As I lie here in bed with my laptop on my knees, my 17 year old daughter to my right snoozing, she is feeling unwell, it’s nearly 10am and yes I am still in bed. I feel inclined to pretend I am up, awake, having done a run and meditation, had breakfast, got dressed but none of that would be true. I am here in my jammies and the thought of walking down the corridor to the bathroom and doing my teeth right now seems a bit of an epic.
How we show up is so important for our children and we are shaping who they are to become. I was struck by this thought the other day. I am raising children that will most likely go on to have children and I am modelling for them how to be as a parent. We as parents have a choice as to how we show up and we can change script for future generations. If you stop and think about it that is an amazing thought! I was brought up in
Embracing Alternative Education During a Pandemic By Lehla Eldridge Everything has shifted, nothing is as it was, the world is changing then surely so should we. Having the whole family at home is a normal situation for me, as we have been unschooling (I will get to that bit later) for nine years. Only in the last year have our older children decided to go to college and THEY LOVE IT and are now going on to do A Levels. We have had a lot of experience of them being
This is a post I am writing in seven parts, so my aim is to do one a day for a week, as a reminder to myself as well as to other homeschooling/unschooling parents who are out there doing their best to raise their kids at home. Right now some of you have been thrown in to this crazy but beautiful world. It isn't always easy, so here is day one!! This is for me as much as it is for all of you!These are short snippets, so feel free
If you are totally overwhelmed with homeschooling or unschooling and what is going on in the news right now, connect up with others. I hear this a lot from parents who are isolated and who are not in connection with other people. I think community is so very important, even if you are physically a long way from any one else. Use the phone, the internet, Skype. Don’t tough it out and isolate yourself, connect up with others and make time to chat. Even if it is for twenty minutes.
This applies to everybody. If I am not nice to myself as a mother I am not really nice to anyone else around me. So this means listening to what I need to do for myself. So this can be anything as simple as making time to jump into a candlelit bath at night, to going for a walk at some point in the day to taking time to meet a friend (this we can’t do right now but the time will come when we can!) or cooking something really
Sometimes, having one or both parents at home means that your finances can run extremely low, I am particularly feeling this today! Especially if you have lost your work due to the coronavirus. Resources can totally deplete and this can be stressful. Make use of what you have, this sounds simple but it is true I think that the less I have in life the more I make use of what I do have. You don’t have to spend a fortune to feel good, so even if it means buying
I am not good at running, I often think, why I am running? Nothing is chasing me, is it? The truth is when I go running I don’t massively enjoy it, I know people that do but it has never clicked with me. I think if I was hunter gatherer type I might be the one that gets eaten by the lion…So the trick I have found is to do exercise that I actually like. I LOVE dancing and swimming. So at the moment I am dancing a lot and also
A loving reminder/question for all of you entering in to the Christmas season with family and friends. Can you stay in your truth and not get triggered? Can you be aware when you are getting stressed?This can be a time of year when tensions rise. So for any of you out there who are mixing with the button pressers remember this, breathe through any awkward questions. Remember to lovingly keep your boundaries and be gentle with others and yourself. Sometimes people can be curious about different ways of raising kids and
We are not going to the shops and buying school clothes for the next year, our kids are not mentally preparing themselves for what lies ahead in a few weeks, shoes are not getting shined, shirts not ironed, books not being especially bought, in our household none of this is going on. As we are not going back to school. Our household isn’t all Instagram shiney, we aren’t always on to the next thing smiling and laughing without a care in the world. There are days when I look at