School is finally in session. We’ve pushed on through the first four days and, accept for day two (I was seriously ready to quit after day two) things have grown a bit better each day. We will FOR SURE be taking Friday off. I’m calling it a “teacher prep day”. I really need to mentally prepare for the jump from four to five days of school next week. Diagramming sentences, teaching the letter “D”, showing my 4th grader how to form a topic sentence and helping my 2nd grader learn about famous early Americans like Patrick Henry and John Paul Jones have been the highlights of teaching so far. The low lights would include doing nothing but school from 7:30 a.m. until about 4 p.m. and then doing nothing but school-or preparing for the next day of school-from 8:30 p.m until 10:30 or 11. Those low lights would also include being screamed at by my 4th grader when I gave her a writing assignment, being hit by my kindergartner when I proposed he didn’t know the capital letter “B” and being cried to by my 3rd grader when I asked her to read a chapter in her science book independently. Oh yea, and Molly drew all over the desks and Lucy didn’t stop crying for the first 3 hours on the first day.
I’m hoping our “hours of operation” seriously decline over the next couple of weeks. I’m really expecting my brain to kick in at some point soon and actually operate at normal human speed instead of super slow sleep deprived mother speed by the end of October. I’m sure that by the end of November this will seem a lovely experience to have with my children and by the end of February we’ll all be converted to home schooling and will continue it when we reach our new home in Dallas.
Yea, and pigs will fly by then too
Nope, I’m not a home-schooler by nature. That doesn’t mean I can’t do it successfully, nor does it mean I won’t work to enjoy it while I’m doing it, it just means its not my time allotment of choice. Given the number of hours I’m currently spending as an educator to pursue other things I’d definitely be a better athlete, a better scrapbooker and perhaps even an author (though LOTS of what the kids are learning this year has to do with grammar and composition, I feel lucky to have the review and hope it will help me develop better writing skills of my own…) I deeply love my children and I am deeply committed to their education; but I show that commitment in a ‘go help in the classroom, be on the PTA board’ kind of way.
Truth is, I’m way to social. I need a little interaction with adults now and then, and home schooling does not offer this. Even time spent with my favorite adult, John, is compromised because any chance to shoot the breeze or smooch sans kids around is taken by his correcting math papers for me while I highlight the heck out of the curriculum manuals for the kids’ daily lessons-crazy stuff.
So, how do other home school moms do this? Beats me! I know I’m a little slow and not highly talented, but I’m not completely lacking in intellectual ability. I feel I’m capable of accomplishing this home school task and remaining calm and somewhat able to feel personal fulfillment in the process. But how? At present I find myself thinking and breathing school every second of every day. I “escape” to the computer for a half hour at the kids’ bedtime in open rebellion against the hours of preparation I must face after they are off to dream land. I want to blog and read a book for heaven’s sake! How do other mother’s do this?
I know of a couple of moms who home school who conquer the world in their free time. They claim total liberation by not being “tied” to school schedules, which require their kids to be out of the house from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. They love the freedom the curriculum offers to have their kids pursue other interests during “regular school hours”. These women run Junior Leagues in their fair cities and head up small business too. Super human I am not, better leave those world conquering moms to their homeschooling pursuits. Hey, liberation to me IS having some of the kids out of the house during regular school hours. Who am I kidding? As much as I like my kiddos, I like grown-ups and free time to blog or smooch with my sweetheart. And I like my kiddos a ton. Enough to home school them; and that’s saying somethin’
3 comments:
So happy to hear from you! I have been freating about this for you, I do hope it gets better - I could just see the Bryn,Porter,and Madi doing all those things. I am so sorry I am not there to help!
YA I wish Jess were there to help, this is a big task & I can't imagine, but knowing you Katie I am sure it is going to get better everyday. You have the skills it is just going to take time to get into the swing of being a teacher/MOM. sure love ya and hang in there.
katie, i totally feel for ya! i was kind of in the same boat...i had to homeschool our kids in vermont for part of a school year, but knew that the next year they'd be back in public school. and so i had all the drawbacks of becoming a homeschooler, but didn't plan to stick with it long enough to enjoy the benefits of finally getting it down. the first year is definitely the hardest--for everyone! i had a book called "homeschooling: you can do this" which had some encouraging ideas.
Some ideas follow for you to consider and adapt to your situation, but my #1 suggestion is that you really try to put it all in perspective. these few months will supply opportunities to learn things in a new and different way than any other time in their lives. you may not cover everything they would review in a traditional school setting, but they'll learn so much regardless. if you have set unrealistic standards or expectations, you will only be frustrated.
think about your average day at school: how much did you actually learn (vs. muddling through busy work)? how could you use this time each day to teach at least that much?
so much of the public school day is spent unproductively. in my experience, you really don't need "all day school" when you only have a few kids to focus on. advice that worked for me was to try to set mini goals with them to work on each day. make the goals achievable...they'll have confidence and feel good upon completion. let that be enough.
for everyone's sake (especially yours!!!) don't insist upon the same number of hours of "school" that they'd have in public school...you can slip in learning through ordinary/extraordinary life moments.
Examples:
*baking cookies can be a time to learn about myriad things: percentages/measuring/chemistry/cooking.
*grocery shopping: talk in advance about nutrition labels, then go to a store and allow each kid to find a box of cereal of their very own that contains less than 5 grams (or whatever you decide) of sugar.
*teach about price per each/pound/ounce etc. let them learn about money while shopping. learn budgeting. meal planning and prep.
*find "experiments" online that you could do for fun together. make school fun based on what they're into.
my son was totally anti-school when we started, but he loved harry potter. so i welcomed him to hogwarts the first morning, and divided up our learning into different classes. he was in kindergarten, so in learning about numbers and basic math, we used "bertie botts anyflavor beans"...and he'd count/eat/add/eat/subtract/eat, etc. that class was fun for him. for potions that day we made jello...he learned about measuring and had fun cooking. for p.e. we played quidditch in the yard, running around on broomsticks. For reading I read him some of the book. Art we drew pictures of wizzards and practiced writing spells.
you can use your creativity...which i know you have oodles of...to make school fun. they'll develop a love of learning and you'll share many happy memories together. and just realize that at the end of the day, they'll grow up just fine and be smart, educated, contributing members of society who love to learn. I know you can do it! ♥
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