Our Homeschool Journey: Special Moments

A couple of weeks ago, I started reading a book that has changed a lot in how I teach. It is called, "Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit". I admit I put off reading it for a while, because when I had always thought of being meek in a negative way. However, when I started to look into it more, I discovered that while I had previously considered being meek a negative thing, I learned that instead it can be a positive thing, meaning that you are not easily provoked and according to the Wiki, "Meekness is an attribute of human nature and behavior that has been defined as an amalgam of righteousness, inner humility, and patience".

My desire is to teach my children with patience, love, and putting my whole heart into teaching. Sometimes I struggle to be patient when I have to remind someone to focus for the millionth time, or when I give instructions and as soon as I finished explaining what to do, I have someone say, what do I do here? I love learning, and I want to share that love with my kids. I loved reading as a child and want that for my kids too. To help foster that love, I need to have a lot of patience since all our kids have special needs.

So to help myself not get frustrated or discouraged when things take longer than I had planned or concepts are not easily learned, I try to focus on our successes and not get bogged down by struggles. It helps me when I remind myself of what makes homeschooling worth it.

So, what makes homeschooling worth it? Sometimes it is just those special moments and times, like when you are reading together and your child who is now 20 but was not even speaking at age 13 and you were told when you adopted her that she would never talk and certainly never read, and she sits there and reads several pages in a book, or when she is doing a crossword puzzles for her history words and she says, "Yes! I did it!!" Keeping in mind that we never even expected her to talk or read but we just kept at it and now..... now not only is she reading but SHE is excited and so proud of herself. I can not even begin to describe how wonderful it feels seeing her beam with pride as she reads something for the first time. Recently our son has just started to read with expression. I feel so blessed to be able to witness these leaps and growth.

But the reality is, that sometimes you do not see growth every day, not even every week or month. Sometimes, you sit and just wonder how long you should keep on trying to teach a concept. Do you give up because you have tried for years with no success? Or do you keep plugging away day after day trying again and again praying with your whole might that one day will be the day when they get it.

That is how I get stuck. Sometimes I would feel like we need to get a concept down that I do not want to move forward until it is learned. Yet, in a public/private school that would never happen because even if you don't get the concept the class continues to move forward. I always had thought one of the greatest things about homeschooling was you could spend longer on things until they were learned. I sometimes need to remind myself that this concept might be one that just isn't going to click now and we have to let it go for a while and maybe visit it at a later time rather than trying again and again.

You have those moments when you thought it would never click and after you let it go they suddenly get it and you end up cheering for all you are worth and you are so proud and your kids are so proud that you are almost crying tears of joy.

One of our kids has been struggling with vision issues and has now at age 10 been put into bifocals. The vision issues have made it hard for her to read words that in the past she read with ease and also given her struggles with her handwriting. We are working with a vision therapist to help her but also doing things at home that takes the pressure off writing so she can work on learning to spell her spelling words rather than focusing on trying to write the letters. We have made some adjustments like using a slant board, having her write on larger lined paper, and using letter tiles and letter rods to spell words. Doing those extra things has really helped her and she got an A on her last spelling test!

Working on spelling words. First she writes it down by looking at her word list, then she spells it with reading rods or tile letters. After she writes it she spells it out loud, and after she builds the word with the reading rods or letter tiles she will spell it out loud again.

This is what a typical school day looks like. Every night I load up a folder with the work the kids need to do that day and a paper so they can check things off as they do their work. We wake up and start all morning chores than head to class. Once they get to class they can take out their folder and get started on their work until we everyone is finished with their morning chores and we can start class and have breakfast. At our first break, we either sit outside in the lawn swing if the weather is nice, or cuddle up on the sofa it the weather is not good and each child takes a turn reading to me. While they are waiting for their turn to read, they have a snack and play break. After everyone has finished reading and finished their snacks we head back to class for writing and arithmetic. After math we take another break for lunch and outside time before we come back in to finish up with our last few classes. Each week we focus on a different virtue. We have worked on Responsibility, Diligence, Obedience, and this week is Self Control. We are at the start of the year so many things we are doing in math and phonics right now are review from last year. But in classes like history, writing, and spelling, we are learning new things every day. In history they are currently learning about different states and learning about the Colonists and Colonial life in America. Today they learned about different jobs a Colonist might have such as a joiner, cobbler, apothecary, blacksmith, and silversmith.

My husband built me a little desk and shelf for the corner of the classroom so I have a place to check work, grade tests, and work on things for the following day.

Our class library.

Each of the kids have a shelf with the things they need every day. The top shelves hold my thing and extra books. At the bottom are all the kids books that I pull out every night, tear out the pages they will be using that day and then I put them in their folders.