Teacher Notes

We’re back “in school” this week, and it’s been good for all of us!  There is something about the return to a routine that is comforting.

There have been a few adjustments.  The 2 kids with assignments have had the tendency to wander off.  I have an assignment list for each of them.  Typically, Silje starts on something she can do independently, while I work one on one with David.  Then I get David set up to do something independently while I work with Silje.  It goes back and forth like that all morning.  However, whenever there is a return from vacation, the kids tend to wander off.  They finish their independent work, and instead of moving onto the next thing on their list, or asking me for help for something else, they just wander off.  I’ll finish working with David, and find Silje reading up in her room.  I’ll finish working with Silje, and find David watching t.v.

So I always seem to be corralling them back to work.  I hear a lot of “but I don’t want to do math, why do I have to” and “why do we have to do school everyday.  Didn’t we do enough yesterday?”  I try not to let these comments frustrate me.  Most days they just roll off my back.  I do get frustrated sometimes, though, because I feel they are remarks that spoiled children who know nothing about the real world make.  Maybe that’s not true, but that’s what worries me.  I’m replying with a lot of “mom remarks” like “You can’t go through life only doing things that you want to do.”  And “Of course you do school everyday.”

I’ve made threats to David about sending him to public school so where he wouldn’t have time to ski everyday anymore.  I’m ashamed to say I’ve lowered myself to threats, but sometimes I feel like he needs a dose of reality.  I want him to see that the alternative to not doing his work at home is me sending him to a place where they will make him do work, and where he literally won’t have as much free time as he does now.  I need to really stop saying it, though.  I need to find a way to get the kids in a more positive state of mind.  I think that may start in me being in a more positive state of mind.

Also, after taking a few weeks off, I was surprised how much the kids forgot.  Silje seems to have forgotten some basic math, and David seems to have forgotten some basic reading.  So we had a bit of review this week, but I think we’re all caught up.

It’s been very productive this week, though.  I’m very pleased.  We’ve been doing a bunch of history reading, and it’s been really interesting learning about the founding of various American colonies.  I think many school children learn about the founding of Massachusetts by the Pilgrims.  We’ve also been studying the founding of Pennsylvania by the Quakers, and the founding of Georgia, which was a “charity colony.”  It’s so interesting, and once again, I find that I am learning right along with the kids and getting a second education.

David has been switched this semester to more rigorous reading program that I’ve been prepping him for.  He’s doing fabulous, and embracing it with both arms, and I’m really excited about that.  He’s gone from reading a page or two of reading a day to reading a chapter or two of reading a day.  He’s so proud of himself, although he still has a confidence problem and worries before each page whether he’ll be able to finish it.  So I still have to sit next to him for each word, and we go through it together.  He’s doing so great, though!

Silje’s more intensive work on spelling this year, her most difficult subject, is really starting to take some traction.  Things are finally starting to click, and there are some concepts she’s starting to get.  I’m excited about that.  We still have a long way to go, but I’m excited about how the journey has been going and how much improvement I’ve been seeing.

My sister is coming to visit tonight.  She’s flying across the country, from her cozy home in Arizona to our farm on the frozen tundra.  We’re supposed to get freezing rain and 4-8 inches of snow when she’s here.  It may take us down memory lane when we were growing up in Colorado and have snow days where we just played one game of Monopoly all day long!

She’s been staying at home with her kids the last few years, and tightening their belts on one income has meant they’ve stopped visits to us.  We visit them every winter, but it’s been a little over 8 years since she’s been up here.  However, she just returned to teaching this fall, and is doing a quick visit by herself to meet her new niece.

She’s never seen this house ever since it belonged to my in-laws.  So I can’t wait to show her what we’ve done in different rooms.  She’s an amazing elementary teacher at one of the country’s best private schools, so I’m excited to show her our curriculum and “talk shop” about teaching.  I only get 3 days with her, as it’s hard enough for her to find childcare for her 3 kids, and get time off of work and everything.  It’s possible we just won’t sleep all weekend.  (Yeah!)

She has been one of my greatest supporters to homeschool, and she has been an encouragement along each step of the way, and so it makes it even more fun to have her here.  I feel selfish in saying this, but this year of homeschooling has been a little difficult for me because my sister returned to work.  She may be across the country, but we talked on the phone nearly every day in previous years, and I don’t know if she knew how much she encouraged me and kept me going.  Not just as a teacher, but as a mother.

Now it’s just not possible to talk on the phone everyday, and it’s hard to adjust to that resource of encouragement and problem solving (but mostly encouragement) disappear.  So you can see why having her to myself for 3 whole days is something I’m ecstatic about!

I hope you all have a good weekend!  I know I will!