Today was one of those 'humble yourself and apologize' days. This is my second year officially homeschooling the kids and I'm still learning as I go!! Our daughter's hardest subject is Math. She seems to struggle with it alot and it is her least favorite subject. Today I figured out why!
I was contemplating switching math curriculum to something else....currently we are using Singapore Math. Our daughter is a very bright 6 1/2 year old. She should have finished up her Kindergarten year in public school but she is already in Grade 2. She is doing wonderful in all areas, even Math, but seems to have a tough time grasping some concepts and making them stick! I found some placements tests online and I soon realized that I am teaching her Math at the Grade 3 level......aaahhhh. I feel like I've been pushing this poor girl to excel at a level that is far above what she needs to be doing. I am realizing.....SLOWLY....that if a child does not catch on right away, don't panic! don't fuss!....It will eventually sink in at some point. Just skip over that part and come back at a later time.....it's o.k. if they don't catch on to EVERYTHING quickly!! I think I still have a tiny bit of me that feels like our children's education is a reflection of me.....of how well I can teach them. I want homeschooling to be relaxing and fun, an environment where they feel safe to excel in areas they love and to learn at their own pace in areas that need more work. It's a tough job!!! I also want to progress to a stage where I can have all the kids at the table at the same time teaching instead of having to spend so much individualize time. I think the smaller kids will learn a great deal from this method, and the bigger kids will learn about helping younger ones grow and learn.
So today I had a chat with our daughter....to let her know that we are going to slow down, make sure she understands that she can talk to me about how she feels when she gets overwhelmed, to let her know how very proud I am of all her accomplishments, and to tell her I think it's time for a mother/daughter outing again!!!! She liked that :)
This has nothing to do with your subject,but I thought you would like to know that Sarah(Sweetzir)had a baby girl approx. 2 wks.ago. Eva Faith.Alanna and I were at her shower tonight.
ReplyDeleteShe is a very smart girl and we are so very proud of her!!! BTW, I remember feeling the same way when I homeschooled and worried about if they were learning like they should. It was mainly because of the District School Board who had pressured us after taking the kids out of the Public School. Those were the days! :) Thankfully, the Lord helped us through. Now that I look back, it was a real blessing to be able to homeschool those three years, even though we had our moments. :) You're doing great with teaching the two of them! That is very evident!!! We're proud of all of you!
ReplyDeleteSmart idea to relax a bit. Andrew is also around gr 3 in some of his math stuff (which is why we burst out laughing when his kindergarten sent math home and the comment, "can do addition and subtraction up to ten without assistance" including little pictures to help)... and we are realizing we need to relax a bit and just encourage and help him. congrats on ben getting a bit of work. talk to you soon.
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