So now that we’ve determined that a mom can learn to teach as well as a teacher can learn to teach, we’ve got all the confidence we need to hit this schooling thing head on, right?

 

I wish I was.

 

How many times over the years…or even over the course of a single year…does a mom get a sudden attack of fear and panic and amIcrazytothinkIcandothisthing-itis?  And the self-incriminating “I’m not doing enough” or “I’m not doing it right”….that’s always a tough one. 

 

“I need to be more scheduled.”

 

“I need to be more flexible.”

 

“We need more field trips.”

 

“We are gone from home too often.”

 

“We have special hard circumstances that are making it difficult to school every day.”

 

“Did I cover everything that needs to be done for fourth grade?”

“Did I cover anything that needs to be done for fourth grade?”

 

And then there’s that whole 101 philosophies of home schooling and trying to find the one that fits both you, the teacher, and the kids, your students.

 

If you take a look at what needs to be accomplished overall by your children by the time they reach 7^th grade…the middle school years…the beginning of preparing for the big stuff i.e. college and/or real life…you will find the job isn’t daunting at all. 

 

You can do it.  You can do it without a philosophy of teaching.  You can do it while you are searching for the philosophy that fits you.  You can do it by holding up the skeleton of the basics to a philosophy you already own and fleshing it out as necessary…if necessary.

 

Below I will give you a basic outline of what your children need to be ready for their middle school and high school years.  For those of you who have been doing this longer than I, or for those who hold a philosophy that is radically different from mine, you might think this list is way too long or way too short. 

 

But for the sake of encouraging confidence in those who might be lacking, I’m throwing my list out there for all to criticize.  I’m ok with a little criticism.  Especially if it’s served with chocolate.

 

If you don’t like my list, make your own.  The main thing is to get an overall idea of what your goal is at the end of the first 6 or so years of your child’s’ schooling.  Once you get a vision of what you are working toward, then you can feel a little more comfortable choosing your curriculum.  Or choosing to forego a curriculum in favor of another route.

 

And the most important thing: you can quit worrying about what you are doing right or wrong and start just doing it! Teach your children. Study your children.  Prod, encourage, and guide your children. 

 

Once you quit worrying about the details, you have all the time in the world that God has given you personally to actually do the things He’s called you to do.

 

The following list is very basic.  I will go into a little more detail on some of the subjects in my next post.

 

Reading:  It would be good to have your child at a 5^th grade reading level by grade 7 if possible.  Some children just won’t be able to attain this level, but never fear. There are other options and things change suddenly for children in this area.

 

Writing:  The child should be able to write a good sentence, understand punctuation and basic grammar, and be able to write fiction as well as non-fiction reports.  The child should understand and be able to use and write an outline.

 

Spelling:  The child should understand basic phonetic rules regarding spelling, as well as be able to use a dictionary and thesaurus.

 

Science:  The child should be exposed to natural science and books regarding science, but actual instruction at this level isn’t really necessary.  Grade school science should be fun and exploratory and experimental, touching on the various sciences lightly.

 

History:  A basic understanding that history starts yesterday and goes back to the first day of creation.  Again, formal education in history isn’t necessary at this point. Rather a light easy touch down with plenty of interesting books and for older grades, maybe a timeline of some sort, to get an idea of the basic “ages” of both the world and our country.

 

Geography:  Play with a globe and push matchbox cars across atlases.  Basically, make sure the kids understand maps, get familiar with using atlases and globes, and have fun studying groups of peoples around the world.  A general knowledge of the continents and oceans is good.  Memorization comes easy for some kids, but don't worry about pushing them.  Geography comes very easily for most of us in non-confrontive ways. Most of the time, it's best to put detailed geographical knowledge into historical or anthropological context, which you can do if you like during the grade school years, but it will definitely come up again during the middle and high school years.

 

Appreciations:  This is what I call the peripheral studies, like art and music.  This will basically depend on the family.  Some families are intensely musical, and will start teaching their children young.  Some want to be musical, and may feel a need to educate in music from the beginning of the school years.  Others aren’t very musical, and their children learn to appreciate music by listening to various CDs in the house. 

 

Foreign Languages:  not necessary. But this is a great age to start learning languages by playing around. 

 

Math:  I left this one last because it’s a bit more intensive.  I will definitely be talking more on this subject in my next post.  But for now, what your child will need to be familiar with by the time they reach 7^th grade and start pre-algebra:

 

*four operations math facts

*skip counting

*understands odd & even, tally marks, more/less/equal to, dozen & half dozen

*time

*money

*measurement

*place value

*able to compute numbers up to the thousands place in all four operations

*fractions…recognize, write, add, subtract, multiply, divide

*ratios

*decimals

*very basic geometry

*understand prime numbers

*basic square roots

*graphs

*Roman numerals (ha!)

*borrowing/carrying in addition/subtraction

*understands number lines; familiar with positive and negative numbers

*able to find averages

*percents

*basic understanding of multiplication notation (i.e.  x  or 3(0) or 3 {dot} 9 )

*basic powers, base, and exponent understanding

*greatest common factor/least common factor (this should be covered during the fractions)

*unit conversions

*story problems

*solving for an unknown; understand and use variables

 

Regarding the math list:  Don’t let the words fool you.  Nearly everything in the list above is in your head. There are a few things you might need a bit of a refresher course for, but basically, you have this stuff covered. Besides, this is the area where the textbooks come in handy. You might be able to use “living” books or alternative forms of education for all other subjects quite successfully, but if you plan to have your child start pre-algebra somewhere between 7^th and 9^th grades, you’ll want to get a good math program and stick with it until the above areas are covered.

 

Of course, if you are one of those great math people and you do trig problems for fun because they are like puzzles for you…then all you have to do is spend time with your child doing “puzzles”.

 

************************************************************

 

See? You can do this!  With or without a schedule. With or without the greatest or costliest curriculum out there.  With or without a philosophy.  You know this stuff. 

 

Did I miss any subjects?  Let me know if I did.

 

Anyway, it’s like teaching someone how to do something you’ve been doing for years, like baking or sewing or riding a bike. You just show them how you do it. If they don’t get it, you try a different way of showing them. You do it over and over and over patiently until they can do it by themselves. And sometimes, you find out their comprehension level just isn’t up to the challenge, so you put it aside and give them a chance to grow a bit. Then you try it again.

 

Simple, huh?

 

You can definitely do this.