“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
I have been homeschooling almost 16 years and before that I would sub a lot. My dad was the pastor of a church and we had a small Christian school. My mom was an amazing example of the best teacher your child could have. Being the pastor’s wife, sometimes she would have to go on calls with Dad. She would ask one of us to sub. I can’t overstate how much I LOVE school!
Homeschooling has become our best option and the only option we would now consider. I have schooled our five oldest ’til they were out of high school. This year, we have one in 5th grade. Our baby is almost 10!
We believed our soon to be 18 year old was our last. We set about enjoying the older years of our children and the new found freedom of no babysitters needed. In 2016, God chose to give us one more blessing (I was 44!!). We have been cruising along ever since relearning the art of babyhood to toddlerhood to middle-school. Life is pretty amazing. I wouldn’t change having a baby at 44 and would do it again in a heartbeat.
One of my joys has come in realizing that I get to begin teaching her from scratch.
I never used to enjoy subbing for the little kids in the Christian school but having my own children changed all that. Learning WITH them and watching their eyes light up in new discovery is everything. I still enjoy the older grades but I’ve learned to love the littler ones. I especially LOVE to read to them.
Today I wanted to talk about how I am handling educating a 5th grader while suffering from a chronic condition. I have learned to slow down. I don’t beat myself up anymore if she isn’t doing a certain set of curriculum and I’ve put together a year that we have been able to gently roll along with.
This came in handy since in September and October we traveled by train to Iowa and then to Wyoming. We got home thinking life would be routine again and our son from Japan showed up on our doorstep with his wife for a surprise visit! In the old days, I would be stressing that Melanie wasn’t learning anything because she didn’t have a textbook with paper and pencil in front of her. Now I’ve learned that she is one of my smartest kids because she is learning from so many different avenues of life.
I still write up lesson plans each year so I keep us on track but I’m learning to relax and spend time with her instead of cramming subjects into her day just to say we have accomplished this.
So what does her “curriculum” look like?
I want her to learn as much Bible as she can so I have her reading privately each morning and using this devotional book where they answer one question. This is to get her in the habit of personal devotions. Then, in school, i found an online Bible course which is basically worksheets (for teens and adults) with fill in the blanks plus thought questions. I’m having her do the fill in the blank section and she is learning all the stories of the Bible.
Math
For math, I believe I have talked about this course here. She and I love that I found CTCMath which is online and totally relaxed. About four lessons a week so we can do that in about 15-30 minutes per day.
English
English is a course my mom wrote and it, again, is simple, in depth but geared to those with short attention spans! It is centered around the Bible and we are enjoying this.
History
When it comes to history (which I love) we are simply looking through books about the Presidents and their First Ladies. I wrote one about them but we also look at some others. One to two a week and that way we can have an overview of who led our great country.
Science
Science is also fairly laid back this year as we help a friend build her website on science curriculum based on God’s Word, Creation and seeing science through the lens of God’s plan. This is website based but also some fun activities.
Extras
I add in when we can some penmanship (learning cursive) and spelling. I try to keep subjects 15-30 minutes tops. She also studies music theory with her violin teacher and she messes around the piano a lot. Melanie has daily chores and she loves to do crafts and bake. All of these add up to an education she would not get if she was away from home every day for hours at a time.
Homeschool is NOT for the faint of heart. It takes dedication and structure to some degree and of course discipline but it also can evolve year by year to meet the specific need of each child as well as revolving around your schedule. Individualizing our homeschool has been so much more relaxing for myself as well as the child.
One thought on “Homeschooling As An Elderly Mom”