There is nothing "Common" about us.

I quit teaching after my third child was born. I came to miss teaching, and that is one of the reasons we decided to home school. I couldn't rationalize paying someone else to teach my children so I could be paid to teach the children of strangers. Of course, there were many other educational, emotional, social, and spiritual factors that you can read about in previous blogs here. But when I say I got out just in time, I didn't know how right that was until lately.

When I began homeschooling my girls, I started hearing a lot about a new teaching method that all of our public schools were adopting whether they liked it or not. It is called Common Core. Now, before you start freaking out, do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Here are some links to get you started...

http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/alissa-tabirian/gov-scott-rejects-common-core-intrusion-florida-s-academic-standards

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/04/principal-i-was-naive-about-common-core/

http://mrsmomblog.com/2013/10/02/how-common-core-is-slowly-changing-my-child/

Now these links obviously reflect my own personal views on common core and what it is doing to our educational system, but you can certainly do your own Google search and read other sources as well, but like I am fond of saying, my marbles, my chalk, my game. This is MY blog, about MY experiences and what I know may not gel with what you know...that's one of the basic and most sacred tenants of homeschooling!!! It can be tailored!! Common Core, however, cannot.

I have a sensitive child. She is funny, bright, loves to create and learn new things, and is an all around joy to be with. Common Core would have destroyed her. She would have constantly come home with confusion, feeling bad about herself. How do I know? I've tried it. I've tried the testing route and I experimented with the different approaches. That is what we do as educators, whether at home or in a school building. There were tears and that general feeling of hopelessness. I couldn't bear it more than once. Her little spirit was so crushed. I can only imagine what day after day of that experience would have done to here. One of the reasons we began homeschooling was that her school was attempting to teach every child the same way and in the same manner regardless of age or ability. We got out just in time!

My oldest child, however, is stubborn. She is gifted and she refuses to learn what she already knows. We DO pre-test with her because it is pointless to attempt to teach her something she already knows. She wants MORE, she wants NEW, she wants BIGGER, BETTER, STRONGER, FASTER. THAT is who SHE is and Common Core would have bored her little gifted brain to tears. How do I know that? BECAUSE I TRIED. We used material that aligned with Common Core last year. She was so bored she ripped through the entire book in one grading period. We attempted a similar feat this year, same result. The mathematics in the books that align with Common Core or are the same as Common Core are just too simplistic and repetitive for her. She needs more. In a public school with CC fully implemented, she would most likely have been in trouble most of the time.

And my youngest? Well, she is still technically "PreK" but she has a love for books and "reading" and she loves to draw and cut paper and learn cool science facts. Those are the things I want to stay with her forever. My concern is that Common Core is so busy trying to teach them to "test well" that they will fail to actually learn well. I want that love she has for learning to continue. She is what we lovingly refer to as 10 pounds of crazy in a 5 pound sack; a complete live wire, but we wouldn't change her for anything.

Where does that leave us? Well, it leaves us where we started actually. We use antiquated text books that teach real history, not revisionist history. Guess what? The Holocaust actually happened. Muslims have been killing people to get power for years. The Crusades were a horrible thing in Christian history...but THEY HAPPENED! Attempting to pretend they didn't only makes us sound silly.

Math is FACTS. 2+2 does not, nor will it ever = 5, regardless of whether you think you can explain how you came up with that answer or not!!! Math is what it is because it is. Period. 2+2 will always correctly =4. It just will. Pretending we can calculate facts by guesstimating them will leave us with just that: guesses.

My 7 year old doesn't need to know what the word "commissioned" means to enjoy Mozart, only to hear it. And she does, although recently we have focused more on Handel and Beethoven...because we can!

And guess what? There is more scientific evidence of a young earth/Creation theory than there ever was of the fallacy that is evolution, so yeah, my kids are going to learn how their God is so powerful that He spoke the world into being.

Spelling is necessary. Good handwriting is a bonus for taking notes and for retaining information. Cursive writing teaches coordination, creativity, and critical thinking.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201303/what-learning-cursive-does-your-brain

These are the things Common Core is changing. I don't want my kids burnt out on learning before they reach middle school, cause in my opinion, that's where some of the biggest fun begins. I can't wait to start teaching them the literary, mathematical, and scientific concepts that will form the foundation for their own creative thinking as adults. Oh wait, I didn't. We started last year when we began this journey. God led us here at exactly the right time. Funny how He does that. And there is NOTHING common about that!