I havnt felt so relieved to be on holidays for quite a while! I do always like holidays though.
I put the kids through some testing on Friday our last day. I used some recommended books I had read about and I will continue the testing next term. The idea is, if they get 80% or above, they are fine to move ahead. If not, they need to have a look at what they need to go over. Genevieve so far is well over 80% and so is Daniel, although Daniel flunked one page because he is weak on Vocabulary. Jared is between 70 and 80% so far. His weakness seems to be translating what he has learned in Maths into a different context. He has been doing Singapore maths- but these questions looked nothing like Singapore maths questions, and he couldn't do some of them- well, he could have if he couldn have worked out what they were asking.
So, so far so good, the testing is helping me get a better feel for where the kids are at in a particular way. Sometimes homeschooling feels like I am operating in the dark- I just dont know how well my kids are doing- or not.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Latest thoughts
I seem to have been suffering from burnout for most of this year, to some extent. I still feel enthusiastic about homeschooling, but when I get to the schoolroom, I have little inclination to teach anything- I just want them to get on with it. I have even dropped off the read alouds lately. I have been having health issues. I had whiplash for 6 months. That seems to have finally gone although there is a slight issue there. Mostly, i have just been exhausted. I had a wonderful trip east to see my family. My life is going well. Marriage is good. Lots of love in my life.
Who knows how long this feeling of flatness will last. Lately, in thinking about things, and researching our next program for highschool maths, I have been going through a radical rethink of everything. I really want the kids to be more independent, and I want to use more Australian materials. I am feeling the need of a little more security that my kids would be ok if they had to go back to school, and I want to feel not just that they are getting a good education, but that they could actually cope with the local system as well (which is not necessarily the same thing, I realise).
The sequencing of Maths and Science is so different in the U.S. to here in Australia. I think it would be better to stay in alignment with the Australian system, and keep that as my foundation. We can always add to it. We can always use Classical methods. But I would like the content to be more relevent to and congruent with Australian systems.
Since I also want them to be more independent, I am looking at using workbooks as spines, and also making use of a local correspondence school for homeschoolers. We would continue with Latin.
We will see. I have months to work this out, before our new year in February. I just know I need to change my approach somewhat to get the kids to be more independent, so that they can just get on with their work if I need to do somethng else- or nothing, as the case may be. Perhaps we need a year of workbooks then I will be ready to be more 'the teacher' again. I dont know.
Its strange to have such a hange of heart about it all. I still love it, but i dont care if its Classical or anything right now. I just want them to get a good grounding, and I am concerned that with all the high ideals, I have inadvertantly left some gaps-probably not serious, but I dont know. Before we go any further, i want to consolidate.
Who knows how long this feeling of flatness will last. Lately, in thinking about things, and researching our next program for highschool maths, I have been going through a radical rethink of everything. I really want the kids to be more independent, and I want to use more Australian materials. I am feeling the need of a little more security that my kids would be ok if they had to go back to school, and I want to feel not just that they are getting a good education, but that they could actually cope with the local system as well (which is not necessarily the same thing, I realise).
The sequencing of Maths and Science is so different in the U.S. to here in Australia. I think it would be better to stay in alignment with the Australian system, and keep that as my foundation. We can always add to it. We can always use Classical methods. But I would like the content to be more relevent to and congruent with Australian systems.
Since I also want them to be more independent, I am looking at using workbooks as spines, and also making use of a local correspondence school for homeschoolers. We would continue with Latin.
We will see. I have months to work this out, before our new year in February. I just know I need to change my approach somewhat to get the kids to be more independent, so that they can just get on with their work if I need to do somethng else- or nothing, as the case may be. Perhaps we need a year of workbooks then I will be ready to be more 'the teacher' again. I dont know.
Its strange to have such a hange of heart about it all. I still love it, but i dont care if its Classical or anything right now. I just want them to get a good grounding, and I am concerned that with all the high ideals, I have inadvertantly left some gaps-probably not serious, but I dont know. Before we go any further, i want to consolidate.
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