I've been strangely silent, I know. Life has been a bit crazy here for us. I was met 2 weeks ago with two of my daughters wanting to attend public school this year, just 4 days before school started, so I had to get them enrolled and then go get school supplies and lunch stuff and open house, bus stop assignment, all that great stuff. They have been in school a week and a half now, and are doing excellent. These two thrive in that type of environment, so it was a good decision that they made. Lydia and Kimmy are quite enjoying their days at school, and have no issues with homework afterward.
Melissa and Jordan, obviously, are still learning at home. This means that I had to completely rethink my plan for the school year in the subjects we've combined (science and history, geography, social studies). I no longer can aim my lesson materials at my middle two children and add in for the oldest and youngest of the 4, as my middle 2 are attending school. So we are changing up the year. It will go pretty well I think, as I've decided to split the two girls up and let them learn more on their own terms.
Now, on to the real purpose of this post......
One of the things I chose to do with the girls is that they will each have a literature study each month. I already have September's literature units picked out for the two. Jordan will do American Tall Tales, using the Evan-Moor literature pockets set of tall tales. Melissa will do a literature study on the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins" this month. It is Melissa's study that I need a little help with.
I have already purchased the Kindle version of the book and loaded it on both Kindles that we own. I also obtained the unit study from Hands of A Child last year when they offered it as a freebie. I have both the lapbooking set and the notebooking set. Currently, I am sitting here trying to decide which set I should assign to Melissa to do for this study. She has done both lapbooks and notebooking but has no preference of one over the other, so she has no opinion on which to assign to her.
For those of you who read my blog but do not know what lapbooking or notebooking is (yes I know who you are!), a lapbook is pretty much taking a couple file folders and refolding them and gluing them together to make a book of sorts. Inside you glue little paper minibook flap things, wheels, pockets for cards, stuff like that with information you write on/in them. It is pretty cool, we've really enjoyed making them in the past as the kids were younger. If you dig through my blog I'm sure you will find pictures of what we've done for lapbooks in the past.
Notebooking is a bit different. Instead of having a little flap book or something like that to write the info on, you have a journal paper type page and you write down the stuff and there may be an area to draw out illustrations or glue pictures you find and cut out. You can punch the pages and put into a 3 ring binder, or store in a folder, or just about anything (including spiral binding to store like a book).
I'm weighing the ups and downs of both choices still. With both options, there are a LOT of templates to choose from and different ways to layout the material. With notebooking, you can do some pages laid out like a newspaper with different "articles" written about the characters or the locations, events, things like that. You can do a similar page with a lapbook, then just fold it up and put in a pocket glued into the file folder to store it (label the pocket though so you know what is in it!). Both allow you do have many different aspects to your project. The biggest difference I can think of is the space for each thing. A lapbook, you are limited to the size of the mini-book for how much you can write so it is important to choose the templates carefully for each piece you want to add. With a notebook, you can write as much or as little as you want on the page. That makes for a pro to notebooking and con for lapbooking. But, to flip it a notebook feels so plain and kind of dull and lacking creativity in design, while a lapbook you can add clip art, arrange the mini-books however you want, print them on multiple colors of paper if desired (instead of all on white), pretty much the sky is the limit.
Another big thing I need to factor with Missa is the fact that she is both dyslexic AND left-handed, so her handwriting can be difficult to read at times. Notebooking would allow her more room for her writing and more practice of writing as she writes longer passages, but a lapbook may be better because it will limit the amount of writing so she can focus more on neat penmanship and proper spelling.
I also need to take into consideration that this particular literature unit is listed for grades 4-8 and she's in 5th grade. She is at the lower end of the range based on her particular abilities, as she is about a year behind in reading and writing skills. The unit is written as a 10 day project, but is assigned for the entire month so she can work at her speed on it. If it takes longer than a month to finish, that is fine as I will just assign the next unit when she finishes this one. If it takes less time, then she can come up with a creative project (art related most likely) related to her literature unit to fill in the rest of the month until her next unit.
So now I turn to those who read my blog. Should I assign the lapbook or the notebook to Missa for this month? With the holiday on Monday, I don't have to print off anything until Monday night so she can start it on Tuesday.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Bible 2013-14 school year
This is a subject I don't talk about too much, and there is a good reason for that. I am an ordained pastor, and my husband is Agnostic. He and I do not agree on the whole religion thing, and I typically don't push it. However, this year I am going to be doing bible lessons and daily prayer. Here's what I'm *thinking* I will do for this.
