What does homeschooling look like?

For every family that educates their kids at home, school will look a lot different, from one day to the next and from one family to the next.

At our house (and a few other home schooling families I know), the first day of public school is WAY different than a "normal" day of school, just because we want to emphasize the flexibility of home educating.

Ours looks something like this, for today anyway:

• up to early in the morning, as I had to much going on my mind.  Mostly I wanted to make sure that I had time to make t-shirts for the family.  An idea I had awhile back to make new Thing One and Thing Two outfits for the boys.  The last was done in 2004 around Halloween.  It was time to update the picture on my sidebar!

 October 2004

 September 2012

• Got the shirts finished, washed, dried.  Got myself ready for the day and Thing One and I were out the door for what we thought was 2 & 1/2 hours of therapy.  Due to illness and other unknown reasons, it was only an hour!  Woo Hoo, we got to come home early.
• Oldest was eager to get to NEW math and wanted to watch the related video.  Lucky me!  I misplaced the DVD, but found it after a brief frantic search.  He breezed through math and grammar and almost forgot spelling.  Thing Two did his while we were at therapy.
•  While Thing One was plugging away at his work, life kept moving on.  I spread out at the dining room table to pay bills and such.  Charlotte was in her spot like today was the same as any other day.

• Took some time to go out to lunch and run a few errands.  We decided to go by Cafe Rio as they have $1.50 tacos on Tuesday.  Awesome, inexpensive food and par for the coarse we saw folks we know from church.

Men in my life!  Kevin has "Parent 1", I have

"Parent 2".

• We came home very full and still had Mystery of History, Five in a Row (Roxaboxen), and Beyond Five in a Row (Cricket in Times Square) to read through.  This is how the boys entertain themselves while I read, a Klutz Lego set.  Definitely worth the money.  This set is only brought out during school

• Now we are transitioning to afternoon events and divide and conquer.  Errands for Co-op on Thursday and baseball practice for Thing Two and TKD and Scouts for Thing One.  I may go crash and burn for a few minutes.

This, like I mentioned, is a rough sketch of a day in the life.  Hope your day has been wonderful.

Curriculum - to many choices?

Even though we have officially begun the 2012/13 school year, even though this is our 6th year homeschooling, even though many things, making the right or best choice for curriculum seems to induce a panic attack to some extent.

Fortunately, we've been at it long enough that we've figured out what works on most subjects.  Some subjects, boys have requested the next level, so no extra thought there.

This year is a tad bit different, we have a 7th grader.  He'll be in high school before we know it.  He'll be wanting to look at colleges and start applying before we know it.  Need to start prepping now, so that the stress of high school level isn't as great.

Many blessings though, through this transition.

1. Have heard many good things about Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) first hand.  Some negative first hand too, but it wasn't a nasty type review, more of a "don't get why we need to add this sort of word so many times!"  I can work with comments like that!!!!
2. Rainbow Resource staff has been very helpful in exchanging items and making recommendations for a new foreign language.
3. Thankful for many home school friends who've used specific subjects and can share insight as well as know our kids a bit and can weigh in with a valid opinion.
4. Having a co-op to go to so I don't have to teach every subject.  Both kids are getting science outside of the house as well as a fun class.

The line up for class this year is as follows:

• both boys:  Mystery of History Volume 3 (their mutual agreement that we needed to finish the series before doing something else), foreign language of some sort, physical education
• Thing One:  Pre-Algebra (MUS), Apples Daily Spelling Drills, Daily Grams 7th grade, IEW B, Beyond Five in a Row, Science, Robotics, Life Skills, Electives (Boy Scout Merit Badges and Requirements)
• Thing Two:  Delta (MUS), Spelling Workout, Daily Grams 4th grade, Five in a Row Volume 4, Science, Builders, Life Skills

What are your children studying this school year?  Are they excited?  Hope so.  =)
 

Summer School

Can you just see reading a big stack of fun books on the hammock? What about a tent pitched on the deck? It's giving me a lot of ideas of what I'd love to get accomplished this summer. Would you believe, of all things, school related. Already moved beyond the chores and onto reading and more reading and more reading.  There are just so many books I've wanted to get to and haven't yet.  Here's the list that is growing in my head:

• Hardy Boys #48 -#58 (may work through these more slowly, we've only been reading them for about 4 years, what's one more)
• Farmer Boy from the Laura Ingall's Series
• Treasure Island
• Huckleberry Fin
• Finish up "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" Series; believe I would need to start over on Silver Chair and then read The Last Battle.
• Island of the Blue Dolphin
• The Secret Garden
• Tom Sawyer

Not sure, as of right now, what else I would add.  Would love to see this be a morning thing, reading to our boys for an hour or so over a good breakfast, still in their pj's, in sleeping bags or blankets.  Learn to make it a habit before school starts in the fall.

