The comments my children make about education are quite indicative of the changes I have gone through as a teacher over the last three and a half years educating my children at home. Mouse, my eldest, has received the most attention in these entries thus far because, well, she is the eldest. She does more. My planning is focused on her and we just adapt to the others. And this is what she has had to say about homeschooling in the past:
I hate school!
Why do I have to do this?
I don’t like school!
School is boring!
I hate school!
It is enough to make a mother cry. When I got over the emotional reaction from hearing those dreadful words, I asked her about it. “I don’t like copy work,” she answered. “Or spelling.” Probing further, I asked her about the things we were working on in science. In math. In reading. In history. In art. In geography. In Latin. In German.
She looked at me slightly bewildered. And it began to dawn on me that in reality, she hated copy work and spelling. To her, that is what school was. Everything else was just life. The problem was that this is what school was to me when we first started and the poor child suffered under the tyranny of a maniacal mother bent on making her kindergartener copy paragraphs she couldn’t even read “for the mental discipline.” She had to sit in a hard desk and not fidget, raise her hand to use the restroom, and practice handwriting until she cried.
Fortunately, I realized what I was doing and finally took a generous dose of that chill pill Christine at Welcome to My Brain is passing out. But that was her introduction to school, and that has stuck with her just enough that she drags her feet getting started in the morning. Once we start, however, her natural effervescent personality takes over and it is obvious she is enjoying what she is doing.
Bear, on the other hand, knows nothing of this. He only knows that Mouse gets to do really cool things like make layered models of the earth out of play dough and then squish them together to simulate earthquakes, wade in the lake skimming the surface with a net looking for water bugs and read, read, read. Naturally, he is right there in the middle of all of it and learning more than even I realized. He has never really said anything about home education, because he really doesn’t seem to know that is what we are doing. Instead, when he is bored, he comes to me and says things like,
Mom, can’t we do math?
And I say things like,
As soon as you pick up your toys.
And he flies to pick them up.
Bug is getting an even earlier start than the other two. Because she does not realize she is only two and should be happily playing with her blocks and her dolls. Her brother is busy gluing beans to a number three, so she wants to glue beans to a number three. He is tracing the letter “h,” so she wants to trace the letter “h.” He and mouse are learning about what baleen is, so she is right there in my lap looking at the pictures and listening to the explanations.
So in the morning, when I say it is time to start, Mouse’s shoulders drop slightly while Bug shouts,
Great idea!
And Bear scurries to get supplies. Oh…and L. E. Fant does her best to distract either through eating their supplies, or through general cuteness. She doesn’t really understand why mom doesn’t ever give her the crayons and pencils.
Activity: Write a mini-book. There are several templates to choose from there to include in your “teacher bag of tricks,” or you can certainly use your own!
Are you sharing a bit of your children’s perspective of home education for Home Education Week? Leave the link to your post here, and be sure to link to this post to share all the wonderful experiences others have chosen to share with your readers as well. I am looking forward to getting to know you all a little better this week!
Welcome to Roscommon Acres, my little home in the country. I write here about life more abundantly, from the joy of a baby’s smile to the almost unbearable grief of losing a son. I am seeking beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair (Isaiah 61:3).
Just place "Tiggy" in the subject line.
Loved seeing each of your kids’ points of view.
I really enjoyed this post, Dana!
That was nice…thanks!
My oldest “hates” school, too…but, she LOVES to learn.
My middle child likes school, a lot – - so he has continued in PS.
My youngest doesn’t like “copy work” either.
Anyway, thanks for sharing!!
I loved the photos in this post. Yes. Each child does see homeschooling differently. I made most of my major homeschooling mistakes on the oldest two. My youngest doesn’t even realize how much she is learning. I’ve relaxed a lot with her schooling, because she learns so much from the older kids.
Great post Dana. I love that you showed us the whole picture.
Even though your daughter hates spelling and copywork, it certainly seems that she has a love for learning – that is a wonderful thing.
Thank again for hosting this, it has been a lot of fun.
Stacy
Great job. I sometimes feel sorry for my oldest too. They have to put up with so much from us sometimes as we learn how to do these two things: being Mommy and teacher.
I love it! I just recently convinced my kids that what we were doing was actually school–they were having fun all day and giving their father blank stares when he asked them what they did for school! Isn’t homeschooling the best?
When I was reading your thoughts on copy work and spelling, I was reminded of my reaction to something I learned at a Writing Road To Reading conference. Apparently, Ramona Spalding (the creator of WRTR) had her school kids do language arts for 3 hours a day. I thought, but did not say, “No way am I doing that.”
