Thursday, March 8, 2012

Home Schooling: It's a Process!

Hello there again!

I am so excited to be sharing from my blog again about my personal journey and experiences with home schooling. Now I can hardly be called an authority on the subject so if that is what you are looking for, keep reading, then go to WeirdUnsocializedHomeschoolers.com. She is an authority along with a lot of the bloggers that she guest writes for and some of the followers of her blog. Beyond that, I just love reading her posts. I happened upon one today from another blog that she'd written an article for last year called 30 things she's learned about home schooling or something like that that just blessed  my socks off! Seriously, it was just so darn real and good. But first, as I said, keep reading since you've landed on my blog THEN go to hers. :) All is fair in love and blogging. Just kidding.  LOL Can you tell that it is late and I'm silly?

Ok, before I bore you to tears and send you running to another blog, I'd like to share another little something about what I've learned so far on this journey. We are now entering our 3rd month of schooling from home and I can tell you point blank, beyond any doubt at all, that learning from home is a process for the child and for the Parent.

My sweet little 6 year old is going through a major adjustment to home schooling and she has jumped in with both feet. She LOVES being home with her mommy and sister and she absolutely loves Mommy the Teacher. She hasn't asked for any of her school friends or to go back to school at all so, all in all she is doing quite well. The learning process however, does not stop just because her Mommy is the teacher now. She is still only a 6 year old who grasps some concepts easily and others more slowly. She still gets bored with a lot of instruction at one time and prefers it broken up into smaller chunks. She likes to "hear and do." Then hear again and do again. Sometimes she's taken the marker right out of hand to do what I just taught and at that moment if I remain "Teacher" and not Mommy it is o.k. But if my Mommy gene kicks in, I will reprimand her for snatching - as I see that as impolite. I've learned though, that that puts a stopper on her enthusiasm for learning. Boy, the first time I realized that one, I wanted to crawl into a whole and not come out for about 4 days! No one wants to thwart their own child's love and excitement for learning (that's what shcool is for) just kidding...but this process of learning is not just for her, it has been - and I have a sneaking suspicion - will continue to be for me as well.

One of my home schooling friends warned me about expecting her to grasp an entire concept immediately and how that is totally unnecessary as all good curricula will revisit and review a former concept over and over again throughout the year. Yet, I found myself and still continue to catch myself in the mindset of trying to milk a concept in its entirety all in one day. Insanity.

I'm very sleepy and I hope this post has been helpful. In short, when I look into my daughters, loving and compassionate eyes during our school day, I wish I could think to say to her in a most loving manner...sweetheart, learning is a process, for you and for me. But I don't, that's the last thing that I am thinking when I am trying to get her to read and understand how to use a ruler correctly. LOL!!!

G'nite.
Stephy


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