can't quit now
I don't often blog about homeschooling. For me it is my full-time job, right along with caring for my family and home. But honestly, aside from the record-keeping and planning parts, I LOVE TEACHING MY GIRLS! I feel more educated than the Ph.D. who teaches at a university. Every day I wrack my brain to teach three grade levels, with 6 to 12 subjects each. I teach Latin (never took it myself), Shakespeare, British History, American History, World Cultures, Algebra, Physical Science, Marine Biology, Astronomy, Natural Science, Grammar and Composition, Spelling, 4th grade math, 6th grade math, Geography, Bible, Poetry, Art and Music Appreciation, Home Economics, Government, Philosophy...the list goes on.
Many of the things I teach my girls are things I never truly studied in school. Perhaps if I did study them, it was not in an absorbing way. Most likely, I memorized a bunch of names and dates, took the test on the info., then promptly forgot everything. My 8th grader's history book is Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking People: The New World (Vol. II). Let me tell you, I have to sit ready with a dictionary to get through this book. Here's a snippet from today's reading, "At this time many of the lords who were now meeting in London pressed on the King the proposal to summon a Magnum Concilium, which was an assembly of the Peers without the Commons." All that to say, it was a Parliament with only the House of Lords meeting, and not the House of Commons. Therefore, it wasn't a true Parliament. (that's my paraphrase).
Here are typical words from the Churchill book: inexorable, contemned, exponent, untenable. I admit, some of these words were not in my everyday vocabulary! At times I wonder if I can keep this up for the next 4 and 1/2 years...to get my oldest through high school. But as I tell my girls, "We can't quit now. In fact, we couldn't even quit if we wanted to!" By living in another country, we have limited ourselves to this option only. We can't send them to public school here (not safe and I don't think it would be allowed by the government...especially with still no resident visas!) and we can't afford private school (estimate about $10,000 per year, per child=not happening!). Yes, God has hemmed us in. But there is faith for what He ordains. And so we press on, seeing God's hand in it all.
Many of the things I teach my girls are things I never truly studied in school. Perhaps if I did study them, it was not in an absorbing way. Most likely, I memorized a bunch of names and dates, took the test on the info., then promptly forgot everything. My 8th grader's history book is Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking People: The New World (Vol. II). Let me tell you, I have to sit ready with a dictionary to get through this book. Here's a snippet from today's reading, "At this time many of the lords who were now meeting in London pressed on the King the proposal to summon a Magnum Concilium, which was an assembly of the Peers without the Commons." All that to say, it was a Parliament with only the House of Lords meeting, and not the House of Commons. Therefore, it wasn't a true Parliament. (that's my paraphrase).
Here are typical words from the Churchill book: inexorable, contemned, exponent, untenable. I admit, some of these words were not in my everyday vocabulary! At times I wonder if I can keep this up for the next 4 and 1/2 years...to get my oldest through high school. But as I tell my girls, "We can't quit now. In fact, we couldn't even quit if we wanted to!" By living in another country, we have limited ourselves to this option only. We can't send them to public school here (not safe and I don't think it would be allowed by the government...especially with still no resident visas!) and we can't afford private school (estimate about $10,000 per year, per child=not happening!). Yes, God has hemmed us in. But there is faith for what He ordains. And so we press on, seeing God's hand in it all.
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