We invited a group of friends over after church one afternoon in August. The after-lunch conversation turned to kids and school and the question was asked, "Do you get tired of teaching the same things to all of your kids?"
My simple answer is I don't teach everyone the same things. Obviously they all need to learn to add and they need American history, spelling, and basic science, but there is great variation in how we achieve that learning. It sounds selfish, but I do it for me. I choose to teach them things I want to learn about, too, with books that look interesting to me! When we circle back around to an era in history I covered years ago with the older kids, I choose different library books to read and new ways to explore the subject. In this way, we've covered astronomy, composers, nature study, ancient history, poetry, geography, grammar, missionary stories, hygiene, drawing, fractions. cooking, typing, creative writing, sewing, and the list goes on.
My simple answer is I don't teach everyone the same things. Obviously they all need to learn to add and they need American history, spelling, and basic science, but there is great variation in how we achieve that learning. It sounds selfish, but I do it for me. I choose to teach them things I want to learn about, too, with books that look interesting to me! When we circle back around to an era in history I covered years ago with the older kids, I choose different library books to read and new ways to explore the subject. In this way, we've covered astronomy, composers, nature study, ancient history, poetry, geography, grammar, missionary stories, hygiene, drawing, fractions. cooking, typing, creative writing, sewing, and the list goes on.
If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know we read a lot. One of my favorite things we're doing this year is purposing to read 10 minutes a day for fun. This doesn't include what we're reading for history, Bible study or our own personal reading. This special 10 minutes is my chance to share a book I want to read with my kids... just because. I don't have to finish a chapter each session and I don't have to read seven days a week, but I can almost always eek out 10 minutes. Right now we're working our way through Little House on the Prairie and plan to keep going until we finish the series. Do you know I've never read past the third book with any of my kids?!
Learning is a lifelong pursuit so why not make it a pleasure for everyone-- including, maybe especially, the teacher?
Whether you homeschool or not, do you get tired of teaching your kids the same things over and over?
How do you choose what to teach?
What are some things you want to learn with your children?
How do you choose what to teach?
What are some things you want to learn with your children?
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