Inservice, preparation, planning, whatever we each call this time of getting everything ready, is so much fun, so full of expectation and hope. I alluded to that in my previous post. It's a time of crisp book spines, blank pages, pencils with unused erasers, and lesson plan books that have yet to be modified or redone. There are so mess ups, yet. There are no complications in the schedule, no overbookings or double bookings.
But I can just about guaranty that next week, there will be moments that don't go as planned. There may even be bad attitudes. And the teacher may have forgotten some really important component of a lesson. And I know the original erasers on our pencils won't last any time at all. There will piles in the living room of laundry and art supplies by the third day of school.
But there will be lessons that go way better than I think they will on this side of them. There will be listening to my son read to me and savoring the sound of his little boy voice that is starting to sound tougher. There will be watching one daughter's eyes get wider and another's crinkle around the edges as they latch onto something that catches their interest. There will be unexpected tidbits that one of them will discover that lead to modifying my lessons to accommodate real learning.
The difference in an organized, successful, uncluttered inservice and the reality of school is the life that three kids bring to it. Life that is sometimes messy and reluctant but also anxious to be enriched and stretched and challenged. We're a combination of traits. One does not define the whole of us, nor does one flop or success define our homeschool.
So, as I work hard today to prepare for our school year, I want to keep real life in mind, real kids, and a real teacher. I kinda had a motherhood object lesson yesterday that got me to thinking. My older daughter, while we were at my parents', totally made cupcakes alone. All I did was take them out of the oven at the end, when she told me to. She is capable of cooking! When did this happen? Not just toast, but recipes that involve a few steps. And my girls decorated them, beautifully! And independently.
That is something I want to better nurture this year. I don't want to so plan out our days that I stifle that sense of experimentation, of my kids being able to see their own plans through with a real sense of accomplishment and independence.
I want to plan for cupcakes. I don't mean to take out math for cookie baking or to water down our homeschool with play activities that don't contribute to our education. But I do want to better seize those opportunities to really let them own a learning experience. While a lot of our curriculum and schedule does call for structure on my part, I want to make sure I allow for their ideas to have room to flourish-- that I do my part to facilitate in those opportunities without taking over.
This post is pretty much rambling about something I want to be reminded of in a few weeks and a few months. For anyone who's been reading, wondering when I would finally get around to some good links for school stuff, here you go:
I have not found a grammar program I like this year, but I do like components of several, so I am in the process of putting them all together. Here are a couple of those components.
http://www.alyciazimmerman.com/daily-editing-paragraphs.html
That one goes to a teacher's site, where she welcomes downloads of these paragraph editing exercises, and there are a lot of them. It's for a third grade class, but I think that's flexible, looking at the material.
http://www.dailygrammar.com/
These are broken down into over 400 short grammar exercises, with quizzes every five lessons, answers included for all. While you can access them all one lesson at a time for free, they offer an e-book and print version of the whole thing.
http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Draw-30-Days/dp/0738212415
Looking for a fun, kid-friendly art curriculum? We bought this one on the recommendation of a friend a couple of years ago, and we all learned a lot about drawing foundations and thoroughly enjoyed it. The author, Mark Kistler, approaches each lesson in a really laid-back, fun attitude. From the beginning, the kids and I experienced success and could see our own progress. Our youngest was just 7 when we bought it, but both he and I, at well above 7, were able to grasp the concepts presented. And while I listed the Amazon link for this book, the same author as a ton of stuff on Abebooks.com for less than $4 including shipping.
http://www.ck12.org/teacher/
Heard of CK12? I hadn't until I was preparing for this school year. It's actually a ton of online STEM academy resources, and it can be customized to what your students need. From basic math skills through math I can't even imagine, to all sorts of science resources, you can find a wealth of stuff! You can use the textbooks they have, or pick and choose and rearrange into what your kids need. Now, I'll give this disclaimer--it is not written from a Christian perspective, so use discernment. Math, that's not so much of an issue, but with the science and health-related topics, that does come into play. And some of them do deal with topics that require a certain maturity. But, like I said, use discernment--there is a lot of good stuff here. One aspect of these materials is that you can either download them for free or get most of them for free in a Kindle form through Amazon. Click here to get to that. How's that for saving paper and integrating technology into our homeschool?
There you go for today! Have fun getting ready for school!
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