The Third Installment in Changing Math Mindset-Geometry in Design

I wanted to touch upon geometry and how I have changed my fear of this subject by allowing myself to play and have fun with creating and building using the foundations of geometry.

I have been a fan of origami since I was a youngster but never really thought of its application to geometry until the last few years. There are a ton of books and on-line resources for origami creations.  One of the activities I like is the origami tetrahedron and cube shapes that you blow up. These can be hard for little children but older kids like to do those activities and like the flexegons manipulative there is conceptual and spatial intelligence involved with making these shapes. I do suggest using a large square of paper for beginners as some of the Japanese origami paper I have bought is too small to make a cube that can easily be blown up.

Another activity to show with squares of paper is fraction reductions and the Fibonacci Sequence Model. 

This photo is a diagram of fractions made into a spiral by taking a pieces of different colored origami papers and cutting them in 1/2's reducing down and layering them by gluing them down in a spiral.  It shows the spatial connection of fractions to whole numbers and the concept of how numbers form patterns and how these relationships in forms build the world around us.  I used Mortenson Math blocks or tiles to make the model of the Fibonacci Sequence below.  It could also be done with papers cut to scale too. Grid paper or graph paper is excellent to use by coloring blocks to show the concept.

Here is another manipulative. I bought this Waldorf Puzzle off of Etsy. I have taken it out of its original form and spread it out to show how forms can be manipulated and be bent but still keep their meaning. We talk a lot about the string theory and time relative to space concepts in our home. How do we bend space to travel and how will that effect time. This idea appeals to my son as he loves Dr. Who and the idea of space and time travel.  This puzzle if pulled into a three dimensional cone shape can show how space can be folded or manipulated.

 In practical life context, our community has built a spring training facility, Riverside Park for the Chicago Cubs.  We the people got a public playground too and this structure in the park is a big model of hands on geometry.  Here again we are able to see the sacred geometrical shapes in building. We can see and discuss how the triangle shape is more stable in building because we can experience that strength by climbing on the structure where it is supported by the square shapes and the triangular shapes. We can feel a equilateral triangle and a isosceles triangle and see it's relationship to other shapes as building blocks. We can see the connections these archetypical forms become other shapes and how they connect to form hexagons and on to the Platonic Solids.

I have blogged about this book before! Stories of geometry told by a brilliant writer and educator. This book is wonderful.

This is a Montessori math lesson in progress. We are making a model of the multiplication table and teaching it to the dog. Not really working to well as he struggles with his 7 times.  Even though this work isn't geometry it does show the patterns numbers make and explains the inner connection of patterns in numbers beyond a numerical hierarchy and you see the square roots in a fun way.

And my son's favorite manipulative the Zome Tool! Here he is with what I call a Buckey Ball but my son says is the prototype of a spherical submersible drone that can go into the methane lakes of the moon Titan ice surface and collect digital images and samples.  This idea of his came out of the ASU's Mars Ed curriculum. Zome Tools are another open ended tools and a wonderful resource for geometrical thinking and a limitless opportunity for learners to create and discover.

I love this activity weather permitting.  We do geometry in chalk on the drive way,  practicing vocabulary and learning nomenclature concepts.

Here is another tool for showing the multiplication table in a more holistic form. This a Waldorf lesson and it has it's root in Anthropology a organization I have studied but do not follow or agree with but I do love components of.  I find that many of the Waldorf math lessons do help my healing in Math mindset and I am grateful for the information.
I have been thinking about how to teach to the senses in math. How to make my learner have a personal relationship with math and numbers. I think if we can develop that synesthesia muscle in our brains where we feel math perhaps it will serve us better as we learn and enjoy math.  Synesthesia may be how we heal from our fears about math. We have to form more personal relationships between numbers.  Learn more about Synesthesia at this link below.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

How would Vi Hart do this? Well I can only wonder? Here is another of her open-ended ness videos.