I have a lot of wonderful books thanks to using Sonlight for a few years. I have been exposed to books that I would have never picked up typically for our children, and in a very good way. I have a growing collection of books of missionary stories, Christian heroes in history, and devotions type books. My plan this year is to pull from that collection of books and have fun with it.
One book I have is called "Window on the World." I got this book to go with core B+C a couple years ago (when I expanded our core B to B+C) but we never really got into it. I'm going to make some notes this upcoming week and read through it so that I know what I'm going to be doing with it really, since I don't know much about it. What I do know, at this point, is that this book talks about how people in other countries live and and believe, with some details for how we can pray for these people. It is probably more of a geography book than anything, but will still be fun to add as we learn about and pray for other cultures. I plan to put up a world map so that we can mark each country as we pray for it. I will be lining this book up to go with the other bible materials I'm going to be using.
The main part of my bible studies for right now is a book called "Hero Tales." This book focuses on Christian heroes in history and came with our core A (the core has since been redesigned and this book was removed from the program, sadly). This is one of a 3 or 4 book series, but I'm just going to do this one book for now. There are 15 Christian heroes in this book, including Gladys Aylward, Martin Luther, and Harriet Tubman to name just a few. There are two stories for each hero, and a couple pages of basic information to go with it. I will focus on a hero each week, reading one of the 3 sections to the kids out loud. There is also a list of character traits in the back, which I will use with the studies for discussion points as they come up.
The first 15 weeks of bible study will look like this (as an example)
Gladys Aylward 3 sections- 3 days
China reading from Window- 1 day
Missionary story- 1 day
I have a couple books with missionary stories as well that I'll incorporate on a 5 day week (the weeks with 4 days or fewer I'll skip the missionary story for the week). This particular part will be aimed at Missa, with Jordan permitted to not listen because some of the stories being a bit intense. A couple stories involve a bear attack, being shot, and other violent acts that she may not be able to process quite yet. I also have some fun picture books with stories that I can read to her when the missionary story of the week may be too rough. Those books are light and fun but still teach the wonderful way God loves us.
Once we finish the Hero Tales book I have here, I'll decide if I want to purchase another one in the series or if we'll move on to focus mainly on character traits or something like that. I have 15 weeks of this study plan, with a week to prepare beforehand, and that should get me covered with bible until right around Christmas, when I'll pick up and do a study on the birth of Jesus. After that I will likely spend some time doing a study on the life of Jesus, or I may do something completely different. I find that it really is best to not plan too far in advance with things like this. If I set a whole series of "ok study this and then this and that and the other" to cover a year or longer, I tend to get discouraged and burn out. However, a 15 week study plan goal like this one should be fairly easy to keep up with and finish. I'm looking forward to seeing how we do with it.
I have a lot of wonderful books thanks to using Sonlight for a few years. I have been exposed to books that I would have never picked up typically for our children, and in a very good way. I have a growing collection of books of missionary stories, Christian heroes in history, and devotions type books. My plan this year is to pull from that collection of books and have fun with it.
One book I have is called "Window on the World." I got this book to go with core B+C a couple years ago (when I expanded our core B to B+C) but we never really got into it. I'm going to make some notes this upcoming week and read through it so that I know what I'm going to be doing with it really, since I don't know much about it. What I do know, at this point, is that this book talks about how people in other countries live and and believe, with some details for how we can pray for these people. It is probably more of a geography book than anything, but will still be fun to add as we learn about and pray for other cultures. I plan to put up a world map so that we can mark each country as we pray for it. I will be lining this book up to go with the other bible materials I'm going to be using.
The main part of my bible studies for right now is a book called "Hero Tales." This book focuses on Christian heroes in history and came with our core A (the core has since been redesigned and this book was removed from the program, sadly). This is one of a 3 or 4 book series, but I'm just going to do this one book for now. There are 15 Christian heroes in this book, including Gladys Aylward, Martin Luther, and Harriet Tubman to name just a few. There are two stories for each hero, and a couple pages of basic information to go with it. I will focus on a hero each week, reading one of the 3 sections to the kids out loud. There is also a list of character traits in the back, which I will use with the studies for discussion points as they come up.
The first 15 weeks of bible study will look like this (as an example)
Gladys Aylward 3 sections- 3 days
China reading from Window- 1 day
Missionary story- 1 day
I have a couple books with missionary stories as well that I'll incorporate on a 5 day week (the weeks with 4 days or fewer I'll skip the missionary story for the week). This particular part will be aimed at Missa, with Jordan permitted to not listen because some of the stories being a bit intense. A couple stories involve a bear attack, being shot, and other violent acts that she may not be able to process quite yet. I also have some fun picture books with stories that I can read to her when the missionary story of the week may be too rough. Those books are light and fun but still teach the wonderful way God loves us.
