The Know-It-All Attitude

April 1, 2005 by Leave a Comment

Nothing gets my dander up more quickly than the Know-It-All attitude. Child or adult, friend or total stranger, I find this attitude prideful, self-serving, and downright ugly. The Know-It-All wants to be better than everyone else in the room and wants everyone else in the room to know he is better. Sometimes the attitude surfaces only briefly; at other times it is a full-time occupation.

The Know-It-All has a self-imposed learning disability — he has chosen to block his mind from learning from anyone. No one can instruct or correct the Know-It-All, because he already knows and will be the first to tell you. No matter what fact you present to the Know-It-All, his response is always the same, “I know.” Even when you can be certain that he could not know and does not know, the Know-It-All still responds in the same matter-of-fact, yet superior, way, “I know.”

When my children began to display the Know-It-All attitude, we stopped everything and had a serious heart-to-heart discussion. Okay, it was more of a one-sided lecture, but I got my point across. “You did not know,” was my calmly delivered opener. “Why do you think you told me that you did know?” — a mostly rhetorical question, followed by my explanation of how we let pride take over our minds and try to make ourselves look smarter than we actually are. The desired result was that my children would recognize and admit to learning new things, no matter who was providing the information. We can learn from anyone and everyone, and the more we learn, the smarter we become. I do not gain any intelligence by falsely declaring myself to be in possession of a fact.

The next misstep, which falls close on the heels of the Know-It-All attitude of pride, is jealousy. How I get sickened when I see a parent who does not want his child to excel past the parent’s abilities. This sounds completely ludicrous — parents not wanting success for their children — but I have seen it over and over. I have caught myself in the thought pattern, severely reprimanded myself for it, and then taken steps to help my child progress even farther.

My son wanted to learn to play guitar. I dug out my old “beginner” guitar, showed him how to read a chord chart, and gave him some basic instructions on technique and a few simple worship songs to try. Then I stepped out of his way and let him try it on his own. After a few false starts, he began having success. I gave him a better guitar — success should be rewarded with a quality instrument. Eventually, he and the guitar became like Siamese twins, joined fingertips to fretboard. When he goes to his room just to retrieve a book, and I hear a few bars of sweet guitar music before he returns. His ability has quickly exceeded mine, and I think of myself as a fairly good player. He has taught himself to read tablature found on the internet for his favorite CD songs. He has learned to finger-pick complicated rhythms just by listening to them and trying. He absolutely impressed the socks off me last Christmas by picking “Carol of the Bells” for us after dinner! CAROL OF THE BELLS!!!

It has been tempting at times to become jealous of his ability. I could reprimand him for spending “too much time” on guitar and not enough time on his schoolwork, except that he does get the schoolwork done also. I could have made him buy his own guitar, rationalizing that he would “appreciate it more” if he had worked for it and earned it himself. I could point out his mistakes and ridicule him for not having each piece perfect when he plays for me. I could so easily completely destroy his love of music. Which is exactly what happens when jealousy is given a foothold. Instead, I have sat under his tutelage and allowed him to show me new chords. We have played together, laughing with delight as I struggled to keep up with his flying fingers.

My daughter and I have engaged in theological discussions in which we share new perspectives on familiar passages of scripture. However, the Know-It-All attitude often dances through my mind as she is explaining her latest insight. I must fight against pride to remind myself that I definitely do not know all there is to know, especially about the Bible. Humbly, I remind myself that I can learn from any situation, from any person. I turn my back on jealousy and remind myself to pay attention to what she is saying… and I learn. She is an adult now and lives in a different city, in a different cultural-mix, and has the benefit of many new experiences from which to teach. If the Know-It-All attitude were allowed to reign, I would miss all of that.

I grew up without encouragement. My family did not express emotions of joy, at least not to us as children. Our accomplishments received a mere nod, if anything at all. Once when I had worked very hard and finally mastered my desired goal, my mother responded with a flat, emotionless “I knew you could do it.” The Know-It-All attitude strikes again. Confidence shattered, excitement crushed, self-esteem ground under the heels of the Know-It-All.

That old race between the tortoise and the hare should teach us a great lesson: the hare was a Know-It-All. Perhaps we could have learned even more if Aesop had continued his story after the Finish Line: did the hare humbly and graciously congratulate the tortoise on his victory, or was the hare ensnared by jealousy and pride?

