Homework Assignment

(Notice the "caution work zone" sign, so funny, what a kid!)

I have a Home Schooling Mentor that checks in on me close to daily. Here and there I give a happy report and this was one of those days. She gave me a homework assignment to write the experience of today so that when I was having a bad day and wondering why in the world I was home schooling I could look back on days like this and remember why it is I home school.

One of my biggest challenges is that my kids are on different levels and I haven't felt comfortable with doing projects together, they either feel too hard for one level or too easy for the other. Today though Viv had some homework (she is still in public school) for writing her name. This was one activity they could all do together. Will worked on his signature, Ian his first name in print, Viv her whole name in print and Cadey worked on her name but focused just on the C. The kids did really well and I was praising them and they looked up with beautiful beaming smiles of pride. Will started in as well looking at all the little kids papers and exclaiming what a great job they were doing, then they all started in telling each other how good they were doing. I thought to myself, "I would never see such a thing in a public classroom!!"

We read poems today and Will and I wrote another poem together. I felt a little frustrated at this point because pulling words from Wills head are like pulling teeth but somehow we got through it. We also read Ali Baba and the 40 thieves and discussed loyalty and thinking of others. When Dennis got home I had Will retell the story to his dad to check for comprehension. He needed a few reminders that Dennis hadn't read the story and he needed to explain some details but he did a great job retelling the story. Then, it was time for him to choose what to work on. He chose to build a robot from his writing book (this book has you create some concrete object and then uses it to spur on writing topics). He spent two hours collecting materials and creating his master piece he is calling Mr. Zap and having conversations with (pretty funny). Again, I thought, when would you see this happen in a classroom. He would never be allowed 2 hours to work on a project! We also did a family cleaning project of cleaning the car which was filthy. Everyone pitched in throwing out trash, wiping windows, vacuuming and cleaning dashes. The music played and kids danced and laughed as we all worked together. Again, I thought how happy I was to have these experiences. I am grateful to be the one to teach my children not just academics but values and habits that will make them confident, hard working and capable people. It's hard to home school and sometimes I want to pull my hair out, but I have a day like today and it seems clear and sure that it is right for us.

One other change we have made lately is we added an ingredient from the Thomas Jefferson Model. We added evenings. This means we do not watch TV with the kids at night (except Sunday PCandA) or let them play randomly. This is family time. We read scriptures, write in our journals and then do a family activity (mostly reading together, but could be a game or bike ride, anything that we do together). So far this has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed having Dennis be in charge of scriptures and taking that out of the A.M. routine which leaves me more time to read aloud from picture and story books as well as Viv's homework time. I guess the main idea is that things are good today, I am grateful for the inspiration to home school and I can see glimmers of truth through my faith that it the right thing for our family.