Again with the change.....

I was talking to our children's church pastor the other day and she said, "I know it is as if you were taking a step and as your foot lifted in preparation to step down in a direction GOD took your foot by the ankle and turned it so that when you did step down you were going in a whole different direction."

SO TRUE.

That is how I feel about a number of things going on in life right now!

But right now I am talking about schooling..

I was talking to Dave after the home school conference last night and I was saying that I wasn't even doing all our subjects yet, I am still in this very weird place. We are finishing up some subjects and because of the way we are going to incorporate the new subjects-- more independently-- I have been holding off, also we have yet to buy three of them!

So this all equals frustration to me but as I was sitting and listening to both Sally Clarkson (who in the past has not been my favorite speaker but i thought did a pretty good job last night) and Andrew Pudewa (who I LOVE to hear speak) I began to realize that my frustration lies in MYSELF. I am frustrated that I have allowed my IDEALS to get so far off track! I had a vision... and even though that vision does change and shift, it is still the vision! I need to go back to the roots. I need to rebuild this years plan based on those roots! It doesn't matter that my kids are getting older--- it doesn't matter that I FEEL they should be learning "x" because the world says they should. What matters is that I teach and train my kids up the way Dave and I have discussed.

Andrew Pudewa says it the best in my opinion. Here are your three subjects.

Character

Knowledge

Skills

Wow. If you find a curriculum or a book or a class or a thing that develops or works on one of these three things and it works for your child (not all three as a whole but individually) then GO FOR IT.  If not walk away!

 IT doesn't matter if you are in fourth grade learning Texas history or if you are in 9th grade starting Algebra.

SO here is my ankle being slowly lifted and turned by GOD into a different direction. 

It doesn't mean I need to go out and buy all new curriculum!  Although I will be tweaking things here and there.  It doesn't mean that I have to change everything about our day.  I doesn't mean that I was doing everything wrong!

It does however mean I need to really base my decision on does it teach character, knowledge or skills  It also means I need to make sure that the things and the way I am teaching are adequately teaching THESE three things.... verses wasting time on things.  It  might mean I need to add something else to the mix.

One thing I am definitely adding is biographies.  I have talked about this before and had very good intentions but very little follow through.  The kids will read a minimum of one biography a month (I am hoping for more and can see them reading more as long as I make them readily available, but am trying to not overload myself)  They NEED to read about great people, people who faced hardships, people who relied on God, people who overcame, people who were little but did great things, people who made a difference, people who changed the world, people who made the world better!

Another thing is the skills area is lacking.  I have lots of "how to be keepers of the home" books and even one on Matt's job to learn but yet I DON'T do them!  I do teach the kids a lot inadvertently!  BUT it is not enough.... I need to focus on it.  Part of the problem with this is that I have not learned myself!  ;0)  So I will put more focus onto this area. 

I would like them to learn skill such as:

all house cleaning tasks (not DOING THEM ALL but learning how)
car maintenance
house maintenance
serving outside the home
washing a car
finances
computer programming
cake decorating
floral design
gift wrapping
changing filters in house and car
names and uses of tools
Microsoft Publisher, Word and Excel
transferring data -from camera, SD card, etc
"how to" play sport games
"how to" play basic card games
debate/ Speech for public speaking
things like shaking hands, looking people in the eye etc.


these are just some ideas and thoughts... Feel free to add to my SKILLS ideas!



 Right now we need to work on certain areas of our lives as do the kids but they are not the same as last year....... So I hope to incorporate these areas into our learning of character.

Kate needs to work on self discipline and contentment-- to began training herself to be her own task masker but in keeping with the world expectations.  there are deadlines, there are time constraints.  For instance deciding to wash your hair two minutes before needing to leave-- bad call.  We just need to work on her DOING things in a timely manner in keeping with who ever's schedule she is on at the time.  we also need to work on her being happy with the circumstance she is in and not always wanting different.  She often spends so much time thinking about what she wants she misses what she has.

Matt needs to work on self motivation and being a peacemaker and gratitude-- to begin training himself to do tasks on his own, to have a good attitude (all that you do, do to the GLORY of God), to work with others and to go above and beyond perhaps simply what you have been asked to do and complete each task to the best of his ability.  To be thankful even when it is not your expectation and to learn how to work with others and be a peacemaker

Emily needs to work on attentiveness, gratitude and obediance--- once we have these more  under control I believe it will be easier to work on the others.  to begin training herself to focus her attention onto the tasks at hand and to employ her energy into doing good.  Also to train herself to be thankful in every situation and kind towards others.  the obediance has a lot to do often with her attentiveness and also her showing or "not" showing of gratitude so I expect that these will all three be worked together as we work on one!