Knowledge continues to expand and increase as technology advances. None of us knows it all. Each of us can learn something from everyone. None of us is so perfect that he cannot be topped by someone else. We will all benefit from humbling ourselves and seeing every situation as an opportunity for learning.

Filed Under: Attitudes, Behavior, Encouraging Your Student, Roadblocks to Learning

Social Skills — What Should I Teach My Preschooler?

March 30, 2005 by 1 Comment

Your oldest child (or only child) is quickly approaching school age. You have been curious about homeschooling, but you worry about how little Katie or Bobby will learn to interact in a group. Will your child need to go to school to learn how to work and play well with others? Socialization is not something that can be taught; social skills are a different matter. A child can successfully be taught at home the basic skills needed for interacting with other children, even if there are no siblings in the home.

Skills to teach your preschooler:
Patience
–Start by being an example of patience to your child. While waiting in line at the grocery store, explain how to wait calmly and cheerfully. Help your child to judge time by watching the other customers progress through their lines. Getting the focus off himself will help the child to learn patience. (I taught my children to judge longer waiting times by relating to things in their world: a few minutes’ wait was equal to a Bugs Bunny cartoon; other time periods used were half-hour TV episodes or 60- and 90-minute videos that they knew by heart. Patience came much more easily when they understood their wait would take one “Elephant Show” or one “Robin Hood.”)
–Not interrupting when adults are talking: “Let me finish my sentence first, and then I will see what you need. I know you are here, and I will not forget about you.” Make this reciprocal as you allow your child to finish his sentences without interrupting him. (True emergencies are always exceptions.) I taught my children to come and stand quietly beside me if I was speaking to another adult and wait a few moments for my attention. Many times I turned to them to hear their question, only to find out they had no request — they just wanted to be with Mom for a while.
–Taking turns: Play games together, beginning with just the two of you, then later add a playmate to increase the time that elapses between a child’s own turns. (Until a little patience has developed, it is very hard to wait for your turn to come around again!) Keep the focus on playing as the fun part, not winning, and do not ridicule the loser. We played many games (such as Scrabble) without ever keeping score, to ensure that the emphasis was on learning or using a skill and not on winning and losing.

Sharing
–Help your child to see the Big Picture when having playtime with a friend. Discuss with your child before the friend arrives that the friend will be here for only a short time and that all of the toys will still be here after the friend leaves. Emphasize your child’s opportunity to allow his friend to have the same enjoyment he has with his toys. If your child has some extra-special toys that he is afraid might be damaged, put those toys safely away before the friend comes. I have watched as many a Mom ripped a treasured toy out of her own child’s arms and handed it to the visitor, thinking she was teaching her child to “share” instead of clutching it with what she considered to be unreasonable sentimentality. All it seemed to accomplish was to convince the unhappy child that the visitor was more important to Mom than her own child’s feelings.

Fairness
–More game playing: do not play in such a way as to allow the child to always win. Playing is more enjoyable and lasts much longer than the moment of winning. The more games you play, the more opportunity there is for the child to see that winning is either random or related to skill. Help the child to develop the needed skills to improve his playing ability. Skewing the game so that the child always wins gives the child an unrealistic view and sets him up for major disappointment when someone else is victorious. Short games, such as tic-tac-toe, can be played multiple times within a few minutes, removing the focus from winning and losing.

Sportsmanship is a combination of the above skills. Regardless of the situation, if you can learn to accept the outcome gracefully, you can be pleased with your accomplishment. A good sport is always welcome; bad sports are not often asked to play again.

Appropriate Behavior
–Volume, speed, movement, etc. should be suited to your surroundings and circumstances. A park is a great place to run, jump, and be loud — but not when you are attending an outdoor wedding.
–Family “signals” for behavior are a tremendous help in discipline. We developed “the family whistle,” a specific melody of three or four notes that became our unique signal to “come now.” While not quite as startling as Captain Von Trapp’s system, our whistle aided us in finding each other when separated by a few aisles in large stores or in gaining the attention of a family member who had strayed a little too far. The whistle was more dignified to use than shouting and was rarely noticed by strangers in our midst. In recent years, I have been pleasantly surprised to hear a few other softly whistled signals in large department stores — obviously other families with their own “secret” signals.

