Tag: Homeschooling

The Great Courses Plus, Changing the Way I Homeschool

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The Great Courses Plus, Changing the Way I Homeschool

Wondrium

**Update: The Great Courses Plus is now called Wondrium and has added much more content.

Sometimes you come across resources that change or reshape the way you homeschool. I have been homeschooling for over 20 years now, so this has happened to me a lot. My oldest is 22 now and I believe I started at birth, maybe before. I always felt like a homeschooler, these children are my responsibility and I want to give them everything so that they can have the best opportunity in life.

When I started, the internet was new. I would come across an educational computer program and get excited, or an educational series on VHS (remember those?)

But now there are so many resources you can’t keep track of them all and access with technology is amazing! Back then, I would buy one VHS (or DVD later on) and we would watch it like crazy until I could afford another. Now we have streaming access online or on TV. YouTube is exploding with educational content and I use Pureflix and even Netflix.

But I have come across something that is changing the course of our homeschool once again. And when I say homeschool, I mean life, because homeschooling for us is just life. Yes, we pick courses each year and have curriculum and lessons, but the majority of it is just free learning. I gear it toward our “theme” courses for the year or the grade level they are at but mostly we just have fun. For example, we are going to study Eastern Hemisphere History this year so naturally, programs, stories, or activities having to do with Japan, China, Russia, Korea, etc. will peak our interest and supplement our learning.

So what is this resource that is changing our homeschooling? The suspense!

Well, you must have seen the title. It is The Great Courses plus. You have probably heard of the Great Courses. I have gotten their catalogs and seen the ads online, they have high-quality, high school/college level DVD courses. But they are pricey! They usually range around $300 or more for one course. Sometimes I’ve seen them on sale for around $70 or so and I’ve even seen them in the used book store but I could never justify the price, especially for only one subject and not being able to preview it. What if we hated it or what if it wasn’t in line with my beliefs? Especially since there are so many other resources out there, yeah they might not be as high quality or as refined but I could make due. I could just never justify the price.

But I recently discovered they now have a subscription, The Great Courses plus!! You have access to over 11,000 engaging video lectures (with more continually being added) on Math, History, Science, Travel, Health & Wellness, Entrepreneurship, Photography, Language, Cooking, and more, from award-winning college professors and experts from National Geographic, the Smithsonian, The Culinary Institute of America, The Mayo Clinic, and more. All for one low monthly price! You can even try it for free and cancel anytime!

The Great Courses is a mainstream, secular resource created for High School and lifelong learners (think college courses) I expect you will use your own discretion when picking courses from this resource as I do. You will get everything from Biblical Hebrew to Evolutionary Science courses. There are so many choices, pick what is relevant to your family. If your beliefs lie on the side of Creation Science as ours do you probably won’t find many courses in the Science area, but the Math courses are amazing as are the cooking, language, history and culture, plus so many more I’m sure I have not been able to review yet. For our family, this is replacing Netflix. Even though it is created for older children my younger ones are also enjoying many of the courses too.

Most of the lectures are about 30 minutes long so I figured I could pick 4 or 5 courses at a time that can supplement or in some cases be the complete curriculum. That would depend on your child, family, and the subject. That would be about 2 hours of educational video instruction! That is very doable. I personally will still use YouTube for my younger ones but I have struggled to find everything I want for middle and high schoolers on there.

Some people do not like too much “screen” time but I find it extremely valuable to my children’s education if I choose wisely.

You can watch these easily on your computer, phone, or tablet. You can watch them from your TV with Roku, AppleTV or the Amazon FireTV or Echo. If you don’t have one of those and want to watch it from your TV you can plug your laptop (or desktop computer if it is close enough) to the TV and voila! Some smart TVs can pair to your phone which might also be an option. I personally use a laptop that is kept near my TV and set it up to easily hook up to it (it usually stays hooked up) we watch videos on our large screen and do some online lessons this way too when I want multiple children to see.

Also if you have a high schooler it is important for them to learn to become an independent learner, with your guidance of course. It is always necessary to oversee your students, they cannot homeschool themselves. You have to know what is going on, what they are learning and guide them when they need help or encouragement. In comparison, if they were at school they would have teachers and administrators at home they have you and the resources you provide. I will suggest that you consider The Great Courses plus as one of those resources for your High Schooler. For about the same price as Netflix or similar service you can have access to these high quality courses.

