Socialize me!
Pinterest Eye Candy
Followed by: 529 people, Likes: 1,112
Grab my button
Subscribe to this blog
Subscribe to PMom’s newsletter
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
the missing ingredient
As you may recall, I posted that last month’s break was full of home improvement and lesson planning. Well, my plans have been undone. I made a wrong turn, or rather an assumption and therefore, wasted a lot of my time. (Note to self: this is what happens when you neglect to include the Holy Spirit in your planning. Make sure you are regularly asking for the Lord’s help in educating your kids.)
I was busy planning and researching and studying. What I left out was studying my daughter. It has been a little while since I stopped to really evaluate how she’s doing. We keep working and working and not thinking about evaluating (maybe you do this better than I). So when I realized this week that I have skipped ahead in English and math I came to a painfully obvious conclusion–she’s really smart. I am home educating. I can move at the pace she needs. DUH! She should not just breeze through; she should be challenged. And it is up to me to make sure that happens. How great is that ?!? She has a teacher that can turn on a dime, modifying lessons as needed to suit her needs. Why should I keep her plodding along, as she would have to in a classroom, staying with the “herd?” She’s an individual and I have the ability to treat her as such.
So now I have to go back and redo all my lovely plans for science, math and English. I am really ratcheting up the lessons, filling them with inspiring lessons, challenging projects and interesting activities. I will push her and encourage her to do more and to giver her all, not just follow suggested lesson plans in a book on the shelf. She’s my point of reference, not some author somewhere. And I need the Holy Spirit to help me know how to teach her what she needs to know in the way she needs to learn it. Forgive me, Lord. Help me not to get lazy and plod along, but to be the “lively textbook” I should be for my kids.
And I know from experience that when I am excited about what we are doing, she will be too. Even if I’m not crazy about math, she doesn’t have to know that. I make it a point to tell her in every subject, “this is really easy for you because you are so smart.” When she faces a difficult subject she has that “tape” in the back of her mind. So when things are more challenging and she is working to learn, she will think school is much more interesting.
So this weekend, along with a welome visit to Mayfest, I will work on some new lessons plans, keeping my daughter’s giftings, talents and weaknesses in mind. With prayer and planning, I know the rest of our year will get better and better.
3 Responses to the missing ingredient
Leave a Reply
Friends
Friends all over
You go girl! It is difficult to “read” your children. NOt so much because they are hard to read, but because it is so tempting to do things “by the book.” In some areas, we move too slowly and in others I push her too much. Math is the only subject I have a text for (well, I guess we do with history, but I don’t use MWOG that way). And it is REALLY hard for me to just skip something…or even to make extra sheets for extra practice on specific skills.
We’re preparing for a sort of a break. We are doing a unit of sorts…but it’s all child’s play. Haven’t been able to come up with any principles or scripture for it. We’re looking into the history of some children’s games, children’s games around the world and things like that. I might even see if I can get an old hoop and teach her how to spin it.
So we’ll be doing math (got a book about dominos around the world), reading and history…need to come up with some scripture. And we’re just going to take it easy for a bit.
That sounds like fun. She’ll like that. It’s learning without seeming like “school.”
And I have to check myself, too, on the “by the book” mentality. God is helping me to overcome that and break out of the box. But it’s not easy!
The publisher’s don’t know how your child learns, but you do. Sometimes every single exercise isn’t necessary. Something I tell my son is, “if you know all the answers, you aren’t really learning anything.” I want him to embrace the challenge of thinking rather than hurrying through busy work so we skip the busy work.