Changing Our Math Mindset

I am always looking for more activities and methods with math to make learners fall in love with math and stay in love with the joy of learning.  Any tool that will pull us in and compel our curiosity is powerful.  We found the flexagons templates on DabbleBabble.com. The Hexagon-flexagons were on a sight called Auntannie.com. There are many sights for these little manipulative a printout templates and a variety of variations of shapes. There are also many You Tube tutorials on flexagons. One of my personal favorites is the Vi Hart channel on You Tube.

Vi Hart has charming tutorials on math topics and her short videos are filled with thrilling math concepts, her lessons are fun and sensorally compelling. All of these resources make math fun and joy in learning changes a negative mindset.  I look at it as cultivating the math mind so little seeds will grow.  Vi Hart has a plethora of Happy Math Mindset mathematical ideas and her video montages are a fine resource for any digital library.

Here is our video tutorial of the manipulative  We made. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ISyI-MVfyQ8

Geometry and Joyful Math Mindset Shift

I struggled with math most of my life.  From upper elementary school on I hated it.  As an adult and educator I wanted to find a way to love math again and heal the wound where my first image of

"My Inner Self" was damaged by the experience of I was not good enough to do math.  How to do this, heal my inner self and change my negative self-talk, has become a huge priority as I work with my own son.

One of the ways, I have found is finding joy again in Math. Learning the relationships of patterns and numbers and exploring spatial forms and geometry as it relates to the world around me has helped me shift my mindset.  Here is one of the activities I have used to engage learners and create a joyful experience. This lesson is taken from a Waldorf educational lesson. 

The supplies needed for this activity are:

Semi-transparent folding squares 6"by 6" (these are a waxy transparent origami paper purchased off Amazon)

Glue Stick

Scissors or paper cutter

I start on a hard surface and tell the story of how being precise matters and taking my time matters in math and measurement.  Origami design teaches quickly by trial and error how getting the fold wrong is going to effect work and it shows up in this structured spatial geometrical lesson. Getting the fold wrong and auto correcting is important so I tell my students the importance of making mistakes and how getting it wrong teaches us more because we must learn from our mistake and correct our problems. You have to be resilient as a problem solvers.  We must not give up but keep at it till be get it right.  To be able to keep going and having the determination too after failure is just as important as getting the answer right and often the process of learning all that: think, make, fail, reflect, redo, is more valuable to our long term goals.  It is all part of the process of learning.

So for the design here we followed the patterns of the color wheel and used half of a sheet folding the edges to meet in a long rectangle and then doing the corners down twice in both directions. I glue all the folds down as I go. My son helps me do this. Sometimes we cut the origami paper in fourths and make various folds to create more patterns.  (I'll add now that my son hates this work and these shapes are really about healing my math ego, his is in pretty good working order.)  There are many ways to do these little geometrical shapes and no way is wrong.  They are very pretty and cheerful on the windows too.

I used the middle line on each diamond shape to match up to the next paper diamond. Again patterning these shapes can revel all kinds of "Aha Moments".  This is a great lesson for symmetry and can as open ended as you like.

Finished product in window. You can see the circle shapes that form and how the precision in the folds effect the over all design.

Finding Time-How To Love Yourself and Fix Everything-Or Not

My life is hectic.  I feel like 100 browser windows are open in my brain while the dogs are barking, the phones are ringing, the water is running somewhere and the alarm to take dinner out is buzzing its head off in the background and don't forget the door bell and the teenager wih autism and OCD has a head cold. I am in slow motion with short term memory loss issues and a sinus infection that will not go away. Now add a Nintendo Mario Brothers theme music looped for a soundtrack and a nagging termite problem in my house, a UTI issue and you start to get an idea of how I feel and what my day looks like.  When people say to make time for myself I am like "Are you flipping serious?"

I live in 6/13's time. it is a fast waltz in double time with one remainder which is good because I dance in a runaway sentence and need time to get back on the right step before the next bridge or refrain or wherever this song or next transition or melt down takes us. If you enter this time zone keep up or get out of the way but trying to infer I am not taking care of myself when I am caregiving and doing it well with few supportsor back up and no script is not helping or even constructive criticism.  

