The Truth Be Known

In an exercise of honesty, Aussie asked his mom if they should look like they really felt about the first day back at school. She told him, "Of course not! You are to act how you feel now that you are home and can get on the computer." Well that definitely made a better picture.  

Would love to think that the triplets felt the same way about school as I felt, but that  would be a little unusual, especially for the boys.

I must say, however, that going back to school on August 9th is much too early. There is still 1/3 of summer left.  And in Tennessee, the weather is still HOT. I understand that they will have more vacation days off during the year. I suppose Christmas Vacation and Spring break will be longer.

Hope this schedule doesn't make for even more review days. I used to absolutely hate all the review when we started back to school in the fall. Why go over things we already knew?...but I've been told that many if not most of the children do forget and have to relearn much of what was taught the year before.

While teaching first grade that was not a problem. I pretty much started with a clean slate and taught reading and math...not like today when they supposedly learn more in kindergarten.  That brings up a question.  If they start learning earlier, what happens? Why do they graduate knowing less? Doesn't make sense  to me.  Or at least it wouldn't if I didn't know all the time they spend learning absolutely worthless and sometimes false things. And of course it must be trying at times when there is no discipline method acceptable that actually works. And there is not much help from home. Many do not even get a good night's sleep. It is also difficult for a teacher to compete with TV and computers.

Now all that is really off the subject for these grandchildren of mine, for they are homeschooled. They spend only one day a week in a classroom with teachers other than their mother. I applaud that. It is not easy, but in my opinion, it is the very best route to learning today, unless one can afford an outstanding private school.