Anyway -- here it is for better or worse. It's 16 degrees outside at 3:30 in the afternoon. The kids are vegged out in front of the TV learning something sorta somewhat scientific from Ms. Frizzle and trying to stay warm by the wood stove. I could be reading some dynamic work of children's fiction aloud to them right now, letting Jonathan beat me at chess, or pretending to be a white Calico Critter bunny with Melanie, but I choose to write on this frigid day. And that's the beauty of home school.
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I preface this with the admission that we have two kids.We are not fertile. We have discussed adopting more kiddos, but we just haven't felt the Providential "go-ahead" on that one, so we still have two kids. This thing has got to be WAY more challenging for families with more than TWO kids. In fact, I'm not sure I'd be home schooling if I had more than TWO kids. So take this for what it is... information on how to be sort of, somewhat successful at home educating TWO KIDS. {smile}
I LOVE teaching our kids. I LOVE that I get to teach it all... even math! I am a Jackie-of-all-trades, master-of-none, and I'm having an absolute ball!
Now, ask the kids what they think? Ha!
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| Frontier Culture Museum - Staunton, VA |
Seriously though, I think we're all having a great time, especially now that I'm learning to relax. Back when I was trying to do it all, and fill every moment of every day with something educational, I had a twitch and some tics and maybe a touch of IBS. IF we took a field trip, which wasn't often, I had to somehow reclaim that "lost" day. Actually I'm still kind of struggling with that, even though, as a former public school teacher, I remember how many days we lost to lock downs, chaos in the halls, locker combination problems, stink bombs, three and a half seconds of freezing rain overnight (in S. Texas), etc... I was taking 3-4 hours to teach pre-school and kindergarten every morning for five mornings a week. I can't believe I just typed that statement.
So now, for some reason, I'm getting up at 5 am like an old person (which, I, most decidedly, am not). Jonathan hears me up and about and is right on my heels. He has learned to let Mama have a quiet time... mostly. No, I don't insist that he go back to bed. Jonathan really needs to be with people. I really need to be alone. However, I am his Mama, and, as his Mama, I want try to put his needs before my own while helping him learn that others also have needs. So, we have an understanding. If he will refrain from speaking until the caffeine has taken full effect, we're good.
I digress.
We're starting school by seven or seven-thirty and we're done, most days, by ten-thirty. And that leaves the rest of the day! Yes, we typically have to finish up some read-alouds at the lunch table. Yes, we do some assigned reading at bed time with books from which I'm really supposed to be expecting detailed narrations. However, I'm just not so sure I agree that a reading of the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood should require a formal narration! Again... the beauties of home education. I get to make that call.
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| sibling sweetness - creekside at Massanutten |
We just finished our first week back after a six-week break, and I just finished tweaking my school schedule for the upcoming week. BJUP (Bob Jones) Bible Truths has been banished from the schedule. I started to pick it up this week and just couldn't. I replaced it with Hero Tales by Dave and Neta Jackson. Not to slam BJUP, but it was just getting old and boring. I'd ask a question and Mel would just repeat, "Jesus!" "God!" "Pray!" "Read the Bible!", hoping one of those answers would fit the slightly detached discussion questions at the end. Jonathan was just getting more and more resistant to Bible time in general. After our fun/deep Advent devotional and the fantastic/exciting sequel to Jotham's Journey (Bartholomew's Passage - Arnold Ytreeide), I couldn't return to BJUP Bible Truths. Maybe someday. We will memorize the general outline of two parables and the larger truths behind those this six weeks along with our AWANA memorization.
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| making winter homes for mason bees from fallen sunflower stalks, wood planks and tomato cans |
Back in the summer when we started this school year, I began using morning time to get some of our group lessons done. We complete some subjects every day (Bible, Hymn, Folk Song, Poetry, Geography) and then we rotate through some others (Latin- 3x a week, Art Lesson, Artist Study, Composer Study/Music Appreciation, Solfege, Ear Training, Mental Math, Read-Alouds, Timeline, etc...). Whoa! What an impact that had. It takes 45 minutes to an hour to enjoy, and during part of that time we're doing double duty eating breakfast. In the past I'd try to incorporate all of that at the end, and often we wouldn't get to those extra, yet essential (essential to me) activities.
We have the privilege of attending a science class on Tuesdays (Home School Hub at the Freedom Center in Lucketts, VA) followed by a phenomenal P.E. class and then an enrichment class that covers topics in the Little House books. Since we've been reading those together in our evening family read-alouds, it's been a huge blessing, especially for my extreme extrovert who needs lots of time bouncing ideas off other kids and adults. And since we don't have to be there until 11:10, we have time to knock out a slightly abbreviated school session in the morning.
The exciting thing is, we've added some things to the schedule this year, but we've also removed the superfluous stuff and I'm finding more time. And time is a precious commodity! We added Sarah MacKenzie's Read-Aloud Revival 31-Day Challenge to our January, and we're still finishing our school schedule more quickly than in years past. I actually tried to implement the RAR Challenge last January and fizzled by day ten. We'll see how it goes this year. I am definitely more prepared and less stressed about it this year. We've added handicrafts, lots more read-alouds, math facts memorization, Mama-led piano lessons and practice each day, geography and book basket stations for times when Mama needs to spend one-on-one time with a kiddo and still we're finishing more quickly with more info. in our heads.
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| Luray Caverns |
One of my favorite tweaks has been the simple practice of having everything laid out in the evening before bed. My kiddos can sometimes jump in on independent work (math warm ups, copy work and handwriting) while they're waiting for Mama to finish quiet time. I may make that concept transfer to the breakfast table and have all our dishes laid out for breakfast too just to see if anyone will take the bull by the horns and get their own breakfast together!
On a side note, I'm almost finished reading a book called Different by Sally Clarkson and her son, Nathan. It's been a bit hard to put down, and it's really helped me feel less alone in my child-rearing endeavor. What I love about Sally Clarkson is her transparency. She doesn't let it all hang out, but she does expose enough to help a mama feel known, understood and loved by her Heavenly Father.
While I feel like we've hit our stride here, I'd love to hear ideas from others on how to get this home school thing to happen on auto-pilot. I guess it's doubtful that will ever happen, but a gal can dream. I know, without a doubt, that we've got some serious room for improvement over here. For instance, here's a question: I really want to continue with some short Latin lessons and I have a book with short/easy lessons to segue into when we're done with our second run through Song School Latin, but I really want to do some modern foreign language study... preferably independent study. Has anyone used Rosetta Stone Spanish and had your kiddos keep a log of lessons completed each day? If so, how did that work out? Any other suggestions?
Happy New Year to all and blessings on your home school endeavors!