You know I rarely write blogs about products but, I was so excited to find this I wanted to share it with you. This is going to change my homeschooling this year. We have added this to our Resource page or you can click on the links in this blog. We are an affiliate for this company and if you purchase here it will benefit the school. But keep in mind we first and foremost share resources we use or would recommend then, if they have an affiliate program we participate in that. There is no risk to try it for free and preview the courses to see if this would benefit your family. You may find that it greatly enhances your homeschooling too.

As always, Happy Homeschooling!

Family Style Homeschooling

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Family Style Homeschooling

I’m so excited to have Heidi Cooper as a guest blogger today. She is a homeschooler and the author of “It’s OK to Hide in the Bathroom” and other books on practical wisdom for us moms in raising our children in a biblical way.

She runs the website Torah Family Living where she has lots of encouragement and practical ideas to incorporate Scripture, especially the Torah, into your homeschooling and daily life. She is a member of AliYah Academy and a friend.

 

I hope you enjoy her article on her Family Style of Learning as much as I do.

Heidi Cooper

Family Style Learning

My father-in-law used to say, “The day you stop learning is the day you die.” This is so true for everyone, but especially for a homeschool family.

I was homeschooled in high school, and my husband and I are now homeschooling seven children ranging from preschool to eleventh grade. Learning together as a family has become second nature.

I’d love to share some of our tactics in hopes that you can feel more comfortable with family-style learning.

Better Together

The first step in mastering family-style learning is valuing your home life. Your home should be the central hub of your lifestyle, not just a resting place at the end of the day. Your home should be a welcoming, comfortable haven where your family actually wants to be. Part of this atmosphere is the physical condition of your home. While you certainly don’t need a magazine showroom, it does help to keep your home tidy and organized. Many families find this goal easier to achieve after getting rid of extra belongings. You can’t create a mountain of laundry or dishes if you don’t own a mountain of laundry or dishes. Life changing!

I feel, though, that the emotional atmosphere is paramount. Does everyone feel safe just being themselves? Can your children confidently come to you with problems? Do you laugh and have fun together? Are lots of hugs passed around each day? These all contribute to a home that your family will want to be in most of the time.

I would encourage you to also keep your children together for at least some of their lessons. My children work independently for most of their subjects, but we watch educational shows together, read Bible together, etc. Combine where you can, and allow your children to learn together. You can also pair an older child with a younger child. This morning, my eleven-year-old helped my four-year-old with his ABC and numbers flashcards.

Embrace Uniqueness

We are so unique as moms, and our children are so different from each other. We can capitalize on this, and when we do it right, learning can go through the roof.

One of my teenage daughters is currently obsessed with Japan. With some creativity, we were able to build on that theme in history, art, foreign language, and more. I don’t have to hound her to do those subjects! It also helps to make up for the non-negotiable subjects like math that she doesn’t particularly enjoy. Look for your children’s interests and incorporate them into their studies where you can. This can be as simple as book selections, writing assignments, and documentaries, or as involved as field trips. I don’t, however, envision a trip to Japan anytime soon lol.

Be forgiving of your mom personality as well. We are all so very different that there is no use in comparing ourselves to other homeschool moms.

Teach From Overflow

Many years ago, a mentor of mine taught me an important lesson – teach from your overflow. At the time, I was teaching Sunday school and Bible clubs, but this insight has been invaluable as a homeschool mom.

What does this mean? It means that, as the teacher of your homeschool, you keep on learning and filling your own knowledge tank. Continue to read good books. Talk to other families to learn new ways to handle things. Listen to podcasts. Watch a cooking show. Pursue your own interests. Maintain a hobby, such as knitting or bird watching.

Most importantly, fill your spiritual tank by spending time in your Bible every day. I also try to read Biblical articles so that I can share what I have learned with my family during our Bible study times.

Build Your Foundation on Scripture

This is perhaps the most important step in embracing family-style learning. Your home must be built on a solid foundation in order to thrive. So

me families are able to coordinate a Bible study time every day, which is wonderful. Our family doesn’t manage an organized time every day, but we do set aside time every Shabbat afternoon to read the Bible and discuss how it applies to us.

If you are not able to read and study the Bible together every day as a family, there are other ways to incorporate the Bible into your home life.

Assign Bible reading as part of your children’s schoolwork.

Use Scripture copy work to instill Biblical principles in your children’s lives. Don’t forget that Scripture copy work is great for moms and dads, too!