The photos of your kids are wonderful. It is nice getting to know them. And, I agree Mouse; history, reading, art aren’t really school. Those subjects are fun. I could do those all day.
I love your comments about Bear’s attitude toward school! It’s so neat to see that the younger ones love to do what the older ones do and are learning in the process.
This one was fun. I guess because I didn’t really have to do anything. My girls loved taking over and being able to type anything they wanted. Thanks.
Awww, I love each of their perspectives.
This is great. My son’s handwriting has gotten worse, with more copywork, because it is tedious for his high gear brain. He’d rather be learning something new than dwelling on it. So I gave up on the handwriting lessons after they learned to form their letters. Now if I can’t read something, I mark it wrong and that does a better job of getting their attention about neatness. When dd started kinder, I imagined younger brother having lots of free time to play, but he felt left out if he didn’t do every single thing she did. Also they take a long time with their school work. They are in no rush to hurry up to do something non-school related. I think they enjoy school more than they realize. Hmmmm. I could really relate to your entire post! =)
Blessings,
Laurie
My oldest feels the same way about traditional school–which is one of the reasons why we quit doing it that way. HEr attitude was makign it hard for her brother and sister to enjoy learning and killing her own joy of anything educational. When we quit calling it school and let them learn what they wanted to learn when they wanted to learn all of a sudden she was doing all sorts of projects and educational activities at every turn and her brother and sister were learning as well–Esther by reading everything she sees and Issac by getting out his good old fashioned school books and “doing school”. Go figure. Now Rachel writes on her own and when she realizes that she can’t read her own writing she goes back and does it again until she can read it (she has beautiful hand writing when she wants to but has a rough time with spelling.)
It seems we make more ‘mistakes’ with our oldest child, as we don’t have experience yet. The younger child benefits from what we’ve learned, and they also learn so much from the older sibling. Thanks for sharing your children’s stories.
Is it just me, or is one of the things that is great about home education the honesty with which we and our kids approach learning?
Thank you, everyone, and I have enjoyed getting to know you and your families a little more this week as well!
Sunniemom, yes, I think so, too.
Oh…and that last picture always cracks me up. The kids are always dressing her in something. She is like a living baby doll. But she giggles and coos and is quite content to be the center of their games.
There is no sadder sound in this house than when they rush off to the play room with her crawling along behind and then they close the door. She paws at it with her bottom lip quivering just before she breaks into a forlorn little cry that no amount of cuddling from mom can fix.
Hating school but loving to learn… sounds about right!
Thanks for the activity link, too!
I think I am going to go ahead and post my post for tomorrow today. I will wait and link to it tomorrow though. I have enjoyed having these prompts this week to respond to. The writing has always taken on a life of its own once I sit down and start to respond. Fun!
This was a fun one to do. My kids enjoyed being interviewed! Thanks for hosting such an awesome week!
Oh, I’m so glad I’m not the only one with a homeschooler who says they hate it etc! Mind you it hasn’t clicked that music is *school* too! lol.
PS I made a mistake with my url when I linked ~ don’t know if it matters or if you can fix it. It should be GaneidasNest.blogspot.com not @ as if I were emailing myself. Big week, dysfunctional brain. Sorry.
All fixed.
I have definitely made most of my mistakes with my oldest; he has truly been a homeschool guinea pig. It sounds like you got over it pretty quickly, though.
You have beautiful children!
~Andrea
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/andijeane/510707/
My son says the same things as your daughter, except he asks, “Are you going to force me?” Yeah, we’ve talked a bit about external government.
He is growing though. I was going to interview for this post. When I asked him what education was, he said, “It’s learning.” I followed with, “When do we learn?” “All of our lives,” was his quick reply. I guess some seeds have been planted.
I just wish I didn’t push so hard the first couple years. Many days were full of tears. Letting him wiggle has helped tremendously.
This comment may have to suffice for my post. I may write it later, but I didn’t get a chance today. I feel asleep with Sunshine. That was nice.
Thanks so much for hosting this. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ll try to do the final post, since it’s something I’ve been thinking about recently.
Renae, you are welcome to add in your post any time…but don’t sweat it. Those naps are way more important!
So right. They “hate school” but they love learning the things they enjoy – so they don’t see them as “school.” Dd16 balks at any assigned reading project that isn’t on her favorite topic, and drags it out far longer than it needs to take, because “it’s just too much”. Yet, is usually found hiding out in her room reading – most of the time books that will be on her reading list in the future. (Now if she’d just get those other few on her finished list, before they show up on my list given to her.