We have spent so much time doing special things since Thanksgiving, we have started to think of get-togethers, trips, special dinners, and other events as the norm. Our children brought to our attention that life was getting a little boring with nothing to which to look forward for many weeks. I cannot believe that I sat my kids down and gave them the same lecture my folks gave me about how the daily work/school routine is life, not the other special, big events. I went on to explain that life will be a serious let-down if we do not embrace and find joy in the mundane routines that fill our days. There is as much joy in the accomplishing as the accomplishment. I too get caught up in the desire to find something exciting to plan or do, but realize that we get a LOT more good homeschool work done when there are not so many distractions.
Christian had about his best math day ever yesterday. All of his problems were worked in great detail without sparing any paper. That is a huge help when it comes to correcting the work, both in determining if the answer is right, the methodology is right, and the understanding of the concepts are there. The concepts are increasingly more difficult as Christian finishes up his Algebra II so he can move on to Geometry. Kelly only has three more weeks of Geometry before she moves on to pre-calculus. There is a lot of minutiae in Geometry. That minutiae is critical for those who will work as theoretical mathematicians. For us applied mathematicians (in my humble opinion), the minutiae of geometry is only just very important. That is not true, though, for pre-calculus, so Kelly will be returning to painstaking detailed problem working again sometime in February.
The only parts we have left to assemble on the ham radio are one toroid and some transformers. All we have after that is knobs, the case, and that kind of thing.
Kelly is drawing a very fun story line in Betty Blonde right now that will run for a week or two. It is about the Facebook/My Space phenomena. Check it out.
Update: More doubt about the education establishment.
Interesting YouTube video: Mathematically defining functional information in molecular biology
“I went on to explain that life will be a serious let-down if we do not embrace and find joy in the mundane routines that fill our days.”
I love that thought; the heart of that thought is the number one reason my children are here at home. Ours is not a perfect life or a perfect homeschool, but it is life — filled with love and a hope that we can serve each other and our fellow men, and there’s something to be said about simply teaching a child to find joy within himself, about honor, about loving simple things… I could go on and on. You touched a nerve. 🙂
Lynn
Thanks, Lynn. I wish I could say my thoughts were an outgrowth of something noble, but that would be little less than honest. I was a little frustrated when I wrote it. Still, I am glad it rang true with someone else, too.
Ah, yeah, I get aggravated too. Every day. 🙂
Lynn
Here I am trying to get us all out the door tonight for mtg, but I keep thinking about what I wrote. I didn’t mean to sound “preachy.” And to be clear, I guess the number one reason we ever started homeschooling was the whole dyslexia thing. We’ve certainly utilized public schools too, and have one child there now. We’ve encountered great teachers, but also a lot of not so good ideas. The longer we have homeschooled, the more I think it just makes sense that home is the place for children to get grounded. Some are ready earlier than others. 🙂 I’ve probably muddied the waters even more. I am really, really good at that. Just ask Thomas.
Lynn
I think your post was absolutely great! I LOVE to hear from people who know why the are homeschooling. You are so upbeat, I do not think you will every have to worry about sounding preachy. That, I think is more my kind of problem. It really sounds like we had parallel experiences with public school. Both our kids were in school for three years in a pretty good school district. It was not perfect, but acceptable to us at the time. We moved to a monumentally bad school district. One of the people from meeting had pulled their child from school to do homeschool the year before we got there specifically because of the principal of our kids school. We are very, very thankful that school was so bad (and not just academically–we saw our very soft, compliant kids starting to get hard). It caused us to go back to homeschool. After a year of homeschool, we wondered why we had ever done anything else. I really do not have much advise for other families about whether or not they should homeschool. For us, knowing what we know now, I think it would just be wrong for us to go back. The kids are happier, they learn a lot more, and are more responsible for having started. We really do appreciate both your comments and the spirit in which they are given.
Thanks, Ken. I just felt like I came across the wrong way. And you don’t sound preachy at all. You sound sincere and plugged in, and like a walking math book! You have encouraged me to do more with math. I appreciate it *very* much. My kids may not thank you until later.
Lynn