More BIG Changes for Me and My Family

I got a job!

The Classical school in our area was looking for a part-time science teacher. Homeschooling has been tough these last couple months, and the kids miss interacting with friends–they won’t admit it, but I know they do! I also miss being part of a school community. As you know from my posts, we did Classical Conversations for a couple years in the city we lived in previously. I like the Classical education model (I believe Charlotte Mason was a Classical educator) and Samuel does, too. I’m excited to continue with the same type of model we enjoyed before. Samuel will be going to school just in the mornings for at least this year. We’ll do our art studies in the afternoon at home, which includes drawing, piano, music theory, and composer study.

Ruthie will also get to go to preschool. She will attend four days a week in the morning. The teachers are very excited to have her in the classroom. Ruthie isn’t very excited yet, except to play with new toys, but I think she’ll enjoy playing with the other children once she gets comfortable.

I get to teach in the morning while the kids go to their classes. This year, I’m finishing up General Science, Biology, and Chemistry; the school uses textbooks from Apologia, which I was only familiar with by name, but am much more familiar with now that I’ve done most of my planning for the rest of the year. The text is more conversational than the average science textbook, which makes them much easier to read and appreciate. Apologia is also the curriculum that Ambleside Online and Simply Charlotte Mason recommend. The curriculum seems well-liked by many homeschool families. I’m still a little unsure about how to turn the textbook, which is meant for independent study, into lessons that I can teach. I tend to view myself as more of a learning facilitator instead of a lecturer anyways, so I might just end up using the book as the author intends. I’ll probably have a better idea after I meet my students.

The kids begin their normal class schedule on Monday. I also begin on Monday, except that I’ll be shadowing a couple teachers first. I officially start teaching on Wednesday, as long as I feel comfortable. So, as you’re reading this on Thursday morning I’m currently teaching my second day of school. Yay!

You might be wondering what this means for my writing goals this year: to post here on Mondays and Thursdays, and to finish a book. I think I can still meet those goals. I’ll have off a couple days here and there, a week for Spring break, and then the entire summer to write. I’m only teaching part-time, which means I’ll have part of the afternoons available. I’m going to keep participating in The Habit community, which means I’ll have writing assignments to complete. I also won’t have to plan homeschool lessons anymore. My work load might be a little higher, but I’m looking forward to doing more with people. That should give me enough extra energy to continue writing.

I’ll keep you updated about how we like school, and I’ll probably post some of my lesson plans here, too. After all, this blog is called Teacher by Nature, and I’m going to be teaching students about nature. 🙂