13
Apr

What Do Pirates Think?

   Posted by: MotherHen   in Homeschooling, My Pirates

Do you realize Pirates need time to be bored? Really, think about it, if they never have to learn to deal with free time, in the safety of your home, what will they do with unstructured time when they are on their own?

Are you ever bored, as an adult? Of course, there are lots of times when we are bored. Do you find it invigorating to stand in line at the grocery? What about cleaning mirrors? Is that exciting? If it is, you’re probably doing it wrong. Behaving with grace and dignity while you’re bored out of your gourd is an acquired skill, one your Pirates need to develop.

OK, that’s enough dwelling on the negative. Let’s talk about training, habit training. What do you do with a Pirate who is too old to take a nap? This is the perfect time for the older Pirate to have his boredom training.

I require The Princess and the Pirates (those under age 12) to spend an hour in their bed most afternoons, after the galley is clean. The Cap’n and Calico Zak are not required to lie down, but they must read during this hour, so that there are no interesting noises in the house. Those that can read may do so, in their bed. The Princess may look at books, in her bed. They must remain quiet. None fall asleep unless they are sick. Eventually (after maybe 20 minutes) they get bored with the books. This is probably the best brain building time in their day. Pure thinking, wondering, musing, pondering.  This works for me any-day, including Wednesday.


Related posts:

  1. Journaling, Lunch and Cuteness
  2. Good Reads
  3. My Dyslexia Tears

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Homeschooling, My Pirates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

13 comments so far

Cyndi Lewis
 1 

I’m actually going to be starting this type of schedule in our home. I would like to schedule an hour or two of writing time for myself and will need the house quiet and the kids occupied. I do anticipate grief from my pirate. He does not like to read. The littlest princess will take some training. She likes to share everything with me and will undoubtedly be prone to wondering out of her room at first, book in hand.

April 14th, 2008 at 7:30 am
hm
 2 

We do this too, though we only do 30 minutes. An hour does seem good though.

I agree if a child is not taught to deal with boredom they potentially may end up in a terrible place.

April 14th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Mother Hen
 3 

My Pirates did not take to this right away either. They required TRAINING. None of them were born with pencils OR books in their hands, but after implementing these training sessions, their reading improved quickly. And with reading skills climbing, spelling and vocabulary follow right along. You can’t lose.

April 14th, 2008 at 8:47 am
The (Almost) Amazing Mommarino
 4 

I agree! Kids tend to be overscheduled and don’t know how to entertain themselves.

I have given my children alone time from the time that they were little, and one thing I NEVER hear them say is, “Mommy, I’m bored.” Even when the movers messed up and buried their toy boxes in the garage where I couldn’t get to them for two weeks, they played happily with whatever they could find.

April 15th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
CC
 5 

Good idea. We’re trying to figure out how to keep our 4 year old’s pathetic attempt at a nap from interrupting his sister’s actual nap.

April 15th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Mother Hen
 6 

If the little Pirate is being too noisy for his sister to sleep, you can put him on a quilt at your feet. Give him books and tell him to enjoy them quietly. That’ll be good training until he can be quiet in his bed.

April 15th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Jenna
 7 

The word bored was not generally used in our house growing up. If you told my mother that you were “bored” she would hand you something off of her long chore list to do… if you didn’t want to be scrubbing toilets or other menial tasks you learned to occupy yourself.

April 16th, 2008 at 10:02 am
jenuinejen
 8 

This is a great post. Thank you for the advice.

April 16th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Alicia
 9 

I really like this idea. My girls are fine in this department, but I think this could really benefit my son. Thanks! I will try this out!!!

Alicia

April 16th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Michelle@Life with Three
 10 

Thanks so much for this reminder. Sometimes I forget that I’m not my childrens’ “cruise ship director.” :-)

April 16th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
amandasattitude
 11 

Great post! We do something like this most days around 3 am. My husband is a full-time pastor and is able to be home a lot. So while the children are having their quiet time we adults have our “Coffee Time” to talk and catch up on the events of the day…Sometimes I don’t want coffee time to end! But everyone is energized after their quiet time.
Thanks for sharing!

April 17th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Karen Dunham
 12 

Hi Mother Hen,
I have always wanted to do this, and did when the first kids were little, but as some have gotten older, I have not figured out how to get through our school subjects and still have that hour of personal reading time….I would LOVE to have an hour to read every afternoon…..how do you schedule your days and how do you get through your chores and school work. Any suggestions? Thanks, Karen

April 19th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Mother Hen
 13 

The hardest thing to learn about homeschooling is that WE, as parents, are the ones who are IN CHARGE of deciding what takes priority in our children’s lives. As long as we are in compliance with our state’s requirements for homeschooling, we are free to choose how we spend our days.
You might look around your home, are you doing “government school at home” or are you truly homeschooling? The difference, in my opinion, is the first is a one-size-fits-all approach, and strangely time consuming for most moms to implement. The second takes into account the fact that you actually know your own children, and can therefore tailor make their education to fit their actual needs and interests. This is not as time consuming as it sounds, it can be accomplished “….when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

April 20th, 2008 at 9:02 am