Welcome!

It’s become my passion to share what I’ve learned from my seven unique children as I home educated them since 1992.

All of my children are right-brained learners. To learn more about the natural learning path for right-brained children, you can visit my website here. For those looking for a comprehensive understanding of the natural learning path for right-brained children, look into my book purchasing options.

I started speaking about my experiences with education at conferences in the year 2000. I usually speak 3 to 5 times a year. If you would like to have me speak In your area, contact your local or state conference organizers and refer me! I can be contacted at therightsideofnormal@gmail.com.

For conference organizers, here are some of my more popular workshop offerings. For parents and teachers, I will announce when I offer an on-line or downloadable version of my conference presentations. Feel free to let me know which presentation is of most interest to you!

For those looking for more personalized education support, I’m now offering education consultation service options. I have experience in diverse areas, including, but not limited to, strengths-based learning, collaborative learning, right-brained learning, individualized learning, unschooling, foster care adoption, autism, global delays, late reading (dyslexia), auditory processing differences, sensory differences, giftedness, mood disorders (including anxiety and bipolar), emotional intelligence development, social differences, highly sensitive natures, perfectionism, high school, and much more. Let me know what you’re looking for and I can let you know if I’m a good match for you or not.

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For local parents, I have preliminary information about my day center opening in the fall of 2017 as an option for parents wanting to homeschool, but either work or want more support. I hope for it to be a model for an affordable learning environment that will be replicable across the country. Feel free to share your ideas or interest.

I look forward to serving you!
Cindy

New Homeschooler Questions

RSVP in the comments section which session you are wanting to join, and feel free to leave any and all questions you would like answered in the comments below, and I will be sure to answer as many as we have time for!

Tuesday, July 14 @ 9:30 p.m. EST   –   Getting Started with Homeschooling

Thursday, July 23 @ 9:30 p.m. EST   –   The left/right-brained dominant learning styles  –  Why should you know about it?

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Wednesday, July 29 @ 9:30 p.m. EST   –   Look at/inside various curriculum!

Don’t forget to Like or Follow The Right Side of Normal page on Facebook. I will go Live on that page!

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Autism Intervention or Connection?

I wanted to share my experiences with intervention with my sons with autism, and maybe now that I have perspective, see what was useful and what wasn’t as important as I had thought. Language Intervention I have three children diagnosed … Continue reading

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Our Culture of Family Separation and Peer Approval

This gallery contains 8 photos.

I don’t think we even notice this as a society. It’s so inculcated in our culture that we think it’s inevitable…even normal. I first started to be bothered by it when I read an article about a researcher who looked … Continue reading

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Stuffed Animal Imaginary Friends

This gallery contains 6 photos.

In my book, The Right Side of Normal, I talk about imaginary friends being a representation of a right-brained child’s highly developed imagination. I also talk about the idea that right-brained children can view stuffed animals and toys as “real” … Continue reading

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Dressing Up Medieval-Style

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Admittedly, I’m not a dress-up kind of person. I’m not a decoration kind of person. Hmmm. Left-brained/right-brained stuff again? That kind of creativity just isn’t my thing at all. I’m very, very left-brained. I don’t do Halloween decorations or outdoor … Continue reading

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Poolside Crop

This gallery contains 3 photos.

It’s been a long time since blogging here, and I hope to do so at least weekly. I’m thinking my Applestars blog will be about day-to-day learning with my kiddos while my The Right Side of Normal website will be … Continue reading

When Least Expected

So, I’m trying to blog more and a few fun little unexpected things happened today when I least expected it that I thought would be fun to share.

