Читать книгу Homeschooling For Dummies - Jennifer Kaufeld - Страница 57

When you do begin coursework, especially if you plan to use textbooks for your subjects, you may want to slowly work your way into a full day. (Remember that two-foot-high stack of textbooks mentioned earlier? I guarantee that all your students won’t approach that stack with as much glee as you do.) Going from an easy, relaxed day to all-textbooks-all-the-time is jarring at best, and you may find that it brings out the beast in your little beauties.

You have all year to get this material into the kids. And really … do we need to do spelling Every Single Week? (I admit it — I’m a spelling class rebel.) Looking at your 36-week calendar, or however long you have until the end of the year if you’re starting after a deschooling period, what strikes you as most important? What do you think would be the kids’ favorite subject?

With those answers in mind, start to think out your schedule. What if you started with their favorite subject first? (Radical, I know.) Do that subject only for a few days. Then, maybe on Thursday, introduce another class and do two classes for the remaining days of that week. First week: done! The next week, you add a third subject on Monday, and if you think they’re ready, a fourth on Wednesday. If not, go all week with three subjects. No one will die. No one. Not one person will swoon to the floor, never to move again, if the kids only experience three subjects by the end of week two.

I know you want to do it all right this second — I did too, when I started. Heck, I still want to do it all every single August. I love the start of the school year! Unfortunately, I love it more than any of my kids ever did. I learned to temper my overwhelming enthusiasm after looking into very glazed eyes the the first week of school.

If it really, really bothers you that you aren’t doing a full day of school, then you continue with the school day. Wait — hear me out. Finish your two or three or four subjects for the day, send the kiddos off to relax or play or read, and you can keep going. Take out an art book and work on your drawing skills. Write a diary entry, a short story, or a letter. Dig out that dusty copy of Euclid and begin working through his proofs. Learn to write shorthand. Not only will you feel like you completed a full school day, but you’ll pick up a new skill along the way that you can introduce to the children at some later time. Keeping your mind sharp is just as important as helping your kids with theirs. Add a cup of your favorite coffee or tea and this becomes Me Time.