This post may contain affiliate links ... What? I have to fund curriculum somehow ... OK, and the occasional Lily's bar.
Here it is the last part of May and I'm sitting up to write my first blog post of the year. You see, there is something on my mind. My grandmother had a stroke. Praise God, she is doing amazing even if she doesn't realize it. We've gone in and out of D.C. to sit with her in the hospital just about every day this past week (how on Earth my mother did that commute every day for 20 years is absolutely beyond me!) and I'm pretty much exhausted. However, here I lay in bed tossing and turning. Unable to sleep for the thing spinning through my mind.
No. This thing keeping me awake has nothing to do with my grandmother or the incredibly long D.C. trips. It is fidget spinners. Yes, I know I'm late to the game. Apparently homeschoolers aren't the only unsocialized ones, their parents qualify too. Granted I learned about fidget spinners much more quickly than I did "Rick rolled" which I looked up this past week to find out this new to me phenomenon began in 2013. (Edited because apparently my desire to remember the facts regarding Rick-Rolling have me remembering the year wrong ... I was only off by a decade or so ...) The concept of fidget spinners isn't new to me. It is one I've employed since I became a parent to a boy. However. This craze is absurd. These fidget spinners, ranging in price from $4.99-$1,000 (in my limited research on them, done exactly 2.2 seconds ago) do nothing. They don't. Nothing. No thing. They are nonsense. They are hunks of plastic, bamboo, or metal NONSENSE. I allow my boys to keep a handful of Lego, a Matchbox car, or if they are old enough and self controlling enough a stick to whittle. They know they have my permission to use these during our read alouds, church, or any time they are required to be quiet without any reason to use their hands, such as writing. Only one of my girls really needs the help, but they are all allowed to knit, hand sew, or do any of the above things mentioned for the boys. (Just so I don't get any disapproving comments, OF COURSE I would allow my boys to knit, embroider or any such thing ... they'd rather the Lego and cars!) These things allow their brains to focus on the words they need to be hearing, they are things we already have, and these things have purposes of their own. We also use exercise balls and classical music to help us focus when auditory focus is essential. So. Please, SOMEBODY, explain this insane craze to me because I am completely lost.
1 Comment
Thea
5/22/2017 01:19:39 am
I have to chuckled at your post. Frankly, none of us really get the attraction, the kids or me. But it's one of those things that you see around, hear about, and want to check out. My homeschooled kids just got a couple last week. They were on sale at the grocery store check out for about $3. My daughter pointed and said, "There they are, those things I was trying to tell you about." So, what the heck, they were cheap. Like you, my kids have a variety of items they use to fiddle with to keep fingers busy during different activities. I guess that is another perk of homeschooling, we can and do employ tactics regularly that help keep focus and fidgety kids in check without risk of it becoming a problem like it might in a classroom setting.
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Lisa HarrisDaughter of the King, Wife to one Smokey, Homeschooling Momma to many, entrepreneur, handmade seller here to share life as it happens. Archives
October 2020
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