Memorize passages together as a family, for example, learn the 10 commandments together while celebrating the feast of Shavuot.

Post Scripture around your home, and use Scripture in everyday conversation, so your children understand that Biblical principles apply to everyday living.

As you make the Bible accessible and relevant to your family, they will develop the skill of understanding the principles behind commands. It all boils down to loving God and loving our neighbor. These are the principles that we want our children, and ourselves, to be living out. This is perhaps the main reason many of us have chosen to homeschool in the first place. We want to not only learn academically as a family but grow spiritually as a family as well.

I have put together several resources to help you learn together as a family at my website, www.torahfamilyliving.com. I have Scripture copywork books, parenting books, and a children’s book of the Torah portions. You are cordially invited to take a look and see if anything will be helpful to your family.

In what ways have you incorporated a family style of learning in your home?

The Best Homeschool Schedule for You

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The Best Homeschool Schedule For You

Happy New Year!

So, how did last year go for you?

Did you accomplish everything you wanted to?

How about your last semester?

A new year is a good time to stop and reflect.

It is recommended to reevaluate

a few times through the year, some say 3 times a year, which is what I do, some say quarterly.

What did you love about last year?

What would you like to do better?

Take a moment to jot down some things that come to mind. This could be what you want to accomplish in homeschooling or in yourself, academically, spiritually, physically, and even financially. To me, homeschooling covers all of these areas.

Many life coaches recommend having a goal to focus on, this works well in homeschooling too. Think about what you would like to accomplish and write down the goals you want to focus on for this next semester and for the next year.

Now let’s talk about a schedule to work towards accomplishing your goal.

Schedules will be as different as homeschooling. It will depend on the ages of your children, size of your family, and availability of resources such as computers or other media. Your personality will also determine what works best for you and your children.

That is a lot of variables and I haven’t even listed them all. But there is no right or wrong, only what works best for you, so instead of telling you the best method to schedule your homeschool day I will give you a few basic ideas and you can see what works best for your family.

I have used all of these methods at one time or another. I have learned to change and adapt as my children or I need. Be flexible. Life happens and children grow, things change and that is OK.

What works this year may not work next year, don’t worry about it, just change as needed. That is one reason we are always reevaluating, that and to stay focused.

Think of your goal as a target you are aiming for, you may not hit the target straight away but with consistent work, you will continue to get closer.

There is also a difference between a schedule and a routine but for the sake of this article, I will cover them both as a type of schedule.

Now let’s get to it.

 

Block Schedule

This is a typical schedule where you plan everything by hours or even half hours.

Example:

8am have breakfast

9am math

10am language arts etc.…

You can find many printable forms or planners for this method. This schedule requires a strict adherence.

Problems can arise if unforeseen or unexpected events come up and alter the schedule, then tasks either get skipped or backed up.

This is a good type of schedule if your days tend to be predictable.

High schoolers or more mature students can do well with a block schedule if a set amount of time is given for school or if there is a consistent work schedule to fit into the plan.

It is also good if you have resources that children need to share such as a computer or a certain book or educational media that they can’t use together, you can block off time designated for each child to use the resource.

Relaxed Block Schedule

This is much like the block schedule but with more flexibility.

Larger blocks of time are set to accomplish a group of related tasks.

Such as: setting the time between 9am-Noon for a group of subjects or time on the computer

Noon-2pm for lunch and chores

2pm-5pm creative, or outdoor activities

 

5pm-9pm for free time, dinner and bedtime.

 

You may set certain days or times for errands or on the go activities.

 

Since this schedule type gives larger blocks of more flexible groups of tasks, if a task gets missed or another takes longer or unexpected events arise it doesn’t back up the schedule as much as the typical block schedule does.

 

This schedule does well for all age groups and multiple children. More independent children can be working on their lessons while you work with younger children.

 

This is the method I have used the most through the years, but not the one I’m using right now.

Priority List and Routine

A priority list and routine work well together as a scheduling method.

A routine is just the order things are to be done each day with no time limit attached to them.

Such as: in the morning get cleaned and dressed,

have breakfast,

do book work or “table time,”

have lunch,

watch TV/ play games,

quiet time,

make dinner

story time ,

 

bed time.

A priority list is simply a list of what you need to get done each day in order of priority. I use this for our school subjects.

Such as:

Bible

Reading/ Language Arts

Math

Art

P.E.

