Pro-school: Beginnings

Ever get that feeling like you're not doing all that you could be doing? I get that a lot with myself. One of my most recent slacking feeling is with my kids. I talked to a friend of mine a while ago and we were talking about homeschooling. I like homeschooling and people who do it. I just don't. We have our kids in public school, and that's great, but it's not the teachers job to teach our kids EVERYTHING. Absolutely not. It's my job to teach my children, and hopefully his/her classroom time will reinforce what I teach, and visa versa.

Well, I've been slacking on my end. I always think, 'what kind of a homeschooling mom would I be.' Pretty sure I'd be the slacker kind...Any ways, I've recently decided to over come this serious flaw of slacker-ness and plan a lesson everyday to teach my kids.

I thought of how to do this, what to teach. And I decided I would teach what I want to learn. Perhaps that would keep me on track, and give me motivation. We read, do ABC's, and practice math now, just in everyday life, so I chose something we don't do. I want to learn about the history of the United States. Really, I do. I would like to be able to say "oh, yes, I know about that. The war of 1812 happened in...1812." And more intelligent stuff like that. ;) So that's what we are doing. And I thought I'd share with you exactly what we are doing incase you would like to go along with us or mix it up with your own flair.

I'm starting the farthest back in U.S. history I know, and that's with the Lamanites and Nephites (not forgetting the Jaradites which came first, but...ya know).

* We have a big world map rug. I'm going to show the kids where Jerusalem is (where Lehi and his family came from) and where the America's are (where they traveled to).

*I also plan on reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon. And discussing some of what happened in the Book of Mormon (it's a big book, but will touch on somethings and leave the rest to family home evenings :)).

*We will also watch the two short videos below and color this picture (the title page)

http://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/conference-coloring-three.pdf

which works great because conference is this weekend. :) (Not the best picture, I know, but I really had a hard time finding a good one, and this will help me incorporate Conference)

*I plan on making a timeline that will border our learning area (aka kitchen). And will mark the things we have learned. Today Nephites and Lamanites, tomorrow Columbus, and so forth from there. Liam wants to learn about cars, so Henry Ford will be involved. Emma wants to learn about "lights", so Thomas Edison will be on our timeline too. I think it will be fun. If I can keep up with it :)

Each "Pro-school" (is what I'm calling it, instead of preschool. Eh? Eh? pretty clever hu? ;)) is at night and only going to last 30ish minutes. But hopefully I can teach them a little bit more than they already know, and maybe we can learn new things together.

Keep motivated.

Keep motivated. :)