Realizations of Positive Reinforcement
I was listening to a talk on ADD and realized something so wonderful yet terrible at the same time. I realized that I don't give enough positive reinforcement to my children. How can this be terrible? Well, my homeschooling hasn't been what I pictured lately. Yeah, we are doing a little school during the summer. This isn't the problem. The problem is my reaction to where we are. I have two beautiful, bright, creative, building children who work hard everyday at their lessons. My failure is that I haven't told them this enough.
One of my biggest faults/failures is focusing on the negative. I wasn't always like that. I didn't always focus on what was going wrong. I used to be a dreamer. I am working on regaining what I have lost. I am happier when I see things from a "half is glass full" perspective, then the half empty side isn't so bad. The "empty' doesn't matter as much.
Why is this wonderful? This realization has reopened a door for me. I have a new focus and a new purpose as a home schooler. The ADD talk that I listened to spoke about educating an ADD student. Now, I don't know if my children are ADD but it doesn't matter. Focusing on positive reinforcement is going to produce children who grow into positive children. I can almost guarantee that my child will respond better, not struggle through the remainder of the work and trust that I am looking out for their best interest.
I also learned that ADD children are right-brained (creative) and struggle using their left brain (logic). I think that traditional schooling killed the beautiful right-brained me. I am not a left brained person at all. I was (am) extremely creative. I was flighty and loved the story of life and nature. In our private school, right-brained students weren't valued. Left-brained students were "smarter" and had direction. There was no numbers value in creativity. You didn't make money when you loved art.
The issue that I have to face: I may be hurting my child's ability and desire to use their right brain because of pressure that I put on them. This pressure comes from societies view of success that I have left infiltrate our home and define our home education. The reason I began this home schooling journey was so that this wouldn't happen...yet it still has. This tells me that I am not listening to my instincts. Something I promised myself I would never do. Good news-I can change. I will change. I have already changed.
Right-brained children are gifted! They are so beautiful and so brilliant. They may not be able to get a *ahem* passing score on the LSAT but they might be able to paint a beautiful picture, tell an intriguing story or write a book that a lefty could never have imagined.
One of my biggest faults/failures is focusing on the negative. I wasn't always like that. I didn't always focus on what was going wrong. I used to be a dreamer. I am working on regaining what I have lost. I am happier when I see things from a "half is glass full" perspective, then the half empty side isn't so bad. The "empty' doesn't matter as much.
Why is this wonderful? This realization has reopened a door for me. I have a new focus and a new purpose as a home schooler. The ADD talk that I listened to spoke about educating an ADD student. Now, I don't know if my children are ADD but it doesn't matter. Focusing on positive reinforcement is going to produce children who grow into positive children. I can almost guarantee that my child will respond better, not struggle through the remainder of the work and trust that I am looking out for their best interest.
I also learned that ADD children are right-brained (creative) and struggle using their left brain (logic). I think that traditional schooling killed the beautiful right-brained me. I am not a left brained person at all. I was (am) extremely creative. I was flighty and loved the story of life and nature. In our private school, right-brained students weren't valued. Left-brained students were "smarter" and had direction. There was no numbers value in creativity. You didn't make money when you loved art.
The issue that I have to face: I may be hurting my child's ability and desire to use their right brain because of pressure that I put on them. This pressure comes from societies view of success that I have left infiltrate our home and define our home education. The reason I began this home schooling journey was so that this wouldn't happen...yet it still has. This tells me that I am not listening to my instincts. Something I promised myself I would never do. Good news-I can change. I will change. I have already changed.
Right-brained children are gifted! They are so beautiful and so brilliant. They may not be able to get a *ahem* passing score on the LSAT but they might be able to paint a beautiful picture, tell an intriguing story or write a book that a lefty could never have imagined.
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