Hello Everyone!
So...the big question first: who am I and what am I doing? The who am I is the easy part – I’m HHHS*Admin, the person who keeps your website up and running smoothly, who is the personal computer consultant of your home school group coordinator, and someone who has grown up their entire lives being homeschooled. Oh, and I’m in college to become a cyber security expert; hence, the reason why I’m not posting my actual name on here. But, most of you have probably figured out who I am anyways. The “what am I doing” part of that question? Well, I really have no idea what I’m doing, and that’s the truest thing I’ve ever said. What I am doing on here is a bit easier to answer. I already said that I’ve been homeschooled my entire life and I thought some of you might benefit from the things I have found most useful as I moved on to college and cool things that I continue to discover. Call it a view of homeschooling from the child’s point of view. Although I am not really a child anymore, my mother might chime in here and say that I sometimes still act like it! She’s probably right – I still get frustrated when I can’t understand the teacher, and irritated about things I don’t want to learn, and life is just hard in general. I’m sure you all can relate to that.
Even though I really don’t know many of you anymore, I do know the struggles that you women face. I watched my mother struggle the same way every single day. I would like to say, first and foremost, keep doing what you are doing. It impacts the lives of your little ones for all eternity and is the best gift you could ever give them. There may be times when you most certainly want to quit, but don’t. Your children may hate you now, but they will love you for all the time you invested in them later. Keep struggling, and when you can’t go on any further, call your friendly neighborhood homeschool coordinator and she will help you. (She’s going to kill me for putting that on here.) But seriously, don’t be afraid to lean on others for help – that’s what we’re here for.
Now, I will dig right in and get to my first point of this blogging business. (By the way, I’ve never done this before, so if I completely don’t get it right, I’m just going to apologize in advance.) One of the most important things to learn is reading. That seems like it would be a “duh” kind of a thing, but, in the world with so many electronics, computers, and cell phones, it seems like reading is a dying art. So, I would emphasize that while teaching your children to read, it is also important to instill in them a love of reading. I value so much that my mother taught me to love reading. I remember when I got older, okay, about six or seven, she would always put reading at the end of the day, because I would get stuck reading a book and then have to read to the end. I was recently reminded of how much I love reading – I happen to be getting over a cold as I’m writing this, so I took the opportunity to read a new book, Tahn. It’s a medieval story about a mercenary slave, who risks his own life to rescue eight children and one lady of noble blood from the hands of his mercenary friends. Awesome sounding, right? There’s something about the thrill of adventure found in books that is rarely found elsewhere. Movies are usually the substitute for books, and I am terribly guilty of that one, but movies do not stimulate imagination like a book can. In my own personal opinion and experience, movies seem to dull your mind, but books seem to make it sharper. This is scary – I might have to take my own advice here.
So, now we know what we want, the question is how we get there. It’s like tuple calculus versus relational algebra in a relational database management system. Okay, now you know what I have to deal with on a daily basis. Back to problem at hand...how do you get people to love to read? Well, in my own experience, I read for two reasons: knowledge or pleasure. Knowledge is the five to ten chapters of dry text books I get to read each week. Pleasure is the five to ten comic books I rip through every week and the adventure story I sneak in my backpack to read over lunch. (There had better not be anyone on here who points out that comic books don’t count as reading. I love my comic books. Don’t judge.) I don’t love reading my text books as interesting as they are. The lesson here is almost to let your kids read what they want to. My mother always had book lists for us that we could choose from, and we read some of those. Generally, they were to push us on our reading ability. I have to say though, there was many a time I would find my brother downstairs with a textbook or proper reading book open, but inside the textbook, he’d have a Hardy boy book open. That was what he was really reading. Well, it didn’t take long for me to figure out what a clever idea he had, and I promptly followed suit. Hardy boy mysteries and Nancy Drew mysteries were some of our favorite books. I also grew to love G.A. Henty books – which is why I probably own around thirty to forty of them. I think I also got through about thirty to forty Elsie Dinsmore books. While quality is certainly important and not to be forgotten, quantity is also worth something. I loved to read because there were no limits on books. Chances are, I will probably remember how Nancy Drew solved “The sign of the twisted candles,” and the odd story of the “Twenty One Balloons” far more than I will any proper books, and definitely text books.
Just in case you’re wondering more about the books I loved growing up, I can ramble on that a little bit more. I already mentioned some – the G. A. Henty books, Elsie Dinsmore, Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew Mysteries. Any Newberry Honor Award books are usually really good. Mandy and the secret tunnel collection is good too. It truthfully depends on individual taste and preference. Personally – I never really like the classics. Some of them have pretty crummy morals – like King Solomon’s mines – I always hated that book. No offence to anyone who does – I won’t judge...probably. I liked Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn – especially the part where Tom tricks his friends into white washing the fence for him. Sounds like something I would do.
