Thursday, November 06, 2014

Homeschool Thoughts Today.

I've recently been put into a group on Facebook for Homeschoolers in Kentucky.  I didn't exactly ask to be put into the group, a friend just put me in.  I have found that since I have been homeschooling all of these years and basically have a plan for what I am going to do for the next couple of years, I don't feel the need to seek out support in these kind of groups.  However, I have discovered that I can BE support in these kinds of groups.  I've moved into the older woman/mentor position.  I don't know how much wisdom I have to impart, but I do have a kid in college, so when these moms are worried about testing and whether they will ruin their kids, I can reassure them.  I personally have felt pretty sure from the beginning that we would do okay.  My youngest son and I got into an interesting discussion yesterday in the kitchen.  He was telling me about one of the many, many subjects that he relentlessly unschools himself about, which was something about gravity and black holes and how a space ship could use the gravitational fields of planets to speed up its progress through space.  It's an interesting example of how, though I have been homeschooling him for the past 10 years, he knows a ton of things that I don't know.  He and I discussed the questions about elementary curriculum and elementary testing that I was seeing on this new Facebook group and I shared with him some information that I had been reading about, about how kids learn and when to teach some things.  He's recently done the PSAT and hasn't got his scores back yet and is feeling very smart and confident.  He said, that  these new homeschooling moms should just teach them some math and read to them a lot because that's the best way to learn the proper use of language, through great books.  I agree.  We also discussed how there is now evidence that waiting on math is a good thing.  Oh how I wish I had some little ones to homeschool now.  We would have so much fun!  That's what I keep telling these moms, have fun, treasure this time, read to them a lot, help them learn about what they are interested in by providing the materials for them to look at themselves (library!).


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