Sewing, etc.

This list may have more subjects and books listed but for the sake of this example I’m keeping it basic.

A priority list like this guarantees you get to what is most important each day. But it could also lend to never getting to the lesser important subjects, so I like to take one day a week to start at the bottom, or just pick what we want to do at random.

The children love this because it means a day of art, music or creative play and breaks up the monotony of the week.

A routine and priority lists do especially well with the younger ages. Since life can be so unpredictable and you want to leave plenty of room for discovery.

Typically you will get a lot done on good days and not so much on less productive days, and that is OK, in the end it evens out and you will be amazed at all that got done.

Younger ones tend to thrive on this “structured freedom.”

Themes/ Unit Study Planning

This is another good schedule type for younger ones and also mixed ages.

All or many subjects are based around one theme for a week or even month.

You could also base a theme around the children/child’s interest such as a child who loves dinosaurs or getting ready for a vacation to the beach, where you focus all subject around that interest.

English, Science, History, Art and Music fit easily into this method.

Math can get tricky but is easier in the younger years. i.e. One dinosaur plus one dinosaur equals two dinosaurs.

But this method can be tailored to many ages.

It may require more creative thinking from you and could be considered a teaching style rather than schedule but if you teach this way the two seem to blend as your days just flows around the theme, not so much the subjects.

This can be done at least in part with high school but because of required credits in high school could be a little more difficult.

I have done this with all ages and my high schoolers would do some subjects together with my younger ones but at their own level, and would then have their own independent work while I worked on more “childish” things with my younger ones.

This is a very fun and relaxed style, if you like this style you may be an unschooler or relaxed homeschooler.

This type of schedule fits well if your days are unpredictable or if you homeschool on the go a lot.

I also enjoy this method so much with younger ones who thrive working around themes.

Picking a planner

Whichever method you pick you will need some kind of planner to help you keep track of your schedule and it also doubles as a portfolio and attendance tracker.

We offer a simple planner you can purchase on our Payment page that is compact and great for record keeping.

You can get one from places like Staples which is where the selection in the picture is from or you can find more specialized planners on the internet with room to plan more of what you want.

Heidi Cooper of Torah family Living has a beautiful, specialized planner for those who keep Sabbath on the 7th day and follow the Torah schedule. She is a homeschool mom and member of AliYah Academy.

With a 3-ring binder and free printables from the internet you can create your own planner choosing exactly what you would like to have in it.

We have pinned plenty of good free planning resources on our ” Free Schedule Printables and Calendars ” Pinterest board the whole board is dedicated to this on our Pinterest page.

Check it out but keep in mind the cost of ink.

This is a good choice if you want very specialized pages, if not, it may be more economical to buy one pre-made.

Making your schedule

How far you plan ahead is up to you. But I suggest you only do a month at a time at first and do it in pencil until you get a feel for what works best for you.

Pencil in all of your set appointments or work schedules first

then main subjects depending on what method you are using,

then fill in the rest.

Remember to make time for creativity and physical activity.

I like to schedule in the chores, errands and meals along with schooling since it is part of our lives.

Remember to focus on the goal, write it where you can review it often;

you can use any means that works to get there.

Pick a schedule that fits with your family’s style and personalities.

Don’t hesitate to change if you’ve given one a good go and find that it’s not a good fit.

Your schedule should bring joy to you and your family (after an initial adjustment, of course) if it doesn’t, try another one that does.

The idea is that it makes your life better; it’s important to keep that in mind.

Now you’ve got a schedule that fits your family.

You can do this!

Have fun!

Happy Homeschooling!

Mastery Learning: Why Your Child Should Make A’s

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Mastery Learning: Why Your Child Should Make A’s

Here at AliYah Academy, we are always reassuring parents that it’s OK, if not typical, for our children to make all A’s while homeschooling. For some reason we feel guilty like maybe we aren’t hard enough on them or maybe we are showing favoritism, after all, most children in traditional schools aren’t making all A’s.

