Prairie Spirit Home Educators
Welcome to the Prairie Spirit Home Educators (PSHE) website!
The Prairie Spirit Home Educators support group consists of home educating families living in the towns, farms, and acreages surrounding Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
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Treasures, and Other Essentials
When you work in a high stress environment, it becomes tasking and draining. Thus to regenerate, you need comfort. With this in mind, I have used the need to regenerate as an excuse to make "comfort" type foods into one of the essential food groups of my diet. Unfortunately it is starting to show on my waistline.
The other day at work I bought a wonderful comforting chocolate bar. I decided that all those calories need not be eaten in one session, so I took half and tucked the other half into my locker for safe keeping. That second half would be welcome on my next break. Well, I completely forgot about it. At shifts end, I rediscovered my chocolate delight and found great gratification; both in the candy and in the discovery. I enjoyed it twice as much as I would have had it not been lost and rediscovered.
The delight of my discovery can be compared to finding money in your winter coat at the beginning of the next snow season. In fact, I have been known to deliberately leave money in my coat in spring just to reclaim it in six months time. It's like free money. I always forget about it. Sounds silly, but you know what, it works!
I find that same type of joy in teaching my children. Also in watching them discover or learn new things. It is like finding a hidden or lost treasure from years before. As a parent, the delights your children enjoy also turns out to be your own delight.
For instance, in teaching my son what a prime number is, I relearn it myself and find in the dusty recesses of my grey matter I can recollect. "Of course, a prime number is a number divisible only by one and itself. Such as 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17. Cool!"
Another occasion: Watching my daughter learn to read and discover great classics such as Black Beauty and Nancy Drew. Or watching her learn to ride horses; something I learned at camp, just like her. It is so fulfilling, so rewarding.
Non-home schooling parents could also be privy to these types of pleasures, like teaching their own children how to ride a bicycle. For them, I am sure it will bring back their own memories and feeling of joy or learning to ride for themselves. Yet when you homeschool, these little treasures occur almost on a daily basis. In fact, I now consider them as I do my "comfort" food; an essential part of my life.
Author: Lori Giesbrecht