One loud snap of the fingers became our “quiet” signal, used after “lights out,” in the car, or anytime a quick reminder was needed. The “snap” put the responsibility on the child to remind himself of the signal’s meaning, rather than forcing mom and dad into nagging as they repeated a verbal admonition to be quiet. Coincidentally, this device also worked on our dog, as he simultaneously learned to quiet himself and settle down whenever he heard a snap.

Communication
Children learn the basics of communication best through hearing language spoken to them. From the day my children were born, I spoke directly to each of them. Whether in my arms or in the baby swing, I was usually carrying on a conversation with Baby, giving a running commentary on whatever household chore was at hand. Bystanders may have thought me daft, but I felt it would give the child a headstart on language skills. I did not speak “baby talk,” but spoke to the tiny, enchanted face as though it knew exactly what I was saying. Language came easily to my children, and they both spoke with clarity and confidence beyond what most people expected.

An older woman I knew began babysitting her neighbors’ daughter, but became frustrated when she had trouble communicating with little Annie. The 3-year-old had difficulty answering questions. At mealtime, the woman asked Annie if she wanted a certain food, but the child would not reply to the yes-or-no question. A few moments later, the girl blurted out “Annie pizza!” The woman (expecting only “yes” or “no” as the answer) became increasing upset as she kept repeating the question and demanding, “Say yes or no,” to which the child would innocently reply, “Yes or no.” As the woman shared her frustration with me later, she asked why I thought the child would only answer in such confusing ways. There seemed to be a lack of some basic communication skills. Other children, younger than this girl, had no trouble answering questions, so this woman was baffled as to why this child could not do the same. (Also complicating the situation was the adult’s insistence on repeating the same question, instead of trying other ways to communicate with the child.)

As we discussed the situation, more behaviors were revealed. This very big girl ate her meals in a high-chair, using no utensils, yet she had no disabilities. All food had to be cut into tiny pieces and placed directly on the chair’s tray for her to eat with her fingers, even though other children her age sat at the family table and used plates and silverware. The parents routinely put the girl alone in her bedroom to listen to books on tape before her very early bedtime. The parents were both employed in well-paid professions, worked long hours, and spent very little time with their daughter. The lack of one-on-one time showed dramatically in the girl’s abilities.

To solve the problem of answering questions, I suggested that the woman should ask the child a simple yes-or-no question, such as “Do you want pizza for lunch?” Then when the girl shouted “Annie pizza,” the woman should patiently prompt the child to say, “Yes, I want pizza.” Repeating this a few times quickly taught the girl how to answer the question with the word “yes” and gave the babysitter a few ideas for dealing with obstacles to communication.

Children can learn to converse with other adults under the safety of parental supervision. When we were questioned by friends, neighbors, relatives, or acquaintances as to what we were doing in our homeschool, I often deferred to my children for the answer. If the adult was asking me about the children’s opinion of homeschooling, I felt it was silly for me to answer when my children were standing right there, capable of speech. I would turn to the child, repeat the question (if necessary, in words the child could relate to), and assure the child that he could openly share his feelings with my adult friend. Obviously, none of us wants to encourage our children to speak to strangers when they are by themselves, but we as adults know many people that our children do not know, and we can comfort the children that our acquaintances are all right to speak to when we are present. Adults sometimes avoid speaking directly to children, often because they assume they will only receive a blank stare from an overly shy child who believes it is unsafe to speak to any adult that he does not know. In the controlled environment of having Mom or Dad present, the child can confidently practice speaking to an adult and learn the art of polite conversation.

Lengthen attention span through listening and comprehension activities. Simply reading stories to a child and asking a few questions as you go will get them more involved in the process. Television programming now changes scenes at least every ten seconds, in order to adapt to the modern viewer’s very short attention span, so we must work on teaching activities that capture and hold a child’s attention. I gave in to the purchase of a video game set when I saw how it had the potential of teaching some valuable skills to my elementary-aged children. (This was the Super Nintendo system with one of the harmless Mario Brothers games.) The obstacle course aspect of the game improved the children’s attention spans, increased their memories (when they made a mistake, the scene started over), improved eye-hand coordination, and taught them anticipation. They had to anticipate what obstacle would come next, and, if an enemy would be coming on-screen soon, where it would come, what it could do, and what skill they would need to conquer that enemy. (I do recommend saving the video games for a reward after required work is done, and limiting the time spent playing the games. I also held veto power over the purchase of any games containing excessive violence or occult elements.)

