Substitute Teaching ~ A New Experience for a Homeschool Mom

 I've always suspected that it is harder to teach a whole classroom of other people's children..than just to homeschool my own--and I was right! Of course, I'm sure Aunt Joan could have told me all about that. I've always respected her ability to teach. Many classrooms full of first graders have learned to read under her patient and skilled teaching.  And now, my son, Andrew, is teaching homeschoolers in a group setting at a type of co-op school.  Elisabeth and He are visiting and sight seeing with Elisabeth's sister and brother-in-law from Germany, who are here for a week. Andrew needed someone to substitute and asked if I would be available. It is one of the busiest weeks of the year for me, but you don't have relatives from Germany every week, so of course, I said yes.  I taught on Monday and will have the whole family over on Friday evening for dinner.

I must say that although I was a little nervous, I really enjoyed myself thoroughly! I loved visiting with the kids ages 11 to 17 and teaching them. It was very similar to teaching my own five, as I have for 20 years, but there were more of them.  It was by no means easy..just familiar.  My job was just to supervise, but I answered questions, helped the children work on various difficult math problems and was pretty useless for the Geometry questions (not enough background after so many years).

The class I enjoyed most was the younger level anatomy class. Their homework was a creative writing assignment. I had a great time helping the kids aged 11-14 discuss digesting a spoonful of spaghetti and all the various organs and processes that were involved. The children were funny and engaging..and a wee bit energetic but seeing them feel a sense of accomplishment and/or relief as I helped them outline and verbalize  what they were about to write was very rewarding.  I've always loved teaching writing.

I left Christian, my own child and student, at home working under Dad's supervision. But I'm very glad I was able to experience teaching in a classroom setting. It gave me a deepened appreciation for teachers every where..and made me realize that I really do love teaching. Hmmm.. maybe.. someday?

Happy Homemaking!

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