After two very frustrating days of Ethan and Mazie's homeschool lessons I finally tossed out the "correct" way of doing things and fell back on my teacher training and my real-life knowledge that I cannot teach a scripted lesson-- not in high school, not in Sunday school, and certainly not in homeschool. Last night I went through each of Ethan and Mazie's lessons and pulled out the concepts they were supposed to master. Mostly they were all review. Ethan is having to re-learn Saxon's coding rules, but other than that, he's far ahead of the book right now.
Today went much smoother. I was much more comfortable with what we were doing, and we actually had fun. Josie built a snap-block tower while Mazie did patterns for Math. Mazie cruised through about seven Math lessons today and about five phonics lessons. She was done by 9:30. Ethan needed more of my time, so I had him do his four or five math lessons (which he can do without any help) then worked through his Phonics lessons when I finished with Mazie. We were done by 10:30. Now Ethan is reading or playing games. Mazie is painting nails and putting on my lipstick. They are happy. They have piano lessons to practice for, but I don't mind if they enjoy some downtime first. Ethan & Dylan have scouts tonight. Mazie's dance class was postponed until tomorrow, or we would be doing that, too, this afternoon. All in all, I feel good about our day today.
I would never have done homeschooling if we had lived in a strong school district. I was afraid of homeschooling. Now I can see why people love it.
Pigs And Dogs
2 days ago
This sounds lovely. I, too, am cowed by the thought of homeschooling, but I can definitely understand why some people choose that option. Your day sounds awesome though! You could run errands/make appointments when necessary instead of being restricted by the district's schedule. I'm jealous ;-)
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