There is a very good reason for this, apart from the fact that your child IS a genius and you ARE an awesome teacher (one of the best,) you are teaching to mastery. This is something that would be quite challenging, if not impossible, in a traditional school setting. Your child gets A’s simply because your child has you. For example, if your child takes a math test and misses a question you do not simply mark it wrong, give him or her an arbitrary grade A-F, and move on to the next chapter of the book. No, you stop everything and help your child understand and correct the problems they did wrong and then you pay attention and celebrate with your child when you see that they figured it out on their own and now understand the concept. Whether it happens that day or weeks down the road, you, without thinking, teach to mastery because it doesn’t make sense to skip over or rush through something your child doesn’t understand. We naturally want our children to understand, to learn. If they don’t understand a concept we don’t give a grade of failure, we just simply aren’t finished with that concept yet. This holds true for all subjects and skills. We want our children to do their personal best and be their personal best.

I have been explaining this to parents for years now. Mastery Learning is something we instinctively do with our children, but is not (maybe can not) be practiced in a classroom of 30-plus students, who have just met a teacher for the first time that year, and may not see said teacher again after the year ends, to move on to the next unknown teacher, and so on. This is the traditional system, but you have made a different choice, to teach Mastery. To enjoy the process, not just check off required boxes but teach your child to master each task set before them and teach them to love learning.

I recently came across this video from Khan Academy that explains Mastery Learning pretty well. I am thrilled that others are realizing the need for change in the current system and I hope it continues. You can find a link to Khan Academy on the resource links page, They have a free, good math program. Enjoy.

Happy Homeschooling!

 

Life of Fred, A Very Different Math Book

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Life of Fred, A Very Different Math Book

The Life of Fred books by Dr. Stanley F. Schmidt, are very different Math books. Two things I have always come back to in our homeschooling are that learning should have real-world applications and it should be fun. Life of Fred hits the mark on both of these. We always “play” with math, up until our children are in about 3rd grade. They may do some problems in a workbook but the majority is done in real life. At the store, we count items, figure out tax, and figure out the percentage of sales. We compare prices and sizes to get the best deal. At restaurants, we guesstimate the bill and figure out the tip. We measure ingredients in the kitchen for recipes. We are always counting and doubling numbers. We measure everything and talk about shapes and colors. Math is everywhere!

Life of Fred is all that and so much more. Little Fred is looking at math all around him and finding solutions to his strange problems. The stories are ridiculously humorous so that you and your child will have no choice but to remember and continue to think about them. These books are not only math, just like real life, Fred discovers so many things around him and the author uses every opportunity to give fun tidbits of information on many subjects, from how to set a table, to Magellan traveling around the globe.

The chapters are short and your children may want to do more than one a day since they are so much fun. After each chapter, there are a few questions to do on your own paper. The questions are even done in such a carefree way that your children will enjoy them. We always end with my children drawing a picture of something in the chapter on their paper after the problems. This has come naturally since Fred’s doll Kingie, in the story, is an artist and the stories are so interesting that it spurs a child’s imagination. I think, also, drawing isn’t intimidating since Fred does not draw well at all.

These books are meant to be a complete math curriculum. They are, and then some. They are also good for a wide range of ages. I personally have a ten-year-old, seven years old, and a five-year-old that I teach all together with Life of Fred on the couch. I started at the beginning in Apples and even though my 10-year-old was far ahead of that in skill, she was not bored and thoroughly enjoys the books, she is also still learning because of all the other information provided in the stories. We progressed fast through the books and are now up to what I would say is her level and so are her younger brothers. I will read them again with my 5-year-old when we are done with the elementary books; Apples through Jellybean (in Alphabetical order A-J). For now, the stories keep his interest and even though I don’t have him do the written questions at the end, he will often draw a picture of something in the story, so I know he is listening.

You may go another route and choose a more traditional math curriculum, if so, you should consider Life of Fred as a supplement or enjoyable reading because just reading these books would benefit any child. A word of warning though, if you are lacking a sense of humor, do not consider these books, but if you want to jump way outside the box and have some fun learning with your child, give these books a try. There are a lot of unexpected lessons to be learned in the Life of Fred books.

For the best deals, we have found online go to Christian Book Distributor

AliYah Academy gets a small commission when you use links on this website. Thank you for your support.

Homeschooling in our House

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Homeschooling in our House

I get asked a lot, How long each day do I spend homeschooling?, or How do we homeschool? Homeschooling will be as different for each family as there are families homeschooling. But for the sake of ideas in your home, I will share what works well for us.

First, let me share a little about our family and our lifestyle. We have seven children ranging from 18 down to my one-year-old. I knew I would homeschool from the time I was pregnant with my first child, at the time I didn’t know anyone else who homeschooled, it was just what I felt and I have ever since. We have a farming lifestyle, so our School changes with the seasons of the year and the seasons of life.