One of my adult children needed me this month and I flew to the rescue and brought her back to my nest. She did not stay long but has flown on and left us again. Our family's rhythm is off and my son's homeschooling unscheduled schedule has veered off a bit. When a child has a crisis in their lives family must rally their support and lends a hand and heart.  Crisis time is over now. Our hearts and hers are attached together with an invisible tether so it it hurts to see her flyaway.  So that's a computer tab in my brain with a toughie file, always open and sensitive. My son is very close with this sister and he goes through his withdrawal from her too and it takes time to get back to normal.

Another adult daughter has called sick and alone in Chicago. She too is grown up but still needs a mother too. Doesn't everyone? This other daughter is still a newly wed and learning how to coexist with a partner who is young too. It is hard to tell people what you want out of a marriage when don't know what you want until the other person doesn't give it to you. We learn from mistakes and correcting to each other in a marriage is a process not an event. I trust that my daughter and son in law can work out their needs but I hate to see my child suffer. Sometimes I can swoop in and fix it but this one Mom can't fix.

So with grandchild's birthday party to plan and adult children's lives in turmoil, a school to run and a household to manage life has been brutal.

How do I make time for me during all this chaos? Well part of homeschooling means we make our own school year and since the weather is at its best right now in Arizona we can take a break from academics and focus on down time in more self designed structured activities. but what about Mom's battery. I don't have the budget or time and help to run off to a spa for a recharge. I have been doing some art and writing which help.  Also I love researching and study and am taking a Brene Brown course on line on vulnerability, shame and scarcity. I also am kicking back to connect with nature, watching birds in the backyard. This small thing of slowing down and observing nature really clear my mind and heart. I can just sit quietly for an hour and watch the humming birds feed at sunset and wait for the sky to bloom in its southwest glow of setting sun and rising stars. I also go out in the evening and lay on the trampoline staring up at the night sky and use an app on my mobile device to identify stars and comets. I have been doing these books too, which are a series of lessons and activities to connect with yourself.  All of these things work great unless they don't and some times life is over whelming. Like August in Arizona.

One of the harder things is hiring help.  I have always struggled with having people in our home provide habitation and respite services for my son. It gets invasive to have helpers for me and leads to another kind of stress where we cannot just be.  So many times the habitation people want to make my son do things that he doesn't want to and the resulting behaviors problems this causes are stressful for our family.  It's a balance to find someone who will just be with my son, without an agenda, who will follow him and not make him or manipulate him to do things like make eye contact or follow some intrinsic behavior plan that is about their comfort and nothing to do with his needs. Not every provider has done this but enough of them have to make me leery of helpers in the home. Still I do need help and I still want to find the perfect person who will follow our learning plan of authentic learning and support my son where he is and help him navigate by mentoring and guiding him to his own pursuits of happiness.

All of this pursuing of happiness is exhaustively possible.  Prayer and chocolate help, but of course when it's 114 degrees out a walk in the park is not going to work for recharging.  I am seeing with the teen years my world because of my son's sensitivity is shrinking. I have always used social connections on line and they have been very meaningful.  It's perfect for me, as I cannot go far from home. Taking classes for myself is difficult now. My sons medical needs are challenging.  I get few breaks away by myself. I have a few communities I belong to on line that offer some support to me but lately all my old ways of taking sometime to myself are feeling bad. I do not feel connected. I feel my peers do not understand me, the usual supports and inspirations aren't working. It's like a cold and all my comfort foods are tasteless. I am out of sync from raising a child who is going through a major transition from childhood into otherness.  The emotional roller coaster of teenhood and autism has effect our entire household.  Even the dogs feel it. My husband and I take turns, we use help.  It's just challenging.

