Mom School isn't exactly like Hogwarts….
In my "regular" life I'm a full-time educator. My degree is in social work but I have spent about 90% of my career in education. I passionately believe education is one of the greatest ways to change your situation in life (behind Jesus, of course). Because of that philosophy, working in schools fits with my goals as a social worker.
Here's the thing about passionate convictions, though, they don't end when you leave your place of employment. I'm passionate about helping people become their best selves outside of work, I just don't get paid in all those other areas of my life.
Because I feel so strongly about education, it is one of our biggest priorities in parenting. Many of the things we do at home have learning as a goal. My girls have both gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to early preparation for school success. But they are hard workers and enjoy school, so they have made huge progress in school in the last three years. One way we improve their chances at success is something we have lovingly named "Mom School".
Mom School is pretty much what it sounds like. It is school taught by dear old Mom, generally during any long breaks we have from school (spring break, Christmas break, summer break, and sometimes snow days).
Some of the things we cover in Mom School are very ho-hum and mundane, like math facts. I watch my children take three times as long on their homework as they should, simply because they don't have their math facts memorized. Plus, most of the problems they miss are from simple math errors. So, math facts are a biggie in Mom School. Sometimes it is math games, but sometimes we practice by worksheets and rote memorization. Sure it's a Snooze Fest, but it's also effective.
I also am a huge fan of writing and think that it is one of the most critical skills I was ever taught. I had some absolutely amazing teachers who taught me what I know about writing junior high and high school and what they taught me is the very thing that got me through college and graduate school. One of my Mom School goals is to give my girls a leg up on the writing process so that when they are required to write for "real" school, it will feel like second nature. Mom School has persuasive (or opinion) writing, creative writing, research writing, and even some poetry. I try to make it interesting. For example, this summer I have several really cool photos I am using as writing prompts for creative writing. Like one photo is of an old van with thousands of bananas spilling out of it. Another photo is of a car sunk in an in-ground swimming pool. The photos are funny and make you wonder about the real story behind the picture.
There will be art projects and science experiments and field trips and cooking classes.
It wouldn't be Mom School if there wasn't some reading. I have a long list of books to choose from this year. Our genre of study this summer is mystery. We are going to study the parts of a mystery story and then identify those parts as we read together. In fact, our over-arching theme this year is Crime Scene Investigation. We're going to do some science of CSI, like studying fingerprints and doing a little practice lifting prints off of glass. As the girls complete different assignments throughout Mom School, they will be "rewarded" with clues to our overall Mom School Mystery, which they will have to work together to solve.
The first summer I did Mom School with the girls there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, after we got started they realized that Mom School was usually pretty fun. Just today, my youngest daughter begged to start Mom School. It isn't exactly like Hogwarts, but Mom School is sometimes pretty magical.
Here's the thing about passionate convictions, though, they don't end when you leave your place of employment. I'm passionate about helping people become their best selves outside of work, I just don't get paid in all those other areas of my life.
Because I feel so strongly about education, it is one of our biggest priorities in parenting. Many of the things we do at home have learning as a goal. My girls have both gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to early preparation for school success. But they are hard workers and enjoy school, so they have made huge progress in school in the last three years. One way we improve their chances at success is something we have lovingly named "Mom School".
Mom School is pretty much what it sounds like. It is school taught by dear old Mom, generally during any long breaks we have from school (spring break, Christmas break, summer break, and sometimes snow days).
Some of the things we cover in Mom School are very ho-hum and mundane, like math facts. I watch my children take three times as long on their homework as they should, simply because they don't have their math facts memorized. Plus, most of the problems they miss are from simple math errors. So, math facts are a biggie in Mom School. Sometimes it is math games, but sometimes we practice by worksheets and rote memorization. Sure it's a Snooze Fest, but it's also effective.
I also am a huge fan of writing and think that it is one of the most critical skills I was ever taught. I had some absolutely amazing teachers who taught me what I know about writing junior high and high school and what they taught me is the very thing that got me through college and graduate school. One of my Mom School goals is to give my girls a leg up on the writing process so that when they are required to write for "real" school, it will feel like second nature. Mom School has persuasive (or opinion) writing, creative writing, research writing, and even some poetry. I try to make it interesting. For example, this summer I have several really cool photos I am using as writing prompts for creative writing. Like one photo is of an old van with thousands of bananas spilling out of it. Another photo is of a car sunk in an in-ground swimming pool. The photos are funny and make you wonder about the real story behind the picture.
There will be art projects and science experiments and field trips and cooking classes.
It wouldn't be Mom School if there wasn't some reading. I have a long list of books to choose from this year. Our genre of study this summer is mystery. We are going to study the parts of a mystery story and then identify those parts as we read together. In fact, our over-arching theme this year is Crime Scene Investigation. We're going to do some science of CSI, like studying fingerprints and doing a little practice lifting prints off of glass. As the girls complete different assignments throughout Mom School, they will be "rewarded" with clues to our overall Mom School Mystery, which they will have to work together to solve.
The first summer I did Mom School with the girls there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, after we got started they realized that Mom School was usually pretty fun. Just today, my youngest daughter begged to start Mom School. It isn't exactly like Hogwarts, but Mom School is sometimes pretty magical.
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