Earlier in the day at co-op:  Joseph’s and William’s friend Sam was given a choice by his mother halfway through co-op to either stop and go to another park day that he enjoys or stay and play with William and Joseph at co-op.  He thought about it for a minute and said, “They’re rough (pointing at William and Joseph).  The ones at park day are (and he extended his hand and gestured so-so to mean “a bit soft”).”  Then he indicated with a “duh” face at his mother that it was a no-brainer decision; he’s staying to play with William and Joseph.   I had to laugh out loud at this because how many of us would consider it a bad thing to have “rough boys?”  First of all, they are, and when they are with other “rough boys,” they don’t seem all that rough because it works.  If they are with the so-so soft boys, then they look more rough than one would be comfortable.  It’s all about the fit!
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Later in the evening, William and Joseph are playing their fishing video game.  As has been the case more often these days, they were playing cooperatively and kindly.  William came up to me as I was reading other blogs and showed me one of the new lures Joseph had recently bought and declared, “Look what Joe gave me!”  I immediately asked Joe, “Why’d you give William one of your new lures?”  Joe’s simple reply, “I just want to be a nice brother, mom.  Isn’t it good when we’re nice to each other?”  To defend myself, I have seen periodically these nice gestures one moment, in their heat of cooperation, just to be rescinded during a more common time of contention.  But guess what?  I have to keep allowing them the opportunity for their generosity to one another to stick 🙂

 

The Television Question

In unschooling circles, the television and video game question will come up consistently.  Many unschoolers, especially radical unschoolers, talk about the idea of giving unlimited access to these types of things in order to prevent the “forbidden fruit” temptation from occurring.  This means that the more you forbid something, the more it is desired.  So, the idea is if you give a child unlimited access, he/she will saturate his/her need or desire for it and achieve balance.

I have a different perspective.  It’s not that I don’t think the above scenario works.  It might.  I just think differently and my perspective has seemed to work as well.  Since this television question is so prevalent in unschooling circles, I thought I might try to create a post about how it has worked in my house.

My older children don’t watch a lot of television now as either teens or adults.  I know each of them had their seasons of watching a lot of television when they were young.  Most of my older children enjoyed movies on VHS or DVD when they were growing up more than live television, though.  I remember a season of guilt for myself when I was horribly sick during a pregnancy and my then almost 2-year-old watched a bunch of television in order that I could survive it.  In fact, I think that happened on several occasions during pregnancies of various children for those in the home.  I released the guilt!  I don’t remember any of my older (birth) children having a problem with television viewing and balance when they were younger.  On the other hand, as a whole, I didn’t have a “free reign” policy, but I didn’t have a “dictator” policy, either.  I observed their choices, I gave them information, and if at any time I felt there was too much going on, or an out-of-balance situation happening, I would let them know I wanted the television turned off for that time.  It tended to be a decision for the day versus a continuous need.

My youngest two children are adopted.  My older adopted son, William, is much like my birth children.  He has a natural balance with television.  In fact, he rarely finishes watching a show before he is out creating his own reenactment of whatever he was viewing.  I have seen television and movie viewing for this son as a great resource as I described in this post.

My seventh child, Joseph, has finally given me the opportunity to make a mindful choice on my position on the television question.  He is my first child that seems to overuse television.  He is also my only child I have had who would be classified as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) if I believed in diagnosing such a thing.  He definitely has a high energy level.  He is also an extravert (another of my only traits!).  Put those two things together and you often have a child that likes to get up and in people’s faces to meet his needs.  In my experience with many high needs children, the ages up to 11-13 years old is a time of helping my children learn skills and strategies to manage their high needs.  In other words, before that, it doesn’t always look pretty around here as they figure it out:  anger, impulsivity, frustration, picking, meltdowns, explosions, aggression, disrespect . . . it’s all there being figured out.  How do I conduct myself in order to achieve positive relationships?  That’s a huge part of my job during the 2-10 year stages.
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For the first time, I noticed that television could be used to give myself a break from a high needs child.  I’m pretty sure ADHD type of children often are quite calm during television viewing.  Joseph was no different.  Again, another opportunity for guilt . . . nah!  When he was younger and his most intense, television was something he chose consistently and I had no problem with that.  There still seemed to be some level of balance all in all.  However, I noticed as Joseph got a bit older, and at the same time, more competent in his behaviors and relationships, his television viewing increased.  All of a sudden, my observation showed that he was using television as a convenient babysitter.  As an extravert, Joseph liked being with people ALL the time.  In fact, I find that playing alone is not something he does very well.  So, the interaction of the television filled that role.  But, I noticed he would turn it on and just go from one show to the next, sitting like that for hours on end, days on end, weeks on end.