This summer I have focused on finding more help and cutting the therapy and things that don't help.  It feels like a very bad haircut at the moment. Many of the supports I have been using aren't working anymore.  Many of the supports like doctors and therapist, I used knowing they weren't very good are glaringly obviously horrible.  Now, when we need them so badly, they are just awful and clueless. No one has answers and the experts, I have come to the conclusion aren't much help. I keep going. get through another day of meltdowns and teen angst with autism on the side.  I don't take it personally.  Having raised other teens has desensitized me and taught me not to take it personally.  I'm done with following goals and plans that aren't working though and this feels like a shift in the right direction, tossing out the dead weight. Throwing out the road map has its cost. With wandering off the beaten path comes new fears of getting lost and the big bad wolf of self doubt, that voice in my head that makes me feel like I am doing it wrong. Even though no one out there that I see is doing it right. We are all just making it up as we go along, some people just get paid more for it. Some folks have tons of confidence even when they are doing it wrong too. So I have to keep my bs meter finely tuned. Head up, eyes open keep, observing and accessing, fix what I can, teach what he wants to learn when and how he wants to learn it and keep weathering this storm.  Keep swimming. This is how it looks right now. Being grateful for the little stuff and allowing ourselves to be just us, without guilt or shame or apology. A good day above ground.

Unschooling and Observing Learning in An Unlikely Classroom

I have a confession to make, I am a reluctant unschooler.  Am I really too repressed to let go and allow authentic learning to happen without my careful orchestration of the environment and my controlled laid out scope and sequences of a thoughtfully constructed lesson plan?  I try and allow for unschooling elements or moments, but I have a hard time in letting go... allowing that authentic things to happen where a learner is in control of their own learning. I honestly do not trust the concept of unschooling and the concept of free range learning enough to let go of the edge of my own control of direction. I know "IT" happens, Authentic Learning. I also know chaos ensues and is part of the process. I see that it is good to let go and allow authentic learning too just happen but I am nervous  to let it.  Some of it is about my ego and my dog and pony show, some of it is about the chaos and mess of letting kids go feral causes me to have to clean up. Controlling from behind the curtain is my forte.  I do create a wonderful environment to learn and create from.  I am good at setting that stage. I had yet to just let go other than staging these little maker movements and stepping back during my orchestrated lessons is never hard for me, but allowing a learner to do what ever he wants and all that, that implies is uncomfortable to me.

Recently I have been taking courses online and my carefully planned year of subject units outlined at the beginning of the year has fallen by the wayside. It has allowed for more unschooling moments.
 I have been teaching biology and geology this year.  Earth science had its own agenda this semester with the perfect Arizona winter days my son gravitated to outdoor activities and began digging a hole in the dirt in our back yard.. While I taught Conor astro biology of Mars lessons along with studying extremophiles life forms( Link to free nomenclature cards and MARS Ed Lessons ) and the five kingdoms work of Montessori he had his own idea about applications. He read nomenclature cards of the five kingdoms, the NASA cards on Extremeophiles and used the new information to created and idea for a submersible spherical robots on paper. This robots is a camera drone for the methane lakes of the moon Titan. We have been writing story boards this year and from digging and finding rollie-pollie bugs in the dirt he created several conceptual storyline ideas for Dr. Who episodes with characters created by ideas found in dirt.

Concept of a spherical subversive robot with cameras to probe the methane lakes under the frozen ice of the Moon of Titan.

Board Game and Cards for Mars game called ASTORBIOBOUND

The link above is invaluable for finding STEAM's lessons

"Digging in"  The Arizona soil looks Martian

Studying Fossils

Examining each fossil and looking it up by label.  He classified them by geography and by chronological order on the timeline

Timeline of Life on Earth and Fossils

Filling up the hole with water.

Making Mud

So what happens when I let go of the lesson plan and just let my son go.  He created a project and it turned out to be all about earth science and biology.  From the dirt piles Conor made mud and then began flinging it on the wall.  We had a lot of fun and got dirty then we began to play with designing landscapes with mud using the wall as a canvas and observing how the mud dried and cracked.  We added layers upon layers to create ridges and mountains making a model of a biosphere surface out of our materials.  The wall art showed me some interesting information for my own studies in geology and the the history of the Earth and Mars. We can easily see with real soil models how chemical reactions  and erosion happen.  We learned what is predictable, what is possible in outcomes, what other experiences can we pull from and out of all this knowledge and our experiences and how to form a working and authentic hypothesis and practical experience for problem solving.  For example what to do with the all dirt was solved by creating models of Mars on the cinder block walls and making mud sculptures.  Lots of natural learning from playing in the mud. I did some more reinforcements with my Montessori nomenclature cards on Prokaryotaes and Portista examples.  This 5 Kingdom Charts and Cards gives some great information.