Improve observation skills by having your child help sort out the toys when putting things away or by playing observation games. “I spy” was my favorite game to play with my grandmother as she did her housework. She would place her thimble somewhere in plain sight, and then call me into the room to begin looking for it. As Grandma continued with her tasks, I searched high and low until I spotted the tiny object. When my cousin was also present, we had to call out “I spy” upon seeing the thimble, teaching us patience while allowing the other person a chance to keep looking. I suspect it was also Grandma’s favorite way of keeping little ones safely occupied while she accomplished a few household chores. Now “I Spy” refers to a series of wonderful photo-books, filled with thousands of miniature objects. I find those just as fascinating as looking for Grandma’s thimble on her massive bookshelves.

Improve memory skills through games such as finding matching pairs from Go Fish cards turned face-down on the table. My own memory is very good, a skill I credit to much time spent in memory-building activities from childhood to the present. When teaching my children to remember past activities (such as where one may have left his shoes), I taught them to “walk backwards in your mind” through all their recent steps to “see” the pictures in their minds of where they had been, what they had done, and what they had seen and heard. It was a great exercise in memory — one that the grandparents began using themselves to find their misplaced eyeglasses!

Improve motor skills through tracing and other writing-readiness activities, using scissors, playing hopscotch, or walking along a 2×4 board on the ground as a beginner’s balance beam. Work on both fine motor skills (small muscle control: finger dexterity) and gross motor skills (large muscle coordination: arms and legs). Better coordination means the child has more physical control over his own actions and more confidence in his own abilities. Offering plenty of opportunities to use their developing skills (such as cutting paper with scissors) will deter children from perfecting those skills in mischievous ways (cutting their own hair, the cat’s whiskers, their clothing, or the fabric on the back side of the sofa).

All of these skills, though very basic, will prepare your child for interaction with a group. They will instill confidence in your child as he sees his progress, teaching him that he can learn new things. Once he has acquired these foundational skills, your child will be more than ready for you to present more formal subjects, such as reading, writing, and calculus.

[For an encouragement booster, see Learning to Walk — Seen as a New Lesson]

Filed Under: Activity Ideas, Auditory Learning, Homeschool How-To's, Kinesthetic Learning, Preschoolers, Visual Learning

Homeschool Gadgets: An Investment in Your Future or a Waste of Money?

March 28, 2005 by Leave a Comment

You are at the educational supplies store or homeschool curriculum fair and see a fancy teaching gadget on display. Yes, it is cute. It may even be on sale, but will it pay for itself in lessons learned or in time saved, or is it destined to become a liability in storage space?

Not every gadget or tool needs to be purchased to teach the subjects you desire your students to learn. Some items can be replicated inexpensively at home from “found” materials — and then discarded Guilt-Free after they have fulfilled their purpose. We made a few with enough care to be able to use them over and over and have kept them for many years. Others can be done without entirely. I once purchased a plastic board covered with tiny pegs that was supposed to illustrate geometric figures when you stretched rubber bands around the pegs. However, only certain shapes could be accurately portrayed, making even my small investment disappointing.

It is also wise to consider storage when purchasing extras for your homeschool. I opted for the world globe printed on a beach ball — perfect roundness was not necessary for us to understand geography, but the deflating capability made storage very easy.

Mail-order catalogs were a great source of ideas for make-it-yourself learning aids. We “borrowed” ideas for items that we would probably not have used more than once. Sometimes just examining the catalog photo and description were enough to illustrate the principle and give my students a basic understanding of the concept. Other times we purchased an item (such as the wooden set of Cuisenaire rods), knowing that it would pay for itself many times over in multiple uses.

I purchased a gadget that held 5 pieces of chalk in evenly spaced wire brackets for drawing parallel lines on a chalkboard. I drew lines for penmanship, musical staffs, and graphing grids for math. I turned my chalkboard into “graph paper” to tame the wayward numbers in long division or multiplication problems: one digit per box clarifies even the poorest handwriting. (My chalk-holder has been passed on to another homeschool family so I cannot prove this, but I think it may also be possible to insert thin white board markers into the wires for use on today’s ubiquitous white boards.)

