her torso was straight or bent so initially I did some poses wrong in predictable beginner ways. Repeatedly hearing instructions, doing poses, and occasionally getting specific corrections from the teacher taught me to notice and imitate torso positions.  I quickly learned the facts of where to place hands and feet for downward dog pose (adho mukha svanasana). Then I learned the concept th...
Read more

8th Grade Homeschooling Soft Opening

Image
  When I was a kid back in the 1980s I occasionally heard about stores having grand openings or grand re-openings. It wasn't until well into adulthood that I heard of soft openings where a store quietly lets a few people in to test their systems and processes. And Lo! Eighth grade homeschooling began today, the first Monday in September! And it is not a big deal. For one thing, no schooling is starting before 2:00 PM so the teenager can sleep in and get moving slowly.   For another thing I have changed my (unspoken, emotional, subliminal) goal from what public school optimally should do for a 2e student in every subject to doing better than public school was doing in some subjects. And by "better" I mean prioritizing and supporting my kid's mental health over academic achievements while encouraging some intellectual growth. Language Arts: Critical analysis of media and journalism is already very good. Familiarity with some literature classics is good. Grammar is good....
Read more