Sunset, 2.30 pm, Hamar, 9th December 2008"Driving along in a big red car what did you see today?"
I have just received a mail from a family in Germany who, I can honestly say, are one of my few examples of conductive upbringing at its best.
I mentioned the child, now a young adult in a blog that I posted in April this year called "On the road to orthofunction", She had just passed her theory driving test. Well, yesterday I received news via Mum that the four-year-old I once knew is now the proud owner of a full driving license and is driving her own automatic car.
This family havs done everything that they can to keep their expectations, as high for this daughter as for their other three children (now two doctors and a financial wizard). The whole family has followed a conductive upbringing since before I met them in 1994.
I worked within the family home, at first once every month for a week, slowly decreasing this as school commitments increased, to what happens these days, emails and phone calls between myself and Mum.
As you can imagine, the whole family is delighted with this new "Michael Schaumacher": what better Christmas present could they wish for? Knowing how much work has gone into getting this driving license, not only during the past seven months but also over the past 18 years, gives me a far nicer feeling in my soul than achieving five hundred blogs ever could!
Congratulations, I wish I was with you, as I have been at Advent time for many years, to join the celebrations.
All the way from Norway I wish you a peaceful Advent time and remember with pleasure the hours that many years ago we spent preparing Christmassy pictures for the windows, that I imagine are still hung up each year.
Notes
"Driving along in a big red bus"
Children's song
On the road to orthofunction
http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-road-to-orthofunction.html
I have just received a mail from a family in Germany who, I can honestly say, are one of my few examples of conductive upbringing at its best.
I mentioned the child, now a young adult in a blog that I posted in April this year called "On the road to orthofunction", She had just passed her theory driving test. Well, yesterday I received news via Mum that the four-year-old I once knew is now the proud owner of a full driving license and is driving her own automatic car.
This family havs done everything that they can to keep their expectations, as high for this daughter as for their other three children (now two doctors and a financial wizard). The whole family has followed a conductive upbringing since before I met them in 1994.
I worked within the family home, at first once every month for a week, slowly decreasing this as school commitments increased, to what happens these days, emails and phone calls between myself and Mum.
As you can imagine, the whole family is delighted with this new "Michael Schaumacher": what better Christmas present could they wish for? Knowing how much work has gone into getting this driving license, not only during the past seven months but also over the past 18 years, gives me a far nicer feeling in my soul than achieving five hundred blogs ever could!
Congratulations, I wish I was with you, as I have been at Advent time for many years, to join the celebrations.
All the way from Norway I wish you a peaceful Advent time and remember with pleasure the hours that many years ago we spent preparing Christmassy pictures for the windows, that I imagine are still hung up each year.
Notes
"Driving along in a big red bus"
Children's song
On the road to orthofunction
http://konduktorin.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-road-to-orthofunction.html
8 comments:
At the 6th World Congress of CE in Sweden, following a challenging presentation from Spain about a training course for parents that I found totally overwhelming, I stated that as a parent, I did not wish to be a conductor (which the training seemed to mirror), but to be the best parent I could.
Andrew Sutton recently (9 Dec) repeated a question on his blog "What to do between blocks?". One answer to this might be to set out to be the best parent at conductive upbringing one could be.
Is there a training need here? What might a "conductive upbringing for parents" course look like? Could it (and I for one do not see why not) be managed over the internet? Perhaps it should be a mentoring programme - parents helping parents?
The first mentors might be your German family, Susie
Mentoring
It is interesting you should say that maybe the first mentors could be in this family I mentioned as I have been thinking about the very same thing ever since I wrote that posting.
I already have another long term family in northern Germany who is now "mentoring" two other families with very tiny children, and I join the process when I am working with the original family. It appears to be working well.
Training
I do not like the word training,I have come across it today in my work in Norway refering to "homework" given at the end of a block. I have instead called it "advice on conductive upbringing at home". This has a better ring in my Hari trained ears.
The worse thing I can imagine is for a parent to take on the role of a therapist or a conductor, parents are parents and should remain so throughout their life.
The way I can imagine for preparing parents to be conductive upbringers is for a conductor to live in the home for a while.Not do to continue the programme that a child has been doing at a summer camp, but to live each day and night as it is normally lived in the family. I Go to the school, go shopping,visit the grandma, sit at the same table to eat, play in the garden, doing everything alongside mum, dad and siblings. During this time the conductor can advise and parents can ask for guidnace. specific problems can be looked at and maybe solutions found.
Together ways can be found for the child to become as indendent as possible at home. We can saw the legs off a chair, but a book under the feet, suggest a lower handrail on the stairs sort out which "chores" the child can do and how. There are a hundred and one things one can change in the daily life, with in the home which can lead towards further indepedance for a child.
The mum I mentioned told me, in the same mail which told me about the passed driving test, that she learnt so much from me and I suspect a lot of it was to do with finding ways to solve the small problems which allowed her to raise her expectations and which have resulted in their happy advent "schmacher" celebrations.
Susie,
your postings are always energize me. This time it encouragies me to look into myself if I energize the parents in a way what causing so wanderful results....
Laci
Thanks for your comment Laci, as always I will answer I am only doing what I learnt and what Dr Maria Hari advocated. Many people see Conductive Education as a series of routines and techniques and these are what are copied by some people trying to set up conductive centres. I believe a conductors first task is to introduce joy into learning and upbringing... and Lill and I are certainly managing to do that with our 6 little boys this week.
Today we have had a wonderful rosy cheek making barbeque lunchtime with sledging for dessert, down by Norways bigest lake. Fun, spontaneous, conductive upbringing with all the parents there too.
"Joy" and "learning"; now there are two words you don't often see together. Could be too radical, Susie. Take care.
I'm sure that she's safe enough, as long as she stays overseas...
I am not planning on returning to Blighty just yet, but if I do I hope I can count on you all for protection!
I can't speak for others but don't look to me for protection.
The country’s public services are now run by box-ticking Jobsworths, and it's hard enough protecting myself from the Joy Police.
Norman's 100% right. 'Joy' and 'children'? Be very careful if you ever work back in the UK.
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