I made my own geometric shapes (squares, triangles, pentagons, hexagons) out of old file folders for constructing 3-D figures. I made all the shapes to the same dimensions (2″ sides), and the various shapes could be fitted together for very interesting structures. I included an extra 1/4″ tab-strip on each edge, and we used tiny orthodontic rubber bands to link the pieces together, but the pieces could also be glued or taped together for permanence. I saw this idea in a curriculum catalog at a time when we could not spare the money for many extras. My husband had removed a stack of slightly worn file folders from a wastebasket at work, thinking I may be able to use them for something. My oldest student was barely into geometry and angles but got a sneak-peak at how to use compass, protractor, and straight edge to construct our wonderful new learning aids. Both students had great fun assembling 3-D models of geometric solids, which gave them a boost in understanding volume and geometry as those lessons came around.

I purchased inexpensive math manipulatives by buying sugar cubes to use in illustrating volume. We kept them on a jellyroll pan to contain the inevitable crumbs and stacked the cubes to count how many units/rows/layers it took to make a larger block. We also effectively illustrated multiplication and division by grouping the sugar cubes into rows to show 3 rows of 5 sugar cubes was equal to 5 rows of 3 sugar cubes, and both totaled 15 sugar cubes. A few hundred sugar cubes were purchased for a very small price, enabling the children to build perfect mathematical squares and cubes and study the multiplication facts with their hands as well as with their eyes. Numbers on a times-table chart were much more meaningful after they had proved the facts themselves. We worked with the sugar cubes carefully to avoid unnecessary breakage and crumbling, and were able to reuse them many times.

Educational games are a spending temptation for nearly every Mom I know. However, since many of them tend to be rather expensive, exert your self-control and go for the ones that will teach more than one concept. A game that does not have a “fun” element to it will probably not be played with very often, sliding it into the liability category. Try not to allow your game collection to sit idly on the shelf once the age limit or skill level has been passed by your students. Challenge them to create new rules for the game or find new ways to use the game’s equipment to match their new skill levels. Pre-reading games such as Candy Land can be adapted for math skills (see Alternate Methods for Teaching Math for more ideas).

The biggest consideration for buying educational gadgets, reference books, and homeschool materials is: Does this have more than one function? If it is usable for only one thing (especially if that is a very insignificant function), perhaps your hard-earned money would be better spent elsewhere. If the item will be used for multiple tasks over a long period of time, it is probably a wise investment.

Filed Under: Activity Ideas, Curriculum Choices, Homeschool How-To's, Tactile Learning

Involving Dads in Homeschooling

March 23, 2005 by Leave a Comment

Moms often ask how to include their husbands in the homeschooling process. Dad is doing his best to earn the living that makes homeschooling possible, but he also may feel like he is not directly involved with the children’s education. There are many facets of education, and Dad can fit in during the free time he does have. Dad’s time with the children may often be limited, but it is always worth waiting for.

Reading — My husband did not read great quantities of books to our children, but he did read certain books over and over to them. Children know their favorite books by heart and instantly recognize anything added in or left out. His favorite trick was including a lizard that was never in the actual stories. He would be reading along and just say the word “lizard” while turning a page, change a character’s name to Larry the Lizard, or add an entirely new sentence about how the lizard who lived next door came over to play. The children shrieked with delight at every lizard, and lovingly scolded Dad that there was not supposed to be a lizard in that book.

Dads add character voices and sound effects all their own, beyond the bounds of Mom’s repertoire. It may be the deep resonance of Dad’s voice that can be physically felt while snuggled against his chest, but there is something extra-special about sitting in Daddy’s lap for a book.

Sports — My non-sports-nut husband took our kids biking, hiking, sledding, swimming, skating (standard & inline), bowling, and fishing, usually after a long, tiring day at work. He drove them to soccer practice, attended every game, and even helped out as assistant coach for a season. He got down and dirty playing paintball with our teenaged son and other dads and lads. Meanwhile, Mom, whose idea of cutting-edge sports is doing the Sunday crossword puzzle in ink, was very glad to have Dad’s enthusiastic partnership. No matter how hard I have tried, my athletic ability is moot. What I lack in talent and coordination I try to make up in enthusiasm. I would happily hold the family’s accumulated belongings while my husband accompanied the children on every ride the amusement park offered, knowing there was not enough motion-sickness medicine on the planet to get me through the three minutes of torture from a single ride. Without my husband’s participation, our children’s lives would have been sadly idle.

Rough-housing — Dads play horsey; Moms cuddle & kiss boo-boo’s. Children know that Dad will wrestle and toss them into the air and swing them around and around. Dads make every event thrilling just by being Dad. Too many times to count, I have said, “No, you probably shouldn’t do that — it looks dangerous,” only to have my husband grin and say, “Why not? Let’s try it!” I gave in because my husband was there to supervise, participate, or control the situation from getting out of hand. Dad added an element of surprise, a thrill of adventure, and a safety net all at the same time.

