Pretty much Ezra's favorite time of the day is when his best buddies get home from school.
He asks me 78 times a day, "Is it time for da kids to get off da bus?"
They are gone, at school, for SEVEN HOURS every day, M-F! What in the world do they do during all that time? When I ask them what they did at school that day they say, "nothing", or "[so-and-so] gave me some [something or other] during lunch," or "we played Midnight during recess." Typical responses, I'm sure, but this mama needs more information.
Our school is great. I'm sure that they are in great hands, but if it did ever close down (like it was threatened in the past), I think I'd totally jump in with the whole homeschooling thing. Wouldn't it be awesome to school them like this:
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The whole world is your classroom idea? (Or, at least, the whole ranch in our case.)
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(Reading David Macauly's The NEW Way Things Work. He has checked out The Way Things Work (the older edition) from the library at least 15 times.) |
Okay, so until it got cold it would be awesome. Then it would be awesome to be inside our cozy home by the cozy fire.
If we did ever homeschool, I would do a lot of what she does. I think that she is awesome, even though I don't know her. (She is where I got the idea for the whole old-school desk in the field thing.) I found her blog when I googled Susan Wise Bauer like a year ago. Susan Wise Bauer and her mother, Jessie Wise, wrote The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. I LOVE this book. I have referred to it a million times since Spencer was a toddler. (Thanks, Wendy, for giving it to me.) I would do pretty much everything that the Wise women say, plus some. I have a few of their other books (this one, this one , this one, and this one) and have been supplementing with them a bit. I love playing teacher. I love knowing what my children are learning.
Wouldn't it be fun? And wouldn't it put my organizational skills (or lack thereof) and patience to the ultimate test? Yes and yes.
I told Spencer that when it's time for him to go to middle school I am going to homeschool him. I don't like the idea of sending him on an hour bus ride (each way) with other middle school and high school kids, especially in the winter time on snowy, icy back roads with steep sides and along the reservoir - EEK! And sendng him to a school that I am really not a fan of? No thanks. Our school district is, to put it nicely, not the best around. Our school, thankfully, is somewhat independent of our school district due to the fact that our teacher is a multi-grade level teacher.
His response to my offer of homeschooling him: "No way. I want to meet new friends!"
I love his little social self. I guess that we'll have to wait and see what we are all feeling when he is in 6th grade.
Going to school, homeschooling, supplementing...
...whatever it may be, I feel so blessed to be my children's number one teacher everyday in so many ways.
I hope that I am teaching them the things that the Lord wants me to teach them.
5 comments:
I like the picture of Ezra looking at the bus and the bus is in the rearview mirror.
I also like the last pic of Spenc. He looks so grown up and handsome!
Speaking of being the teacher, I am about to sit down and do a gazzilion pages of homework with the kids.
Jamee
xoxo
Hey that was a creative pic of Ezra with the school bus...nice!
AHHH, the homeschool debate.....I have thought about it too. Kyle is going to middle school NEXT YEAR and I thought seriously about it again just a few weeks ago. The latest trend in homeschooling around here lately are internet curriculum home schools. Like connections academy, k12, beacon academy, and a few others. I am hearing of them more and more lately. I have a few friends that home school in middle school, just to avoid the huge shock of it all.
Its a lot of work to home school (you make it look way cute with the desk outside and all that) and there is the extra effort needed for their socialization. However, for farm work, it would be nice to have Kyle around more....
but I think we are going to send him. I think he will be ok, but I will be having a lot of open talks with him about issues he faces or has to witness in that great and spacious building called middle school!
i'd be all over school if the outdoors were my classroom!!
and if our wonderful school closes, too, then i'd be on with the homeschooling thing, too.
but i pray it never closes. yours too.
Those photos are rad! And your kids are so lucky to call you Mom. Seriously. I hope they know that.
Ditto with everyone else on the coolness of the photo with the bus in the rearview mirror. Ezra's got a cute profile, too.
Homeschooling. I love the idea in theory, but I don't think I'd have the patience for it either. There are a couple of families in our ward (they average 6-7 kids each) that homeschool and I stand in awe of them. I like to think that I will just be a very involved parent at my kids' school, and like you, just teach them a ton at home, too. The elementary school that I worked at before having Belén has since turned into a bilingual school that teaches Mandarin Chinese. I think it'd be awesome to send her there. Definitely can't teach her Chinese in homeschooling.
If you did homeschool, you'd so be the long lost sister of the Pioneer Woman, you realize.
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