Falling behind
Lately school has been nonexistent at our house. Unless you count watching Nature each Sunday night on PBS and Nova on Tuesday and reading a couple short books about President’s day. We’ve just been so busy and it seems like I’ve been so tired and have not wanted to deal with school. I was also at a loss of what to do lately so that hasn’t helped.
Last week we received a book in the mail that I’m using as a guide of what to teach Lilah. I plan on supplementing it because it is not all inclusive and has a very white, conservative, male dominated view of history, which I find to be OK, but at the same time not very diverse or up to the current political view I want to teach my girls. I see the book as a good guide of things I can be teaching the girls, without having to rack my brain for ideas or use a set curriculum, because I really want to introduce ideas to them and see if they’re interested in learning more and go from there for each topic.
This morning I decided to just read some poems and then fables from the book while the girls finished breakfast. They seemed to really enjoy it, but they really enjoy almost anything you read to them and it got a short discussion going. I think this week in literature we’ll focus on poems and fables and maybe we’ll write our own.
I also bought a math workbook for Lilah. I just can’t think of everything to teach her that deals with math, or creative ways to do things. I really needed something to help me and she can read well so she can do a lot on her own. Most of this Kindergarten math workbook she knows just by everyday things, which I suppose is the point, to teach them everyday things and patterns, but I bought it for it’s introduction to money and adding money together. This is not the only thing I’ll use to teach her math, but it gives me ideas and helps me feel like I’m at least teaching her what she might learn in the classroom and in a way she would learn in the classroom, so if she ever wants or needs to attend public school she’s prepared for it.
Today we started our new schedule and the girls missed the make up class for gymnastics. I needed to clean my soda stickied floors and do school and take them to gymnastics. I knew only two of the three would happen so gymnastics was cut and school won out.
I’m still not as disciplined as I want to be with a homeschooling schedule, but I keep trying and when the girls are excited or engaged in what we’re learning it’s a lot easier to do school and be willing to come back to it the next day. I don’t feel as though I’m failing at homeschool just because I’m still inconsistent.รย I’m just hoping to find our grove by the time Lilah’s 8, which is a long time, but I think it might take that long to gain a full knowledge of what we want and do it.รย They’re learning and I’m learning and as long as they continue to learn I don’t care about anything else.
I’m not sure how long these new things and techniques will last, but I know an ever changing perspective is needed and I know that the girls want to learn and do learn, despite my inconsistencies and impatience sometimes.