                                             here for 5 Kingdoms charts and nomenclature.

Montessori Nomenclature and Chart work

The art of making a model

Crater forming

Conor experiments with the Archetype of the Spiral

The mud hole 24 hours after flooding it. 
All kinds of observable occurrences and wonder happening.

So Conor's work keeps evolving and the hole may become a cave or a lab.

The Resistant Learner-Tricking the Cat

It may be something I do but all my kids have been resistant learners to the scheduled lesson plans, both academic and life ones.  As an educator, many of my learners, at times, have made me felt dismissed and ignored.  Since homeschooling my youngest with autism I have learned a whole new depth and scope to being tuned out.  I thought my adult children as teenagers had schooled me in this phenomenon and I was desensitize, but the autistic teenage mind brings a whole new dimension of skill sets to "I am ignoring you Mom".  So this post is going to focus on tricks to motivate and reel in learners.
So firstly let me say I spend a lot of time figuring out what my learner is passionate about and is drawn too in a his interest.

Here is an outline of his interest.
Science - chemistry-biology-earth- physical-botany-geology
Roller Coaster -building and design
Snakes-Reptiles
Dr. Who
Gaming- Minecraft- Roller-Coaster-Tycoon Three
Watching video's of cartoons- "Ed and Eddie" - "Adventure Time"
Maker Movement
Engineering- Lego anything- Zome Tools-Vex Robotics
ART
Cooking
Math

Here is what he doesn't like.
Writing
Transitioning to anything that isn't his idea.
Language Arts
Reading
Spelling

 Likes Dr. Who TARDIS at local Library

 Tolerates Geometry Lesson

Here is what he will tolerate
Geography and Culture
Vocabulary
History

Thinking about Geometry in how it relates to his Interest

His Strengths
Hyper Focus
Spatial intelligence and memory
Tenacity
Obsessive tendencies
The ability to tune out distractions

His Weakness
Auditory processing disorder
Reading and comprehension difficulties
Language Delays
The ability to tune out distractions
Difficulty in transitioning to certain task.
Delayed reaction times

As far as meta cognitive taxonomy processing my learner is able to comprehend, recognizes, compare, analyze, use stratagems and synthesize new concepts and ideas, however he lacks the language skills to explain and defend his arguments.  He can show me by drawing it out in story board form or building it but is often not able to tell me what he has learned with language fluency or writing.  So my goal is how do I adapt any curriculum to his weakness in those areas, and how to build upon how his brain is wired to learn.

Work books

Teaching any learner who is resistant is challenging. How do we captivate interest and motivate?  I don't know of anyway to force learning.  I do know that if I find what motivates him and adapt that subject to include his weakness, like language skills, but without focusing on that exclusively I can get him to go deeper into subject mater he is interested in and use the skills he doesn't like by doing something I call "Tricking the Cat."

Here is an example of using alternative ways to learn about calculus concepts with fractals manipulative.  I took a online course with Natural Math educator Dr. Maria Droujkova at Moebius Noodle. Here are some of our ideas of using her concepts of making math fun. link to it Here

Ever try and get a cat to come to you when it doesn't want too?  Did you resort to food and have the cat ignore you?  Ever put your hand under a newspaper or blanket and move it?  The cat's interest is peaked by it's primal need to hunt.  Make a game out of getting the cat to come and it will pounce. This is psychological tool is what I call "Tricking the Cat".  You have to make your learn think he wants what you are selling them.
This process rooted in behavior science, using incentives and finding out what drives the student's interest are key in motivating resistant learners.

It is a lot of work to prepare any unit of study and when the students fails to engage it feels pretty bad for educators.  So without using intrinsic rewards getting from point A to point B in a lesson plan is difficult without a passion based individual learning plan.  Hard to do this in a classroom as each student is compelled by their own interest.  However many learners direct themselves in a classroom and stay on task.  I am focusing here on one on one prescient- resistant learners.

