A few things I've learned while homeschooling...

There are a few things I've learned while homeschooling that I thought I'd share on this blog. It seems the first year you home school you are about to climb a huge mountain and you don't know how well the ups or down will go or whether it's even possible. Well, it feels the same way the next year and the year after that except you have more confidence in yourself because you know it's possible and actually successful even if you had more downs than ups.

I guess I realized teaching reading wasn't so hard since my first son took off and now I have to put time limits to how much he reads or he wouldn't ever come down from la-la land. But then my second little fellow came along and he wasn't so thrilled. As a matter of fact- neither was I.
But his handwriting back then was beautiful. Notice I said, "back then." He is now in 2ND grade and he could take a few lessons from Kindergarten. Though, he returns to his old ways when he wants to.
I had to take a different approach to teaching him to read and had to reconcile with myself that it was not going to be my way or the highway. (What was the point anyway?) He has just now plunged into chapter books like Geronimo Stilton. I asked him if he was having trouble with any of the words. He said a few, but that didn't seem to bother him because he was having so much fun reading them. A few words jumbled up didn't matter much.

If you think reading can get scary, try going back to explaining those wonderful fractions in math. Things like 1x 1/12? The answer to this is easy, but it took me a while to figure it out. I've started them all counting beans, pennies, dimes, nickels...backwards from 20, odds and evens..playing Math Mouse games...etc.

I've learned through trial an error what works for us and what is disastrous. I've also learned that we have more time than I feel we have to learn the concepts needed to succeed in life. (Though, I still believe deep inside that they should be reading well by third grade if you have multiple children to teach -and only two eyes, one mouth and two hands, not to mention one brain to keep up with all of them. If they can read well, then they can do many things on their own that could not be done without your assistance otherwise.)

History and Science have been fun for us all along, with little discomfort if any. Over the years, I've read to the children picture books about important people in history like Mr. Lincoln, Helen Keller, the Wright Brothers, Benjamin Franklin..etc. I've exposed them to American History early on before they really understood that it was something they would have to learn someday. They've played pirates, explorers, patriots and more. They've drawn pictures of the way people dressed and the homes people lived in during certain time periods, of battles that took place, of weapons and the kind of warfare that was used. We've listened to living stories on tape or Cd that incorporated fiction with true history to make it fun.

Sometimes, I wonder how I've taught science to my kids, but it really has happened so naturally. They learned about insects by catching them and making a bug chart. They glued them and labeled them to their chart. We have collected rocks, searched for clouds, taken walks that brought on all sorts of conversations that filled their brains with information without ever having to memorize stuff that didn't fit their attention. We've read books that introduced those special messengers called the 5 senses and then had them use them personally. This is called exploring the human body the way it should be done.
How about creation and the millions of years ago stuff that is forever showing up in all kinds of literature? We've exposed them to the truth and what is real and showed them what is not.

All in all, I've learned each child of mine has been different. They all have their own way of learning and taking information in. But children are sponges and they will soak things in some time or another.
Homeschooling them has given me the opportunity to build relationships with them, while at the same time teach them about God's beautiful story.
It has not all been pleasant and without tears. But that does not mean the sun won't shine tomorrow and that perhaps then he or she won't do better. It does not mean that I can't teach and so I should just let someone else do it. It means that perhaps it's time to look at doing it a little different from what we thought was the way it should be done and try it again.
Perhaps, I'm a better teacher then than I thought.