Writing a Curriculum

I've wanted to write a curriculum on and off for years, going back to when I was still at Uni, and long before I'd even considered home-schooling.  There's always the question of *what* to write, however.

I have a few ideas, and I think my first project will be a book list, for teaching different maths concepts to children from 3-7 years old.  So it wont be a curriculum as much as a resource for other people to use.  I've developed this list myself through working with my own children and finding books to teach them mathematics concepts.

I think my second project will be a phonics program, using the Bible.  It will provide a list of letters and their sounds and Bible verses a word that uses the sound can be found in.  Again, it's not a curriculum so much as a resource.

For a third project I think I will have a similar book list to the first, but some suggestions for teaching basic grammar concepts (such as questions, speech, nouns, exclamations etc).  Although it's probably not necessary since most decent books would have good examples of most grammatical concepts, at least those needed at 3-7 years old!

Perhaps my third project will be editing (for common use) a game I've made for my children of "silly sentences".  We've found some online but some of them aren't well constructed and so don't make a lot of sense with a significant proportion of the possible combinations.

They should give me enough to do in my spare time for now ;-)

My Incredible Life

On pondering what my incredible life would look like, the computer did not rate at all.

  So why do I spend so much time on the computer?

FYI What my incredible life looks like is: (in no particular order)

Healthy body, healthy mind.  Time and desire to play and read with adults (particularly hubby) and children (especially mine).  Clean house.  Good food.  Good friends.  No debt.  8 children (I don't know why but that number keeps popping into my head).  No clutter.  Mentoring and mentored.  Love.  Well behaved children.  Energy.  Peaceful.  Passionate.  Fun.  Learning, always learning.  Godly.  Well done good and faithful servant.

Linky Parade

I wanted to link back to a few articles I've written, rather than republish them here.

Babies, Sleep and Sleep Deprivation


The Benefits of No, The Benefits of Yes


Hard Homeschooling

And a general link back to my Articles page.

Happy Reading!

The attitude of *potential* deprivation

There is an attitude I see floating around home schooling parents a lot. That is the attitude of potential deprivation.  It's not that we worry that our children are deprived - that they are missing out on some essential experience or learning, that their future hinges upon.  It's that they *might* miss out on something or that they may feel that they missed out on something, when they become adults. 

Certainly, some of our children may feel they were deprived of the classroom experience.  They may be jealous of the hours other get to spend in the company of children-other-than-siblings.  It's quite likely that some will feel that way.

It's also quite likely that some schooled children will feel they were deprived of their parents' attention, that they may have gotten had they been home schooled.  Or feel deprived of endless hours to read or pursue areas of interest that their school and after-school-activity schedule doesn't allow.

It's also likely that some of our home schooled children will feel deprived of the experiences that other home schooled children have had.  Some families will be able to afford to extend their cultural studies by visiting the country they are learning about.  Some home schooled children have a very full schedule of classes and out-of-home activities that may be the envy of students who have a more home-based life.

Then again, schooled students may feel deprived of experiences afforded to other schooled students due to location, parental income, school attended, parents' working hours, a multitude of siblings or a lack thereof...

In fact, we humans are capable of feeling deprived in just about every situation.

The problem is not a dearth of educational experiences or social encounters.  The problem is not going to be what you provided for your children educationally.

The problem is sin.  It is a lack of contentedness.  If Paul the Apostle can learn to be content whatever the circumstances (including imprisonment, stoning, shipwrecks etc) then surely we can.

So if we teach our children anything, let's start teaching them contentedness.