Making Recitations Work!

I finally finished reading “The Recitations”! What a wake-up call that was! This book was copyrighted around 1910 and was such a sweet reminder to simpler days. It made me think of Laura Ingalls teaching school in that one room school house on the prairie or one of the characters from the American Girls Series. It was definitely a step back in time.

Even though it was written way back, it still applies today. I was very impressed with this book and the author’s thoughts about school. It was clearly written for public or private schools, but it would speak to the heart of all schools, even homeschools.

The overall theme I felt, was about being prepared as a teacher. Making sure that we know the lesson, and understand it. Does that mean that in high school we have to give up because we don’t understand calculus? Absolutely not! Fortunately for us homeschoolers, the answers to those calculus questions are in the book! But, I think it is a good practice to look over the lessons before we teach them. Am I saying that I don’t look over their lessons, of course not! Usually, I have Sunday afternoons booked for lesson planning and I look over them then. I’m just saying that is a very good reminder of the importance of it. What I mean by looking over my lessons is just this: reading over it, see what the main points are, where is my child weak at for this lesson, where are they strong at, how can we review this lesson better, how can I make it more interesting, how will we discuss the readings, etc.

I am taking another look at how much review work my kids are doing. In some subjects, it’s already built in and in some, it’s not. I warned my kids today, that we are going to start review more on each subject. I am going to start holding them more accountable. One thing the author pointed out was the responsibility of the student to be well prepared each day. Such a simple thing, but very profound. I want to make my students well prepared for each day! Having a well-prepared teacher and well-prepared students should make for an easier, teachable day!