From Summer Days, to School Daze….

It’s now August, I don’t care what part of the country you are in, you have now seen at least some of your usual summer weather. I know we have, summer arrived later than usual in the heat department this year… but now that it’s here- IT’s HOT!! I think that most people would agree that 104 qualifies as hot. With the heat comes the AC running, and the kids running… in and out, in and out… of course causing the AC to have to run even more. I think that when I was growing up this was about the time that parents really began to think about back to school time, and the peace and quiet that came with it, since I was the youngest of 5.

I know that kids have an sense of the fast approaching arrival of the school year, how could they help it? July 5th starts the begining of “Back to School” in the marketing industry even though most students have been out of school less than a month at that point. At this point most kids are pondering the upcoming year with one of two thought lines… 1) Yeah! New clothes, friends and ’stuff’ to do. — or– 2) Ugh, school, books, homework and social ladders. There are a few that come up with the healthy balance of 1 and 2 early on, and the rest resolve it by that lovely start date sometime the week following Labor Day.

I remember Labor Day weekends as a child, that was truly the signal that school was upon us, time spent at a family friends house; Burgers on the Bar-B-Que, swimming in the pool, playing in the barn, and when we went in the house… the Jerry Lewis Telethon, during the local segments I would occasionally see my friends come on making a donation and subsequent challenge to other friends. Of course those are the moments that the typical girl at least thinks of one thing… what will I wear the first day of class?!?!?

My memories of summers end were similar to those my children had and yet at the same time very different. You see as my children grew, I moved them out of the public school system and we joined with a lot of others and made the journey into homeschooling. A choice that on some days I wondered why I made it, and yet at the same time, absolutely sure of why I did. Was it easy? NO. Why would I make such a choice for my children, simple, I felt that it was the direction that the Lord was calling and that gave me the courage to make the move. I also know from my own experience that not every child learns well in a classroom situation, some children just aren’t wired for a primarily visual based learning environment, I know I wasn’t.

I did research early and began to understand learning styles, this was the best thing I could ever have done for my children… especially since all 4 learned very differently. Let me state here, I was a very eclectic homeschooling parent, mingling curriculum from various companies and drawing on life itself for learning opportunities. What follows were my discoveries as I entered into homeschool and what came following.

• My oldest was way too easy in schooling, she loved everything about learning. She began to read at 4, disliked summer break when she was in elementary school and by the time I began our homeschool adventure she was in Junior High and a self led learner. She is now a wife and mother to 2 adorable children ages 2 and 7 months, has her Associates in Theology and is employed successfully in the banking industry.
• My oldest son was just as smart, however, he didn’t want to learn from a book or be told what to do, he was best left to discover and in many ways that is how his education was structured. He was required to cover the basics in a semi-formal fashion (He’ll admit I made him do Algebra 3 times. Not because he couldn’t pass… simply because I wanted him to show his work, not do it in his head, that way he would learn to see his mistake when he was incorrect.) Science however we took a different approach, he was active in scouting and he covered about 90% of basic sciences on his way to his Eagle Scout. I did make him read his high school science books but the application of it that he got in scouts was far better for him in the true learning of the subject. He learned a “can do” attitude that has carried him into adult life. He is now a SSgt in the USAF, his reviews are always at the top of the charts, and he is currently working toward his Bachelor’s degree.
• My third child in many ways was my greatest challenge and greatest joy in homeschooling. She was going into 3rd grade when I pulled her out of the system, a system that I later found out was failing her miserably. She had been given the benefit of a private kindergarten that used ABEKA curriculum (one of the top curriculums bar none available today.) She entered 1st grade reading some, as a result she was overlooked by her teacher, in second grade, I would question her teacher on how she was doing, just as I had with my older children, and they would say, “fine” or she seems to be a little slow in her reading- surprise to me. At the start of the next year we had moved to a new district and I had made my decision to homeschool so I wanted a copy of each of the kids testing results from the previous year… I was shocked, her scores in reading hadn’t changed since Kindergarten, I was devastated that I had let her down. She looked up at me with great big sweet innocent eyes and said, “It’s okay mommy, they didn’t tell you that I went to Chapter 1 part of the time.” Again SHOCK! This is the program for slow readers, they aren’t even supposed to go with out parental consent and an IEP (individualized education plan.) Over the course of that fall as I read with her and had her writing for me, I began to realize something, it appeared to me that my daughter was dyslexic and hadn’t been identified because she had started ahead and her initial reading education was phonics based, but after 2 years of whole language and the guess and move on approach her skills had tanked. I went into the local school, where I happened to know the principal and I set up an meeting with the reading specialist. I brought my child and samples of her writing. At the end of the meeting two things were confirmed, my evaluation and my determination. Through out her grade school years I forced her to sound out every single word, she could not continue until she had the right word, not just a guess and go. However I can say once again… It was soooo worth it!!! She graduated at barely 17, and received her Bachelor’s in Theology in 3 years time, with an ‘A’ average.
• My youngest has been out of school a year now, and he was a blending of the oldest two of my children, learning came fast and easy and he was enthusiastic about it… until about 6th grade….. Then he became stubborn and belligerent about getting his work done, not that he couldn’t do it, he just didn’t want to take the time to do it. I am thankful that a learning center opened up during his high school years that allowed him to go to class 3.5 hours a day for 2-3 days a week and I just had to get on him to get the assignments done… otherwise, I might have throttled him.  He is now formulating his plan to begin classes this winter and work toward a teaching degree along with taking some Japanese classes, he wants to eventually apply to join a teacher exchange program he has been researching on the internet.

As I look back on the daze of homeschooling my children I know this, I took a quote to heart in my early research about homeschool. “If you teach a child to love learning  you will have a life long learner.” ~Cathy Duffy

I believe that as I ponder the last 14 years of my life, I succeeded in my goal. I raised children that love God first, and all still continue to learn all the time.

As I close let me leave you with this… whatever your educational choice for your child, be involved in the process, be aware of their lives, and be their parent not their friend, there is time for that when they are grown. And if you do the first part right, they become people that you want as friends.

Blessings, PrarieMouse

Tags: Education, Gals

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 - 10:20 AM
Category: Life/Living/People.

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