Don't Eat Us!

Home school schedules have been a little erratic so far. Part of the reason is that Caleb is attending public school kindergarten half-time, and Lucy is in a Christian Montessori two days a week. Also, Alicia’s super-duper pregnant. And, I just finished a semester of creative writing courses at a nearby college.

Nevertheless, we’re seeing substantial gains when we put in the effort.

Some of the benefits we love:

1) Focusing on problem areas—there is no classroom of other students. If Caleb is struggling with penmanship, we work on that. We don’t need to worry about the progress of anyone but Caleb or Lucy.

2) We as parents stay the primary influence on our children—we teach material that is consistent with our values. Teachers, other children, and strangers have less of an opportunity for sharing values we don’t agree with.

3) Flexible schedule—Lucy needs to nap by 1PM or the town’s tornado siren goes off. At home, it’s easy to avoid educating her during nap time.  Lucy prefers 5:30AM for lessons, her normal wake-up time (don’t you feel for us???).

4) Lish and I get to learn new subject matter—We’re currently reading a book on the history of the world. Both of us are college educated, and yet some of the events we’re learning about are new to me.

Some challenges:

1) Our patience—I’m often preoccupied with dentistry or story writing or other responsibilities. Lish is nesting and almost entirely immobile.  If we’re short on patience, lessons become a crescendo of verbal frustration.

2) Getting Caleb and Lucy to recognize we’re teachers—Let’s face it: we’ll always be Mom or Dad, even when we’re teachers, too. It makes for a sometimes unexpected dynamic.

3) Time and organization—A lot of both is required to make home school fruitful. Up to this point our commitment has only been luke-warm. But we’ve found that more preparation=more progress, and that keeps us motivated.

4) Meeting worldly expectations—Lucy and Caleb don’t live and function in a bubble. At some point they’ll be taking standardized tests for college, working jobs, and having relationships with other people. And for those things, the world will determine Caleb and Lucy’s success by how they meet the world’s standards. Therefore, giving them the tools to jump through academic hoops is an unwelcomed necessity we must incorporate into our schooling.

As we continue to do more research and hone our home school plan, I hope to share more about the resources we find useful (and would love you to share yours as well). It’s going to take more discipline in the coming months (because the baby is coming soon) to keep up our curriculum, but I’m confident we can do it.

With enough caffeine, anything is possible.