Amongst Lovely Things: Why I'm No Homeschool Superstar
Oh so ditto!!!
We are not all crafters. It takes everything out of me for an entire day to even try most crafts. So I don't.
Oh the kids do an occasional craft at Grandma's (Christmas ornaments for church for example). But not a lot.
I wouldn't mind if they could do more, but not with me. Toooo much for mamma.
And to tell you the truth, I'm not all that convinced that crafty stuff is all that educational. They are fun, to be sure. But so is running around in the yard playing cowboys. I know I remember learning a great deal more from the textbooks than from any of the crafty things we did in public school. Of course it's possible I'm just a boring booky person. But I'm that kind of teacher too. I can get an idea across way easier by reading selections to the kiddos than by building, uhhhh, messes.
Another thing to remember when reading about homeschoolers doing so many neat things is that you are often reading an entire 15-20 years worth of craft ideas. With my oldest at 20yo, if I were to list our craft projects from every other year, it would sound very much like we were doing neat things all the time.
Here's the truth about our school: We do Bible study together every morning, practice our poems, memory verses, and memorizing phone numbers and addresses. Than each child does their math, grammar, science, history, health, geography, penmanship, phonics (where the child is the right age), art, music, literature and Spanish alone. I begin at my second youngest (4.5yo) and work through her kindergarten workbooks. Than I correct my 7yo's work, give her spelling and reading lessons. Than I do the same to my 8yo, 10yo, 12yo, 13yo, and 17yo (skipping the reading lessons, lol). I end with my 20yo telling me what she has been studying (She often does all the spelling lessons for me and I allow the older dc to correct most of their own stuff with me just spot checking once in a while so this time with the older ones is usually only about 10 minutes or less each.) This takes from about 9:30-2:30 with an hour or so out for lunch and a 20minute break mid-morning. Then I have the rest of the day to do my things and they each do their own things. They are learning lots and I have time to de-stress. Works great for us.
So, if you aren't the kind of mom who wants to build pyramids out of sugar cubes, ear canals you can crawl through, or 3D models of the solar system, you can still homeschool. I do.
Oh so ditto!!!
We are not all crafters. It takes everything out of me for an entire day to even try most crafts. So I don't.
Oh the kids do an occasional craft at Grandma's (Christmas ornaments for church for example). But not a lot.
I wouldn't mind if they could do more, but not with me. Toooo much for mamma.
And to tell you the truth, I'm not all that convinced that crafty stuff is all that educational. They are fun, to be sure. But so is running around in the yard playing cowboys. I know I remember learning a great deal more from the textbooks than from any of the crafty things we did in public school. Of course it's possible I'm just a boring booky person. But I'm that kind of teacher too. I can get an idea across way easier by reading selections to the kiddos than by building, uhhhh, messes.
Another thing to remember when reading about homeschoolers doing so many neat things is that you are often reading an entire 15-20 years worth of craft ideas. With my oldest at 20yo, if I were to list our craft projects from every other year, it would sound very much like we were doing neat things all the time.
Here's the truth about our school: We do Bible study together every morning, practice our poems, memory verses, and memorizing phone numbers and addresses. Than each child does their math, grammar, science, history, health, geography, penmanship, phonics (where the child is the right age), art, music, literature and Spanish alone. I begin at my second youngest (4.5yo) and work through her kindergarten workbooks. Than I correct my 7yo's work, give her spelling and reading lessons. Than I do the same to my 8yo, 10yo, 12yo, 13yo, and 17yo (skipping the reading lessons, lol). I end with my 20yo telling me what she has been studying (She often does all the spelling lessons for me and I allow the older dc to correct most of their own stuff with me just spot checking once in a while so this time with the older ones is usually only about 10 minutes or less each.) This takes from about 9:30-2:30 with an hour or so out for lunch and a 20minute break mid-morning. Then I have the rest of the day to do my things and they each do their own things. They are learning lots and I have time to de-stress. Works great for us.
So, if you aren't the kind of mom who wants to build pyramids out of sugar cubes, ear canals you can crawl through, or 3D models of the solar system, you can still homeschool. I do.
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