Changing things up a bit

~Making some clarifications this morning.  I write blog posts late at night after a day of being busy with children and sometimes I’m tired and just don’t say things the way I wanted to.  I was awoken early this morning with some realizations that I did not say things in a very clear way.  And since I’ve not had much caffeine this morning…yet, there is the possibility that I still won’t say it very well but I’ll give it a try anyway!~

My four-year-old loves school.  Everyday, she asks me to do school and gets disappointed if I tell her that it is not a school day.  Today, she was asking me if we were going to do more school than we had all ready done for the day.  I then heard my six-year-old daughter tell her that she really didn’t have to like school and that one day she wouldn’t like it at all.

This broke my heart.

Now I know that some people just don’t like school.  I can’t understand it though because I loved learning.  I still love learning.  LOVE it!  :)  And my biggest goal for my children is not to teach them every fact and piece of knowledge but to give them the tools to be life-long learners.  I would love for them to hunger for that learning…to search out new knowledge to help shape and better them throughout their lives.

But my daughter does not like it.  She is burned out and has developed a dislike for learning.  A six-year-old should not be burned out on school.  They should be soaking it up and hungry for more. 

I started to reflect on her school year.  It has been a tough one.  We’ve had issues with completing work and it has been a struggle for her and me.  I realize that she has been given workbook upon workbook upon worksheet to complete.  Now here’s where it gets funny…  I do not like workbooks and worksheets.  I have not used them much over these past homeschool years (until this year) and I did not use them much in my public school classroom.  I love projects, writing assignments, field trips, and art.  Those things inspire me and so many other children to learn.  I did those things with my first and second graders over the eight years that I taught in public schools.  And they loved it.  They wanted to learn and they hungered for it.  Yet here is my precious, intelligent, creative daughter and I’ve given her workbooks.  She hates it and I feel like I’ve failed her. 

With only a few weeks of school left, it is really easy for me to say, “I’ll just hang on for the next few weeks and then I’ll change it up next year to meet her learning style.  I’ll do projects and writing assignments.  I won’t order many workbooks and we’ll do hands-on lessons…” But I decided that it can’t wait.  The time is now.  Tonight, I’m putting away all of the workbooks but math.  We are going to read, write, create, and learn.  And I’m hoping that over these next few weeks of school, that her passion for learning the unknown will be sparked and rekindled.  I’m praying that she will see the importance of what we are doing and  that we’re not just doing it to check off another box.  I hope to hear her  encourage her little sister to be a learner. 

That’s my prayer for my oldest daughter and for our little homeschool.