Once we finish the Hero Tales book I have here, I'll decide if I want to purchase another one in the series or if we'll move on to focus mainly on character traits or something like that. I have 15 weeks of this study plan, with a week to prepare beforehand, and that should get me covered with bible until right around Christmas, when I'll pick up and do a study on the birth of Jesus. After that I will likely spend some time doing a study on the life of Jesus, or I may do something completely different. I find that it really is best to not plan too far in advance with things like this. If I set a whole series of "ok study this and then this and that and the other" to cover a year or longer, I tend to get discouraged and burn out. However, a 15 week study plan goal like this one should be fairly easy to keep up with and finish. I'm looking forward to seeing how we do with it.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
My log book in detail
In yesterday's post, I talked about my log book where I keep track of everything that the kids do. I only showed one broad picture that shows the 2 page weekly planner there, and I thought I may get a little more detailed on it so you can really see how this works for our family. Please remember, this is my first year of trying it this way instead of making a ton of plans ahead of time and then falling short daily on everything.
First, I'm not going to show an outside shot because there is no cute cover page, yet. I've not figured out how to create one and lacked the time to do so. If time allows, I'll create something simple to use as a cover page. My binder is a standard white 1" binder with clear outer pockets for covers and spine labeling. You can get one for under $1.50 at your local big box store, any brand will do really. This binder I've used EVERY year as a lesson planner even when we had a prepackaged curriculum with all the planning done for me (I'd spend hours transferring all my planned curricula pages into a planner in this binder so I didn't have 5 or more binders and teacher guides laying all over the place). This is the 6th year that my binder has been my lessons slave in this manner.
Now when you open it up, you first see my approval letters in the inside pocket. I have an excuse letter for each of the 4 girls to homeschool this school year, and when Preston is 6 I'll have his letter there each year as well. The first page is this:
This is my year calendar, where I mark school breaks and scheduled days off (or unplanned ones). I use this as my "academic calendar" like the public schools have. At this point I've not marked any days off scheduled, but I can tell you that as soon as I get another highlighter (someone ran off with mine again) I have a 6 week "winter break" from Thanksgiving until New Year to mark in there (I always take the craziest time of year off for my own sanity, Christmas gifts and cooking and cleaning just means no intentional learning will happen though my planner section will still happen). When Scott gets his scheduled time off for next year, I will also mark that on this calendar (we always take his vacation time as time off from intentional learning as well).
The next section is my monthly calendars.
This happens to be my August calendar. As you can see, I have a couple written notes on the lined top half. This area is where I put details for certain days. The day listed here happens to be the first day of public school. I have listed there that school starts that day, with my plans for making the day special here at home with cinnamon rolls for breakfast (and chocolate milk with silly straws), a trip to the zoo to spend the day without a huge crowd, and the girls' favorite supper (pizzas, likely homemade with a topping bar so they can each make their own pizzas). On the calendar I have little check marks for days we've done any kind of logged learning, sort of my way to keep attendance. I'm required to provide a set number of hours of instruction each school year, and this just makes it a little easier because I can automatically say "oh 4 hours on this day" when there is a check mark. Most of our days have MUCH more than just 4 hours of learning in them, but it gives me a good base number to go with. Behind each calendar, I will have a writing sample from each girl (yes each month they will be expected to write something monthly so I can show how they progress through the year, my plan is to have them copy a short poem or bible verse each month for this)
The last section, which is my BIG one here, is my weekly planner pages.
As you can tell, it is just a basic 2 page weekly layout. The days of the week are down the left side, with subjects listed across the top. Shown is this week's page, including the help from Preston yesterday in filling it in when I was tinkering with our Wii to try and get it working after it took a tumble off the tv stand. This is where I log all intentional learning we do, and the life learning as I catch it happening.
This is the left page, as you can see 3 of the girls did some math worksheets yesterday. I haven't put in the math practice I did with Jordan yet, but she did some practicing with the tape measure and we worked a little with a plastic learning clock. We also didn't do any kind of history or social studies, but that is ok because I didn't have any plans for that at this point. I think we'll read some American Girl books to cover that here as soon as I can get to the library again for a few.
This page is where I keep track of art, music, physical activity, books that I catch them reading, and chores we work on together. We had a pretty slow day on this side of the paper, as they spent most of their time reading and not so much being active or helping with the household tasks. I expect this page to vary in content based on moods, weather, and stuff like that.