Although I noticed in myself a little bit of a desire to take the easy route and let the television viewing continue, I knew it was time for Joseph and I to release the need for television to serve the function it did.  Because the fact of the matter was, evidence through observation showed that the productive function had lived its course.  Joseph was more capable of interacting with people respectfully and  I needed to be in a space to encourage more of it and support his next emotional and behavioral growth.  Plus, for some reason, probably my age and stage as well, I just couldn’t stand the “noise” from the television.  So, I instituted a “no television until 6:00 p.m.” space.  I say space because rule really wasn’t what it was about.  I told Joseph that “I notice that you sit in front of the television and don’t move for hours.  I think you need to find other things in your life.”  So, according to unschooling think, I had just created the “forbidden fruit.”  I never had to do this before.  I was curious myself what was about to unfold!

It’s been 3-4 months since this began.  If I recall, I remember Joseph habitually going to the television.  I would remind him of the new plan.  Really, I think the most difficult thing for him was to figure out how to balance his extravert needs with the idea that not everyone will be available to him.  Yet, William did usually want to be part of some play scenario, and now that they could do so much more effectively with both of their better emotional and behavioral skills in place, they were really starting to enjoy each other.  And trust each other.  At this time, Joseph doesn’t ask to watch a movie from time to time often (I separated that somewhat out from the television viewing aspect).  He’s even having times of playing by himself successfully.  He is engaging more often on his own initiation on focused learning.  He even wanted to learn to play the violin and speak Spanish.

What I don’t see is him “sneaking” television in.  Or feeling denied.  Or going to friends’ houses to get his fix.  I see it opening the space up for him to explore lots of other things that he wasn’t choosing to do because it was easier to sit in front of the television.  I am not against television.  I find it a highly useful resource.  I don’t across the board make sweeping judgments or decisions or declarations about it for every person in the family.  I use my power of observation, my attunement to the needs of each of my children, and assess the function this particular tool is being used for and come up with individualized plans to support each child on their journey of growth and learning.  I think when that happens, good things result.  It did in this instance.

My First “Graduate”

My 19-year-old son, Eli, started attending the local community college when he was 17 years old in the fall of 2008.  This past December, he earned his Associate in Science degree there.  We chose the community college route for Eli for several reasons:

The first reason was so he wouldn’t have to take the ACT/SAT.  His weakness is in English and anything related to it, and his strength is in math and science.  Although he may have done fine as his math would have been high, though who knows with science based on the type of questions on the test, and he would have probably done average for English, we didn’t feel it would be as advantageous to go this route.  Plus, his processing speed is slower, so having a timed test would have added pressure that wasn’t necessary.

The second reason was so he could take the English related requirements at the local community college for three reasons:  the difficulty level would probably be less than a state or private college, he could have the support of his father and me in mentoring him in a way that works best for him, and he could take the courses on-line which works better for him in this area.

The third reason was that the private university he wants to attend will accept an Associate of Science degree from a community college as fulfilling their first two year core requirements.  In this way, when he attends a larger and more difficult learning setting, it should mainly be in his strength areas of computer programming and math.  I know, geek city, and he’s proud of it!
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So, though this is just the first step for him (as he may take his education to a master’s level), Eli is officially my first “graduate” from a mass schooling institution.

Further, since I have Abbey’s transcript posted on my blog, I thought I would also share my transcript for Eli.  In this way, you can see how unique each of the children are as it pertains to what their education looked like in our unschooling lifestyle.