Wind Rose Homeschool Academy Blog

One of the most important learning spaces in our home is the Safe Place, which we learned about from Conscious Discipline, founded by Dr. Becky Bailey.  This is a place for our children to go when they are feeling upset to process their feelings, calm, and problem solve. We have been using the Safe Place for six years now; our oldest is twelve and still sometimes goes to the Safe Place.  The children chose two locations for our Safe Places: one in the living room behind a chair and one in the dining room. The children work through the five phases when they are there: I am, I calm, I feel, I choose, and I solve. When they were younger, we spent most of the time one of our children was in the Safe Place with them.  Now, less. Example Use with Younger Child My child is writing in a book she's making but she is frustrated with the way her handwriting looks.  She shouts and throws her pencil. I take a few deep breaths to be calm before I talk to her.  Throw...

For most of us parents, this question has popped up in our internal monologue at least once, if not countless times. How do I get her to clean her room? How do I get him to remember to take out the trash? How do I get them to do x, y, or z? And for us homeschoolers who don’t unschool: how do I get them to do their math/writing/science/etc.? It wasn’t until I attended Conscious Discipline’s Summer Institute that it really clicked for me.  In a home based on parenting without punishments or rewards, getting them to do something is never the goal.  Neither is convincing them to do something. Rather, the goal is to create an environment and relationship with them in which they choose to do x, y, and z.   They choose to do the task because it is 1) keeping themselves or someone else safe, 2) helpful, or 3) kind. But how? The Safekeeper Ritual The Safekeeper Ritual from Conscious Discipline is key for our home.  It provides our children with...

The other day, I felt super frustrated.  My daughter was struggling to transition back to learning after a play break, and I snapped at her verbally.  There’s that moment, right after I snap at one of the children, and I am sort of outside myself just for a second and actually hear myself and think, “Well, that sucked.” Know that feeling?  And, despite that inner voice, I sometimes feel this temptation to lean in and hold onto my pride in “being right” or “being in charge”. I have a choice in that moment to lean in to that pride, or I can stop and make a change. Unfortunately, this time, I leaned in a bit more.  Said, “I don’t know how often I have to..” a few more times and expressed my frustration with “We need to get moving” a few more times, before I finally stopped and took a deep breath.  I can’t tell you how important that dang deep breath is. And then I owned it. “Wait. I’m sorry. I’m not breathing before I talk, am I? And my commitment is to breathe ...