E.16 Write it Down

This podcast is all about writing it down. I start out talking about the importance of personal record keeping, swing into the brain benefits of writing and end up talking about how to develop writing with our kids. Its a meandering topic but connected under the theme of taking the time to write for its lasting benefits both for ourselves and our little ones.

In the podcast I mention a couple of authors and websites so here are the links: I created my own hardbound planner, designed it at home then had it printed at lulu.com. Then I mention the Cozi app (full disclosure I haven’t used it my self but I have had several friends who have enjoyed it). I quote Charlotte Mason from her book Home Education. As well as paraphrasing Dale Carnagie from his book How to Win Friends and Influence People (an absolute must read classic). I also refrence an article from Forbes.com “Neuroscience Explains Why you Need to Write Down Your Goals if You Actually Want to Achieve Them” And Julie Bogart from Brave Writer.

Transcript of Episode #16

Write it down!

So, I was thinking about this summer and how I am excited to plan for next school year. You know how most homeschool moms after having a bit of a summer break get excited for the next school year and start daydreaming and romanticizing what it will bring or at least troubleshooting last year’s fails and get tactical. Well I like to start doing this before the previous year even gets out! But I get so caught up in planning and creating lesson plans that sometimes I forget to live fully in the moment I am in. I even forget to have the little learning adventures I envisioned for this year.

One thing that has helped me be more present in my homeschool and have those adventures is when I record them. Taking pictures and sharing them with my family and on Instagram is fun, but those pictures help me really see the beauty in what we are doing because in the moment when there is paint out and 9 kids around the table it can be a little chaotic (“Don’t drink the paint water!”) but when I look at the pictures again that night before I post I can see how he was really into that project, or look at the way she is paying attention to the detail, or how cute is that baby with blue paint on his cheek laughing. I swear it is a scientific fact that my kids are cuter in photographs. Like the way we all swoon over sleeping babies then cry when we are cleaning up their spit up for the 18th time that day.  Something magical happens in those moments that biologically endears them to us.

Looking at those photos whether it is before I post or two years later in a scrapbook helps me to see how much we really do get done and will help the kids remember the good times and adventures of their childhood.

Wanting to create those memories to look back on motivates me to do the projects now!

Even the memories that are not so instaworthy are good to record. When I was VERY pregnant with my 3rd, I had to lay down for over an hour because the Braxton hicks were so severe, I could not stand. When I got up, I discovered that my 2-year-old had found the Nesquik. All. Over. The. Couch. The microfiber couch to be precise, and the two loads of clean laundry it had taken me two days to wash. And the carpet. And his hair. My husband was out of town at work, so this mess was on me. I started crying. For a split second, I thought I was going to lose it. Then I remembered all the fiascos of my aunt and her crazy girls and how she never wrote them down or took pictures and how much she regrets it so I took a photo. He turned to me and gave me the biggest chocolatey grin I have on record and I started to laugh. Oh, it hurt so bad cleaning that mess up, but it is one of my favorite photographs now.

Remembering how my mother and I grieved so differently after my grandmother’s death taught me a lot about empathy and the importance of supporting people after a loss in the way they want to be supported. Journaling my feelings helped me work through my grief but also remember how to best love my own mother. Journaling can help you gain clarity of thought, record important life events, remember experiences and cultivate gratitude.

Right now, we are going through a historic event. Every few years someone asks me where I was on 9/11 and while I remember the details as vivid as my grandma remembers the day Kennedy got shot, My kids won’t know her story when they are grown and my great grand kids won’t know mine unless we record it in some way.

Throughout history there are countless examples of cultures that are all but lost because their only history was kept in an oral tradition. The Druids believed their religion was too sacred to write down so after the Romans took over there is truly little known about their ancient beliefs, practices, and wisdom. The same can be said for the ancient African history or the traditional stories of the Pacific island people after colonization changed the way their societies functioned and the stories they told.

The Egyptians (while one of the older civilizations) were excellent at writing down their history. Which is why we know more about them than other equally advanced societies on the other side of the world. Unfortunately, for a while, their history was kept on papyrus which disintegrated with time. So, the majority of the records we have today are the ones that were kept in stone.

What that means for today is yet to be seen but technology is always improving, the faded photographs from our grandparents will not happen to our printed images as quickly because of the improvements in printing, ink, and digital storage. However, we cannot take for granted our digital age because things are constantly changing with technology (just think of how many VHS videos your parents have that they can’t even play anymore).

While we may not be in control over what happens to our personal histories after we record them, it is so important that we try. Our prosperity will be fascinated with the lives we lived generations from now and our memories are sometimes all we have left after a life well lived.

Recording your family’s history can be done with photos and or text.

This winter I kept seeing swoon worthy hard bound planners. I was determined to get one but none of them had exactly what I was looking for, so I did what I always do and made my own. I included elements from each of the planners I liked and the one I was currently using. One new feature I have absolutely loved was the once weekly  “My favorite thing that happened this week” section where I literally just take a moment to write down my favorite thing that happened that week or cute things the kids said. While I am meal planning and scheduling for the week Sunday nights, I write down the things that are so easy to forget. It makes it easy to pull quotes for my yearly scrapbook and is really a practice in gratitude which keeps me grounded.