I have a LOT of the pages for that section of my binder, and I'll likely end up printing off more as the year progresses I bet. I only have somewhere in the range of 40 weeks of pages here.
I've considered adding some lined paper and unlined paper behind the weekly pages so that I can journal and doodle about things, or for the kids to make a note or picture about something, but I'm not sure I want to do that yet.
The very last thing in my binder is a copy of my notification forms for this school year, including my outline and supplies list that I provided to the district (for informational purposes only, per state law) and the results of the girls' standardized testing that I did over the summer (this year we chose testing instead of a portfolio review). You may ask why I have these things in my binder, along with my excuse letters for this year, and the answer is simple. I've had a few visits from CPS in my first couple years of home educating, mainly because a family member felt we were doing wrong and was trying to bully us into using the public school system by using government offices to intimidate us. I just like to be a little OVER prepared in case something like that happens again. This is why I keep a log of everything we do as we do it and I keep attendance, and have these forms readily available at a moment's notice. I can meet CPS at the door and tell them to hold on, grab my binder, then step on the porch (not letting them have access to my home) and show them all the great things we've done so far in the school year and that I am indeed legal in my paperwork before I send them off on their way. I could join a group like HSLDA but I see no need. I'm fairly well educated in the laws and what they can and cannot do thanks to growing up in a very political family (my grandfather was a politician and attorney, I got this covered).
First, I'm not going to show an outside shot because there is no cute cover page, yet. I've not figured out how to create one and lacked the time to do so. If time allows, I'll create something simple to use as a cover page. My binder is a standard white 1" binder with clear outer pockets for covers and spine labeling. You can get one for under $1.50 at your local big box store, any brand will do really. This binder I've used EVERY year as a lesson planner even when we had a prepackaged curriculum with all the planning done for me (I'd spend hours transferring all my planned curricula pages into a planner in this binder so I didn't have 5 or more binders and teacher guides laying all over the place). This is the 6th year that my binder has been my lessons slave in this manner.
Now when you open it up, you first see my approval letters in the inside pocket. I have an excuse letter for each of the 4 girls to homeschool this school year, and when Preston is 6 I'll have his letter there each year as well. The first page is this:
The next section is my monthly calendars.
The last section, which is my BIG one here, is my weekly planner pages.
I have a LOT of the pages for that section of my binder, and I'll likely end up printing off more as the year progresses I bet. I only have somewhere in the range of 40 weeks of pages here.
I've considered adding some lined paper and unlined paper behind the weekly pages so that I can journal and doodle about things, or for the kids to make a note or picture about something, but I'm not sure I want to do that yet.
The very last thing in my binder is a copy of my notification forms for this school year, including my outline and supplies list that I provided to the district (for informational purposes only, per state law) and the results of the girls' standardized testing that I did over the summer (this year we chose testing instead of a portfolio review). You may ask why I have these things in my binder, along with my excuse letters for this year, and the answer is simple. I've had a few visits from CPS in my first couple years of home educating, mainly because a family member felt we were doing wrong and was trying to bully us into using the public school system by using government offices to intimidate us. I just like to be a little OVER prepared in case something like that happens again. This is why I keep a log of everything we do as we do it and I keep attendance, and have these forms readily available at a moment's notice. I can meet CPS at the door and tell them to hold on, grab my binder, then step on the porch (not letting them have access to my home) and show them all the great things we've done so far in the school year and that I am indeed legal in my paperwork before I send them off on their way. I could join a group like HSLDA but I see no need. I'm fairly well educated in the laws and what they can and cannot do thanks to growing up in a very political family (my grandfather was a politician and attorney, I got this covered).
Monday, August 12, 2013
Our schooling area 2013-14
Time for another post for the iHomeschool Network's "NOT back to school" blog hop! If you missed it, last week I posted about our curriculum. This time, we are talking all things about where we do our lessons and how we organize things for School Room Week.
I don't actually have a "school room" or even a specific area we learn at. I do lessons where and when we feel inspired. Usually, we do seat work at the dining table.
In case you cannot tell, that table will easily seat 10. I like having a little extra space to spread out if we need it, so when we do written work or most of our projects and crafts, this table is where we do it if we aren't out in the yard working (in which case I'll set up a sheet of 4x12 plywood to work if we need a workspace).
The rest of our work is done on a bed, a sofa, the floor, or even up in a tree (yes, I've had kids up a tree last week, reading or drawing). The world is our workspace typically.
