I have no desire to see Polar Express, but not because of religious reasons. I'm just not fond of Van Alsburg's books. I read the book when I was in the classroom, and I simply didn't like it. We read about it, and I thin DH may have even showed me the preview, and I think my rather sensitive middle child would have a hard time with it. The movie I want to see is "The Incredibles". I think I'd get a kick out of it, but again my middle one would have a hard time, and my youngest (ALL BOY!!!) would get all excited about the fighting, so I wouldn't take either one of them.
Jackie, you know, it wasn't like I really liked the book so much I had to see the movie either. What drew me to the book was the illustrations! And the movie looks just like them. So to me, it was the art that made it. Although, I do like the fact that it is the first decent family film out in a looooooooong time. We wouldn't have gone to the theater if my mom hadn't asked to take us. Gotta make Granma happy now and then :wink: .
Oh, yeah! You've got to be a real diplomat, don't you? My MIL has stored her sister's apple pies and dumplings in my freezer. They were suppose to be out last weekend, but she didn't go down to visit her sister so they're still there. I told her tonight I needed them out, because I dontate turkey and stuffing each year to a local mission and don't have room in my freezer to put the turkey! Also, the dumplings are in a VERY large pan, the lid to my freezer won't stay open, and I can't manage to get it out and get to my stuff under it without someone helping me! Anyway, back to art work, my DSS was in an English program for the gifted back in fourth grade. His class visited a collection of the original artwork from Caldecott winners. I would have loved to see them, but was unable to. So I do understand what you mean. Have you ever read Lloyd Alexander's "The King's Fountain"? It's a picture book that Ezra Jack Keats illustrated. It's a mideastern tale about a king who wants to build a fountain, but it will block the flow of water to the city below. A wonderful book!!!
I was certified for elementary, Hearing Impaired, and Orthopedically/Health Handicapped. My "first" certification was the HI and Elementary, but there were no jobs. I subbed for a while, and landed a long-term sub job for an OH class. The teacher, who had been in a high school, had been moved down to a first grade OH class and then had an emergency hysterectomy within the first few weeks. She had NOTHING for that age, as the principal just changed her at the last moment, so I was going in with a group that had no real materials in the room. But the I was willing to ask LOTS of questions when I didn't know, and did a fine job. She came back at the same time another teacher went on permanent maternity leave, so I had that classroom until the end of the year. The principal told me that if I went for my OH certification, she'd see what she could do for me. I actually student taught for kids I had taught the previous year!!! So I spent about ten years in an OH classroom. I had a "primary" class (roughly ages 6-8), then an intermediate" class (roughly 10-13), and went back to primary for a year or two before I quit. I loved it, but quitting to stay home with my kids and teach them was one of the best decisions I ever made! I (usually) don't regret it. (Except when the kids are running wild, DH has decided he's got so much to do at church and "left" me again, the house is a mess, etc..... :roll: )
Well, we are ALL teachers!!!!! But I know you mean as a profession. I have my bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. I didn't work officially as a teacher for very long, as my husband and I are full-time in the ministry. But what I learned about teaching has helped me a lot with children's ministries, training Sunday school teachers, etc. Blessings,
Actually, I've been told by other "certified" teachers that homeschool, and I've found it true to some extent myself, that having teacher training can be a DISADVANTAGE. Because we're "trained", we have difficulty looking "outside the box". We have a stronger pre-conceived idea of how school should work, and have more difficulty in doing things "differently". A friend also had a teacher-friend of hers ask why she felt she was "qualified" to teach her own kids. She and I discussed that. I decided that most of my teacher-training classes were mostly classroom management, behaviour control sort of stuff. My friend might not be "qualified" to teach a class of 30 kids on a daily basis (and note that I said "MIGHT NOT", not "ISN'T"!!!), but I doubt that any of us have a class of more than a handful of kids, and most of us only 1-5. The most I have at any one time anymore are the four days per year when I teach 12 kids for two hours.
I also have a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, and taught for 4 years before quitting tto begin a family of our own. However I agree with the previous poster, it was almost a DIS-advantage, since what I was taught was mostly for classroom management, NOT one-on-onoe teaching. It took me some time to get that out of my system, and now our schooling is going MUCH better! In a classroom it's very hard, if not impossible, to teach to each child's likes and abilities, but at home, it's what works best and helps them advance so well. I'd never be able to spend 3 weeks or a month on one topic in math until they got it in a classroom, but I CAN do that fo my child at home. I absolutely LOVE being able to spend the time they need to master one thing before moving on!!! I KNOW they will have a great base to draw on cuz they're not rushed from one thing to the next......
To a certain extent. But I can spend 6 weeks on a subject my child is having difficulty with, as opposed to 3 days or a week (or less!) that they would spend in school, then move on, whether the children have mastered it or not. Another time maybe the school would go over a subject with lots of practice, and my child already understands that soncept. Then I can just do a quick review and move on. It works out! I KNOW that my children have the advantage of one-on-one teaching, which helps tremendously, and unless we don't do schoolwork at all, we don't really fall behind. If I think we're taking to much time with something because we're kind of goofing off, THEN I will have them pick up the pace. They're learning so much that I'm not worried about them "keeping up" with kids who are in school. I can feel confident that if they DO go back to school, they will be ready, and advanced enough to do well, even if they haven't had that exact thing, since they're also learning to think for themselves very well (HOPEFULLY!).........
I sure wish I had a degree. Here in PA if you have a degree you don't have to mess with all the paper work that goes with homeschooling. I wanted to study early elem. when I was in school but.............. you know life happened marriage, kids, ministry, laundry dishes. Oh well.
