Homeschooling

Homeschooling

Posted by on Dec 4, 2011 in Homeschooling | 1 comment

2012 will be my 18^th year of home educating my children.  I started it with much hesitance but my oldest had attended kindergarten at the public school in the small town we lived in Ohio and I just could not  send him to first grade there.  I had observed both of the first grade teachers and in one class the “one-on-one” time was really one-on-five while the rest of the kids basically fended for themselves.  In the other class I did not hear the teacher complete many sentences.  She actually spoke in fragments.  Many of her sentences ended with the word, “with”.  As in, “When you go to the office, take this paper with.”  Yes, I know, it should end in the word YOU…as in, “With YOU” but that was not how she spoke to the impressionable little first graders.

These observations, coupled with a few magazine articles singing the praises of home educated children, led me and my husband to sign up for the assignment “For one year.”  That year Josh was an active crumb-snatcher, Abbey was in preschool and Zach was my student.  Even though Zach is a high-energy kid (even at 23 he still is) we had a great time together and it proved to be a lot more fun than I had imagined.  Then we moved…and it became an anchor for our family.  When Zach was in third grade someone asked Zach, “What’s the worst thing about Homeschooling?”  He said, “When we finish one of my school books my mom just gets me the next grade level and we keep going.”  (Hey, it works in gaming – always going to the next level, right?)  They said, “What’s the best thing about homeschooling?”  He said, “I always know who my teacher will be.”  And here I am, teaching my 6^th child and looking my 18^th year of doing this in the face.

Ok, I’ll be honest, there are some days, especially in February, when I lust after large, yellow moving vehicles that come through my neighborhood to carry other children off into the cold morning.  But for the most part,  I love every day of having my kids in my own nest.  And because we do “Home Based Education” rather than “Straight-up-homeschool”, as my neighbor calls it, I get to direct my kids education to match their interests and abilities.  Gabe, my eleven year old has really pursued cake decorating for example.  As Wendy, the awesome lady that has been teaching him cool stuff like how to make a tree out of Rice Krispie Treats, points out, “Cake decorating actually has art, math and science in it.”  I agree.  It is super fun and quite delicious as well!

Am I an “Un-schooler”?  No, I can’t bring myself to part with workbooks altogether.  I  think it is the nurse in me.  The saying went, “If it wasn’t documented, it wasn’t done”.  Workbooks keep us on track for doing SOMETHING on those days we’d rather all do ANYTHING except school!  They also prepare my kids for going to the enrichment stuff and now, to the Christian Educational Consortium that they attend a couple of days a week.  I am so thankful for those outlets for them to be with friends and do stuff together with other home educated kids rather than just mom and the dog.  Though Kayla (dog) and I are quite enthusiastic at listening to speeches, going to a speech class with peers is a whole lot more fun and real-to-life.

If there is one thing I could say to a mom that is new to home education it is, “LET THE LORD HELP YOU.”  I know, you are thinking, “No kidding, Vicki!  Tell me something I don’t know”.  But really, if He has called you to do this, rest in the fact that he doesn’t always call the equipped, He equips the called.  If He has put it into your heart to do this, HE WILL HELP YOU.   Every time I have been stuck and could not figure out what to do when there was a roadblock in one of my kid’s progress, when I prayed…sometimes I would have to pray for a month or two, but when I prayed over it, God has ALWAYS brought an answer!  Always!  I’ve learned how to teach a really kinesthetic learner to read, how to teach math facts to first graders that like to ONLY use their fingers to figure out answers and how to stay sane teaching boys to write when they would rather be out building forts (thanks to Andrew Pudewa for that phrase and that lesson!)  So once again, my answer is the same as just about any other answer I give to about any other question you could ask me…PRAY.

I wish you the best on your journey.  Let me encourage you and say, “Good job in starting the adventure!  YOU CAN DO IT.  Life really doesn’t get any better than this!”