So I recently went back and spent a good chunk of time reading my entire blog from start to finish. It was quite interesting and I had forgotten a lot of the stuff I wrote about. It's so funny how much things changed from one month to another and how much I changed my "teaching methods". I am now totally approaching homeschooling completely different then I ever thought I would. I have read in many, many different books that the first year of homeschooling is basically a trial-and-error kind of thing and you're just figuring things out. I really thought I had it all figured out when I first started but how wrong I was. I went from one end of the spectrum to the other in just under a year -- having a completely structured sit-at-the-table school-like setting to such a non-structured, child-led learning style, as well as pretty much everything in between.
To be honest, I was scared to death when I first though about, as well as uttered the words to Brendon for the first time, "I'm going to homeschool Brenna". I felt in my heart that it was the right thing to do but of course you still question yourself. You wonder "Am I doing the right thing?", "Is she going to miss out on some aspect of childhood by not going to school?", "Are people going to think I'm absolutely nuts!?", and the self-doubt goes on and on. I even cried the night before she was supposed to start school at public school. My husband was the only one who knew about that one - until this moment I have never admitted that to anyone else. He was my savior though and was so good to me and reassured me that I WAS doing the right thing and reminded me of all the reasons why I chose to do what I wanted to do -- I don't know what I would do without that guy. :) It was very emotional for me that entire week, before and after that "first day of school". I thought that what I was doing was wrong and I started second guessing myself -- but you know what? I felt that way because I had never known anything different. EVERYONE sent their kids to school. That was what childhood WAS - school. But you know what I have learned this past year? Childhood is more than that. Childhood is exploring and creating and imagining. Childhood is having the freedom you need without being tied down to a school schedule and homework (especially at such a young age). I LOVE that we are able to plan school around life instead of life around school (my new motto). There have been countless nights this past year that, out of the blue (on a weekday none the less! LOL), we will all sit in the backyard and just talk or play and not even have a care in the world about the time. Brendon works such crazy hours too and it's nice that Brenna gets to stay up a little later then she would if she was going to school so that she can spend time with her Dad. That is so important. Homeschooling for us is a way of life that I would not change for anything. It gives our family such wonderful freedom that we wouldn't have if we were tied down to a school schedule.
Another thing that I realized this year is that I absolutely LOVE being with my daughter and she absolutely loves being with ME. And, for us, that is how it should be. I have stayed at home with Brenna since the day she was born and I have not missed out on one single thing and we have both enjoyed so much together. Most of Brenna's friends go to public school and yes, she hears about "real school" and sometimes it does make me a little nervous that she will start to wish that she could go to school. Just the other day though, she had two of her friends from the neighborhood over (girl 10 and boy 6) and I heard them talking to her about their school and telling her how nice Mrs. So-and-So is and all the stuff they get to do. Brenna was listening and not saying a word and when they were finished she told them that she loved being homeschooled and loved being able to do things with her Mom all day. She told them about her homeschool group and all the things that we do with them. She told them about being able to spend so much time with her PaPa and JoJo (Great-Grandparents) and said that she would never get to do those things if she went to school. That just made me beam! :)
I could go on and on about WHY I choose not to send my daughter to school and all the benefits that we get out of homeschooling but this post would seriously turn into a book. LOL
So back to my teaching...which was the whole point of this post. (Yes, I tend to go off on little tangents. :)
This year I learned a lot about the kind of teacher that I want to be for my daughter. I have read probably a dozen books on homeschooling as well as books on children in general. Just ask my husband. He will tell you about all the books I ordered on amazon.com and about all the information that I tried to fill his head with. hehehe Poor guy was constantly getting bombarded with, "So what I read today was...". I would cook dinner, literally, with a spoon in one hand and a book in the other. It was, and still is, ridiculous. LOL But I LOVE gathering as much information as I can. I know I have stated many times in my blog about how much I read.
After getting so much information though, I came to the conclusion that children learn best when they learn what THEY want to learn. My little Brenna is such a curious little sponge and has absolutely no problem with learning things on a daily basis. She asks soooo many questions throughout our day and is interested in lots and lots of different things. I gave up forcing her to sit at the table and do her "school work". It just was not working for us at all and we were both miserable. I figured out though that I have to jump on the opportunities that are presented to me everyday. Brenna will ask soooo many questions about obscure things every day. Instead of just saying, "I don't know", I go out of my way to find her the answers. The Internet is a WONDERFUL resource!! To me, that is being the best teacher that I can possibly be. And the beauty of that is it is things that SHE wants to know and not things that are forced on her. So will she retain that information better that way?? You betcha! And I tell ya, that kid asks some crazy questions!! LOL :)
So now that our completely-laid-back-year-of-Kindergarten is over what do I plan to do for first grade? I am still not getting a full-fledged curriculum for her. I don't believe in over-whelming her with text book school stuff right now - that can come later. We have plenty of time for that. As I mentioned in my last post though, I did get her a math curriculum, which we are having a good time with so far. We will work on her handwriting this year as well, but as far as anything else I think we will just keep having fun. Don't get me wrong - I'm not planning on being such a laid back homeschool Mom forever. There will come a time when we WILL do more school-like stuff but for right now what we are doing is really working for us. My daughter is learning PLENTY and we are having a blast in the process!
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