Week 1 wrapup: What you focus on, you get!

This simple principle was the topic of our week one leadership series. We heard thoughts from Sir John Templeton, Tony Robbins, Albert Einstein and Dr.Wayne Dyer. We did real life exercises on the topic. We learned how everything on the planet is nothing more than energy. We realized that in order to control and shape our lives, we need to control and shape our thoughts. We acknowledged the words of the great Albert Einstein who said “nothing can happen until something moves”. We practiced defining our dreams and making plans to achieve them. We discussed this at the dinner table, before bed and in the car. Hopefully some of what we learned will be retained.

I know that what I experienced firsthand this week is that my intentions shape all my outcomes. Whatever I do with the right “intention”, I do well. Each day this week was faced with the intention of making it the most positive experience I could for my children. I reinforced in my own personal learning, that if I have a plan and it begins with visualizing all that is possible, I can create something meaningful and lasting in the experiences and memories of those I am interacting with. I am not unique.

It’s a beautiful aspect of being human...Our ability to create, effect and impact is extremely powerful. If the entire planet would choose to channel positive energy instead of negative energy, we would raise the vibration of our collective consciousness and the world would be a much better place. In my own way, as I sit with my children every day, I hope that I am preparing them to be leaders in the transition of the human condition from negative to positive—from dark to light.

We heard a lot of great quotes this week in our learning. One very simple and elegant quote from Dr. Wayne Dyer was etched vividly in my mind as a poignant reminder of how easy it is to change something. “When you are in the dark, just turn on a light, for darkness is easily overcome,” says Dr. Dyer. This powerful metaphor of dark, heavy energy being easily replaced by light, bright energy is evident everywhere around us, minute by minute if we just look for it. And we can all do it. It is evident in a smile that brightens someone’s foul mood. It is evident in kind words that open closed hearts and minds. It is evident in a gentle touch that reaches someone’s starving soul. This is the simple and wonderful power of being human. We all have it, but our children will need to be masters of it. Our children must be equipped to call upon and execute this skill on a moment’s notice at the most basic and complex levels as they work to undo the damage that has been done by generations before them and help define a new global community.

January 5: Day One

To kick off our home school adventure, I developed a six to eight week project that we are undertaking on the Fibonacci Sequence. Our research will encompass all areas of our curriculum including math, science, history, writing, art, music, logic and reasoning, and computers. Wow! We launched the project today and began to learn the concept behind the numbers. Keep in mind that when and if this is taught in regular schools, it is a high school or college level concept. But I just knew my kids would get it.

Austin was getting very frustrated with the Fibonacci concept partially because Frankie was nailing it. This kind of thing is just completely intuitive for him. It's deep in his DNA. But the real problem was that I wasn't explaining it right because it was the first time I was teaching it (and truth be told, I don't fully understand it myself). She was getting frustrated and shifted immediately into a state of learned helplessness. She threw herself on the floor, completely withdrawing from the lesson. Essentially, she completely "gave up". So I quickly shifted to damage control mode and took them to a website that has numerous examples of the concept hoping there would be something she would grasp onto. (For those who are interested, a great website is http://www.phisource.com/).

There are many fascinating aspects of the Fibonacci Sequence and one can get lost on this site for hours. But, we found a the theology section of the website and it was like a light bulb came on for Austin. Her entire face lit up and she launched into a whole dissertation about how the Fibonacci principle relates to religion and the trilogy. Soon, they were working together, fully inspired, feeding off each other and building on these concepts around religion and the Fibonacci Sequence. They spent a solid hour exploring the website and digging into interesting aspects of the Golden ratio and the Fibonacci principle. They were fully inspired and engrossed in learning. At the end of the day they told me that they loved it, and learned more in one day than they do in a typical week at school. If we can keep this up, the kids will be off the charts in their learning.