Our children attended a Christian school in Iowa. I felt so blessed that the kids could learn in a Christian environment. It wasn't perfect there was the fair share of drama and not very Christian behavior but for the most part it was lovely. It was also expensive. Along with getting more and more expensive it appeared that the quality of the education was decreasing. The school had gone through a phase of doing online learning for the high school so as not having to pay teachers. It was at that point we decided to homeschool the oldest two who would be juniors. Now with the move to Texas we learned that the private education is even more costly so we're homeschooling the 6th grader as well.
I find the responsibility of their education to be a huge stresser for me. Although we chose a school prior I never considered their education to be a stresser. I had left it up to the teachers. Paul and I had high expectations for grades and our kids met those expectations for the most part so there was nothing to worry about. Now here I am worried sick that I'm going to dumb down my kids.
My 16 year olds are tired of me asking them if they think they are learning, am I giving them enough, etc. "Yes, Mom we're learning stop asking me!" Well, I can't help it!
There was no way I was going to teach Science and Math. I hate both subjects and I know I don't have a solid enough understanding to teach them. They all 3 attend a homeschool co-op for these subjects. I think a lot of homeschool parents want the older children to work independently. That's just not for me. I feel like if I do that I'm just throwing a book at them and ignoring them. Our oldest two probably wish their work was done more independently though. I usually read their History lesson out loud and ask them to follow along. It's not that they are babies it's just that I want to be able to stop and have discussion with them. That's the one thing I valued with the traditional classroom setting; discussion. In Literature I always read 1 chapter out loud and then assign the next 2 chapters for them to read. This has been helpful when we read books like The Kite Runner. We stopped and did have that discussion which I think they secretly enjoyed.
My 11 year old seems to already understand all of the English that she's learning. This has made things easier for me of course because she is flying through things but I worry that we're wasting time. I chose what was considered the best English course for 6th grade based on reviews (Rod & Staff). Now I'm freaking out that she isn't doing enough writing so I rushed to Barnes and Noble and picked up a daily journal prompt so she can write on various topics each day.
We are however thriving in Geography. We might be taking it slow but I know the 11 year old is really retaining. We're not concentrating on what mountains or valleys are in each country, because quite frankly who really cares? But, we are delving deep into the culture and political dynamics. I'm not sure how many 11 year olds could discuss Russia's revolution of 1917 and then the collapse of the Soviet Union but my Julia certainly can. Maybe it's because I'm a lover of this kind of thing but I value knowledge of countries and their histories. Julia today has an understanding of where we are with ties to Russia and where Putin (president) is taking the country.
As with Julia I'm not freaking out that the 16 year olds are not doing enough writing. I do see them making the turn on reading. They both never had any interest in reading really but today they rushed to finish The Kite Runner because they enjoyed it so much. This really warmed my heart. I'm passionate about reading. They dread writing, I know that already. I'm am assigning them a 6-8 page research paper on the topic of their choosing. Hopefully if it's something they are concerned about maybe they will embrace the writing process.
Even though I find this teaching thing stressful I would rather be stressed and not able to sleep at night then send them off to public school. It's not the place for my children. At this point I'm not even really about negative influences on them in the public school setting but more that the atmosphere would actually hurt their hearts. All three have a love for Jesus and being in such an environment would make them heart sick for sure.
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