Dads teach weekend home improvement and car maintenance, as much through letting Little Brother watch as through actually allowing Bigger Brother help. Our Christmas breaks were often a time for our son to be Dad’s apprentice for painting, wiring the garage, removing wallpaper, or numerous small projects around the house. At age 18 my son readily stepped into the handyman roll at a friend’s apartment, having practiced the basics with Dad and Grandpa from a very young age.

Some homeschooling families are able to share the teaching responsibilities — we know a few Dads who like to teach their children upper level math and science. Other families have found that Dad’s work schedule did not allow him to contribute very often to the actual teaching process, and Mom could adequately cover their academics. Whatever and whenever Dad can participate, his contribution will leave a lasting impact. Dads are exciting — no matter what they do, it becomes an adventure, while Moms teach quietly unexciting homemaking skills. Dads use tools like drills and saws; Moms use rubber spatulas.

Include Dad in your homeschooling at every opportunity. It will be as much of an adventure for him as it is for Mom and the children. Remember, it does not have to involve books to be education.

Filed Under: Auditory Learning, Encouragement for Parents, Family Unity, Homeschool How-To's, Kinesthetic Learning

Teaching Decision-Making

March 21, 2005 by Leave a Comment

Involve your children in as many real-life, grown-up, decision-making processes as you can. This process will show them a clear picture of life, not the TV version that they are often (unfortunately) convinced is reality. Children who are involved in the reasoning behind a decision that directly affects them are more likely to accept that decision. Bonus: it shows children the applied wisdom of their parents, which is never shown on television. The level of involvement for the youngest children may simply be an explanation of how and why the decision was made by the parents, with the children’s role increasing as they grow older. Let them know what criteria were considered, so that they will begin to understand what factors are involved in making a wise choice.

I began simply by giving my toddler the choice of two shirts to wear. That meant it was still her decision, even though I had directed it somewhat. With my guidance of “a pattern needs to be matched with a solid color,” my child could soon begin to select both the top and bottom of an outfit, and I did not have to fear the public criticism of, “Oh, so you’re letting her dress herself.”

I gradually increased my children’s responsibility levels with their decisions, and before long I had wise-deciders on my hands. My children, at middle-school level, were already making many decisions involving their own lives — decisions that their friends were still having made for them by their parents. (A simple example is curriculum choices — my children were allowed to decide on supplemental subjects, literature choices, etc.) Taking this to the extreme, I have met college-age students who still expected Mom and Dad to make all their decisions for them, simply because Mom and Dad always had, and therefore the students had no clue what they really wanted anyway. Tragic. And so preventable.

It is quite possible to give a child choices without completely manipulating his entire life. Once in a while, you will hold your breath (as I did) and pray silently while your teenager is deciding whether or not he really wants to go to a friend’s party. If the decision-making skills have been effectively passed on, you will see the same miracle take place before your eyes that I saw: my student reasoned aloud to us that this was a school night, he really didn’t care for the other people who would be attending, and he would rather invite his friend over another day for a worthy activity involving just the two of them. Then we calmly praised his decision as being the best choice in the situation and celebrated (again, silently; embarrassment = discouragement) as he exited the room.

Children who observe or participate in the family decision-making process will not only adapt more easily to the family’s choices, but will be better equipped to make their own good choices in life. Simple explanations of the criteria considered will help young children understand why specific choices were made. Older children may have valuable input to offer the family council, while still allowing the parents to maintain the seat of authority. Children who are not given reasons why a specific decision was made will not have a clear view of the Big Picture and will be more likely to rebel against that ruling. Children who grow up learning to make their own decisions on increasingly important issues will be well equipped to handle life on their own as confident young adults.

Filed Under: Family Unity, Homeschool How-To's

Rainy Day — A Post-Homeschooling Perspective

March 18, 2005 by Leave a Comment

[This article was written by Jennifer Morrison.]

It is raining today. The type of rain that is so heavy that when a drop hits your nose, and they frequently do, it is heavy, and bounces all over. The water quickly soaks your pants as you briskly walk to the car, but you do not really mind because it is just warm enough to be ok. The cloud cover is heavy, and makes even the indoor lights seem dimmer.

