Sometimes I forget that that I have all the time I need to teach my kids.
The days fly by and year end is just around the corner. When I look at the calendar, I let the pressure to “finish” on time take away from the joy of teaching and learning.
I forget that we have the freedom to learn at our own pace. Why rush?
If my kids need help in an area of study, then we stop. We take a deep breathe, and we tackle it together.
The reality of stopping and taking extra time in one subject usually means that we push another subject to the side. Some days that freaks me out, and I begin to let the lesson plans (I wrote) put me in a tizzy.
Oh, no. We didn’t get to math today.
Crap. I’m behind on science.
But the truth is? We are on our own calendar! I forget that I’m the one who writes the lessons plans.
It doesn’t matter if everything in my plan book gets done as long my children learned that day, and more importantly, that they enjoyed doing it.
Some subjects need more attention than others on any given day. Last week, my youngest made it past the challenge of writing his first book report. It was a labor of love.
Right about the time he realized that you write your draft only to rewrite your final copy, he was…well, let’s just say it was a labor of love on both our parts.
Other things got pushed to the side at times last week, because there’s no bell here. There’s no pressure to speed it up and just get something down on paper.
There’s time to learn.
There’s time to turn something my son hates doing into something he looks forward to doing again.
There’s time to pick a different book when the one he chose first was too challenging to write a report about.
There’s time to take a stretch break. And another. And another.
There’s time to turn tears of frustration into smiles of pride.
There’s time to reach a milestone.
Our milestone last week was the very first of many book reports to come.
{Insert biased opinion} This just might be the best 2nd grade book report ever.
And? It should be. It took a long time.
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Aw, this was a honestly nice post. In concept I would like to put in writing like this in addition – taking time and actual effort to create a especially superior article?- but what can I say?- I procrastinate alot and by no indicates appear to get some thing completed.
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I am actually considering starting to homeschool soon and not sure what to expect. It’s nice to know that you can be flexible and take your time to teach your children until they have grasp it. And not just get pushed along with the system. Thanks for this great article.
Dannellys Rosario recently posted..How to get your kid to smile for pictures?
It really is nice to take the time when you need to.
I remember doing book reports at school if I liked the book it was good and easy to do when I found the book boring not so much…………I remember once writing a book report that said as much I was given a decent mark for it because I was honest……………well that is what the teacher said
Jo-Anne recently posted..Saturday Night I Was Left In The Dark
It’s great that you really have the ability to take the time your children need for their lessons.
The Dose of Reality recently posted..Oh, Honey…No! (aka The 10 Dumbest Purchases Ever Found On Pinterest)
It’s nice. We have a schedule, but sometimes it’s best to let the learning flow otherwise.
I’m afraid if I ever had a child and homeschooled him/her I would have a heart attack trying to stick with the schedule. That’s just my (very bad) Type A personality. And yet, I realize that’s one of the reasons why our public education system is failing some children. When they get stuck on something, the teacher can’t take the time to stop and work at it again and again until they grasp it. They just have to keep going.
Kristen recently posted..Multipronged approach
Yes, I’m very type A, and even though I’ve entertained the idea of year-round schooling, I love my summer breaks! But, it’s nice to remember that sometimes being able to learn freely is one of the reason I do this day in and day out. It’s hard to remind myself.
One of the many cool things about home schooling I have found is I don”t need to freak out if I don”t get everything done its ok .Yes I find it important to keep on schedule ,I feel as long as i am able to get all my lessons in by the end of the week I am doing fine.Sometimes I don”d do so well so what I do than is incorporate what I have missed in to the next weeks schedule .Yes I may be a bit of extra work but when i am able to spread it out all goes well.I agree the PS wants to cram a bunch of info into the children in a short period of time and not all kids can take it all in .I become flexible to my child if it is needed i spent extra time on certain areas ,and most lower grade grade curriculum I have found are not mastery .
Good Mama! I’m proud of you for remembering this and thanks for reminding the rest of us.
Blessings,
Shan
Shan recently posted..Super Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
Thanks, sweet girl!
We don’t home school, but I would probably feel like I needed to keep to our schedule, as well. Time has a way of slipping by – but it is good to be able to take some time to focus on what’s important at the moment, too. What a great book report!
Kim@Co-Pilot Mom recently posted..Slow Roasted Polyethelene
Time flies! And if we make a habit out of “free learning” than nothing would ever get done! But, it’s nice to have the freedom when/where we need it.
I’m glad you got your perspective back. We don’t home school, and I’m not sure if we will. But if we did, I can see very easily how trying to keep the schedule (and therefore making yourself crazy) can happen. What a sweet book report, the penmanship is amazing!
NJ @ A Cookie Before Dinner recently posted..Five Minute Friday- What Mama Did.
Me too! Perspective changes everything. Thanks on the penmanship. He worked really hard on that! 😉
Looks like a great report to me!!
I have allowed myself to be much more flexible this year, and I’ve found that we are actually getting more done a lot of days when the schedule gets thrown out of the window.
Tracie recently posted..What Does MT Mean On Twitter?
I could never totally throw out the lesson plans, but it is nice to embrace the freedom when I need to instead of worrying about what isn’t getting done. It will all get done eventually.