Gina Prosch

Blog

Find Joey?

When Rich and I were first married, we lived in an apartment in Laramie, Wyoming. One day in October shortly after we moved in, we heard the thundering footsteps of three young children, kids who belonged to our new neighbors — Joey & Larie.

The four of us quickly became fast friends sharing late-night laughter and —when we could afford it — strawberry daiquiris.

Those two years as next-door neighbors became the basis for a lifelong friendship. The kind of friendship where, though you don’t see each other that often, you are immediately able to pick up where you left off.

So, it’s been several years since we last saw Joey & Larie, but earlier this month our son and his ice-skating partner competed in USFS Pairs Nationals in Allen, Texas.

Since Joey and Larie’s older daughter lives near the rink, they drove down from Oklahoma so we could all get together. It was perfect!

Last weekend after we’d gotten home, I wandered from booth to booth a craft fair, looking at wreaths and Christmas crafts, reflecting on how very blessed I felt to be able to see Joey and Larie again.

That thought no more than crossed my mind than I turned the corner and saw a small sign that read “Find Joey.”

On second look, I realized it didn’t say “Find Joey” at all. It was simply an odd font, and instead, the sign actually read “Find Joy.”

But my misreading of that slogan reminded me of something that seems fitting to ponder on Thanksgiving Day— the idea that we find what we look for.

I know it holds true for me. Since I began my journey into joy, I’ve come to understand that I find what I look for.

When my thoughts were on Joey and Larie? Presto — I saw a sign that told me to Find Joey.

When I look for yellow pickup trucks, I find yellow pickups. When I look for little blue coupe, I find little blue coupes. When my thoughts focus on something to be angry or complain about, I find it.

Because I know I find what I look for, I’ve made a point of looking for #ThisDaysJoy, for reasons to feel gratitude.

It’s evening now, with Thanksgiving Day drawing to a close. I hope you looked for — and found —-many things to be thankful for.

And, until the season rolls around again, may you look for—and find—many reasons to be grateful and joyful each day.

Savor This Holiday Season

If my social media feeds and the neighborhoods I drive through on my way into town are any indicator, Christmas has come early this year.

In the weeks since Halloween, there’s been a steadily increasing stream of photos online featuring halls decked with boughs of holly. Each weekend ladders lean against rooftops, as brave souls hang strings of lights to outline the eaves of their homes. During my drive home in the darkness of early evening, Christmas trees twinkle in more and more of the front windows.

Ready or not — Christmas, here we come!

But that brings up the burning question: this year, how do you want the holiday season — the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day — to look and feel?

Keep in mind that it’s your home, your life. Just because you or your family have always done the holidays this way or that doesn’t mean there’s a cosmic rule that says you must continue doing things that same way.

Think for a moment about what may have changed in your life since last year.

  • Has your family grown because there’s a new baby…or babies?
  • Are your children bringing home new partners?
  • Do you have a new kitten or puppy you’ve added to the mix?
  • Have you moved across country or across town?
  • Have you changed careers or lost a job?
  • Maybe you’ve retired and, for the first time in decades, you’re exploring what Christmas looks like when you’re not working a job?
  • Perhaps you’ve experienced the loss of a loved one or cherished fur-baby, and you simply don’t feel like celebrating much at all?

Check in with yourself first. Whatever the situation you find yourself in — happy, sad, or business as usual — think about what you need before you start making plans based on what you did last year or the year before that or ten years before that.

Slow down, redefine, and reframe the holidays so they fit in with who you are and what you need right now, in this special season of your own life — because it’s the only 2019 you’ll ever have.

Don’t now where to start? Want help sorting through?

Check out Savor One Season — The Holidays, my self-paced, six-session course at Teachable.com. And as my Christmas gift to you, use the SAVEHALF coupon code to get 50% off the regular price of the course.

Lessons from a Weed Eater

I learned something new the other day, and I’m not ashamed to admit it makes me a bit giddy. 

Despite the best efforts of everyone in the house, we couldn’t get our weed eater started, so I ended up calling my go-to guy, my mom’s cousin Elroy. I dropped it off on Thursday afternoon, and  the next morning he called saying it was ready to go.

When I picked it up, he said, “Before you leave, let me show you a little trick.” 

He picked up an empty weed eater spool and pointed to the center of the spool. “See those little holes?” 

I watched as Elroy pulled out a really long length of weed eater line. He stuck one end through one of the holes and pulled it to the middle of the piece of line, then stuck the end back through the other hole and pulled it through, making a little u-shaped thing by the two holes.

