Tomorrow begins our adventure as a homeschooling family! For the most part I'm extremely excited about this new adventure and extremely thankful and blessed that God has provided a way for us to even think about embarking upon it. But I'm also a bit nervous about the whole idea.
My own children, at 4 and 1 have had opportunities to learn throughout their whole lives. Hubby and I did what we could in the few short hours in the evenings and weekends we had with our kids. I was lucky to be a teacher and to get a bit more time to pour into my children. But the reality was that most of the waking hours our children had were with other people. They are great people and loved our children and poured into them with all they had. But they weren't us.
As we took advantage of the most amazing opportunity, and put into place a plan to bring me home full time with the kids, we started to be bombarded with articles and stories of our friends homeschooling. And as, for the first time in our lives, we began to dream about what life would look like if we lived it on our terms we began to realize that we wanted our children to be able to spend more equal amounts of time both here in the US and in hubby's homeland of New Zealand. And homeschooling began to make more and more sense for our journey through this world. And then it became part of our plan for our family's future.
The what to teach is the easiest part of it all! I taught elementary school for 7 years in both general and special education and worked as a teacher's aide and an ABA therapist across many ages for years before that. I understand how to teach skills and break them down and reinforcement and all the technical parts of teaching. I understand how to motivate kids and push them to be the best learners they can be (even if it doesn't always produce the outcome I think it will). But to date, it has always been other people's children that I have had the pleasure of teaching. And it's been other people who have been the one's pouring into my kids.
This summer as I was beginning to think about what our fall would look like, and savoring finally getting the opportunity to be the one to pour into our children all day long, I began to think about my own kids as learners and quickly realized that I was going to need to get to know them in this role if we were going to be successful at homeschooling. Since Hayden is still of preschool age and Alice is still quite little, I started searching for preschool opportunities.
A friend recommended the Bright Beginnings preschool curriculum. It provides learning opportunities for all major areas, including the Bible, and is super flexible with how you can use it. I read a bazillion reviews and the only negative one I came across was that it was two books instead of 1. So I decided to give it a go. I love the idea of having the "what" to teach all laid out and being able to adjust it to meet the needs of my kids. My focus this year is to really learn my kids as learners and get to know them in a way that makes me an effective teacher for them.
So wish me luck as I lead my family into this new adventure. The curriculum for tomorrow is pulled out, the kids are asleep and I'm signing off to hit the hay myself. Stand by by and keep reading for stories along this journey! And if you have some tips and suggestions I'm all ears/eyes. I'm going to be learning as much as my kids on this path and wouldn't have it any other way!
My own children, at 4 and 1 have had opportunities to learn throughout their whole lives. Hubby and I did what we could in the few short hours in the evenings and weekends we had with our kids. I was lucky to be a teacher and to get a bit more time to pour into my children. But the reality was that most of the waking hours our children had were with other people. They are great people and loved our children and poured into them with all they had. But they weren't us.
As we took advantage of the most amazing opportunity, and put into place a plan to bring me home full time with the kids, we started to be bombarded with articles and stories of our friends homeschooling. And as, for the first time in our lives, we began to dream about what life would look like if we lived it on our terms we began to realize that we wanted our children to be able to spend more equal amounts of time both here in the US and in hubby's homeland of New Zealand. And homeschooling began to make more and more sense for our journey through this world. And then it became part of our plan for our family's future.
The what to teach is the easiest part of it all! I taught elementary school for 7 years in both general and special education and worked as a teacher's aide and an ABA therapist across many ages for years before that. I understand how to teach skills and break them down and reinforcement and all the technical parts of teaching. I understand how to motivate kids and push them to be the best learners they can be (even if it doesn't always produce the outcome I think it will). But to date, it has always been other people's children that I have had the pleasure of teaching. And it's been other people who have been the one's pouring into my kids.
This summer as I was beginning to think about what our fall would look like, and savoring finally getting the opportunity to be the one to pour into our children all day long, I began to think about my own kids as learners and quickly realized that I was going to need to get to know them in this role if we were going to be successful at homeschooling. Since Hayden is still of preschool age and Alice is still quite little, I started searching for preschool opportunities.
A friend recommended the Bright Beginnings preschool curriculum. It provides learning opportunities for all major areas, including the Bible, and is super flexible with how you can use it. I read a bazillion reviews and the only negative one I came across was that it was two books instead of 1. So I decided to give it a go. I love the idea of having the "what" to teach all laid out and being able to adjust it to meet the needs of my kids. My focus this year is to really learn my kids as learners and get to know them in a way that makes me an effective teacher for them.
So wish me luck as I lead my family into this new adventure. The curriculum for tomorrow is pulled out, the kids are asleep and I'm signing off to hit the hay myself. Stand by by and keep reading for stories along this journey! And if you have some tips and suggestions I'm all ears/eyes. I'm going to be learning as much as my kids on this path and wouldn't have it any other way!
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