Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Teaching Again...


Well, I recently started a new teaching job.  We are about 4 weeks in, and so far it is going great!  I am teaching part time, Monday and Wednesday, for 3 hours each day.  I have 7 students-6th & 7th grade-for Math, Science, and Bible.  The school is Covenant Preparatory Academy (although it will soon change names) and it is a school for home schooled kids.  They just started last year, so it is still pretty small.

You might ask, "shouldn't home schooled kids be learning at home?"  And the answer is, "yes...and no."  Although most of their studying and work is done at home, these kids come to classes 2 days a week.  They have the 3 classes with me in the morning, and 2 classes (English & History) in the afternoon.  We do the lecturing, experiments, "teaching" and then give them studying & assignments to do at home.  If it sounds like college to you, you're on the right track...it's a university model school.  So the class set-up is a lot like college.  The other interesting thing is that the kids aren't required to take all 5 classes...their parents can choose which classes they want them to take, & which ones they would rather teach them at home.  So, although there are 7 students, I only have 3 in Math.  The other students are either below level in Math or have another reason that their parent chose to teach them this subject at home.

As I get further into teaching in this setting, my thoughts about homeschooling are continually changing.  I have actually thought a lot about whether I would want to homeschool Adley, although this decision is a few years away still, and I tend to go back and forth.  There are pros and cons to all kinds of schooling, public, private & homeschool.  But this new idea of having some classes with other kids & some at home is starting to grow on me.  There are several schools that I know of that have adopted this model around Houston, and the people that I have talked to who's kids are in this model really seem to love it!  Perhaps it's a growing model across the US, but it is definitely an intriguing idea that I'll keep in mind for the future!

Thursday, September 05, 2013

Kiddie Land

As a kid, one of my favorite places to go during the summer was Kiddieland.  Growing up, this place was like Disney World to me...Ok, maybe not quite that exciting, but I did love to go.  Kiddie Land has exactly 4 rides (Train, Airplanes, Carousel, and Tilt-a-whirl) and when I was little I could only ride 2 of them (Train & Carousel) because I'm pretty much a ride wimp.  Every summer I would give the airplanes a try again, only to realize halfway through that you don't really "outgrow" motion sickness, and spend the rest of the ride with my head down praying for it to be over.  Then I would get off the ride, and promptly walk to the bushes and puke.  Every. Summer. As I got older, I realized that I should just ride the train over and over again and then get a snow cone! 

On Friday night, we introduced Adley to the joys of Kiddieland.  Following in her mom's footsteps, she started off with just 2 rides (more because she's not big enough for the other ones more than the fear of puking!)  She rode the Carousel with my mom first, and then we all rode the train.  I think the jury is still out on the Carousel...she started out looking excited, halfway through had her arms around my mom's neck, and by the end they were sitting on one of the benches instead of the horse.  But as we walked past the ride after she got off, she acted excited like she wanted to go again.  Who knows!





I would call her first Kiddieland adventure a success...except that we passed on the snow cones at the park in lieu of getting one from the good snow cone stand down the street...and when we got there it was closed for the summer.  Bummer!  I'm sure she will enjoy more Kiddieland adventures (and snow cones!) next summer!