Character Training

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I really wanted to share about this character training curriculum we're using with the little boys.  Character is something we've always focused on with all of our kids and homeschooling is the perfect environment to teach it.  How else can one walk in obedience to Deuteronomy 6:5-9 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.  And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these command I am giving you today.  Repeat them again and again to your children.  Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again.  Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  

Ok, so it's easier said then done, I admit.  Sometimes I get sidetracked.  Sometimes I'm in such a hurry to just get school done.  I get caught up in "we have to finish this text book, this worksheet, this whatever."  I don't really worry about how my kids will do over-all since we have graduated 3 kids, two of which have college degrees.  We have one who will be graduating from high school early with an Associates' Degree in Psychology from Liberty University.  But I do start buying into the mind set that we have get every page of every book done.  This was our 12th year of homeschooling, so you'd think I'd know what I'm doing by now!  But our homeschool, our family, and our kids are much different then they were back in the beginning.  Presently we are home educating 5 kids (Slava, Jordan, Anna, Andrii, and Sierra).  I did have to start making some changes after we brought the kids home from Ukraine knowing all kids are different and learn differently, and knowing these kids would have to learn English first.  It all just worked out though.  Homeschooling was and is the best way to educate our kids.  But with a larger family came a busier life, especially after we added Slava 2 years ago.  He has many needs which include weekly visits to the local public school for physical therapy & occupational therapy. This has the tendency for me to feel stress that I have to do it all in case the school discovers some huge gap in his schooling.  Does it sound like fear was creeping in?  Yup.  But I've experienced great freedom as of late which really started a year ago, but I need to be reminded of it often.  

When I'm feeling behind with our schooling, which happens almost daily, I become grumpy and take the fun out of it.  Last year at our annual homeschool convention I sat in on Marilyn Boyer's message about homeschool burn-out.  I've never forgotten what she said, "If your homeschooling isn't fun, change what you're doing."   That stuck with me, and I've tried to keep it in mind this year.  But then I put that pressure on myself again.  The Boyer's have 14 biological kids (and several grandkids now) and are homeschooling pioneers since they've been doing it since 1980.  They developed Character Concepts curriculum from the tried and true methods they used with their own kids and now grandkids.  I've been using "Character Concepts For Preschoolers" with our little boys.  Though they are not really preschoolers, it was a great place to start.  We've been focusing on concepts such as obedience, patience, honesty, respect, etc.  We practice the meaning of each concept and the Bible verse that goes with it every night before bed.  There are also stories and other activities to go along with it that we used throughout the week.  Sometimes I'm more on top of it than others, but lately I've kicked it up a notch or two.  Back in February when Slava saw the developmental pediatrician, Dr. Malone said that with kids like Slava (FASD, ADHD, and Sensory Processing) there is hope and he can make progress, but we need to focus on life skills and character training.  It doesn't matter how intelligent a person is if they can't function well in society.  The doctor even said that there are highly intelligent people in the world who have no skills and don't function well in society.  Though Slava is doing very well in Kindergarten and is even reading now, I realize that life skills and character training are even more important than the academics.  Not that we're throwing out the text books, but I no longer feel bound to them as much as before.  In addition to all of that I've learned about the new State mandated "Common Core Curriculum" that the public schools must adhere to.  I've heard from both teachers and parents that they do not like this mandate.  Basically the teachers have to teach the kids so they can pass a test so the school will achieve a high enough rating to get their State aid.  I'm sure it's more complicated then that, but that is what it boils down to.  As homeschoolers we do have to adhere to the State education laws for homeschoolers, but this new mandate does not apply to us.  I do not have to teach my kids so they can pass some test.  I have the freedom to educate them for life!  

So now our daily focus is on character training, behavior management, and life skills.  We still do some academics, but with less pressure and more fun.  I can honestly say that this week I loosened up on phonics and language with Jordan so that we could start a study on the 50 States.  This year I'd planned to study each of the 50 States with the little boys, but never got to it because I always felt like we had to get to the "reading, writing, and arithmetic" which didn't leave time for the fun stuff.  Since we're taking a family vacation to Virginia this summer, I realized it might be a life skill to learn what and where Virginia is.  

In future posts I hope to share more of the fun things we will be doing for school.  Maybe I posted this to motivate myself, but I hope it motivates others too.  Since this is my 2nd post in the same day, I'd better get going and accomplish something.  Maybe I'll go teach the little boys how the washer/dryer works!  Sounds like a life skill to me!