We’ve all heard of the three R’s: Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic, so today we will explore the three P’s. What are the three P’s? They are PRAY, PLAN and PROCEED.
Let’s start with pray. Sure it seems simple enough but do we actually remember to do it? Or worse, is it an afterthought? Whenever J and I are about to start J School (our version of tot school), we start with prayers. It goes a little something like this:
“Dear God, bless this school, help J to learn and please give Mommy the patience while J learns. Amen”
But why pray? My question is, why not pray? We pray when we need to talk to Him especially when we need help. Now I may not be an expert on homeschooling but being a mother has taught me that I need those extra prayers to guard my tongue ESPECIALLY when my J doesn’t want to listen (Baby C is off the hook for now). Certainly we will need all the prayers we can get when we add an additional function to our already lengthy job description.
Next we need a plan. Even if we are not as organized as Martha Stewart, we need to have some basic idea of what is supposed to happen in school. A plan helps us to answer questions such as:
- What do I want to teach?
- What do I want my kids to learn?
- What do I use to make this happen?
- When do I teach this subject?
- How long and when do I want school to happen?
Without a plan, we simply are expecting failure. Without a plan, how will you know if you are hitting your targets? It could be as simple as getting a notebook and writing down what you want to teach this month or even this week. It can even be done in diary form if tables and templates intimidate you. Or you could go ‘hardcore’ and buy planners that list every single lesson and how well you thought the lesson was received. Bottom line: MAKE A PLAN.
Lastly we proceed or implement our plan. What good is a plan if you don’t use it? Clearly no sane person takes up a recipe book and says they want to make a Raspberry Cheesecake Surprise and then stares at the recipe waiting for the cake to appear. No we have to actually do what the recipe says to yield the result that we want (or any result for that matter).
So grit your teeth and dig in and enjoy getting messy while teaching your kids. Pray that you have the patience when they still haven’t understood that c-a-t spells cat even when it appears on the next page or when they say they don’t feel like doing school or worse, when they say they want to go to a regular school. Put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and set a map of what you want to achieve for the period and lastly be grateful for the opportunity to be called, ‘Teacher’.
Alecia is a Janadian (Jamaican + Canadian) mommy of 2 energizer bunnies aged 2 years and 7 months, a pastor’s wife and a newbie to the blogging world. Visit her at her blog, Learn To Walk or on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
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