Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Mixing it up

Hah! I typed this all up on my phone and went to load pics.  I had to change my privacy settings and didn't get it saved.  Two full rambling paragraphs and som more fluff gone.  Oh my!  So I don't know everything I was saying, but wanted to make a few points.  First of all, I feel like my home school mom confidence level increased this year.  I don't feel trapped in the subjects.  I put the history project grade in the "art" tab in my grade book today.  I have felt like we weren't getting any art in last year, but we did these projects.  Why not score them in art with a "excellent, satisfactory, needs improvement, unsatisfactory," grade rather than try to put a percentage score on it.
By the way, the wire above his head is not connected to anything.  That's another long story.

We went the extra mile on this and covered the brooch with foil, then colored it with Sharpie markers.
Another thing resulting from my confidence that gave my OCD a run for its money is I'm letting my kids do worksheets orally and skip problems in math.  We are doing discussions rather than quizzes every time in history.  Spelling isn't graded, though it is a separate subject for us.  If they've already learned something and can explain it to me effectively, it's ok to skip the lesson.  When I did a few placement tests and found my kids slightly above grade level, I relaxed a bit.  I can do this!
Well I'm sure whatever I typed before was just as random as this with more words, so that's all for now.  I hope to post more regularly this year.
Our new classroom should be ready by next week, so I hope to be able to post about it soon!

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

It is that time of year again!

I am super excited to begin another year in our school, Life Song Academy.  Shaping the life songs of to very unique, very lovable children is not an easy task.  I am challenged daily as I spend time with them.  I am learning that if I expect them to work hard, which I do, then I must work even harder.  Parenting is not very effective when it is done passively.  Neither is home schooling for me.  Sure, they can breeze through their subjects like math and science and language with little assistance from me, but I need to be their coach, mentor, teacher, mother all the time.  Keeping them on task can be frustrating, but it is important!  They need boundaries and deadlines!  I don't remember the exact Proverb, but there is one that starts, "Consider the ant, you sluggard..."  It is from the Bible, but I don't really remember which translation either.  I don't want my kids to be defined as sluggards.
Now, I may sound like I'm overbearing and maybe I really am, but one of my goals this year is to teach them with firm gentleness.  Now that's an oxymoron!  Or is it?  My speech can be quite harsh and I get a little crazy when the kids misbehave... Yes I've stomped my feet a few times, but I don't like when I behave that way.  I hope  that my children's life songs will not be resentful or resistance songs, but will be of strength and Godly character.  Discipline is necessary as is love.  We will find this balance, I know it!
We start full days on Thursday, so breathe in, breathe out.  Never mind that the house is still torn up and we don't have our classroom yet.  We have our supplies and our family!  Let's go!