Doodle and I have just finished our third week of home schooling. I think it's going well, but I also have this internal question of whether or not I'm doing him justice. Are the activities I give him enough? Are they the right kind of stuff he should be studying? Is it too basic for him? Should we be spending more time on studies? Am I doing him a disservice by not making home school social gatherings more of a priority?
I'm happy that Doodle's doing some problem solving activities every day. I think that's important to develop higher order thinking and I'm hoping that he'll one day (soon?) make a connection to the fact that- just like in his mind bender school activities- he can think real life problems through on his own and figure out solutions for himself.
We've been reviewing math daily. Double digit addition and subtraction, with a little time telling and coin counting thrown in for good measure. But a voice inside my head keeps nagging at me. Should I have Doodle working from a textbook series like (maybe?) he would do in public school? Is the colorful workbook for 6-8 year olds that I bought at Costco just a cheap "filler" instead of a meaty curriculum tool? I went for color and pictures so it'd keep Doodle more interested. The worksheets have games and riddles to solve through math problems. But there's little to no formal instruction in the book. That's where I come in, right? But since Doodle knows what to do and I'm mostly just assigning pages and correcting his work- am I really teaching? Or have we come back to the question of whether or not the stuff I assign is too easy for him?
As for reading... Doodle finished the first (six book) series I gave him even before we officially started home school. Each chapter book was at least 75 pages. So of course the 60ish page entry level chapter books that we checked out from the library are a breeze for him to blow through in 30 minutes. Daily book reports? Check. Been there, done that, got bored with it. Maybe I need to spend more time on improving the quality of his reports, but part of me says that if I point out too many errors or places to improve, I'll just destroy his desire to learn or work. Maybe I just need to spend more time showing Doodle a bigger variety of book report options. Whew, I got my work cut out for me.
On the up side... Doodle gets a lot more play time. He's much more interested in going outside to play (thanks to Papa and his sisters for that, especially!). I don't have to schedule my day around carpool drop off and pick up. In fact, Doodle prefers to run errands with me and do his school work wherever we are, than to go to a drop off or day care center to play for the day. So I can stay productive for the household and still have time in between for just Doodle and me.
I always wonder what more should I be doing for him, for the house, for the rest of the family. But for now, it's time to check on a not-napping girl.
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