Something Nubian

In the past 28 days, I have refocused ways I have approached my children and decided to share them on social media with hashtags such as #HomeschoolLife #SpeakLifeIntoYourChild #MindingHerOwnBusiness and #TBWGTMHOB

I touched on the subject of children in my new book The Black Woman’s Guide to Minding Her Own Business because of all the things I involve myself in homeschooling sits at the top of the list.

The goal was for those who follow incorporated these approaches as well use them to repeat everything in the months to come.

I chose the month of February specifically …

Every year, I get agitated that there are countless people who still acknowledge that there is a “so-called” #BlackHistory #month when there were countless extraordinary hue-mans who made outstanding strides#weekly if not #daily outside the month of February!

No judgment there, it’s called programming!

My calendar says #Black365; as a mother, I do not teach hate to my children by educating them only #BlackLivesMatter, I show them love by enlightening them that we are not absent from the #scene, we have done our best work when we weren’t seen.

Every day while I worked on reorganizing their classroom, in my struggle with chronic pain from fibromyalgia, I cut, colored and nailed new posters to the wall to show the girls I loved and care for them and their education.

They could have cared less …

“We are mind, body, and spirit, so there is a spirit station included in the set up for more than just school work. Children are spiritually lead as they are born with only their five senses, therefore they should be spiritually fed.”

So, I began to incorporate and encourage them as this process took nearly all month to complete.

Each day, I posted challenges for myself to overcome feeling like my children were ungrateful and disobedient when all they knew was what they learned from myself and others they come in contact with. All they really needed was some self-assured love and affection.

So, I posted a self-imposed challenge to Speak Life into Your Child for the month of February. It was definitely empowering and brought positive transitions.

It all started with a couple of mailboxes I purchased from the Dollar Tree. I write a positive message and left for my children to read daily

Sometimes we don’t recognize the little things. Like when we give them ten different instructions at once and then expect them to remember them all, so I posted “Compliment your children on following directions … just take a moment to tell them how well they comprehend …”

I had them help me clean out drawers under and over everything in their classroom. We kept what was worth keeping and threw away all the trash, it had been a while since we had done so and I was not waiting until Spring.

I was tired of seeing those papers and so I did something about it, it was definitely time to liven up the place!

I pulled out what construction paper and glue I had and got busy. The one subject I did not touch on that will be added is working on projects together. This process definitely was a confidence builder.

Before

After

I transformed this area to the Math station. There is a bench so they can sit and work on math work or projects if they choose not to sit at the table.

My children and I meet with a tutor a few times a year who suggested I create stations (for the second time) and so I decided to move a lot of things around and create different times with each subject for all the areas of study.

We are mind, body, and spirit, so there is a spirit station included in the set up for more than just school work. Children are spiritually led as they are born with only their five senses, therefore they should be spiritually fed.

Out of the womb, I felt it was best to homeschool and while pregnant I visited a cousin who homeschools as well. We discussed the basics and I immediately came back home to research how to implement it in our household.

While studying for myself, I was introduced to Chakras and how the Africans related this to science and spirit. This gave me the ability to add math, colors, reading, writing and social studies to the areas of opportunities to learn.

While on Pinterest, I discovered Chakra shelves (and “Readbox”), asked my significant other for his assistance and the girls loved it!

Originally there was nothing in this corner, this space was enlightened perfectly!

For the entire month, I was able to temporarily put aside what I love (freelance writing) for whom I love more, these beautiful girls and their education. I never had a problem telling others …

My posts attracted other parents and they commented with compliments about how I should offer services that I really never thought of seriously until now.

There were a lot things that we did not do that I suggested but my purpose was to introduce something new to the Black Diaspora (Something Nubian)  and repeat it all again next month and the months following.

This month truly brought about change for the better. I am looking forward to many new things to come for this Homeschool Life and I am grateful to all that contribute. I say all the time, I have a wonderful village.

Namaste

Femi Eshe