Another way to make record keeping seamless is using an app like Cozi where you can take pictures and write journal entries (like Facebook posts) then email or print them later. Facebook has a fun throwback feature but the draw back with keeping everything recorded on an app is that you don’t have a physical copy and risk losing it if the app changes. I kept my entire first pregnancy journal on a baby website that is gone now.

To build any habit you just need to tie it to something you already do. I added weekly journaling to weekly planning. You might add it to your bedtime ritual daily or block out a few days after Christmas each year to build a memory book.

Beyond keeping a record of your memories and recording family history there is power in writing things down. It helps you organize your thoughts, clear your mind for new ideas, makes you repeat your mental composition which solidifies it in your memory. For example, a study was done that showed that people who kept notes scored better on exams than those who didn’t but surprisingly whether or not they actually reread the notes made little difference. The act of writing it down was what concreted the new information in their mind. Not being able to reference it later.  Repeating back what you have learned is a common theme in education. Its debatable who said it but it has been said that you haven’t truly learned something until you can repeat it. Which is why Charlotte Mason encourages narration as a key tool of learning. She said, “A Narration should be original as it comes from the child, that is his own mind should have acted on the matter he received” Home Education Pg. 289 Acting on the matter they received is thinking about, remembering and storing the information then recomposing it in a way that makes sense to them before expressing it to us.

According to Mike Murphy from Forbes neuroscience explains that our brain is constantly encoding the messages we receive as “important remember this” and “Not important discard” it then determines whether to save something in long- or short-term memory. Writing things down is a multisensory experience that lights up many parts of your brain signaling it that the information being transcribed is important and should be remembered. It is even mor powerful when we generate the information ourselves.

What we discover we own. A key principle from Montessori. Generating our thoughts or take on a subject helps us to own those thoughts and discoveries.

This starts as a verbal narration then grows into written ones as children progress in their education but making that transition can be hard. When you think about everything that is happening for a person to write something down it is really incredible. You need to know what sounds the letters make, how to blend them into words, what those words mean, how to form the letters on the paper, how to make your hand do what your mind is telling it to do with muscle memory. You need to understand grammar, sentence structure, context, have a vocabulary of words to express yourself with. You need to come up with an idea, then find a way to express it clearly in a composition then get those thoughts down on paper using all of the above skills. I’m exhausted just thinking about it and for our little guys refining their reading and writing skills it is a big ask on their little brains to try to do that many steps at once. This is why charlotte mason starts out with oral narrations before moving on to written ones and offers lots of handwriting practice and dictation to model good writing long before they are putting their own thoughts to paper. By verbally narrating they are able to work on the skills of composition, organizing their thoughts, recalling information, and improving their vocabulary separate from the writing skills they are developing so the are not as overwhelmed but still get the benefits of narrating their own thoughts.

Julie Bogart from Brave Writer had a great idea on teaching kids to narrate as a first step towards writing. She suggests writing down their stories and ideas for them. So, if they are rattling on about a story of a monkey and a banana say “hold on a sec, this is so good I want to write it down.” Then make sure you get the details right and read it back to them and maybe the family at dinner saying “Hey listen to this funny story Otto told me today”. Taking their dictation emphasizes that their words have value, how writing is a way to express yourself and creates investment in writing.

An example of writing narrations like this is when I do it during nature study. My 5-year-old loves the time and attention from mom, so he does careful and intentional work when we sit down together. Even the older kids (up to age 12) give me a lot more detail, insight, and questions than when I leave them to write their own thoughts. Not only are they able to make more connections because their thoughts are not slowed down by their ability to write but it creates a powerful emotional connection to written language. Which lays the foundation for good writing later.

Dale Carnegie once said that a man who can speak well is given all kinds of credit, either due or undue, over a man who cannot. Imagine then how much better a child who can write well will do? Getting in the practice of writing things down (notes, maps, narrations, data) will serve them in every pursuit.

As in all things we should model what we expect. We should keep a journal or scrapbook, occasionally write a poem with our kids when they do it, keep a nature journal, and find opportunities to improve our writing and record keeping so that they will see it as normal part of life. Keeping a gratitude journal is grounding and has been shown time and time again to ingrain an optimistic perspective and increase peace and happiness. It is leveraging the power of writing to make us into grateful people. Multiply this effect in recording positive memories, careful observations, and insights from our reading and we are training our brains to think deeply and compassionately. In doing so we will scoop up all the brain benefits for our self and set the kids on a course to make their own connections.

Before you can get creative you need to understand the foundational principles. Our little ones need writing instruction, to read great books, and practice narration when they are young so that they can express new ideas when they are older.

We need to remember these times so when we are asking ourselves how did it go so fast? We will have journals, pictures, and memories to look back on.

The pen is mightier than the sword and if we want our children to wield it well, we need to instill a love of writing a sharpen our skills as we grow together in our homeschool.

I hope you are inspired to keep the little adventures going through the end of the school year and to record your work and help them to record theirs.

Until next time, stay curious and write it down