There are so many things I can see being a benefit of this.  First, continued exposure to good literature.  Second, a way to help teach reading comprehension with fun ways of remembering the story through narration and coloring pages (really good idea for those needing a good hand workout).  Third, time spent together.  Also shared memories of "the reading summer".

Both have already mentioned that they want to continue on with their math "workbooks" and be able to start a fresh book in September.  This really isn't a whole of work on my part.  The desire is there, for both kids, so it is really just gentle encouragement.

 Will probably through in some penmanship through various forms.  Thank you notes, letters to friends who have moved, and tracing of math facts (yes, their numbers still look bad and why not work on math facts).

They're looking forward to doing some American History next school year and want to finish up the current History book too.  Another easy thing to do as we haven't stressed over memorization of facts yet.  It's been sheer exposure right now.

So, for now, this is our tentative summer outline.  I'll get around to looking for other cool things too and possibly blog about those ideas on another day.
 

St. Valentine

Do you know the origins of Saint Valentine?  I'll give you a hint ~ it doesn't have anything to do with cupid, pink, hearts, flowers, or chocolate.  Does that surprise you?

From Mystery of History, lesson 12, we learned that Saint Valentine was actually a man who lived in and around Rome in the third century.  He was martyred for being a Christian on February 14, A.D. 269.

In 495, February 14 was declared Saint Valentines Day to replace the pagan festival of Lupercalia on February 15.  This date was a pagan festival of love, cupid, and such we now associate with the 14th.

Well, one activity with this lesson was to research chocolate, which we did.  Of course, all internet roads lead to wikipedia ~ don't they?  We read up on chocolate there (you can to with this link).

To set the "mood" before the kids knew what was going on, we had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  Yummy!!!

cooking on the iron skillet

Yum! Chocolate Chip Pancakes, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream (home made even)

foil on the inside of the pan; it makes getting the brownies out easier

my helper, Thing One, stirring the batter

everyone needs a Robin side-kick

No cooked brownie pictures, sorry folks!  They're good and we still have some left!

Daily Scheduling

I've been busy, busy, busy.  Printing things for school, making wish lists for when we attend the HEAV Convention, and about to print more blank weekly lesson sheets.  Yes, it may be a bit early, but given we will have a couple weeks of school in June, I want to get an idea of how school may look with some of the new subjects we are adding this year.

For 2011/2012 school year, I am hoping to add:

• typing
• Spanish vocabulary using Rosetta Stone Latin America
• Phys. Ed.
• Nature Studies (been meaning to do this and have neglected it greatly)
• more art, but through our Unit Studies, Geography, and History
• A Child's Geography written by Ann Voskamp

 Most of these may only be 2 or 3 days a week and may need to be shuffled some once we have fall activities figured out.  This is in addition to Five in a Row, Beyond Five in a Row, Amanda Bennett's Unit Studies,  Mystery of History, Math-U-See, and Language Lessons from Queens Homeschool Supplies.  These we've used in the past few years with a lot of success, so we're continuing with them.

Finalized - wish I could use that word!

Over at Heart of the Matter, they are having a "Not Back to School Blog Hop" where everyone is posting their curriculum for this school year. From what I have been seeing, it looks like everyone has there full year planned out. Sure things might change, but a basic road map has been laid out. And here I felt pretty good that I had through Christmas pulled together. So, without further hesitation, here IS the curriculum we've got lined up:

Math ~ Math U See:
Thing One: wrap up Delta and move on to Epsilon
Thing Two: wrap up Alpha and then onto Beta

Language Arts ~ this is from Queens Homeschooling Supply and the boys seem to be doing well with it so far (I'm excited because this is the first LA program where the boys are excited about it. The lessons are short, to the point, and easy to grasp. I've already had Thing Two looking through books for silent E words after finishing his lesson).
Thing One: Language Lessons for the Elementary Child 2
Thing Two: Language Lessons for Little Ones 3

Spelling ~ Sequential Spelling for both of them (still need to figure out where Thing One is in the books, Thing Two will start at the beginning)

History ~ we're using Mystery of History vol 1. We started it mid year last school year, so we're still working through this one. We'll move onto volume 2 when the time comes.

