school
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school room.
One of the most heart-breaking things about leaving South Asia was giving up our beloved Richmond Town flat, and with that, our homeschooling room. After the decision to homeschool, we moved David’s office into our bedroom, and I worked for weeks picking out a school table and curtains and a reading corner, setting everything up for the kids and me to have an inspiring place to learn. And then, just when it was perfect, three weeks into our school year, everything unraveled. I wasn’t able to get out of bed most days to homeschool Judah and Amie. I had to quit my Hindi studies. And that’s when we knew something…
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first week of school.
We started kindergarten and 4K on Monday! Our Classical Conversations campus meets on Monday mornings, and I love starting the week this way. I think it’s going to be motivating for both the kids and for me. I’ll go into more detail later about what we do at Classical Conversations, but our first day was wonderful. Truly wonderful. Everybody was so very friendly and kind to us, the kids loved their teachers, and I left feeling for the first time like maybe I can actually do this homeschooling thing. Then we had our first day of “at-home” homeschooling on Tuesday. Thanks to lots of good ideas I got at Classical…
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homeschooling: a story about change.
Some of you know this, but I’m about one of the most unlikely homeschooling moms out there. Seriously. It was something I never, ever considered doing: so much so, that years ago during our missions process I told David’s boss that my biggest requirement for our overseas home was a city with good schools so I wouldn’t have to homeschool our kids. I’d give you reasons all day why I was dead set against homeschooling, but I think in the end it mainly boiled down to two things: 1. I couldn’t imagine being with my kids all.day.long for the next however-many years, and 2. The very idea of being in…
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homeschooling preschool, part two.
Some of you have been asking me my thoughts/ideas on homeschooling for preschool. Clearly I’m no expert, but after a year of South Asian preschool and a year of 4K, and based on my over-zealous research, including many conversations with school teachers, family, and friends, here is my loose philosophy of education for the preschool years. 1. Read aloud I really think if there’s one thing that every family should do in preschool and beyond, whether or not your kids are in school, it would be this. A love of reading is one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me, and it’s how my kids have learned by far…
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homeschooling preschool, part one.
It’s the beginning of summer so I wanted to write some sort of review of our year of 4K. In some ways it’s been the eternal school year since we actually started back in May of 2012. But in other ways I can hardly consider it a school year since we’ve been so off-again/on-again. Or, as I like to say, “Our kids have been in the school of life this year.” So having said all of that, and taking into account the kind of year we’ve had, I’ll give this post my best shot. Many of you know of my extreme ambivalence toward the idea of homeschooling at all for…
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he says.
Judah: “Mommy, when I start kindergarten I don’t want to go to school; I want to keep doing pretend school here with you.”
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homeschooling, take two.
I realized recently that if there’s one desire that’s been broken in me over the past several months, it’s the desire to wait until everything’s picture-perfect in order to live my life. We moved into our house almost two weeks ago, and were just told that our container of furniture and curtains and bedding won’t arrive until the end of November. There was a time in my life when this news would have crushed me. I would have felt on edge with large barren walls and plastic bins for end tables and rug-less floors. I would’ve been ashamed to host my in-laws for Thanksgiving with no guest room for them.…
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first day of school.
At 7:30 on this wet, gray morning in August, I climb in the car, pull out of our borrowed-for-the-month neighborhood, and find myself swept up in a flood of traffic. Today is the first day of school—at least for those in Irmo, South Carolina. My seven-minute drive to Panera takes twenty-five as I inch my way, with hundreds of other cars, past three schools: Irmo Elementary, Crossroads Middle, and Irmo High. I don’t mind the delay though. I love the start of a new school year. I love school supplies and colorful backpacks and reuniting with friends and the thrill of new textbooks and figuring out the semester’s class schedule. …
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“let’s do school!”
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monday.
The boys are home safe and sound, and we hit the ground running today: 1. We started school! David and I sat down last night to have a look at Week One (there is really almost zero prep work . . . everything is planned out for you), then this morning, after swim class, we gathered in the school room for our first day. It was brief and simple and involved mostly reading books aloud, and my heart just melted watching David cuddled in the Reading Corner with our kids. 2. Priya came back to us after a week off, and boy, am I ever happy! 3. David had his…