School
It sure has been a while since I posted about school! Maybe that's because we haven't done much lately. *ahem* I'd rather do school more often in the summer and winter when we're stuck inside, than in the spring and fall. I want to be outside in the spring and fall. Not to mention, we did many weeks in a row already and needed a break.
I have to confess I felt stress about this. This is what my crazy brain was telling me: We need to do everything that the curriculum suggests, to the letter, and then some. Maybe we should do more, just in case. Let's get extra books and read those also. AND, we need to be precisely 37.2495 days ahead of public school so that we can take time off, if we need it.
*sigh*
I never will change, but I will be reminded by my sweet Savior that these things don't matter. He made me a list do-er, a rule-follower, and an over achiever. He did not design me to stress over these things.
Michael's mom emailed at the end of a week off of school to see if she could come the next week. Yes! I love when she comes. Any time. So, then I think we can still do school after she leaves and stay precisely on schedule. Car trouble had her staying a few extra days, which was actually perfect. Kara did LOADS of art and p.e. and laughed a lot. THIS is what life is about. THIS is why we homeschool.
Then I read a beautiful post on one of my facebook sites that someone said about homeschooling in a relaxed way. (Not the unschooling thing where there is no formal school at all, but the kind where you don't stress if you don't do the writing assignments because they are boring.) ALL these moms got on there and one after another said they don't do more than an hour or two of school, and only when they're in the mood. Then moms got on saying they did the same thing with their kids and now they're in college and have straight As and are CEOs of companies. They said they focused on teaching them to love to learn, to work hard, and if the moms skipped a few assignments, they didn't stress over it.
My God is so good. It freed my from my own chains - chains I put on myself way too often. I'll need freeing again in a while, but I'm feeling really good now.
Then today I talked with Kara's p.e. class coach, who homeschools her girls and she said her daughter was starting in on college classes at the community college at 14 and had an associate's degree by 17. When she was ready, she applied to a university with an associate's degree, and no one even asked for her high school diploma (which they didn't bother with because they didn't have to). She is doing very well away at college.
Nice.
So, we're bumping up Bible with the Awana's curriculum. We're learning awesome lessons and memorizing Scripture.
This week we read Lassie Come-Home, a book I got from the library, and doing vocabulary words from there (I'm making her look up the words in a real dictionary with guide words and everything). We're also talking about main characters, setting, mood, context clues, etc. Next week I plan to start up some spelling and some grammar, buuuuuut, who knows? Maybe I won't feel like it.
We're doing math - rounding to the nearest 10, rounding to the nearest 100, estimating adding and subtracting with rounding, multiplying, and dividing. I pulled out a worksheet on Monday with 3 digit addition on it and Kara started crying saying she didn't like math. That was TOTALLY my fault because that was the easiest way for me to teach, but not the best way for her to learn. She loves math and does very, very well at it, so if she's saying she doesn't like it, I see quickly that it's my fault. We did rounding out loud and I wrote it down, then we checked our answers with a fun print out calculator. Then we did multiplication and division with marbles and little plastic shells. Then we did word problems with multiplication and division and she was happy. She loves word problems, but not the standard worksheets. I know, backward, right? I just need to keep remembering that she prefers word problems and we should be good.
In Social Studies we are learning about the Mayas. Or is it Mayans? We're learning where they were in Mexico, what they ate, what they looked like, what they're houses were like, etc. We're getting a big project together and I'm hoping she'll present it as an oral report to a friend of mine. Or Grandma. :-)
We did some Health, lots of P.E., lots of art, some music, and no science. Science is our favorite, so I'm not worried about 'falling behind.' (Behind what? I need to stop thinking like that.)
Life is better with a calmer mommy. School is fun, it's done together while cuddling.
Next week we are doing 'wolf school.' She is crazy about them. I have done many, many things with wolves, but I am feeling refreshed with some helpful ideas from my facebook friends. Next I will ask Pinterest for ideas. Sunday will be a big day of preparing for this week, but I'm excited to see how much she learns.
