"Ordinary Time" Guest Blogger....
Sometimes teaching one’s children at home leads to the saying of things that seem rather ridiculous. Over the past 24 hours, I have found myself forbidding, yes, forbidding, various children to stop doing math and to stop trying to read. To explain, I need to back up a bit.
I can be a tad bit very compulsive. If I start in on a project, I tend to want to work on it obsessively until I either complete it or I run out of steam. This can drive my family to distraction since when in one of these phases I can often focus on little else. It shouldn’t be a surprise then, when my children demonstrate the same tendencies.
In the past few days, since returning from our camping trip, there has been a frenzy of academic work going on around here. This has been entirely child motivated. While we ‘do’ school year ‘round, I am pretty relaxed in the summer, and I am definitely still in summer mode. Not so my children. They evidently feel the need to prepare for the coming academic year: two daughters by working until they drop so they can start the next math book and one son by being able to read chapter books unassisted.
This is why I found myself this morning, before even being dressed or having the requisite cups of coffee, being followed by a string of children all begging for my assistance. “How do I do this math problem?” “What does s-u-r-e spell?” “How many problems should I do on this page?” “What does w-h-i-s-t-l-e spell?” “I forgot how to add fractions, how do I do it?” “What does t-h-r-o-u-g-h spell?” To write it out, it seems somewhat civilized, but you have to imagine hearing multiple questions all at once. It could also not be escaped. Moving to a different room only meant the cacophony followed along.
By the time lunch rolled around, fatigue (the children’s, not mine) was starting to take its toll. There were tears over fractions and tears over big words that my son was sure he would never be able to learn to read. I had to put a stop to it all; their brains were full. Food and rest were what was needed. This is when I found myself forbidding math and reading to be worked on. No one could take anymore (and here I include myself).
But this is what I love about homeschooling. My children are free to learn how they learn best. If my son learns to read by immersing himself in books for hours at a time, he can. My daughter can work as far ahead in her math book as she desires. And it also allows us the freedom to pay attention to our emotions. Sometimes our brains do the best learning when doing something else. After filling them up, time is needed to process what has been put in. We can take a three hour recess if we need to. And sometimes we really need to.
~"E."
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