Things are going reasonably smooth here for home learning so
I thought I’d share a collection of thoughts on a variety of topics related to
home learning and raising a pre-teen daughter.
Our library has a great page of resources for children at https://www.ssclibrary.org/about/departments/children/kids-resources/
I highly suggest checking out what your public library makes available from
home. It can be a great resource for ideas and research from reputable sources.
I’ve just picked up a couple new books for the munchkin from
our library, more anime. She’s been more faithful with her Japanese practice on
Duolingo than I expected. She really seems to enjoy learning new words in Japanese.
(Apparently the app also reminds her daily.)
We’ve also started slow with some art, at least coloring and
free hand drawing. (Anime based drawing for her, no surprise.) She colored one
of the mandalas in my coloring book, pictured above.
One area where we haven’t done as well, is in maintaining
social contacts for her. I feel bad because she’s an only child and we’ve been
home together here for a lot of the time. I think of Little House on the Prairie
and how they at times lived very isolated lives, but at least they had
siblings. We do play games with her and have fun together, as well as having
her help with chores and cooking together.
I just feel bad that she isn’t getting any time with her
best friend. It took a while to connect with her mother and get a good phone
number, then the munchkin hasn’t seemed inclined to call. It’s now been over
six months since they spoke. She did ask to do a video call with her cousin
recently and we’ll make that happen but lining the schedules up can take some
time.
The holidays are coming and that will be hard for a lot of
people. My husband and I are homebodies, we like spending time here together,
and won’t miss the family gatherings as much as lots of other people. To us, it’s
just one year.
The munchkin and I have been talking about what we want to
do for Halloween. I need to come up with a bit more decorations for indoors
than we normally do, I think. She wants a pumpkin pie, I said that was fine
with me. I want a good movie that is atmospheric, rather than really scary. I
think we need to make a list of movies she might like that would be appropriate,
and that are available on a streaming service.
We’ll be doing Thanksgiving at home, and I’ll set up a Zoom
with family for sure. Christmas will likely be the same. Being in a Polish
family, gatherings are largely centered around food, a bit hard to do with
masks on.
A little bit off the topic, but on topic for anyone raising
a child these days. As the mother of a pre-teen girl, one thing I’m always
concerned about is promoting a healthy body image. I emphasize strength over
being thin, and eating a balanced meal over portion size. But I still wonder if
there is something I should or shouldn’t be doing. I came across this article
this weekend and it was both comforting and informative, so I thought I would
share it.
How to Foster Healthy Body Image in Children by Lindsay Taylor,
PhD
Good luck with your schooling adventure!
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