Unit Studies ~ Lined up so far, and carrying us through Christmas or into January:

• Chronicles of Narnia Bible Study and will add in other things from Home School Share, focusing on The Magician's Nephew for now. We may pick up other books later in the year
• Castle Diary with lap booking pages from Home School Share
• The Testimony of Charlie Coulson - a unit study for Civil War times
• Thanksgiving Unit Study from Amanda Bennett
• Christmas Unit Study from Amanda Bennett
• Pioneers Unit Study from Amanda Bennett

Five in a Row & Beyond Five in a Row ~ various titles I'll pick in the Spring

Science ~ both boys love science. We've got a few books for various science projects. We'll use those or Google for more.

Bible Studies ~ we actually do a lot around here for that. We've been working through "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds" by Starr Meade over the last few months, reading the boys bibles before bed, and during the school day, we'll be adding "An Honorable Boy - A Bible Study for Elementary Aged Boys" (one for each boy).

Co-op ~
Thing One: Dangerous Boys and Cooking
Thing Two: Free Play and Galloping the Globe

Field Trips ~
Maryland Renaissance Festival
Cedar Creek Reenactment
Plays at George Mason University
Possible trip to Jamestown, VA

When written out like this, it seems like a lot of school stuff. Amazingly, with 11 days under our belt for 2010/2011 it's not to overwhelming.

Happy Schooling,


P.S. Forgot to mention (and know it is posted elsewhere), but Thing One is in 5th Grade and Thing Two is in 2nd grade.

Day 2

of our 2010/11 school year is underway. Off to a pretty good start. We've accomplished our literature unit study and are plugging away at a writing assignment. Thing One has asked for Mystery of History today (drats, need to get caught up on creating a time line). We'll see how that goes after we finish a few other things. Just might add it a bit of math review as well!

So, my parting words for the day ~ 2 down, 178 to go!

Next Years Curriculum

We're on the home stretch of having all the things we want for next school year. So far, we have the following, which includes some things we haven't finished up from last year:

• Math-U-See - we'll wrap up Alpha and Delta, then move onto Beta and Epsilon
• Five in a Row and Beyond Five in a Row
• Chronicles of Narnia Bible Study and will add in other things from Home School Share
• The Testimony of Charlie Coulson - a unit study for Civil War times which we'll due prior to going to Battle Cedar Creek Reenactment
• Language Lessons for the Elementary Child 2
• Language Lessons for Little Ones 3
• An Honorable Boy - A Bible Study for Elementary Aged Boys (one for each boy)
• Thanksgiving Unit Study from Amanda Bennett
• My Nature Journal
• Sequential Spelling
• Mystery of History
  

The following things came from Queens Homeschool Supply, should you be interested: both of the Language Lesson books, The Testimony of Charlie Coulson, and An Honorable Boy. We're also working on creating some copy work for the boys. Still being considered is Excellence in Writing.

As an aside, copy work can be a great thing for a few reasons, following are a few:

1. kids are reading things that demonstrate good grammar
2. when copy work is chosen that is a level or two above where the child is currently reading, they slow down their work to focus on spacing, punctuation, spelling
3. it also helps them with penmanship
4. they are introduced to wonderful poems, prose, quotes, etc.
5. it can be used as a "warm-up" so to speak for a writing assignment, a way to get the mind working when trying to create a paragraph, essay, or outline
6. we'll also be using copy work as a way to reinforce math facts and the direction of numbers, both items the boys need a bit of help on

So, our days will be busy with school, bible study, being outside, and hopefully a bit more fun.

It's a new week

for school; I'm trying to plan. Feels a bit difficult after a pretty weekend and a relaxed Sunday. In the long run, it's easier to do now than Monday morning. Thing one is still working in "Boxcar Children" and Thing Two will be reading "Gramma's Walk". We've been continuing Math U See and the boys have enjoyed Mystery of History.

Short day for . . . .

end of the week. For the book we rowed this week, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening", we covered so much during the beginning of the week there wasn't much to do today. Mystery of History is just a few days a week as well. That just left math today. That was fine with the boys! It's been a gray, raining, sometimes hail day, not fun to have to focus at all. Just another page to print out and we'll put our lap books together either tomorrow or Sunday.

Have a great weekend readers!