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© Leonie Westenberg

I find that it important to remember to have fun, to make myself have fun!

I sent a post to an email list on joyful disruptions for kids - but I think we mothers have to sometimes choose to joyfully disrupt our own behaviour when we fall into negativity. Do something out of the ordinary - have an upside down day! Go out together to visit new parks or libraries or op shops. Bake yummy goodies. Or do what some of my sons and I did last night - get out the punching bag and practice our martial arts! Anything to joyfully disrupt ourselves when we feel in a slump.

Here is part of the post on joyful disruptions, quoting Ann Larhson-Fisher's book "Successful Homeschooling" -

In Ann's words, page 188:

"Pick your battles, advice most parents are given. This is a helpful strategy that successful homeschooling parents really do heed. It makes good sense to work on one skill or behaviour at a time. But for all the wisdom of that sage advice, don't you really want to know what to do about some of the battles you don't pick? Don't you sometimes need to derail a behaviour for safety and sanity reasons?

"Enter joyful disruptions....If you - a mature adult - are delighted to drop everything you are doing when your child interrupts your routine with a joyful celebration, just think how powerful an effect you have on your child when you choose to interrupt her ( possibly annoying) activities with a joyful activity you choose...

"A joyful disruption is a powerful way to redirect energy or an activity that is undesirable, but for whatever reason, is not a battle you want to pick today. You might try to use joyful disruptions when you know a behaviour needs to stop [Mum being negative! - Leonie] and you are personally exasperated... Rather than yelling or scolding, you find a way to derail the negativity by doing something joyfully outrageous or completely off the wall."

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Together with the support of my family, my aim is to help parents educate their children in stress-free, nurturing environments. In addition to building and maintaing this website, I continue to create and manage local and national home educating networks, help to organise conferences and camps, as well as write for, edit and produce newsletters, resource directories and magazines. I am an active supporter of national, state, regional and local home education groups.

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