The exception to this is reading aloud to them. I have hip problems, so I require a nice comfy seat while I read. The typical setup for that is me lounging on one of our loveseats to read (be it textbook, novel, Kindle, whatever) and the kids sprawled out on the floor, perhaps with pillows and/or blankets. I also will read with us all snuggled up on my bed or on one bed in the kids' bedroom (one of the two bunks we have in there is a twin over full, we'll pile onto the full)
As for organization, well I've done EVERYTHING already. We've done strict schedules and schooling times (using Managers of Their Homes, wonderful book by the way!), routines with just an order to things, and checklists for lessons and chores to get things done. I've scheduled out detailed lesson plans in the past to follow. I found that for our family, none of those things work for me. So, I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend, my homeschool binder.
This is my weekly page. I use a basic two page weekly planner layout from the Donna Young web site. I printed off about 45 or so double-sided that I keep track of what we do each day as we go through the day. When we do an intentional lesson I write it down in the right subject. Any math pages the girls do I log with that kid's first initial (remember, ALL my children have a different first initial, we did this intentionally just for this purpose). If a girl reads from a book and I catch her, I write it down under "Reading" but I only log the FIRST book I catch her reading that day. Any time I catch someone doing something academic in nature, like watching anything educational or playing a math game or doing a dance game on the Wii even, I list it where it belongs. I even have a column for chores and tasks we need to do.
In this binder, I also have, as my first page, a full year calendar covering July 2013 to June 2014. Behind that, I have individual monthly calendars where I can keep track of appointments, days Scott has off work, holidays, and planned field trips. My plan with the monthly calendars is that behind each month one I will keep a writing sample for each kid. Yes I will be putting one thing each month in this binder for EACH girl (and the boy as he starts to learn drawing shapes and such). My calendar pages (the year one AND month ones) are also from the Donna Young site, I like free things. I also have a printed copy of my notification form and outline plus last spring's test scores in one pocket, and my excuse letters from the district for this school year in another pocket. I do not keep "grades" so there is no grade sheet for me to record grades. You are lucky if I remember to put a check mark in the monthly calendar on days we actually TRY to do something intentional.
There you have it. Relaxed at its best. We are obviously transitioning to a radical unschooling lifestyle, but I will never get rid of the log book I've created if this setup works for us like I think it will.
I don't actually have a "school room" or even a specific area we learn at. I do lessons where and when we feel inspired. Usually, we do seat work at the dining table.
In case you cannot tell, that table will easily seat 10. I like having a little extra space to spread out if we need it, so when we do written work or most of our projects and crafts, this table is where we do it if we aren't out in the yard working (in which case I'll set up a sheet of 4x12 plywood to work if we need a workspace).
The rest of our work is done on a bed, a sofa, the floor, or even up in a tree (yes, I've had kids up a tree last week, reading or drawing). The world is our workspace typically.
The exception to this is reading aloud to them. I have hip problems, so I require a nice comfy seat while I read. The typical setup for that is me lounging on one of our loveseats to read (be it textbook, novel, Kindle, whatever) and the kids sprawled out on the floor, perhaps with pillows and/or blankets. I also will read with us all snuggled up on my bed or on one bed in the kids' bedroom (one of the two bunks we have in there is a twin over full, we'll pile onto the full)
As for organization, well I've done EVERYTHING already. We've done strict schedules and schooling times (using Managers of Their Homes, wonderful book by the way!), routines with just an order to things, and checklists for lessons and chores to get things done. I've scheduled out detailed lesson plans in the past to follow. I found that for our family, none of those things work for me. So, I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend, my homeschool binder.
This is my weekly page. I use a basic two page weekly planner layout from the Donna Young web site. I printed off about 45 or so double-sided that I keep track of what we do each day as we go through the day. When we do an intentional lesson I write it down in the right subject. Any math pages the girls do I log with that kid's first initial (remember, ALL my children have a different first initial, we did this intentionally just for this purpose). If a girl reads from a book and I catch her, I write it down under "Reading" but I only log the FIRST book I catch her reading that day. Any time I catch someone doing something academic in nature, like watching anything educational or playing a math game or doing a dance game on the Wii even, I list it where it belongs. I even have a column for chores and tasks we need to do.
