school

San Angelo schools started today. Our kids are staying home. Isaac's too young anyway. (He's still running around in his underwear this morning, which, I guess, is becoming a common practice around here.) When we return home to Kansas, Carly will attend her second year of preschool at the Lutheran Preschool. Meanwhile, the kids have been and will be going through a homemade curriculum. We have 2-week-long themes integrating math, handwriting, and reading, but most of what we do is crafts. Our current theme is an animal theme (broad, I know).

My original goal of homeschool-preschool was to sit the kids down in a semi-formal setting and make them do structured classwork for at least 15-30 minutes a day. This sounds a little rigid to some, but I think kids need to know how to sit down, listen, and do what they're told to do. Our kids need handwriting help, so that's what we're practicing. Carly needs to learn how to read, so we've spent time at the table making words out of homemade letter tiles and reading simple books throughout the day.

I sound like a mean teacher with a stick. But what I really think is that kids will learn what they need to learn, especially with gentle parental guidance. I've told Jared before that I'd rather have a dumb kid who faithfully loves Jesus than a smart kid who rejects Him - not that it has to be one way or the other. But as we start sending Carly and Isaac off to school in the next couple years, I hope we can keep focus on what's really important.