A New Kind of School

My husband and I are about to realize a life-long dream. Our school is almost ready to open (scheduled for fall 2009 if all goes according to plan). Yay! This is a culmination of everything we have been working on since we started training to be teachers. It’s a totally different kind of school. It’s essentially based on the principle that each student is an individual with different needs and interests and that learning can easily take place once you focus on those individual needs and interests. It’s really IEPs the way they are supposed to be. I always used to get frustrated when dealing with IEPs at public school because I never really understood how it was helping the student. “Johnny has problems with spelling so teachers will not penalized him in grading for spelling errors.” Now come on…. How does that help Johnny overcome his difficulty with spelling? IEPs have just become an excuse to not perform at an acceptable level and helps the schools pass students who are not ready to graduate. IEPs are used by the school to excuse all kinds of learning lapses. Grammar, mathematics, dates, spelling, reading comprehension. Instead of using it as a tool to help the students overcome their difficulties, they are used as an excuse. And don’t get me started on ADHD. Yes, there are some (very few) children that have a serious medical issue that require the use of such hard core drugs like Aderall and Ridalin. But the majority of the children on these drugs are just bored in class. If you had to sit still in a stuffy classroom waiting for the teacher to handle the classroom management only to get started on some dull rote skill work with no understanding of how it fits into real life, you would be fidgety and bothersome too. But our school is going to change all that. A custom-fit education for everyone. Everything is almost ready. We’ve even been to the bank and they want to work with us. We’ve just got to finalize some paperwork and come up with a major down payment. Sigh. It always comes down to money. But I am confident that the money will come… simply because this school needs to be a reality. You can read more about the school if you are interested at Pomegranate Gardens School

Tools for Life

I was talking with my friend the other day.  We were talking about my kids.  She’s practically family anyway and loves my kids as her own.  But anyway…  back to the story.  I was telling her about my second, Pumpkin.  Now, Pumpkin is very much like her dad, and probably more like me than I would care to admit.  There are times when she fusses and complains about not being tired and won’t go to sleep.  So I started tapping with her to help her learn how to calm herself so that she rest.  Now, when she struggles she asks for me to tap with her.

Tapping refers to the EFT process.  It is a very useful tool to help overcome a lot of personal problems.  I have used it successfully myself.  Now, even though I have read numerous articles about using tapping with children I had never tried it on my own until one traumatic day…  Pumpkin was having a complete meltdown.  My husband and I were in the middle of a major marital issue.  Pumpkin was old enough to know that something was wrong, but not old enough to really understand what was happening.  So she lost it.  She just disintigrated into screaming, crying, and wailing.  I was at my wits end to just get her to calm down.  And then it hit me.  Try tapping with her.  She was in no state to perform the tapping on herself, so I did the tapping on her and repeated the phrases which she eventually started to repeat.  I think the shock of starting something so strange helped calm her down enough to eventually participate in the process herself.  But one thing that I found interesting…  Pumpkin kept telling me that she was sooooooo sad.  But she instantly stopped wailing and screaming when I tapped on her anger point.  And I mean INSTANTLY.  It was a little spooky.  One minute she was screaming and crying and inconsolable…  the next she was calm.  It made such an impact on her that, like I said earlier, she now asks me to do tapping with her when she thinks she needs it.

So, yes.  EFT works.  But it’s just a tool.  There are other tools out there that work, and I am so thankful that we have been given these tools to help us in our lives.  I find that I am using EFT less and praying and meditating more.  But EFT still helps me.  Especially when I am in a state of mind that needs some calming, just like Pumpkin’s, but not as dramatic.

Some tools that I use:

EFT
Ho’Oponopono
Chakra Meditation

But that’s all these are…  tools.  These are tools that I can use to help focus my thoughts so that I can learn to see God more clearly.

Time for Action

I have been waiting for the past two years for “something” to happen.  I can give tons of excuses like, my husband had (what seemed at the time) a really good opportunity.  Or, how about this for an excuse…  I’ve been so burdened working at crappy jobs  I hate that I don’t have the time or energy to pursue anything really meaningful.  And so, instead of doing something…  I waited.  Yeah.  I know, in hind sight it was really foolish.  So enough waiting for me.  I’m tired of waiting for something to happen.  I’ve now been working for several months now on finally getting my school started.  This is something I’ve wanted for years and I’m finally doing something about it.  So, even if I have to do all the startup work by myself…  that’s ok.  It’s ok because this is what I want and I’m willing to put the effort into it.  Because, really, good things DON’T come to those who wait.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  These past two years have not been a total waste of my time.  I put aside some goals to work on other issues that had cropped up.  So while my career fulfillment has been put on hold I have a thriving and successful marriage and strong, healthy kids.  But it is time to work on the rest of my life.