In this binder, I also have, as my first page, a full year calendar covering July 2013 to June 2014. Behind that, I have individual monthly calendars where I can keep track of appointments, days Scott has off work, holidays, and planned field trips. My plan with the monthly calendars is that behind each month one I will keep a writing sample for each kid. Yes I will be putting one thing each month in this binder for EACH girl (and the boy as he starts to learn drawing shapes and such). My calendar pages (the year one AND month ones) are also from the Donna Young site, I like free things. I also have a printed copy of my notification form and outline plus last spring's test scores in one pocket, and my excuse letters from the district for this school year in another pocket. I do not keep "grades" so there is no grade sheet for me to record grades. You are lucky if I remember to put a check mark in the monthly calendar on days we actually TRY to do something intentional.
There you have it. Relaxed at its best. We are obviously transitioning to a radical unschooling lifestyle, but I will never get rid of the log book I've created if this setup works for us like I think it will.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
New family pet
In April our sweet dog, Tinkerbell, died following a 2 week illness that she just couldn't recover from. Today, we went to the county animal shelter and looked at a few dogs. We walked 4, and brought 1 home.
We named him Terrance. The shelter took this picture of us all with him, and I love that we have a new member of our family. Missa will be doing 4H with him this year once I contact a friend's mother to get a few details I need (she runs a dogs club).
I will never purchase a dog from a breeder or pet store, there are just too many in the local shelter that need adopted or rescued (our shelter is a kill shelter). Every pet we adopt from the shelter is just one more life spared and touched by God's grace for all His creations. I love that we have the ability to save a pet from being killed like this, every pet we've ever gotten from the shelter in my lifetime (this one is the second one for my family, plus I've had 5 cats and 3 other dogs from the shelter in my youth) has been a wonderful pet.
I can't wait until Terrance adjusts completely to our family and shows off his full personality. He's a pug/beagle mix, which I have heard is referred to as a "Puggle."
We named him Terrance. The shelter took this picture of us all with him, and I love that we have a new member of our family. Missa will be doing 4H with him this year once I contact a friend's mother to get a few details I need (she runs a dogs club).
I will never purchase a dog from a breeder or pet store, there are just too many in the local shelter that need adopted or rescued (our shelter is a kill shelter). Every pet we adopt from the shelter is just one more life spared and touched by God's grace for all His creations. I love that we have the ability to save a pet from being killed like this, every pet we've ever gotten from the shelter in my lifetime (this one is the second one for my family, plus I've had 5 cats and 3 other dogs from the shelter in my youth) has been a wonderful pet.
I can't wait until Terrance adjusts completely to our family and shows off his full personality. He's a pug/beagle mix, which I have heard is referred to as a "Puggle."
Monday, August 05, 2013
21013-14 Curriculum in detail
It is time for the iHomeschool Network "NOT back to school blog hop" and after seeing others do it for a few years I've decided to join in this year as well. So, I'm going to start with a quick welcome to the blog hoppers and a brief introduction to my family so that you can see what we work with.
This is me, Cat, and my husband, Scott. This was taken 2 years ago, but we look pretty much the same. We've been together for 11 years now, and married 9 1/2 years. Don't let the picture fool you, he's a head taller than me.
This is the reason I pray to God every day for strength. My 5 ADHD kidlets. In order from left to right is Jordan (almost 6), Kimberly (7 1/2), Lydia (9 1/2), Melissa (10 1/2), and Scott Jr. (almost 18 months). The little dude goes by his middle name, Preston, just to make my life a little easier. This fall we are teaching grades 5, 4, 2, and 1 while managing a VERY active toddler.
Our philosophy
We don't homeshool for religious reasons or anything like that. They did well in public school last year for the first half of the year before we withdrew them again in January. There are learning disabilities and medical concerns present, but not to the degree that they are non-functional. The reason we homeschool is because my husband works 12+ hour shifts at an optical manufacturing facility in northern Columbus (this is about an hour from our home) and we don't have the luxury of having dad home in the evenings like most families do. He leaves for work before 6am daily, and is home after 7pm. When the girls in school, there were many times they wouldn't see their dad at all until Friday night when they were allowed to stay up past 8pm.
We have a fairly eclectic style. I do use unit studies on occasion with the kids, but I'm a big fan of keeping it simple. This is our 6th year of homeschool, with the exception of that one semester last school year. I've had a few years of trial and figuring out how to work schooling into our very busy days that are traditionally packed with learning through life experiences. I am an unschooler in belief, but in practice we are just short of true unschooling.
The plan for this year
We do most subjects as a family, which makes my life simpler. I gear lessons mainly at the younger kids and then encourage the older ones to dig deeper within each topic. Obviously some things must be taught individually, such as math, but for the most part we learn together. Here is my plan for the school year.
