While I am not a teacher and pretty much have no idea what I am doing, after a little research on the internet and a couple days now under my belt, I'm feeling pretty confident about teaching letters, shapes, and counting.
Being home-schooled myself, I have the added advantage of memories that come flooding back to me the moment we begin each morning. While I did not begin homeschooling until 8th grade, my little sister (8 years my junior) began kindergarden that same year and she had the added bonus of being personally tutored by my mom, a preschool, grammar school and special education certified teacher!
Not only was my mom (she passed away almost a year ago) a teacher, but she was an outstanding one who put her all into it. Singing, dancing, acting, demonstrating, and most importantly, a whole lot of patience!
It is amazing how much I remember as I go about our lessons. Something as simple as teaching my son the difference between the letters 'B' and 'E' brings back the memory from 17 years ago of my mom using her lips to exaggerate the sound each of these rhyming letters make.
My mom and I had always planned on, to some extent, homeschooling my children together. Unwittingly, I think I had expected her to do all the teaching while I just watched! Since her death was somewhat sudden and a bit of a shock to me, I had a little crisis of confidence once reality hit that I'd be doing this on my own: no mom to help with the littler ones, no mom to call and ask questions, no mom ask her opinion about different resources offered.
So while this journey has a bittersweet quality to it, enough time has now passed since that initial shock that I am able to focus more on the 'sweetness' of these precious memories of my mom that are being brought to life, and less the 'bitterness' of that never ending ache in my heart.
"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."
-Ecclesiastes 3:1
My mom and I had always planned on, to some extent, homeschooling my children together. Unwittingly, I think I had expected her to do all the teaching while I just watched! Since her death was somewhat sudden and a bit of a shock to me, I had a little crisis of confidence once reality hit that I'd be doing this on my own: no mom to help with the littler ones, no mom to call and ask questions, no mom ask her opinion about different resources offered.
So while this journey has a bittersweet quality to it, enough time has now passed since that initial shock that I am able to focus more on the 'sweetness' of these precious memories of my mom that are being brought to life, and less the 'bitterness' of that never ending ache in my heart.
"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."
-Ecclesiastes 3:1
I'm so sorry to hear of the passing of your mom.
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you are planning to homeschool! I'm sure you will be great. Best of luck on this new journey.
I'm so sorry you won't get to experience this with your mom, but I'm sure you'll do great thanks to her example!
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