Homeschooling Day One: WIN.

Blogged on Monday, September 8th, 2008 by Rachael. Filed in Blog365, Family, Homeschooling, Philosophical.

Wow, you guys.  I am TIRED!

Even though Troy told me last week that if I wanted to wait to start school for the kids until AFTER we move, it just felt right.  It was the right thing to do.  So we armed ourselves with our books and our notes and our printed-out schedules (and our last-minute changes), and started school today.

Of course, first we woke up and ate breakfast and all that jazz.  We have just the one table for eating and schoolwork, so a lot more planning and precision is going into doing things around here than normal.  I’m not saying we’re slobs normally, it’s just… I let things slide.  Because I can.  Heh.

However, when I take the time to plan things out (nearly to the nth degree of specificity) and then take time to make sure the planning is realistic - as in, can I really wake up at that hour?  Yes or no?  Will I likely eat breakfast in that amount of time and have the table cleared off again? - then things go quite well, really.

The kids (it’s just the oldest two this week, so Ian’s preschooling will begin when he’s back home) were excited, but relaxed about it.  Nervous, but not overly so.  They did SO well.  They paid attention, they followed all our normal politeness rules (no interrupting, wait your turn to speak, don’t stare at your sibling’s work), and they did their absolute best.  Joey, who was so very often frustrated every single day after school last year, did fantastically well with asking for help and not freaking out in the slightest.

One of the most basic tenets of classical education, as I understand it, is to teach children LOGIC.  Logical ways of doing things.  Logical ways of solving problems.  And this doesn’t mean you have to give them a step-by-step of every little thing and make sure they follow it perfectly; this means that you teach them the kinds of things that shape their minds into things that are capable of solving new and complex problems in their own unique way.

They had a very poor foundation in language and grammar last year, so I’m taking them back to the beginning, to make sure they understand all the fundamentals first (like nouns and verbs and how they work), as well as how to spell words and what they MEAN, which is so much more than just sounding it out and spelling it perfectly.  I am assigning them different types of writing throughout the week, like journaling and letter-writing, and each month they will be doing a simple book report and an essay on something that caught their interest from history or science.

I’m really glad we had such a great first day.  It’s like when you have your first child and happily, they’re calm and quiet and easy to please; and thereafter having other children doesn’t seem quite as daunting as it would if your first one had been colicky and fussy and overly tiring.  Or your first day of work at a new job and you discover that you have great new coworkers, and you learn your new responsibilities without breaking a sweat, and everyone gets to clock out a half hour early if they like.  (That last bit was probably just wishful thinking, ha!)

We were even able to prepare a healthy dinner and eat together at the table (cleared off from school! We are so organized! JINX) before Troy went to work. So now I’m tired, of course, haha.  Because I had a great productive day and it’s not even over.  I just hope I can stay awake for all of it.  :)

Ask Me a Question

On my last post, NyraCat asked me, “…how the heck do you even begin to be a teacher to your own kids? What does it take? How do you register with the state? Where do you get textbooks? How do you even decide on what textbooks to use? How do you set up your curriculum…”

The short answer is this: in my state (Michigan), there is no need to register with the state. Not every state is this way, and if you’re unsure, this site is a great place to start looking around and getting advice from a legal standpoint (so you make sure you do it the right way).  Other than that, Google homeschool groups in your area, to find a person (or people) to talk to, to help you find out what style you want to use, and where to find the best deals on curriculum or other books.  We’re using a sort of relaxed classical approach with plenty of structured worksheets, within a scheduled time period each day of the week.  I was homeschooled, so I know what to expect and what worked when I was the student, which helps me immensely.

Annnnd… that’s it for now. I ate the leftover salad from dinner already, and a bagel, so now I have to scrounge something ELSE to feed this growing BABY GIRL that I’m carrying. (What?! I didn’t already tell you?! WHOOPS.)