Teacher Notes

This week has been very good.  I’m speaking after going to “Mom’s Night Out” last night with some other homeschooling moms.  I always feel refreshed after that.  They make me feel not-so-crazy.  It’s a good safe place to voice our fears, and say what’s on our minds without fear of judgment or misunderstanding.  It’s good to not journey alone.

I’m an impatient sort of teacher, and as I’m going through new curriculum choices for next year I usually can’t wait until “next year.”  For instance, I thought that this next year we could go through “Sequential Spelling” with the kids, as I feel like spelling is something I haven’t been consistent in teaching the kids.  I got one for each of them, and basically guessed at their levels.  So far the kids love it and ask to do it first thing in the morning.  It still has the “new” feeling so it’s the “cool” thing to do.

I like that not only are the kids learning how to spell, but they are learning new words as well.  I had an “aha” moment as I was reading the teacher notes in the book.  Basically, you’re supposed to have a “spelling test” every day with them, although with this test, they can correct themselves, and you can help them along.  The book said that there are assessment tests available in the book should we choose to use them.  However, it said that if you are working with the child one on one, assessment tests are normally not necessary because it’s pretty easy to put your finger on where the child is at without a test.  It’s when you’re giving a test to a big classroom that you need the assessment to figure out who is getting it and who is not.

This was an “aha” moment because I’ve read a lot of homeschooling materials saying that testing in elementary is not necessary.  (I’m not speaking of standardized testing, which in our state we do every year after the age of 7.)  I always thought that was some “free thinking” just let the child learn as they go, and it was frankly frightening to me.  This explanation makes sense to me.  I don’t need a test to tell me if they’re getting it if I’m right there seeing if they’re getting it.  Duh.

Silje has really been into history.  I’ve written before that I’ve switched our curriculum textbook of Child’s History of the World to Story of the World, and this year we are doing Vol. 2, which covers medieval times.  It is a series of 4 books or so, and you read one each year, in rotation.  In theory, by graduation the child has read through each book 3 times, each time going a bit deeper.

So last year when another homeschooling mom was unloading some used materials, and wanted to sell me Vol. 1, on ancient times, I bought it knowing we’d probably be circling back to that time in history in a few years.  We did ancient times last year, but using the other textbook.

Well, Silje found Vol. 1 on last year’s book shelf which she is allowed to read from whenever.  She’s been reading about 4 chapters a day and is loving it.  I teased her that she learned all that stuff last year, and she said, “Yes, but this has different parts of that time in history, and with the blue book (vol. 2) you only read 2 or 3 chapters a week.  I like to read lots of chapters, without stopping, and so I like this one better.”

I’m raising nerds.  This makes me both worry and beam with pride.

David is reading so well, but has very little confidence in the area.  He will say he can’t read something, but when I point to each word, he reads without stopping.  Like Silje used to, he often skips over words or says them out of order because his mind is going faster than his skill allows.  Pointing to each one helps.

Knut fixed our computer so that David can only access the chess game on it during the 2 hours of Elias and Solveig’s nap in the afternoon.  It’s been nice that I haven’t had to block him from that room throughout the day, because he would easily spend sun up to sun down playing that game if we were to allow it.  We want him to follow his bliss here, but we also need to enforce some balance.  I don’t believe it’s good for a 6 year old to be spending all day in front of a screen.  He gets somewhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours depending on how fast and how well he gets his chores done.  When he’s not playing chess, he’s talking about chess and strategies, and moves he’s made in the past.  All. the. time.  It’s very difficult these days to have a conversation with him when he doesn’t bring up chess.

Nerds I tell you.  I’m raising nerds.