Creativity is the name of the game

I hate Vocab. Except that’s not really true, I love vocabulary, I love words and the way they form in my mouth and the things I can do with just the right word at just the right time. I hate vocabulary lessons. HATE THEM. They are boring, and repetitive, and mind-numbing. It’s difficult for young minds to retain the information if they are so bored they can’t focus, it all goes in one ear, drips down their gullets, and puddles on the floor, kind of like drool. I dread them; the boys dread them, so we put them off until the teacher calls and starts to pester about them. Until yesterday. Yesterday, I was brilliant. Yesterday I proved my worth as their teacher.

They have twenty words each week, they have to learn the words, learn their sub words, and figure out which word goes with which sentence. I typed up their list, complete with definitions, and gave them a project to do with their words. They have to complete a short story, using all of their words and use them correctly. Minimum word count is 500 words, and they have one week to complete their story. Both boys took off like their hair was on fire, and spent time outside of class time, willingly, to work on their stories.

There are two stereotypical views of homeschooling that I have encountered, the militant mama who settles her kids down at the kitchen table for hours on end, drilling facts into their children’s heads, and the free-range chicken mama who expects her children to absorb their education via osmosis during the day to day activities. Neither view is correct, but both have a grain of truth to them. The point is, there is an entire spectrum of methods homeschooling parents employ in order to educate our children; we spend time at the table, the couch, the living room floor, the master bed. We go outside, we play in the snow, we dance in the rain. We use the world around us, our experiences, our passions, to lead our children to their own education. We hand it to them in a schema of colors and sounds and tastes, we give them the tools they need to find their own way into educated society. And we can be as creative as we want to be and our kids still get to learn. Even in my world, where my kids attend a virtual school and aren’t 100% homeschooled. They go to school, and they do it from home, it’s not a traditional method by any means, but it’s the method that works for us. I still get to be their teacher, but I have back-up! I have a curriculum, but I have the freedom and option to implement that curriculum with creativity.