School Talk

It's that time of year again!  The time when I look at the calendar and think, "School will be starting soon, I'd better get myself in gear and ready for this year!"  I spent some time yesterday thinking, planning, dreaming for this school year.  This is a new step for me as Abby will be starting Kindergarten this year.  I will have to learn how to teach three kids at very different academic levels.  There have been many before me and going along with me who have successfully taught three and MORE children at the same time.  I decided to take this opportunity of a new adventure and change how I do school.  In previous years, I had us doing our "core" curriculum first and then doing the "fun, elective" type stuff after we completed the core stuff.  What usually ended up happening is after a month or so of sticking to the schedule, I would lose energy and end up dropping the fun stuff so we could just get done.  I always felt so guilty about it, but my time and energy just couldn't handle it.  This year I knew a change needed to happen.  I'm still working on logistics, but I think we will start our day off in the group setting fun classes taking a different subject each day to do things like art, science, history, music, PE before heading into separate classes.  I'm also going to be pushing and prodding David especially, and Ana somewhat to be more self-directed.  I will have their assignments for the week of what needs to get accomplished and let them work on what subject they want as long as they complete it by the end of the week.  In my new schedule, I have set aside time to work with each kid one on one to help with problems and questions they are having.  In our old schedule, I mapped out when they would do what subject at what time (like a real school does).  It worked okay, but I found myself being pulled from one kid to another as each had questions over certain things in each subject.  I felt like I was being pulled in too many directions at once and unable to stick to our schedule.  With our new schedule, the kids will work on their own and if they have a problem or question, they can save it until they get to their one on one time with me. So I am happy about this new concept and eager to test it out.  It feels more relaxed and flexible and a little more like my personality.  It allows room to change without me feeling like I'm failing for not sticking to a schedule.

As of today, I have 24 more days until school starts.  I still have lots of planning to do and final summer cleaning to do.  But now I feel a little more ready with a new mindset and a refreshed spirit. I'm looking forward to facing this new challenge and pray daily for the strength and grace to do it well according to MY ability, not some super high unattainable standard I think is ideal.  This is a year to accept the grace of God while I school my children.