I had a great response to my Teaching Tidbits entry last Friday when I shared notes from a past seminar I attended at my state homeschool convention.  Thank you for all your wonderful comments that it was just what you needed to hear ... I needed it myself as well!

I'm sharing my notes from another great seminar today.......

Secrets Teachers Never Tell

** You can't come back in the fall expecting your children to remember everything from the prior school year.  You have to start off with a review.  If you take a summer break, you should probably plan on a couple of weeks of review.  You can adjust the length of review according to the needs of your child(ren).

** Think about why you do what you do.  Example: Why do you take a summer break?  Take some time and think about why or if you need to do something.  Don't do it just because someone else does.  When you establish new ways and new thoughts, please tell your children why you are doing it that way.  Each one of us is unique.  One of the problems for those of us that attended public school is that is what we know (as far as how to teach).

** Some months are better than others.  December is usually a very hard month to teach.  Make your school tie together with your life in December and schooling will be easier ... do math while baking cookies, have your children write notes to relatives and address Christmas cards.  Adjust your schedule to fit your needs.  If you live in a warm climate, you may find it works better for you to school during the summer when it's too hot to enjoy the outdoors and take time off during the winter months.  You are the administrator of your homeschool and make your school schedule.  Make it fit your family.

** Children learn in spurts and plateaus.  Our goal is to transport the child ... educate the child ... teach the child.  Take all the time you child needs to master a skill!  You can't do what the book (teacher's manual for any given subject) says day by day if your child isn't learning the material.  Reading through a textbook chapter by chapter and taking a test doesn't necessarily teach your children.

** Assimilation takes time.  You have to have a period of "brainless activity" to compute the things you've learned.  Children need this!  Let them play and climb trees.  They need "mindless" time to assimilate the concepts we're teaching.

** You don't have to grade every paper.  Keep one paper per subject, per child, per week and you can get a good idea if they are grasping the material.  It's okay to be good in some things and not so good in others!

** Learning involves doing.  Do what you and your children enjoy.  If they aren't laughing and giggling on a daily basis, they aren't learning as much as you think.  Make it fun! 

** Shame on you if you think you must finish the text each year.  You don't even have to follow the text in order - there is no rule that says you must do day on on day one and day two on day two.  Know your child!  Knowing your child's heart and skills plus their weaknesses is prime to teaching them.

** On days when "the natives are restless" ... do all the wonderful projects you wanted to do but didn't have time for or spend time on unfinished projects.  Play educational games - children learn from games and need games.

** Children can't learn in an atmosphere of fear, anxiety, depression, etc.

** Ever have those days when you just want to pull your hair out?  Do something to win your heart back to your children ... have a picnic or make some popcorn and watch a good movie.

Seminar presented by Joyce Herzog.

I apologize that all this is run together rather than separated in paragraph fashion.  I typed it out that way, but it won't post that way.  I had this problem with yesterday's entry as well.