I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with planning for the homeschooling year. My husband just left with five of the children for several hours to give me time and peace to plan for lessons, and instead of jumping right in, I feel paralysed.
Every subject has been given thought, goals have been made, notebooks prepared and new crayons are ready. But……what exactly am I going to do on the Monday after Labor Day? I’ve done a wide variety of things already, from dabbling in unschooling to pre-prepared curriculum (“just open up the notebook and start!”) to Mason copywork and nature studies to workbooks that took no teaching at all. Currently I am quite enthralled with the Principal Approach and its Biblical focus, teaching children how to reason Biblically through every subject matter. And therein lies the problem. I was never taught that myself, so I need to educate myself more in order to teach. Who learns to reason at all, anymore, much less Biblically? Or teach children to do so?
It was so much easier teaching public school. Teach them content and if they don’t get it, first blame the parents (because they aren’t as edumacated) and then just pass them off to the next grade and teacher and hope for the best.
That doesn’t work with homeschooling.
Homeschooling means REALLY caring if your *students* learn and understand things like grammar, penmanship, and history (history, I say, not “social studies”). I really care that my children will know when to use fractions, not just how to do them as assigned on paper. I really care that my children will write clearly and well, and know how to do so persuasively and with an excellent vocabulary. I also really care that they see how a family runs, between getting the grubbiness out of laundry, the chickens out of the garden, and the bathrooms sanitary. I want them to know how to change a tire, read a compass and recognize slimy advertising and faulty logic. It’s important that they have time, lots and lots of time, to learn how to love one another and to deepen their relationships, from playing with the toddler and dealing with the frustration of another mess he’s caused to changing a baby’s diaper and giving her loving attention to giving respect and honor to the older siblings.
My expectations need checking. I believe God created families to bless and learn and work together. If I can remember that I am serving His purposes and not my own, then I can look forward to His teaching me all I will need to know and do during the homeschooling (lifeschooling?) year.
Yeah, I’m ready to plan, Lord. Teach us all.
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