Taking Time

I wish I had already known some things several years ago when I began to teach my oldest child.  Being the first child, he was the one with whom I compared the "normal" home-schooler.  If "most" kids were understanding something at a certain age, then he should be as well.  If it wasn't a difficult concept for me to understand in my childhood, then why was he struggling?  If he didn't get the day's concept, we worked on it until he got it - some nights we worked until 9:00 p.m.  It was my immaturity as a homeschool mom that many of our "bad" days were formed. 

Now that I've been homeschooling for 7 years, I'm either wiser or just plain tired. 

My six year old son is a first-grader this year.  He has been doing quite well, though he would much rather be outside running around than writing spelling words.  At the beginning of the year, he really struggled with expanded form in Math (i.e - 50 + 2 = 52).  This concept was so easy to me as a  youngster.  My previous 4 children never struggled with this and I had no idea why he just didn't "get" it.  Just recently, I realized it had been quite a while since we had done expanded form - months, in fact.  I wondered if he would get it now that so much time had elapsed and he was doing quite well in other areas of Math. 

Wouldn't you know it?  Just the other day, his review section on his math page was....expanded form.  And, again, wouldn't you know it?  He got EVERY SINGLE ONE.....RIGHT!!!!!!!!!  No problem.  Piece of cake.

All it took was time.  Not time in beating the lesson into his head over and over.  Not time in making him write different numbers in expanded form for hours on end.  Not time in me worrying and pulling out my hair.  Just time off without even thinking about it.  Through time, stress was removed.  Through time, precept was built upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little.  And, he GOT it.

What I wouldn't give to have known that seven years ago.

Just Walk Away from the Lesson and No One Will Get Hurt!

Did you ever have a day when your child seems to have a total brain-block against something?  Yesterday, my almost-6 year old son just could not get the words correct on his reading page.  He was learning the "s" sound at the end of the word.  i.e. cats  However, he kept switching the last two letters of EVERY word he was reading.  i.e. cast  Talk about frustrating.  At one point, he just had a bad attitude and began crying.  I sent him upstairs to rest until he could come back down without getting upset.  When he came down, his attitude was a bit better, but those pesky letters kept switching around on us! 

What do you do?  With my first child, I would prolong the agony until the early evening hours.  "It's not that hard.  You just need to try."  However, I have learned that nothing is accomplished that way except for tempers flaring, hair loss, and an increased loathing for education.  Now, we just put the lesson aside for the next day.  Which is exactly what we did yesterday.

This morning, we opened up to the reading lesson and, lo and behold, the letters stayed where they were supposed to be!  He didn't miss a word.  At one point, he stopped and said, "Now I'm getting it!" 

We didn't fall behind a day in our lesson.  The lesson was to know when to walk away with the intention of trying again the next day.  God's mercies are new every morning - even in the trials of a 5 year old's education.  All was bright and clear today - especially his smile!