Teaching at Home

I don't have a concise explanation for my decision to teach the kids from home; "homeschool". Don't get me wrong, I have many reasons... but a nice buttoned down statement I am lacking. This last month of teaching E- the first month of hopefully many.... has been a good experience overall. Hair pulling at times, sure, mostly due to the smallest boy in the family :) And also overwhelming at times figuring out how to balance errands that are so disruptive to a day and still do household chores... and get the day's lessons done! The good moments prevail though!
E is an eager learner and often wants to do more than I have planned for a day or that I think she should push herself to do. We are using a very fun curriculum called My Fathers World that teaches in a very hands on approach and uses a "unit" style. That means we have spent a week studying the sun, a week on the moon and a week on apple. Each of those weeks incorporates a different letter of the alphabet (s, m, a), as well as math, literature, science and Bible all based on the topic of the week. For example, for the sun week we made sundials outside... for the moon we used flashlights and mirrors to talk about reflection and for apples we studied a book called How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.
One of my favorite things is seeing S work along side us doing similar things or working on activities out of his preschool box. Sometimes I will need to step away from them to help L, change a load of laundry or just go to the bathroom. E is wonderful about working with S, teaching him colors, counting, doing puzzles with him and encouraging him! It is pretty great.
I will confess though, to some funny missteps in the world of teaching on my part! Parts of my own education appear to have not adhered to my brain in any way. OK, the truth is I have HUGE gaps in my personal knowledge base! The kids and I were doing a puzzle of the United States of America and E noticed how large Texas is. She said, "Wow, Texas is the biggest state!" "That's right!", I said, "Good noticing!". J happened to be walking by and said, "Except for Alaska, right?" "Oh! Right. Of course. Alaska", I said. To be fair, the puzzle was mostly of the 48 contiguous states.... Alaska and Hawaii just got honorable mentions...
J's favorite, though, is my utter lack of any kind of astronomy knowledge. I, gulp, merrily taught E that the Moon is a planet. Again, not so much. In case you are wondering, the Moon is a.... moon. So that clears that up. My next question was, "So how is it again that the Moon is different shapes throughout the month?". J was incredulous. "Do you think the Moon emits its own light?", he asked. "Um, gee, I don't know. I haven't ever really thought about it". It's really hard to explain how little I care. Well, that's not true. Now that I know how it all works, you know, the whole Earth being between the Sun and Moon and shading it differently at different times and the Moon being a reflector of the Sun... OK, that is kind of interesting! My sister got in on the action when she reminded me about the saying they have in youth group, "Be the Moon. Reflect the Son". Oohhhh. That makes more sense now too....
Now J is working on teaching me about the Earth rotating on an axis which is what provides our different seasons.... I think I am getting it.... :) And E is very much learning each and every day... and she is doing so in an active, engaged style that is broad based and varied!

Sundials
Apple picking at our pasture apple tree
Cider pressing with Grandma