Keep it Simple
Don't choose a hard complex unit with wildly complex concepts and vocabulary to get a mastery of how to do this style of education right off the bat. Start off with something you know your student will like and hopefully self direct with.  Prepare a list of links or materials that will interest them.  My son connects to videos so if I am teaching astrobiology I find Ted Ed video lessons on the subject and let him go to other links that follow on You Tube about the subject.  I may use a lesson plan like MARS ED -stem-lesson-plans but I am not tied down to it.  Real learning for my student may happen between the lines of the lesson plan.  We may use it for base and go far way from it's plan.  As an educator I must observe all learning and see with an open mind what the student connects with and try to objectively see how the learner learns and have the wisdom to allow him to go there. The child is the curriculum.  Still a good firm base of information like the above link is excellent and keeps us grounded to a precises plan that is aligned to global standards and tested by other educators.  I am not going to be able to guide my learner in Astrobiology with out the help of real science and tapping into a professionally written curriculum plan is going to give my learner resources in scope and sequence.

Going with the Flow
This is the area of education where I as a teacher need to quit the dog and pony show and allow my learner to self direct his own education.  I have to allow him to go deeper into to subject matter he is interested in.  I have to direct him from the side by feeding him bits of information to peak his interest and let him to go further without forcing him to follow me.  Allowing him to think "he thinks" up where to go and how to do it.  A good educator knows when to let a child struggle and even fail.  A great educator teaches how to fail and the importance of bouncing back from failing.  Resilience in life is an important lesson and we are actually learning more when we are getting the answers wrong and self-correcting than we we get it right the 1st time with little effort.   Model learning persistence as a life long learning power life skill. Show by example how to get the answer right after failing too.  This is super important life lessons for all of us.

Don't be afraid to take breaks and put projects down.
Learning is a process and not so much an event. Allow ourselves to move on and start over doesn't mean we did not learn anything when a project is dis-guarded.  It's all learning.  We just have to change our mindset to recognize and value all the steps of this process.


Other links and subjects that relate.
Dr Judy Willis work at RAD.Teach.com
http://www.education.com/reference/article/theories-of-intelligence/
http://www.parentcorticalmass.com/2011/05/what-is-incremental-intelligence.html
http://gocognitive.net/interviews/robert-bjork-long-term-memory
http://www.mindstepsinc.com/motivation/

Relationships in Learning

The Importance of Relationships in Learning: Mentors and Supports

This is our 4th year of homeschooling.  It has been very interesting to see how others educate their children.  I have met some other homeschoolers who use Montessori's method of pedagogy on social media sights like Facebook.  Because in a Montessori homeschool situation few of us have the space in our homes to set up a full classroom not to mention the money to buy every material that would be in a classroom many people fade out of Montessori by upper elementary.  Most of the social media groups for Montessori are new Mothers who have the best intentions but are forced to fade out of the method once they see the cost of albums and materials.
I have met some very resourceful Mom's on social media, very clever ladies who make bead materials and get their husbands and fathers to make beautiful cabinets and sensorial material. I have seen some excellent homemade materials for items like  the Stamp Game, bead materials and the Checker Board materials.  The cost of a entire bead cabinet, geometry and fraction materials force a lot of families out of doing Montessori and following the scope a sequence is very hard with out the materials that cost so much. It is unfortunate as many of these ladies who can't afford to buy the materials are wonderful educators and parents who bring so much to the table of learning on social media.  I am constantly in awe of how resourceful and inventive families are.
Many of the upper grade's of Montessori materials are hard for parents to teach with as they must have more experience with accredited consultants/teachers who can show them the lesson and families must own albums of instruction to do the upper elementary work such as algebra, geometry and cubing.  It is very hard to read an album on math for a lesson on binomial cubing and teach it with out some instruction by a actual Montessori educator who has been trained to teach a lesson with it.   I know many educators who have Montessori training who can't teach these upper math lessons of squaring, cubing roots, mainly because you have to practice these lesson to retain the steps and many times in a classroom for upper elementary the students just aren't there yet, and those lesson get foggy for the educators.  How many 6th graders can do trinomial and binomial cubing?  Even the best albums with the clearest lesson instructions are difficult when you are trying to learn them.  Of course  turning around with out mastery and teaching them isn't any easier.