So how long do I homeschool each day? This is a tricky question. I may only sit down for an hour or 2 of truly directed “schooling.” But to us “Life is School” So I could also argue that we homeschool for as many hours as we are awake.

Right now, at the beginning of spring, I will share our typical day. The weather is nice. We have lots of dairy goats to milk and chicken eggs to collect and a new puppy to train into a working farm dog. We all get up bright and early to get the chores done, all the animals taken care of, little children fed and diapers changed. This takes everyone’s cooperation and even the littlest ones get some kind of chore. This is instilling teamwork and a good work ethic, not to mention the science involved with the animals, child care, and strengthening our family as a unit.

 

Then we all gather around our table, this is my favorite part of the day. We read a Psalm (or any part of Scripture) we like to read the same portion each day until we have it memorized. Then we pray, this can be a challenge with little ones but trust me the more consistent you are, the more loving direction you give, and the more they mature, they will grow to expect it. Of course the one-year-old we just try to keep occupied with something quiet or hope he takes a nap, but my 3-year-old, who is quite wild, now sits mostly still and likes to put his hands together, he will even pitch in with something like “Thank you YHVH for turtles” Everyone gets a turn, as I want them all to be comfortable praying, depending on Yahweh and trusting in Him.

Then we get into the more “school-like” stuff. We are reading poems by Emily Dickenson, we spent one day reading about her life, and now we are enjoying discussing and trying to figure out what she was trying to convey in her poems.

Then we read out of a child’s devotional book, “God’s Amazing Creatures and Me” We learn some interesting facts about a characteristic of an animal and then look at what that teaches us, we talk about listening better or watching our tongue, and then we read a bible verse related to it. We are liking this book, I will be sad when we finish it.

Then I use flash cards. My older ones are working on reading Hebrew, so while they pick out a few Hebrew cards to read to the group I give my little ones ages 7, 5, and 3 worksheets ( the 3-year-old just gets a coloring sheet ) I am doing Dolch words with them, they are common English sight words, you can look it up. We review words we have done, then I go back and forth giving my little ones a new word to write in their worksheet and while they are writing my older ones 18, 17, and 15 take turns reading a Hebrew word and showing the group. It’s all good practice and I try to keep everyone busy. Then my little ones get a handwriting worksheet appropriate for them. (The 7-year-old is doing cursive, the 5-year-old is doing reading readiness-type stuff, and the 3-year-old is still sort of coloring or getting into whatever manipulatives I have brought to the table.)

As they do handwriting we start our Polyglot training, we have always been interested in foreign languages, we are all studying Hebrew, we have learned some Spanish and French, and we start sign language with our babies (We like the videos Signing Time) So we decided to see if we could learn a bunch of languages at once, a Polyglot is someone who speaks many languages. So we picked 6 languages and are simultaneously learning phrases and vocabulary for all. It is slow going but fun as we try to remember and quiz each other each day. The little ones repeat the words too as they do their writing. I will let you know how it works out, it is all an experiment right now, but language stimulates different parts of the brain and if we are enjoying it, I know it will benefit their learning as a whole whether we end up polyglots or not.

Finally, we talk about any news or things we need to do for the day, I give my older children their independent assignments (English, History, Science) and we break for lunch.

In addition to the assignments I have given them, for the remainder of the day, my older children also have ongoing math, music, and Hebrew Rosetta Stone lessons; they dabble in art from the many books we have; Abi sews; the boys are learning programming, and we all are interested in fitness and health. As long as they do the assignments I give them and stay active, I don’t bother them much. I do show interest and give them advice and then I check the assignments when they are done. I am blessed that we don’t have many problems, we have always had a learning environment and my children enjoy it.

As for my little ones, I find a good time to sit down with Rebekah my 7-year-old, and do her reading lesson, we have tried a lot of different reading programs, I am using “Hooked On Phonics” with her right now and we really like it. You need to find what works with your personality as well as your child’s learning style. I am doing the “Hooked On Phonics” cards with my 5 and 3-year-old. Once they are comfortable with all the sounds we will move into the workbooks and reading. Kaleb is almost ready.

Other than that the rest of our day is filled with reading aloud; crafts; playing; nature; an educational video; listening to a CD of music, a story, or history; and some days we run errands. At the end of our day we do our chores, have dinner, and clean up, and some nights as a treat we watch something on tv together, a movie or educational program. Sometimes with organic popcorn.

