Take good care of my baby. (Yep, the kid actually managed to get five front teeth in this photo.)
It’s happening.
After eight years of homeschooling, this year, all four of my children strap on their backpacks and head down to our local public school.
New to this series? For the thoughts behind it, start here.
It was yesterday, walking to a train, that we met her—I’ll call her Gretchen. Conversation unfolded among us in the blistering sunshine. We were all drawn in by the details of her home country; the stories of her life there. At thirty, Gretchen is pretty and successful. She vacations around the world.
Has your family started the spring break countdown? We want to make our time with kids intentional. But where to start? Over on EverThineHome.com, I’ve got 30 ideas to try this month. Hop on over and check ’em out!
Happy almost-Spring! (And BTW–if you like this, you might love the Relationships page, full of tons of ideas.)
Think of these social skills as little golden keys to the future for your kids: They can get your kids into a lot of places! Bummer is, they can shut some doors, too, when our kids don’t master them. (Disclaimer: Writing this post does not declare my children in mastery of said skills.)
Social skills are key because manners are a form of loving others well. They lubricate the potential friction of social interactions.
(Some of them I’ve broken down because of my own experience with my son’s ADHD, such as giving him “scripts” for social situations; see #1. I won’t speak directly to special needs in this post. But some of these ideas might work to put tangible steps onto often intangible skills.)
I’ve been energized by the enthusiasm for this super-cool rubric (evaluation tool) for peer, self, and even teacher evaluation form for speeches and oral presentations.
So I wanted to follow it up with another tool I’ve just created for use with my own students: a rubric for peer, self, and teacher evaluation for students’ writing (fiction or non-), for use in our new “writer’s workshop”.
It’s roughly appropriate for grades 4-6, complete with Lego minifigure clip art! There are two per page. I laminate these for reuse with dry- or wet-erase markers.
My dad, my mom jokes, has two speeds in life: full-throttle, and asleep.
I know this, because I inherited a lot of it. I am nothing if not intentional (if you’re skeptical, click the ideas page). In fact, before it was honed by some maturity and grace, I’m pretty confident I used to scare people off a bit, plunking down my lunch tray in the college cafeteria and asking people what God’s been teaching them lately. Pass the salt, would you?
I’ve written before about my anger problem. You know. The one I didn’t think I had until I had children.
But as conflict reveals my heart for what it really is, I’m compiling a working list of practical steps and thoughts as God patiently carves away the death in my heart and slowly makes me a conqueror.
![Now You're Speaking My [Love] Language](https://www.janelbreitenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/love-languages-text-1.jpg "Now You're Speaking My [Love] Language")
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