Tomorrow is our first day of school. I am giddy with excitement. I have so missed our Nancy Drew reading time. And I have really missed our discussion time too. I always think that summer is going to provide extra time for us to hang out together as a family, but all we do is run around.
Kasi and Alea are looking forward to school as much as I am. I think they miss the direct attention from mommy.
God has given us such an incredible opportunity. Homeschooling has strengthened our relationship, both with God and with each other. Are our kids learning more than they would at school? I don't know. I don't care! God did not direct us to homeschool for the purpose of putting our girls at the top of their class. We don't need to prepare our children to be neurophysicists unless that is their area of giftedness.
Alea is creative and artistic. Since she could first write her alphabet, she has been writing and illustrating little books, stapling the pages together. And she loves art and reading. I have boxes of stories and artwork. She has an incredible imagination and artistic gift. That is our focus for her. She also has attention issues. So God has been directing me to teach her how to learn on her own - to plant a desire for learning so she will be able to teach herself. That is how we will get around the whole attention issue.
Kasi is a completely different story. She has always been a problem solver. When she was two, she was putting together complicated puzzles and organizing all her crayons by color and size. She loves working on puzzles, and math problems. She is really bad to answer the questions I ask Alea before Alea has a chance to even process it. And she loves worksheets. She doesn't like to just sit and listen during reading time, so I got in the habit of giving her a stack of worksheets to work on while I read. She usually completes about 12-15 sheets (without error) in the time it takes me to read a chapter or two of Nancy Drew. And she is a year ahead of her age group. She can answer multiplication and division word problems from hearing them, and she is 5! Hey, I'm not boasting. I am in awe. It is not my doing at all. She does it all on her own. She had better be a self-learner because she is going to pass me in no time! Maybe I can hand over the management of our budget to her when she gets to be in about the 3rd grade! Finally, no errors!
1 comment:
I agree -- homeschooling is a blessing from God. Spending time with our kids and helping them to acquire the skills and the character that will help develop them into adults is the coolest thing a mom can do. Blessings on your year school year. Ours will begin the first week of September.
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