I remember many such days like this from when I still attended public school. Everyone’s nerves were on edge because the weather was unpleasant, and recess was held indoors (in quarters that were way too close) instead of being able to go outside and run. I found myself hating the rain, and letting my mood become changed because of that awful, nasty rain.

Today however, when the first raindrops hit my face, I smiled. I saw how the rain was washing away all the salt from the winter road protection. I saw how God was giving the world a much-needed bath. I thought about how dehydrated I get in the dry environment that I work at, and how the earth was getting a much needed drink. As I thought more and more about the rain, my only depression came from the thought that I was being kept indoors for work, and that I could not go play in the gutters, racing sailboats with my brother, or just running through the mud with my dog (who, believe me, loves mud!).

When we homeschooled, we were encouraged to enjoy the rain, we took naps, or read a book to the calmness of the rain. I learned of God’s beauty, and find myself now thinking about HIS plan before complaining about things. Imagine how I could have let a perfectly good rain ruin my day simply because of how it used to make everyone at school cranky. Instead I can see God’s perfection, His provision, and His love, and I smile with every raindrop that hits me, and laugh as my pants get soaked.

Maybe it’s silly, but sometimes I think a good soak in the rain feels like a big wet hug from that friend who just came off of a water ride or out of the pool and grabs you, to make sure you get soaked too, and you both laugh.

Filed Under: Encouragement for Parents, Homeschool v. Public School

Time for Kindergarten Round-Up?

March 16, 2005 by Leave a Comment

Time has flown by — it seems as if just a few months ago you were teaching your baby to walk and to talk. How can it be time for your little one to go to Kindergarten Round-Up already? Now you have more worries on your mind than just childproofing the kitchen cabinets. You have heard rumors of how bad the public schools have become — but does that include your district? You might know someone who homeschools their children, but you have never seriously considered it yourself… until now.

Will it really hurt to send Little One to Kindergarten? How much harm could be done in just one year? You had thought about having a little more time to yourself once Little One went off to school. You could look into the Christian school… You have taught him to count to ten, and he knows most of his letters. Isn’t it harder to teach him to read?

There are many positive elements to keeping your precious Little One at home for school, and there are just as many negative elements to sending him off to the classroom. As harmless as Kindergarten may seem, it has probably changed a great deal since you last looked. You remember the bad attitudes that you or your classmates waited until Junior High or High School to pick up, but your child may meet them in the early elementary grades. You remember your sex education classes, but now they begin in Kindergarten and include instruction about AIDS. Public school teachers have less authority than ever to discipline unruly students, and new Zero Tolerance policies have nearly completed the transformation into one-size-fits-all institutions. Is that really where you want to send your Little One for the next 13 years?

Educating your children at home is not difficult. You can begin Kindergarten merely by reading storybooks together and continuing the many informal playtime activities that you and your child have enjoyed for the past few years. Teaching reading is simplified with a basic phonics program — starting with letter sounds, and then combining those sounds to make simple words. Arithmetic is much more difficult to spell than it is to teach. Counting and sorting, the basic steps to math, are easily accomplished with everything from building blocks to M & M candies.

Social interaction is much more easily taught without the roomful of competing students. You and your child can play board games and card games together — teaching your child the fine arts of patience, taking turns, and sportsmanship. You and your child will be able to continue spending the best hours of the day together, fresh and full of enthusiasm. You will be mentoring life skills while running errands or grocery shopping, preparing meals, and tidying up the house together. Your child will participate in life as it really happens, not just hear about it from the isolation of a classroom environment. Educating your children at home does not have to make tremendous changes to your everyday routine, but adapting your household to the rigid schedule of public school does require great dedication.

My own desires for personal time paled in comparison to the value of my children. Although my children did begin in public school, I have regretted that decision. Once my own stubborn mind recognized the benefits of homeschooling, we gladly left the government institution. The public school environment had caused major changes in my children’s attitudes. Homeschooling gave us a complete turn-around, back to the family-first values we held dear.

Homeschooling provides a high-quality, one-on-one education in the loving, safe, and fun environment of your home and family. More families begin homeschooling with each passing year, and there are more excellent materials to choose from each year. I encourage every family reading this to consider homeschooling before you send your precious offspring down the street to public school. Your children are much too valuable to leave to chance.

Filed Under: Deciding to Homeschool, Homeschool How-To's, Homeschool v. Public School, Preschoolers
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