We really enjoy homeschooling and my children are thriving academically, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. What more could we ask for?

I will share more about what we do with our high schoolers in my next blog.

Happy Homeschooling!

Confessions of a Homeschool Mom

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Confessions of a Homeschool Mom

So here it is, January, mid-school year, and time for us to record semester one grades. I have to confess, even though I am confident in the education that my children are getting, I have a moment of doubt when it comes time to record grades. After all, I am a busy mom, I work 2 days outside of the home and I also help to run our business from home. I have a one-year-old who is still quite attached to me; a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old who both require lots of my attention and constant activity; and a 7-year-old girl who is such a big help but still needs much guidance and training. Then I have 3 teenagers, high schoolers. I spend so much of my time reading to and teaching little ones, that I doubt, for a moment, that my high schoolers have gotten what they need. Besides that as a homeschooler our “school” does not have to be founded on grades, these are my children. For most subjects, we go over or they go over, whatever material is at hand until it is understood. We don’t move on until it is mastered, it’s as simple as that, it’s an “A” or we aren’t done. In a typical school setting where there are 30 students in a classroom, one year with each teacher to accomplish said subject and all subjects are compartmentalized. Yes, a grading system would be needed to try to “chart” how much of said subject was internalized by each student that year. But we as homeschoolers are not limited in that way. When I hear my children discussing “the British perspective of the Revolutionary War vs. the “American” perspective”… Then I know they “got it”. That would mean the material was mastered and that, my friend, deserves an “A”. So now here I am, mid-year to record my children’s grades. I go subject by subject that I have put before them at the beginning of the year to complete. I have trained up my high schoolers to be independent. I stay mostly hands-off, only to check final reports I have assigned, and I commonly discuss with them what they are doing just to check that they are still on track with their “school,” after all, their school is still my responsibility. I allow them to chart their own course in high school but they know the boundaries and what is expected. If they get off track, I am there to guide them back. So I get to each subject, some of them they do on the computer, I check their progress, remind them where they need to be by the end of the year, we make a new plan for completion if needed, then move on. I get to English… What have they done for English? I can’t even think, have they done anything? I had a teacher in high school who, at grading time, would call me up to his desk. “What should I give you an A or a B?” This was so crazy to me, did he not know my grade? Did I really have a choice? I would then have a discussion with him that would end up with me reminding him of all I learned and accomplished in his class. Everyone did not pass his class so I know our grades were not only based on that discussion but looking back, how brilliant, to remind the student of all they had learned by getting them to regurgitate it back, or was this not unlike our family discussions around the dinner table and me being able to see that they “got it”. So I call each child to me, first Mason, a senior this year, “What have you been doing in English?” He reminds me he is writing a novel. Of course! He is using the book “Learn to Write the Novel Way” by Carole Thaxton. He references it and uses it to get his writing juices flowing. He is always discussing his ideas with his dad, his brother, and me. He shows me his progress, I have to say, I am impressed. We discuss plans to complete it by the end of the school year and I happily mark down “A”. Now Ethan, a junior this year, … oh my what has he done? So I call him to me, “What have you been doing for English?” He says “Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction”… at first I’m about to blow that off as a joke, it’s a book by Jason Austin, using office supplies to make fun little gadgets like catapults, slingshots, etc. Then he says, “No really, I’ve read it like 3 times.” Then I start thinking, he had “OKed” a project with me concerning this book, I just didn’t think of it as English. But he is making “how-to” demos on YouTube. He writes and creates a dialog, does research, and creates video media, not to mention computer skills, mathematical, and scientific applications. Oh yeah, he gets an “A”! We discussed what I would like to see by the end of the year to include more writing, and I continue with my grading. By the way, we are always reading and discussing novels and Scripture around here, so I know that we have that covered, in their English, I am looking for more writing. Now Ethan is very hands-on, he would much rather be reading a manual than a story. Twice in the past few weeks, I have heard the quote “Find what you love and you will never work a day in your life.” I do believe, that is what both of my boys have found this year in English, so much so that I didn’t even see it as work until they showed me. To me, this is a dream come true, for my children to love to learn. For them to be finding their strengths and building on them. Now, again, I have no doubts. And I LOVE homeschooling! It is my hope that this will be an inspiration to you in your home.

Happy Homeschooling!