Secrets Teachers Never Tell

**QuilterMom** · 10-12-2004, 08:42 PM

These are my notes from the seminar I attended at my state homeschool convention.

Secrets Teachers Never Tell
Joyce Herzog www.joyceherzog.com

1. You can't come back in the fall, if you take a summer break, and expect your kids to remember everything/anything from the prior year. You have to start off with review. You should plan on a couple of weeks of review, but can adjust the length according to your child.

- Think about why you do what you do. (i.e. Why do you take a summer break?) Think about why or if you need to do something. Don't do it just because someone else does. When you establish new ways and new thoughts, please tell your children why you are doing it that way. One of the problems for those of us who attended public school is that is what we know (as far as how to teach and why we do things the way we do them).

2. Some months are better than others.

- December is usually a very hard month to teach (due to the holiday). Make it easier on yourself by making school tie together with your life during December. Do math while baking cookies. Have your children write notes to relatives to be included in holiday cards (they get handwriting and creative writing practice). Have your children address the envelopes (handwriting practice plus they learn the consequences of sloppy handwriting if the postal service can't read their writing and return the card to you).

- January is a tough month to teach in warm climates. Go outside in January and stay inside and teach in July when it's hot! Adjust your schedule as needed. You are the administrator of your homeschool and make your school schedule! Make it fit your family.

3. Spurts and Plateaus

- Kids learn in spurts and plateaus. Our goal is to transport the child, educate the child, teach the child. Take all the time your child needs to master a skill. Don't move on just because your textbook says to do so if your child has not mastered the material! We can't do what the book says day by day if our children aren't learning the material.

- Reading through a textbook chapter by chapter and taking a test doesn't necessarily teach your kids.

4. Assimilation Takes Time

- You have to have a period of brainless/mindless activity to compute the things you've learned. Kids need this! Let them play and climb trees. They need mindless time to compute the concepts we're teaching.

5. Averages Aren't Always

- You don't have to grade every paper. Keep one paper per subject, per child, per week and you can get a good idea if your children are grasping the material.

- It's okay to be good in some things and not so good in others.

6. Learning Involves Doing

- Do what you and your kids enjoy. If they aren't laughing and giggling on a daily basis, they aren't learning as much as you think they are. Make it fun!

- Don't label your child by grade level! (You have been brainwashed by the system if you think this way). Whenever someone asks how old your child is, don't say "oh, she's a first grader". That tells the person nothing. Instead think of your child as "a 6 year old reading on a 4th grade level and doing math on a 3rd grade level".

7. Finishing Texts

- Shame on you if you think you must finish the text each year.

- You don't have to do day one on day one and day two on day two just because that's what the teacher's manual says.

- Know your child! Knowing your child's heart and skills plus their weaknesses is prime to teaching them.

8. The Natives Are Restless Days

- Ever have those days where no one wants to do "school"? Do all the wonderful projects you wanted to do, but didn't have the time. Complete unfinished projects.

- Let your kids play educational games. Kids learn from games and need games.

9. Atmosphere

- Children can't learn in an atmosphere of fear, anxiety, depression, etc.

10. Who Decided

- Who decided what should be taught at each grade level?
1.) No one.
2.) The textbook writers.
and 3.) Secular humanists.

- You are your child's teacher! You decide what they learn and when!

11. Redeem The Day

- This is the day when you are ready to kill them. No one can do anything right, everyone and everything is getting on your nerves, etc. Do something to win your heart back to your kids and win your kids' hearts back to you. Take a break for the day and have a picnic, pop popcorn and watch a good movie together, etc.

**guest2** · 10-12-2004, 08:49 PM

Thanks!!!! This is a great reminder. My kids are getting ready to take the PSAT tests tomorrow and I sent them all hunting this evening (while there is still some light) and forbid them to study anymore. They need to have a mindless break before the test and just be kids for awhile. I don't want them stressed out for tomorrow.