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May is soon coming and that means one thing to a homeschooling family--the light at the end of the tunnel. It is the time to start winding down with the math curriculum, art projects, and history papers, and start preparing for our end-of-year homeschool review with the county.
As mom and teacher, this is the time when I take a good hard look at what exactly we have accomplished over the past nine months, as I pull together portfolio binders featuring each child's work. I ask myself the following questions:
Have we met our curriculum goals that were laid out in August?
Have we covered all the math content in everyone's grade level?
Do we have any holes in our reading or writing skills or in our understanding of our science or history curricula?
Since this is my fourth year homeschooling my three children, I would never claim to be a seasoned veteran, and yet, I am not a newbie to it all, either. I have seen a pattern develop around this time of year, and it often goes like this:
I ask the above questions and realize that NO, our curriculum goals have not been fully met; NO, we have NOT covered every page in every book this year; YES, we do have holes in our skills and knowledge of certain areas.
And then I feel the irresistible urge to cram.
I suddenly assign all-those-blank-pages in our science notebooks--you know, the ones where we just discussed the concepts but no one actually filled in the vocabulary crossword puzzle. Or I run across a three-body-paragraph-paper my daughter wrote in November, and I suddenly have the urge to assign her to write an introduction and a conclusion...just to "round it out." And I look behind the geography tab of our portfolio binders and see precious little, so suddenly I want to pass around blank maps and have the children label countries, cities, oceans and rivers.
And then I have to take a HUGE step back and pause, before I taint the entire year with my own agenda and my own desire to have it look just so.
In truth, I am coming to the realization that there has got to be a better way to assess "success" for our homeschool year.
I am taking time out this year to consider the what ifs...
What if there is more to learning than completing every workbook page in the book?
What if there is more to learning than merely assessing the volume of books read or papers written?
What if there is more to learning than filled in map work and perfectly scrawled cursive lettering?
What if I asked these questions about my children instead...?
- Do they care? Have I seen an increase in their hunger to learn more about history, science, nature, art, the universe around them? Do they take the time to notice things around them in nature? Do they marvel at things with awe and wonder?
- Can they read well? Phonics aside, do my children read (and/or sit to be read to) and ask thoughtful questions about the content of the material and, more importantly, does it lead them to wonder and ask about other things? Do they read/listen to a wide variety of books?
- Can they speak well? Can my children express themselves in a thoughtful way? Do they listen to others' ideas or questions and thoughtfully respond? Can they form insightful questions?
- Can they think well? Do my children make connections between school subjects, or between "real" life and school?
- Are they teachable? Do my children possess the humility of mind and spirit to be willing to listen, learn, and be redirected? Do they have an idea where to go to find new information or to answer a question?
You see, Plutarch, the ancient Greek biographer, said it best when he stated that education was not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.
This is the time of year I must preach this to myself and restrain myself from drowning my children in my feeble attempt to fill their buckets (with all that grade-suggested content!), and force myself to take a step back to assess whether or not their hearts and minds are on fire!
And, I have come to realize, that even seeing a spark in their hearts and minds is true success.
(To learn more about why we homeschool, or to get your questions answered, check out this post and this post.)
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