Things around here have been pretty low key and mellow. We have been trying to settle into a nice routine that will get us prepared for the coming (home)school year. Actually, we have started a teensy bit already since I will be giving birth in the beginning of the school year, so I wanted to give myself a bit of a buffer for that transition period.
Lately, I have been thinking lots about schooling, different teaching styles and they way kids learn. Our pastor’s wife blogged about their direction of classical education, so I have been reading a bit about that as well as just doing a lot of evaluating my goals for my children and my ideas of teaching and learning. I think I have felt a bit more relaxed (or overconfident) about homeschooling because I was a teacher and was schooled to do so (not that having a teaching credential automatically makes you a good teacher). I am doing some reading and researching and have been working on writing my philosophy of teaching for my own children. Once that is done, I will be sure to share it.
I even dug out my old teaching portfolio and have been going through all my old lessons. I really did enjoy being a teacher even though it was only for a year, but it was such a valuable and rich experience. I think teachers work really hard with what they are given (budget cuts are no fun) and there are many good teachers out there, many of which are my friends, who are equipping students with valuable skills in the classroom and for life. I could go on and on about teachers because I so appreciate the work they do and what public schools have to offer, but I will save that for another post.
In the meantime, I will continue to work on readying my house, my mind, and my heart for the many school years that lie ahead for all my little babes.
