Preparation

Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

-Proverbs 24:27

I read this proverb this morning, and was reminded how important it is to be prepared.  There is such a difference in my school days between when I am prepared and when I am just “winging it”.  I was struck by the phrases “Prepare your work” and “get everything ready”.

One of the main differences that I have seen in my homeschooling since working with Ambleside is that I do much more lesson planning.  Before Ambleside, I would just open up our texts and, together with the children, work through them.  I didn’t read through the material beforehand and have a daily, let alone weekly, lesson plan.  My thinking was to just keep moving forward and everything will turn out fine.  But, what I realized is that the children had gaps or holes in their learning and understanding of the material.  Also, I gave the children more independent assignments per their individual grade level and because of the sheer amount of different material I did not have the time to review it beforehand.  Now, I actually have time set aside several times a week to lesson plan.  We combine all of our inspirational subjects together and learn them as a class rather than each child having independent material.  This helps a lot in assessing comprehension.  During the summer, I read through all of the upcoming texts beforehand noting any difficult terms or places on the map we should look up prior to reading.  I make checks in my teacher text next to significant “ideas” that we may want to bring up during discussion time.  Then, during the school year, on a weekly basis I prepare lesson plans for disciplinary subjects like French, Geography, Grammar, Spelling, Math, etc.  That way I ensure I am covering the key concepts each week and we are progressing without (hopefully) leaving any holes in the material.

In educating my children I am “building a house” in many respects.  The proverb is a good reminder telling me to prepare and “AFTER THAT build your house.”   I should ask myself before I begin each school day; did I “prepare my work” and “get everything ready”?