I remember as part of the homeschool group when I grew up, we used to have book fairs, where each child would dress up as the main character in their favorite book and tell a little bit about their book. I should mention to that coordinator she should plan some more of those. ;-) I remember my brother always hated dressing up and giving a speech (still does, now that I think about it), but I remember it being fun. I even remember being Pocahontas one time and my dad knocked over my basket of candy corn in the grass. Ah, fond family memories. Books bring back many of them. There is nothing so great as curling up with a warm blanket and a good book, no matter how young or old you are. In the words of Einstein, “The only thing you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”
So...the big question first: who am I and what am I doing? The who am I is the easy part – I’m HHHS*Admin, the person who keeps your website up and running smoothly, who is the personal computer consultant of your home school group coordinator, and someone who has grown up their entire lives being homeschooled. Oh, and I’m in college to become a cyber security expert; hence, the reason why I’m not posting my actual name on here. But, most of you have probably figured out who I am anyways. The “what am I doing” part of that question? Well, I really have no idea what I’m doing, and that’s the truest thing I’ve ever said. What I am doing on here is a bit easier to answer. I already said that I’ve been homeschooled my entire life and I thought some of you might benefit from the things I have found most useful as I moved on to college and cool things that I continue to discover. Call it a view of homeschooling from the child’s point of view. Although I am not really a child anymore, my mother might chime in here and say that I sometimes still act like it! She’s probably right – I still get frustrated when I can’t understand the teacher, and irritated about things I don’t want to learn, and life is just hard in general. I’m sure you all can relate to that.
Even though I really don’t know many of you anymore, I do know the struggles that you women face. I watched my mother struggle the same way every single day. I would like to say, first and foremost, keep doing what you are doing. It impacts the lives of your little ones for all eternity and is the best gift you could ever give them. There may be times when you most certainly want to quit, but don’t. Your children may hate you now, but they will love you for all the time you invested in them later. Keep struggling, and when you can’t go on any further, call your friendly neighborhood homeschool coordinator and she will help you. (She’s going to kill me for putting that on here.) But seriously, don’t be afraid to lean on others for help – that’s what we’re here for.
Now, I will dig right in and get to my first point of this blogging business. (By the way, I’ve never done this before, so if I completely don’t get it right, I’m just going to apologize in advance.) One of the most important things to learn is reading. That seems like it would be a “duh” kind of a thing, but, in the world with so many electronics, computers, and cell phones, it seems like reading is a dying art. So, I would emphasize that while teaching your children to read, it is also important to instill in them a love of reading. I value so much that my mother taught me to love reading. I remember when I got older, okay, about six or seven, she would always put reading at the end of the day, because I would get stuck reading a book and then have to read to the end. I was recently reminded of how much I love reading – I happen to be getting over a cold as I’m writing this, so I took the opportunity to read a new book, Tahn. It’s a medieval story about a mercenary slave, who risks his own life to rescue eight children and one lady of noble blood from the hands of his mercenary friends. Awesome sounding, right? There’s something about the thrill of adventure found in books that is rarely found elsewhere. Movies are usually the substitute for books, and I am terribly guilty of that one, but movies do not stimulate imagination like a book can. In my own personal opinion and experience, movies seem to dull your mind, but books seem to make it sharper. This is scary – I might have to take my own advice here.
So, now we know what we want, the question is how we get there. It’s like tuple calculus versus relational algebra in a relational database management system. Okay, now you know what I have to deal with on a daily basis. Back to problem at hand...how do you get people to love to read? Well, in my own experience, I read for two reasons: knowledge or pleasure. Knowledge is the five to ten chapters of dry text books I get to read each week. Pleasure is the five to ten comic books I rip through every week and the adventure story I sneak in my backpack to read over lunch. (There had better not be anyone on here who points out that comic books don’t count as reading. I love my comic books. Don’t judge.) I don’t love reading my text books as interesting as they are. The lesson here is almost to let your kids read what they want to. My mother always had book lists for us that we could choose from, and we read some of those. Generally, they were to push us on our reading ability. I have to say though, there was many a time I would find my brother downstairs with a textbook or proper reading book open, but inside the textbook, he’d have a Hardy boy book open. That was what he was really reading. Well, it didn’t take long for me to figure out what a clever idea he had, and I promptly followed suit. Hardy boy mysteries and Nancy Drew mysteries were some of our favorite books. I also grew to love G.A. Henty books – which is why I probably own around thirty to forty of them. I think I also got through about thirty to forty Elsie Dinsmore books. While quality is certainly important and not to be forgotten, quantity is also worth something. I loved to read because there were no limits on books. Chances are, I will probably remember how Nancy Drew solved “The sign of the twisted candles,” and the odd story of the “Twenty One Balloons” far more than I will any proper books, and definitely text books.
Just in case you’re wondering more about the books I loved growing up, I can ramble on that a little bit more. I already mentioned some – the G. A. Henty books, Elsie Dinsmore, Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew Mysteries. Any Newberry Honor Award books are usually really good. Mandy and the secret tunnel collection is good too. It truthfully depends on individual taste and preference. Personally – I never really like the classics. Some of them have pretty crummy morals – like King Solomon’s mines – I always hated that book. No offence to anyone who does – I won’t judge...probably. I liked Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn – especially the part where Tom tricks his friends into white washing the fence for him. Sounds like something I would do.
I remember as part of the homeschool group when I grew up, we used to have book fairs, where each child would dress up as the main character in their favorite book and tell a little bit about their book. I should mention to that coordinator she should plan some more of those. ;-) I remember my brother always hated dressing up and giving a speech (still does, now that I think about it), but I remember it being fun. I even remember being Pocahontas one time and my dad knocked over my basket of candy corn in the grass. Ah, fond family memories. Books bring back many of them. There is nothing so great as curling up with a warm blanket and a good book, no matter how young or old you are. In the words of Einstein, “The only thing you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”