He pulled the ends of the two lengths of cord even and began winding both of them around the spool. “That’s how you keep the line from getting all tangled.”

Color me gobsmacked! 

All this time I’d been fighting and cussing and angry for nothing! 

I came home and made my husband and son watch me wind weed eater line on the spool while I gushed, “Will you LOOK at this!!! Isn’t this amazing!?!”

And that’s the power of learning something new. 

I felt strong and smart and capable, and ever since then, I’ve walked around like the Queen of the Yard…or at least the Queen of the Weedeater. 

Then I remembered the red-letter day I learned that thread is directional, that it has a nap, just like a cat’s fur.  My hand quilting life changed completely. I can thread needles more easily, and the thread doesn’t knot and tangle like it has in the past. 

Talk about a game changer!

It doesn’t matter how old you are or how long you’ve done a particular hobby or task, there’s always something waiting to be discovered out there.

Want to know the best part of learning something new? It absolutely doesn’t have to be a big thing to make a BIG difference in your life.

As all the kids head back to school, make this the time to try something new. 

Who knows what you might learn?

Magic Questions

It’s funny how one day you’re a newbie homeschool parent with a little kid and a bazillion questions about the new educational adventure you’ve embarked on, and somehow in what seems the blink of an eye, you’ve become one of those “veteran homeschoolers” you looked at with envy all those years ago.

Now, we homeschool in Missouri, and our state’s law is currently (as of 2019) hours-based.  So, we’re supposed to have a homeschool plan, and then we log hours they’ve spent. The requirement is for 1,000 hours with 600 of those hours in core subjects (400 of the 600 in the designated home location) and the remaining 400 in either core or non-core areas.

Each year as the beginning of the school year rolls around, I see parents asking frantic questions about logging hours and wondering how on earth they will ever get that thousand hours. 

One thousand hours — it seems like such a big number. 

But really, it’s not, especially once you discover “the magic questions.”

However, before I tell you what the magic questions are, let me remind you, homeschool doesn’t need to look like traditional school. Not just not a little bit. 

Not. At. All.

In fact, not only does homeschool not need to look like traditional school, it shouldn’t look like a traditional box school — because if it does, then what in God’s green earth is the reason for homeschooling?

Homeschool — whatever your homeschool may end up looking like — should be unique to your family’s needs and desires.

Now…what are  these magic questions?

Magic Question #1 is answered with a simple yes or no: “is s/he learning?” 

Really — that’s it. Is s/he learning?  

So, if your children are learning something, regardless of whether it’s something you’ve formally assigned or not, it’s school. It doesn’t matter if it’s a math worksheet, reading comic books, playing outside, sorting laundry, or watching a YouTube video. 

If your daughter is teaching herself to how to do origami folding…it’s loggable time. If your son watches the birds at a bird feeder and learns how to identify them…it’s loggable.  If everyone  in the house gets obsessed with ancient Egypt and you attempt to mummify a chicken (yes — it can and has been done by a homeschool mom friend of mine!) … again, loggable.

Learning time is loggable time.

It didn’t take me long to realize that — provided you don’t squash it out of them — kids are naturally curious. It’s in their DNA. Some days it’s literally all they do — think up things to ask you questions about until you think your brain will literally drip out you ears. 

Don’t believe me? Think about how many times your toddler asked you “why” something. Why is the sky blue? Why are there rainbows? Why do cats purr? Why do feet stink? Why is the sun hot? Why do chickens lay eggs? Why is grass green? Why are there bees? Why do I have to go to bed?

When you think about it, every single one of those questions is an opportunity for learning. Sure, when you explain why the sky is blue, the answer you give a 3 year old will differ from the answer for a 13 year old, but it’s still age-appropriate learning. That means, if your child meets the criteria for homeschooling, it’s “school.”

Magic Question #2, once you’ve answered “yes” to the “is s/he learning?” question, is “what’s s/he learning?”

Reading, language arts, math, science, social studies, fine arts, practical arts? Log it.

Your origami loving daughter is definitely engaged in fine art, but if you say, “Wow, that’s really cool? How did origami get started?” and she can tell you — or she goes and finds out because your question made her curious — then you’re looking at social studies time.

When you’re biking with your son and realize he’s identified two dozen different birds during the course of your ride, you know you need to be logging that bird time as science. 

There you have it — the magic questions: Is s/he learning? and What is s/he learning?

