My faith in the public school system has fizzled out. Finally. Thus begins my journey into being a serious homeschool mom. The journey is bound to be difficult, and I enter the path with slight trepidation. However, that being said, I have a strong belief that it is the right path to take. My kids mean the world to me. Giving them the best education possible, isn't an empty dream. If all I can leave them is knowledge, then I'm leaving a treasure-loads worth!
First things first...
I had to remove them from the public school system. My daughters school acquiesced my request immediately. My boys' school... Took several emails and then CC-ing the Superintendent. But it is done! Supposedly... And I am happy to feel so free. Taking that first step can be so draining. Emotionally speaking, I kept wondering if I can truly do this. But knowing the support I have from my husband and the supplies my mom keeps passing along, it just seemed so doable. Physically speaking, I questioned how I would get through the days with the kids around non-stop. I'm not always feeling my best. And try though I may, they know when I'm struggling. They are like their dad... Always reading me better than I'd like! But then there is the thought that if they stay in school, I have to keep getting up before the sun and dragging them to the bus stop. Then dragging myself to pick them up in the afternoon. I think I can handle being home all day every day with them much better than keeping to that schedule! It can be overwhelming at first. But once the rhythm is established, this will be a walk in the park.
What will I teach?
As required by law mathematics, reading, writing and citizenship are no-brainers. But I won't stop there. History shows our human mistakes so that we can be better in the future. Science brings wonder and reminds us to keep pushing forward. Art breeds creativity. And of course I will be looking forward to our trips to the pool and tennis courts for physical education. I also plan to teach them as much home economics studies as I can think of. My kids won't be like the majority of college-aged kids who don't know how to wash their clothes or make breakfast! My 4 year old folds and puts away her clothes and towels just fine. So I think I'm on track so far. I've created a board on Pinterest that is divided by subject to keep me on track and offer ideas when I get stuck.
What am I doing?
Normally I laugh and say, "I don't know!"
I've been reading a lot about homeschooling. I've also thought back to the days when I was a homeschooler (4th grade to college). Not every kid goes ahead at the same pace. So I'm evaluating where my children are and where they need to go. While I like having workbooks that they can progress in on their own, I don't want to sit back and wait for them to have questions. I know at least one of them will gladly pretend to be doing the work while most likely hiding undone pages. I should know, I did the exact same thing. Once. I'm going to be hands on with them. I have a 6th grader, 5th grader, and a 4th grader. Not to mention my 4 year old in Kindergarten!
Where are my materials coming from?
One thing I have come to find is that a child needs to progress at their own speed. My 4th grader is far ahead in her levels. So I'm going out on a limb and teaching them all together. Refreshers in multiplication, division, fractions and decimals. My 6th grader is the only one who might be able to go into whatever comes after those. Math is my husbands expertise. So he's their teacher in that subject. My mom gave me lots of books that I'm going to pull lessons from to use. I've also printed pages out online to get an idea of where they are. I'm going to have them quizzing each other with flash cards for multiplication and division. Reading is easy! That is my comfort zone. All my children follow suit in that. Our library recognizes us now, I'm proud to admit. We have a great deal of fun going there. My only sadness is that they limit me to placing 25 items on hold at once. And I can only get 50 items at a time. Which means we are there almost every week. Okay, every week. I've nearly met my Goodreads reading challenge goal for the year already. Which reminds me... I need to up it to 150 books... Anyhow. I'm teaching them the proper differences between the types of books they are reading. And to mix non-fiction in between the fiction. (Something my mom taught me.) Keep hold of enough of reality so that you don't always live in fantasy. They are currently reading about robots and our special forces teams for their non-fiction.
Writing is going to be fun! When I was homeschooled, I had penpals around the world. I also kept journals. LOTS of journals. I've since burned some of those. Most of those. But there are couple I still have. My children won't be forced to keep a journal. They keep to something else. They have Bible study journals. They read the Bible on their own and write questions to ask their dad later. He does Bible studies with them every afternoon, Mondays being question days. Even their Sunday school teachers have been in wonder that my kids know more about the passages being studied than other kids there. My kids can even tell you the historical references of people not in the Bible that affected the events mentioned in the Bible! That makes me very proud. On top of this, though, I plan to try and get them penpals. I want them to practice writing letters while also learning about others around the world. I don't want idle writings. But true penmanship and connections. I would even like them to write family more as well. Since the pandemic, we haven't had many in-person interactions with family.
History is a subject that my husband and I both are huge fans of. My kids have learned well how much I enjoy it. I make them write reports every summer on a different subject. We discuss World War 2 a lot around here. This summer, they learned the proper layout of a book report while studying pirates. Wanna know how I know they actually learned something from this study? My 11 year old son had to see the dentist. As he sat there, the hygienist asked him what he had done over the summer so far. He told her he learned about pirates. "How fun!" she says. "Yep, I even know all about the process of keelhauling!" He tells her. She looks at me confusedly and back to him, "What is keelhauling?" He goes into precise, and slightly gory, detail about it. She looks back at me and said, "Nothing like Pirates of the Caribbean, huh?" HAHAHAHAHA You wanna talk about being proud of my son?! I told her, "Nope, that is real history that he learned." We did binge through the entire series of Pirates of the Caribbean movies. We are also still reading Treasure Island. We watched two versions of movies made from that book as well. And my mom made it even more fun by sending a game called Pirate Words that had us laughing our butts off trying to make words, beat each other to the treasure and not get eaten by sharks - all at the same time! I took it a step further and had each of them design their own pirate "colors" or flag. Anyone who has studied pirate history will know that pirates didn't all fly the same Jolly Roger flag. They created their own to fly, to show who was captain of the ship. It was cool to see their different ideas and to read their reports. They all see piracy so differently.
I have science projects and kits lined up already. My mom has sent most of them. From robotics to wind machines, to solar power and circuitry. Not to mention my husband has loads of his own ideas for fun science studies. We have books to study the Epic Failures of Engineering. I can't wait for that one!
For physical education, we go to the pool and are learning swimming. Or at least I have been trying to teach them. We also take them to play tennis. We bought racquets for us all. My kids love this! We are actually getting better. We no longer take up two courts with our stray balls all the time! I did fall this last time. Scraped up my right side really well. But through it all, we are having fun and staying fit.
This one came from the Czech Republic
Geography is a fun subject. I don't believe it is only for learning where places are on the globe. I also believe in learning about other cultures and culinary experiences. I am a member of Postcrossing. I swap postcards with others around the world. When I get one from another country, I look up recipes from there and make a dinner that is completely different than things we have here. Then I read to the kids a little about that country. We talk about where it is. Soon I will be hanging a world map that my mom gave me. I'm creating what I call the Learning Wall. Our place is small, but I'm making it work.
What suggestions might you have? Any of you homeschool?? I'd love to hear about it!