Mentors become very important when you the teacher are learning.  Finding someone to consult with and mentor you in your journey is crucial to your own development as an educator.

Most of the time networking with other Mom's has been a great experience.  People are for the most part respectful and supportive and encouraging.  Finding the homeschooling group's parents who are doing the upper elementary lesson is very difficult.  I have created my own social media group to draw out some of these parents but keep running into families who are not there yet as their children are preschooler or just starting off.  It has been frustrating to pour hours into creating a group sight, offering up information and resources for free and getting scolded by parents for posting something that does pertain to an infants needs.  Support and encouragement is crucial for educators.  It saddens me when people can take all you have to give, but not give back with even a kind word of thanks.
I am finding as we progress that the the upper elementary homeschoolers are far and few between. I have found a supportive small group of Montessori homeschoolers who have encouraged me and supported me but given my son's special needs and the fact that he may not progress academically past these upper elementary lesson, I feel very alone on our journey.  Finding a mentor is so important, just as finding a group is.

 I met a wonderful educator when I was working at a Montessori school who has helped me along the way.  She is AMI trained and teaches upper elementary and I use her as a consultant/tutor.   She is super busy with work and family but always finds time to encourage and support me.  Thank you Liza.  I love you and appreciate what you have brought to our lives with your skills and education.

Another group I belong to is Self Design Global and this group of parents and educators holds bi-weekly virtual meetings where we all share, encourage and support each other.  Self Design is a unschooling movement and it has not provided me with Montessori help but it is invaluable to me in other ways such as in the relationship element of how we learn and seeing learning where ever it happens.  The learning consultants of SD are a precious resource to me and cultivating relationships in these circles has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my adult life.
We all feel the need to connect and belong to a group.  Even when groups exclude and expel us we yearn to belong to some collective whole.  Homeschooling has it's draw backs in that you are alone.  Raising a special learner who struggles with relationships has shown me that I too struggle with communication and often feel excluded even in groups I administrate. We are alone in our personal journeys of homeschooling and that is hard to accept.  In these groups of social media one hopes to find people who will support and encourage them.  I have tried to encourage and support people, share resources and information.  I haven't done it to show off but to cultivate a circle of encouragement and support.

This relationship piece of the education puzzle where you allow other people into your world is tricky.  I hope this blog clears the lens for people to see how my relationships and intentions in creating social media groups can be a wonderful thing and how important it is to support one another along the journey.  It is important to share, give back and not exclude people who are different than you.  I have tried to do this with my group pages with strangers and friends.
Recently one of my groups reacted harshly to my post of reminding the group of why the group was created. I did not express myself well and people felt excluded from my comment which was said in my discouraged moments of feeling alone and no longer connecting in my own group.  I am sorry for the misunderstanding of the intention of my post. I don't know what other people felt by it but it did not elicit positive feed back and I felt misunderstood and worry that the group has gotten so big that relationship component of why I started it has been loss and the group has become something new.  I have seen several social media groups grow to large and something is lost when a group goes from a tight community of encouragement to strangers who lash out at each other  in silly disaggreeements because they have no personal connections and the relationship element  of the group is gone.

We are made human by our relationship with others.   I don't know how to make people play nice and respect each other.  I think as people dive deeper into to Montessori and Waldorf Methods they may see that respect and grace are keys to a life well lived and worth living.  That these methods are more than the materials and lesson plans but are about a lifestyle of cultivating altruism and respect for all people.

Although this recent lesson has been painful I am reminded to be thankful and appreciative of my support system and the people who encourage me along the they way.  I have met some wonderful homeschooler Mom's on social media and am grateful for their support and friendship.  I choose to focus on the good ones and accept the vulnerability that administrating a social media group puts me in.  It is going to expose me to some messy moments and difficult people who often have no idea they are being difficult, but all in all those harsh moments are outweighed by the good ones where I feel connected and heard and appreciated.