Let the learning happen…then grab your homeschool log book and write it down. 

Write it all down.

Note: homeschool laws vary from state to state, with some requiring more documentation than others, but looking at what they’re learning remains home educational bedrock.

Pinky Promise?

School has started, and the summertime schedule has changed back to a school year routine. 

I even went so far as to get my 2020 calendar so I can start dropping in dates I know will be coming up in the new year.

I wrote down the January and spring terms for the homeschool education co-op I organize, then I added in the late winter ice show at the rink. There are several high school graduations this year — all at different schools — plus spring play dates.  We haven’t even really “done” anything yet, and there are already plenty of things to mark on the calendar.

Then I looked down at my current calendar and saw Labor Day coming up on Monday for those of us in the US and Canada. For me, Labor Day is the most ironic of holidays, and I always get a chuckle because we celebrate labor by getting a day off work.

Sometimes I think work is the easy part. Put your head down, don’t stop to think, and just keep work, work, working. The stopping work is tricky when the time is packed with All. The. Things.

A day off work-work is really just a day of other-work. The day feels basically the same except for the fact there’s different stuff filling the hours of the day. Mow the lawn, run errands and go shopping, watch a movie, clean the house, make sure the laundry is done, get groceries, meet up with friends or family.

But the other day,  I saw a message from a friend who sent a note to a bunch of us: “Allow yourself time to rest today….. You have my permission.”

Permission? Hmmm….

I remember the last time I had permission to rest – years ago while I recovered from surgery. My doctor made me pinky promise with her that I’d do NOTHING but sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix or do wool felt applique projects for at least a week after surgery. She said it would make all the difference in the world with my long-term recovery time, and after that first week, I was supposed to take the next five weeks to continue resting and healing.

So, I did what I was told. I found Emergency! on Netflix and watched every single episode that first week – somehow it seemed appropriate as I was laid up. And I stitched a bunch of wool felt applique Christmas ornaments to cover a tree.

Turns out my doctor knew what she was talking about, and six weeks out from my surgery, when it was time to resume my regular work schedule, I felt better than I had in years. I was…rested.

So this Labor Day weekend, embrace the irony and allow yourself time to rest this weekend. You have my permission.

Better yet, will you pinky promise me?

Use Your Superpowers

In the Spider-Man® universe, one of the guiding principles is that “with great power comes great responsibility,” something Peter Parker learned the hard way. He had the power—the superpower actually—to stop a criminal, but he didn’t and lost his Uncle Ben as a result.

Homeschool parents relate. With the great power to guide our children’s education comes the great responsibility to do right by them. 

My homeschool parent friends are keenly aware of this. Homeschool families flock to homeschool conferences and expos. Stop by any social media group for home educators and you’ll find parents asking about curriculum, following state laws, seeking help to solve this or that problem. 

We want to do this right.

However, one of the things I’ve noticed in recent years is, while parents will take responsibility for their children’s education, sometimes there’s a reticence to take full advantage of their power as decision makers. 

We hesitate.

I see too many parents wanting someone else—someone “out there”—to assure them it’s okay for their children to take an open book history test, to tell them it’s okay to use a computer science class as a science credit, to give them some sort of cosmos permission to count a cookie baking sesssion filled with fractions as a math lesson.

I regularly find myself encouraging new homeschoolers to seize the day—to seize their power as teacher, the principal, and the school board.  

You decide. You make the call. You be the one. You and no one else.

Don’t wait for someone else’s approval or permission or go-ahead. Look to yourself.

Seizing your own power as an educator means taking full advantage of what it means to homeschool.

Depending on where you live, you may have more or fewer government regulations, but regardless of which state you call home, you have options. You have the freedom to decide exactly what your homeschool will look like.

Yes, your homeschool will look vastly different from every other homeschool family’s homeschool. 

And. That’s. Okay.

In fact, it’s supposed to be that way.  

When your homeschool looks radically different from your best friend’s homeschool, don’t doubt yourself…and don’t doubt your friend. You’re unique homeschool parents, and you’re raising individuals. Why wouldn’t your homeschools look different?

In fact, if your homeschool looks exactly like some other family’s homeschool, I’ll be so bold as to say chances are good either you’re doing it wrong for you…or they’re doing it wrong for them.

As homeschool parents, consider how with great responsibility comes great power. 

This year, do yourself a favor: Be Brave. Take advantage of the power you have to direct your children’s learning, then use your superpowers as a homeschool parent for good…create a homeschool experience as unique as your children.