Teacher Tuesday

Okay I know it is summer but I have been thinking through what I want to do in the Fall. With the help of my dear sister I think I have it figured out. I am amazed at the many good options out there to use in homeschooling. It is actually overwhelming. I am going to use my sister’s curriculum from last year on Countries and Cultures from My Father’s world. I thought it fit our family since it has a strong emphasis on missions and it might help for all of us to have a better sense of our world before heading out into it. My sister also helped me out with some grammar stuff which was nice and then I am going to use Singapore Math again. It worked well before and I decided to stick with what I know.

One of the challenges for next year is to really find out where my kids are at in each subject mostly math. For my daughter, I don’t want to overwhelm her with something too hard so I am reminded of the phrase slow and steady. I would say that is one of the hardest things as a teacher. If a student thinks a subject is too hard or that they won’t get it, he or she will often shut down. In the public school classroom, I would see this time and again. Sometimes it was too hard for them and sometimes it was all in their head. Either way no learning was taking place. There is the other side I faced at the same time, it was too easy for other students and they were bored and uninterested. Then when a challenge did come up, they didn’t quite know how to handle it since learning had been easy so far. The nice thing about homeschooling is that you can better gauge how much to challenge your student without discouraging them.

Dear God, Thank you for your provision of school materials for my kids next year. Guide us as we plan for a new year. Give me wisdom on how best to deal with each of my children in their learning and most of all let our learning glorify you. Amen