History- We will be studying the middle ages using Story of the World (SOTW) volume 2 as a family. My oldest girls will be encouraged (and expected) to dig deeper into topics as we learn together. I am taking a VERY hands-on approach that has a lot of crafts and activities, some of which are from the activity guide for SOTW. This subject is how I'm also meeting *most* of our requirements for art and music as we will include studying art and music from this time period on top of doing crafts and projects constantly to reinforce and make learning more fun.
Geography- one day each week we are going to be doing map assignments tied to our history lessons, but also we are going to be working on being to identify and locate countries, continents, oceans, seas, landmarks, and other such things on the world and US maps (which I still have to buy these maps for the wall, I could print off free ones online but I'd prefer the markable map sold by Sonlight).
Literature- we are going to do a unit study each month on a book or type of literature (tall tales, poetry, short stories). We will study authors within the monthly study. This may or may not include lapbooks and other projects as we go.
Science- we will be studying animal science this year, using Apologia elementary zoology 3 as our starting point. I have a child who wishes to be a veterinarian when she grows up, and that was what influenced my decision this year. If we finish our science book before the end of the year, I plan to purchase the Winter Promise Equine Science curriculum (if we don't finish early, then we'll do equine science next school year). We will be notebooking through the curriculum, as well as doing all the experiments as we study land animals.
Math- this is one that we do individually for the most part. Our curriculum of choice is Math-U-See. This year Melissa is finishing Gamma and then will do Delta, Lydia is doing Gamma, and Kimberly is finishing up Alpha and then going into Beta. Melissa will also be doing the Key To Measurement series to work in her US measurement skills, as she struggles with this a lot still and needs these skills for her future as a chef. Jordan will NOT be doing Math-U-See right off. She did k12 last school year while her sisters were in public school, so this year she will be finishing up her k12 math book and then I'll likely place her in Beta (or possibly just teach her what she needs still as she'll place about midway through Beta and go straight into Gamma). I will also supplement a little with Math Mammoth to make sure they score well on their spring testing. Just a bit of a reassurance that I am covering all my bases really, our main curriculum by itself is more than adequate even for my dyslexic child.
Language arts- I found online for free some complete curriculum for grades 1-6 to cover grammar and spelling, so the girls will be doing the Treasures workbooks (I downloaded them to the computer and each week print off what I need). In penmanship I will teach Melissa cursive while I teach printing to Lydia (who has motor delays and needs the remediation) and Jordan. Kimberly will be given bible verses, poetry, etc. to use as copywork to practice her handwriting as she writes beautifully already. Jordan will also continue through k12 PhonicsWorks to learn to read, and her sisters will be expected to pick one book each month and do a project (craft or written) to present to the family. There are no rules for the monthly reading, it is all about them enjoying the book and showing why they enjoyed it.
Electives- Melissa wants to learn to sew, so I plan to teach that. I'm also teaching the girls 1:1 how to knit and/or crochet so that they can make a few things. They will also be my kitchen helpers for all meal preparation. I have assigned one day to each girl for cooking and their involvement will depend on the child. For example, Melissa will be cooking meals while Jordan will be helping mix, measure, and learn to chop. I'm also considering karate classes for the girls, and Scott is going to teach them to shoot a bow and arrow hopefully in spring.
As you can see, we definitely embrace hands-on learning and being actively involved in life and learning. I rarely have a clean home because we almost always have at least one project happening, and learning is a never-ending process. My bookshelves are being filled now with books that relate to our science and history topics, internet bookmarks are being revised to give quick access for things that we pre-approve for free web browsing, and all kinds of great things. This weekend I go to hopefully fill the craft bins with supplies to last us at least the first few months of the school year, and I pray that I can get even half of my plans accomplished this year.
The 1 year old, well he will learn how to play quietly while we work (heck who am I kidding? he'll be a distraction and in the middle of everything we do). I haven't worked with a toddler since Melissa was in kindergarten, so I am going to be learning as we go with this juggle.
Our philosophy
We don't homeshool for religious reasons or anything like that. They did well in public school last year for the first half of the year before we withdrew them again in January. There are learning disabilities and medical concerns present, but not to the degree that they are non-functional. The reason we homeschool is because my husband works 12+ hour shifts at an optical manufacturing facility in northern Columbus (this is about an hour from our home) and we don't have the luxury of having dad home in the evenings like most families do. He leaves for work before 6am daily, and is home after 7pm. When the girls in school, there were many times they wouldn't see their dad at all until Friday night when they were allowed to stay up past 8pm.