Finally, tomorrow is our first field trip - we're going apple picking. We go every year and I'm very much looking forward to it!
I have to confess I felt stress about this. This is what my crazy brain was telling me: We need to do everything that the curriculum suggests, to the letter, and then some. Maybe we should do more, just in case. Let's get extra books and read those also. AND, we need to be precisely 37.2495 days ahead of public school so that we can take time off, if we need it.
*sigh*
I never will change, but I will be reminded by my sweet Savior that these things don't matter. He made me a list do-er, a rule-follower, and an over achiever. He did not design me to stress over these things.
Michael's mom emailed at the end of a week off of school to see if she could come the next week. Yes! I love when she comes. Any time. So, then I think we can still do school after she leaves and stay precisely on schedule. Car trouble had her staying a few extra days, which was actually perfect. Kara did LOADS of art and p.e. and laughed a lot. THIS is what life is about. THIS is why we homeschool.
Then I read a beautiful post on one of my facebook sites that someone said about homeschooling in a relaxed way. (Not the unschooling thing where there is no formal school at all, but the kind where you don't stress if you don't do the writing assignments because they are boring.) ALL these moms got on there and one after another said they don't do more than an hour or two of school, and only when they're in the mood. Then moms got on saying they did the same thing with their kids and now they're in college and have straight As and are CEOs of companies. They said they focused on teaching them to love to learn, to work hard, and if the moms skipped a few assignments, they didn't stress over it.
My God is so good. It freed my from my own chains - chains I put on myself way too often. I'll need freeing again in a while, but I'm feeling really good now.
Then today I talked with Kara's p.e. class coach, who homeschools her girls and she said her daughter was starting in on college classes at the community college at 14 and had an associate's degree by 17. When she was ready, she applied to a university with an associate's degree, and no one even asked for her high school diploma (which they didn't bother with because they didn't have to). She is doing very well away at college.
Nice.
So, we're bumping up Bible with the Awana's curriculum. We're learning awesome lessons and memorizing Scripture.
This week we read Lassie Come-Home, a book I got from the library, and doing vocabulary words from there (I'm making her look up the words in a real dictionary with guide words and everything). We're also talking about main characters, setting, mood, context clues, etc. Next week I plan to start up some spelling and some grammar, buuuuuut, who knows? Maybe I won't feel like it.
We're doing math - rounding to the nearest 10, rounding to the nearest 100, estimating adding and subtracting with rounding, multiplying, and dividing. I pulled out a worksheet on Monday with 3 digit addition on it and Kara started crying saying she didn't like math. That was TOTALLY my fault because that was the easiest way for me to teach, but not the best way for her to learn. She loves math and does very, very well at it, so if she's saying she doesn't like it, I see quickly that it's my fault. We did rounding out loud and I wrote it down, then we checked our answers with a fun print out calculator. Then we did multiplication and division with marbles and little plastic shells. Then we did word problems with multiplication and division and she was happy. She loves word problems, but not the standard worksheets. I know, backward, right? I just need to keep remembering that she prefers word problems and we should be good.
In Social Studies we are learning about the Mayas. Or is it Mayans? We're learning where they were in Mexico, what they ate, what they looked like, what they're houses were like, etc. We're getting a big project together and I'm hoping she'll present it as an oral report to a friend of mine. Or Grandma. :-)
We did some Health, lots of P.E., lots of art, some music, and no science. Science is our favorite, so I'm not worried about 'falling behind.' (Behind what? I need to stop thinking like that.)
Life is better with a calmer mommy. School is fun, it's done together while cuddling.
Next week we are doing 'wolf school.' She is crazy about them. I have done many, many things with wolves, but I am feeling refreshed with some helpful ideas from my facebook friends. Next I will ask Pinterest for ideas. Sunday will be a big day of preparing for this week, but I'm excited to see how much she learns.
Finally, tomorrow is our first field trip - we're going apple picking. We go every year and I'm very much looking forward to it!
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