Teaching

One of the blessings I've had this last week is my truck got fixed. We have a friend who works for Ford who does the work for barter in his off time. This time, I tutored his son. He had a science fair project due the next day, and had done nothing. So in 2 1/2 hours, we did a project. It was fun. He started off pretty bored. It took about half an hour to warm him up. That is when I remembered why I decided not to go into teaching. Then I watched this kid's eyes light up and to start to get into his project and it was very satisfying. Then, I remembered why I went into teaching.

When I was much younger, I think I was in the second grade, I decided I wanted to be a teacher. Which is funny cuz I hated school. I think I just liked being the boss of people. And as I entered the job world I realized that my dreams way outmatched the salary of a teacher. But, when I went into college, I got a teaching degree anyway. I really loved those light up the eyes moments.

Then I got married. I brought a dog into the marriage, my sweetheart a five year old boy. We quickly had a little girl and I never went back to work. When my husband left the military, we moved into a neighbor hood that was not very...well...how can I say this... nice. As we were unpacking the moving truck a small group of boys the same age as my son were walking down the street cursing and smoking. He was nine. I was not happy. I decided right then and there to homeschool.

That was 16 years ago. Homeschooling wasn't cool back then. Hardly anyone was doing it. There weren't many choices as far as curriculum was concerned. Everyone looked at us like we were crazy and thought we were destroying our kids. All I did was to bring school home. There were desks, and schedules and uniforms. I know, crazy huh. But it was all I knew. And by December, I was ready to be done. For five years, every December, I was ready to be done. Then I met someone who suggested we take the month of December off. Really, it is that simple? It worked and to this day, December is a pretty low academic month. We still do lots, just not book work.

That was such a freeing moment. It totally changed how I saw schooling my kids. Just in time too, cuz with a bunch of little ones all starting about the same time, I would have gone nuts. Now we are almost un-schoolers. We still do book work. I think there is merit in that. But mostly we follow what interests our kids.

One of the things I take for granted homeschooling for as long as we have been is that I have a house full of kids who love to learn. There are always projects going on around here. And since every moment is a teaching moment, I can almost always turn whatever it is they are working on into a school lesson. Some one's eyes are always lit up with excitement about something they are learning about. I think I get more joy from my teaching degree homeschooling than I would working in a school. And, I think our principal is very cute too.

p.s. Speaking of projects...here is phase one of the steampunk gun. You can't tell as well in the picture, but the dark color is gun metal and the light color is actually copper.