We have a fairly eclectic style. I do use unit studies on occasion with the kids, but I'm a big fan of keeping it simple. This is our 6th year of homeschool, with the exception of that one semester last school year. I've had a few years of trial and figuring out how to work schooling into our very busy days that are traditionally packed with learning through life experiences. I am an unschooler in belief, but in practice we are just short of true unschooling.
The plan for this year
We do most subjects as a family, which makes my life simpler. I gear lessons mainly at the younger kids and then encourage the older ones to dig deeper within each topic. Obviously some things must be taught individually, such as math, but for the most part we learn together. Here is my plan for the school year.
History- We will be studying the middle ages using Story of the World (SOTW) volume 2 as a family. My oldest girls will be encouraged (and expected) to dig deeper into topics as we learn together. I am taking a VERY hands-on approach that has a lot of crafts and activities, some of which are from the activity guide for SOTW. This subject is how I'm also meeting *most* of our requirements for art and music as we will include studying art and music from this time period on top of doing crafts and projects constantly to reinforce and make learning more fun.
Geography- one day each week we are going to be doing map assignments tied to our history lessons, but also we are going to be working on being to identify and locate countries, continents, oceans, seas, landmarks, and other such things on the world and US maps (which I still have to buy these maps for the wall, I could print off free ones online but I'd prefer the markable map sold by Sonlight).
Literature- we are going to do a unit study each month on a book or type of literature (tall tales, poetry, short stories). We will study authors within the monthly study. This may or may not include lapbooks and other projects as we go.
Science- we will be studying animal science this year, using Apologia elementary zoology 3 as our starting point. I have a child who wishes to be a veterinarian when she grows up, and that was what influenced my decision this year. If we finish our science book before the end of the year, I plan to purchase the Winter Promise Equine Science curriculum (if we don't finish early, then we'll do equine science next school year). We will be notebooking through the curriculum, as well as doing all the experiments as we study land animals.
Math- this is one that we do individually for the most part. Our curriculum of choice is Math-U-See. This year Melissa is finishing Gamma and then will do Delta, Lydia is doing Gamma, and Kimberly is finishing up Alpha and then going into Beta. Melissa will also be doing the Key To Measurement series to work in her US measurement skills, as she struggles with this a lot still and needs these skills for her future as a chef. Jordan will NOT be doing Math-U-See right off. She did k12 last school year while her sisters were in public school, so this year she will be finishing up her k12 math book and then I'll likely place her in Beta (or possibly just teach her what she needs still as she'll place about midway through Beta and go straight into Gamma). I will also supplement a little with Math Mammoth to make sure they score well on their spring testing. Just a bit of a reassurance that I am covering all my bases really, our main curriculum by itself is more than adequate even for my dyslexic child.
Language arts- I found online for free some complete curriculum for grades 1-6 to cover grammar and spelling, so the girls will be doing the Treasures workbooks (I downloaded them to the computer and each week print off what I need). In penmanship I will teach Melissa cursive while I teach printing to Lydia (who has motor delays and needs the remediation) and Jordan. Kimberly will be given bible verses, poetry, etc. to use as copywork to practice her handwriting as she writes beautifully already. Jordan will also continue through k12 PhonicsWorks to learn to read, and her sisters will be expected to pick one book each month and do a project (craft or written) to present to the family. There are no rules for the monthly reading, it is all about them enjoying the book and showing why they enjoyed it.
Electives- Melissa wants to learn to sew, so I plan to teach that. I'm also teaching the girls 1:1 how to knit and/or crochet so that they can make a few things. They will also be my kitchen helpers for all meal preparation. I have assigned one day to each girl for cooking and their involvement will depend on the child. For example, Melissa will be cooking meals while Jordan will be helping mix, measure, and learn to chop. I'm also considering karate classes for the girls, and Scott is going to teach them to shoot a bow and arrow hopefully in spring.
As you can see, we definitely embrace hands-on learning and being actively involved in life and learning. I rarely have a clean home because we almost always have at least one project happening, and learning is a never-ending process. My bookshelves are being filled now with books that relate to our science and history topics, internet bookmarks are being revised to give quick access for things that we pre-approve for free web browsing, and all kinds of great things. This weekend I go to hopefully fill the craft bins with supplies to last us at least the first few months of the school year, and I pray that I can get even half of my plans accomplished this year.
The 1 year old, well he will learn how to play quietly while we work (heck who am I kidding? he'll be a distraction and in the middle of everything we do). I haven't worked with a toddler since Melissa was in kindergarten, so I am going to be learning as we go with this juggle.
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