A Demented Dame

Homeschool Conundrum?  After 21 years, I've finally figured it out.  Are you ready?  Hold on to your seats.

I haven't figured it out.  I flew by the seat of my pants.  I talked to other home schoolers.  I went to curriculum fairs.  I did co-ops.  I laughed.  I cried.  My daughters were two completely different learners, three years apart.  What worked for Bonnie, never worked for Emma.  I've  purchased more curriculum than sanity or Beerhound should have allowed.  Always waiting for the rainbow at the end of the day, week, month, year.

Here's what I did learn.

1. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody going to be happy.

2. Go where your child leads you.  They'll learn if it's something they love.

3. If they don't love it, you're the teacher, figure out how to make it fun for them.  I'm not kidding here.

4. Take the month of December off.  In my house, there was too much going on to get anything done anyway.  I did get to enjoy the companionship of the girls and the excitement of the holidays without worrying about math.

5. Every year, every single year, re-evaluate.  Both the girls chose to try public high school when I swore they would never step foot in a public school.  Bonnie did great and finished all four years.  Emma quit after her sophomore year and probably should have quit sooner if we had been listening to her trying to tell us how unhappy she was.

On the other hand, President Obama did come and speak to the school. That must make us evil, illegal, Islamic aliens[/caption]

6. Use every medium possible to teach.  My girls love movies and there are plenty of sites and even books that will tell you which movies made are fairly factual concerning World and American History.  Some even have discussion pages on the Internet now.  We talked about everything and in the process covered more than history but political science, government, ethics and morality.

7.  Go everyplace you have access to and can afford to visit.  We live in Virginia.  The multitude of history in this state alone is mind-boggling.

8. Try to incorporate your friends kids.  The more the merrier.

9.  Don't worry if you're not finished by the beginning of summer.  WE NEVER WERE!!

10. Remember to teach in context to their lives.  We turned our budget and bills over to the girls for awhile during a math project.  We took them voting.  David took them to work.

11. Don't be afraid of science.  Dig your hands right in there with them.  I teach High School and Middle School Science.  I have as much fun as the kids and honestly, the experiments fail half the time.  They all just call it "Miss Susan's curse".

12. Make it funny.  Kids will always remember concepts that made them laugh, always.  You'll just have to trust me on this.

13.  The only two subjects that you really need to cover in order are Math - obvious statement and composition.

14. Composition is important and one that I tended to neglect and one I see most home schoolers neglect.  DON'T.  It'll come back to bite you in the ass.  Thankfully both girls enjoy writing.

And this is the most important:

15.  Every couple of hours, get up, turn on your music and twirl, whirl and dance through your house, singing at the top of your lungs.

I home schooled not because of faith, or because I thought I could do a better job than the public schools (I can but then I'm a teacher), or because I was afraid to expose them to the world at large, or protect them from the unknown evil and exposure waiting to grab their souls.  I home schooled them because I wanted to spend every moment I was allowed enjoying their inner beings.  Who they really were.  What they really thought.

Oh, and I hate getting up at 6:30 in the morning.  That shit was never going to happen.