I have been having the prompting lately to go over and explain the Sacrament Prayer to the boys for our home schooling. We are working on the Prayer on the Bread right now. It has been fun. I guess this prompting has been coming because my oldest boy will be turning 12 in less than a year. He will be passing the Sacrament and I want the importance to be there as well as the understanding to all my children, especially Trenton. The biggest lesson we have learned is the meaning of Sanctify. " To make holy" This has made a difference in how we all look at the prayer on the bread.
I am always trying to keep our homeschooling focused on the Gospel. That is why we started homeschooling. I feel that if we keep the Gospel first in our studies, everything else will fall into place!
Another mother in our ward came to me the other day in need of support. I think I need it too. We both homeschool, but we are doing it all on our own. So, we decided to combine forces and work together once a week with all of our children. It is going to be great!
Now that I am finished with my college classes, and life has slowed ( ha!) for a brief moment, I am catching up and planning, planning, planning.
I had a mild mommy freak out the other day. In our school at home we do not have a set curriculum that we use. I print things off, I have them do computer works, we read books and that is about it. No set work books, no online class they attend, and not a whole lot of structure. So, I went online and researched buying a curriculum. --------I abandoned the idea quickly when I learned that the few sets I liked and considered purchasing would cost over $2000 for my kidos. Um, no. I value their education, but I think it can be done a lot more frugally.
My next adventure, creating my own curriculum for each child. I have discovered half.com where I can buy various work books and study guides for as low as 0.75 and re sell them back if I choose. I can cherry pick what I want my children to learn and how I want them to learn it. The best part, I can customize the plans for each one of my children. If one child learns more visually, cool, not a problem! If another child learns by reading, great! I plan to work on it over the summer, and let the kidos finish up what I have planned out for the next two months, and hopefully I will have most of m curriculum planned and ready by September!
This past week, I have been sick. Not like a little sniffle, cough, feeling yuck sick... I have been SICK. Like, can't move from the bed, fever, terrible aches pains and ailments, I think I am going to die, SICK. While this has been happening, not a whole lot of anything else has been happening.. like school work.
While I am not totally feeling better, I am on the mend. So, today, I made packets. A varied amount of assignments for each child, divided into one week at a time. So far I have 4 weeks done. I slip them into their boxes Sunday night and they are set for the week. Monday- we plan and do group work, then Tuesday -Thursday is individual time with me with each child, then Friday is group work again. I think this will be great!
I think the biggest struggle I have had over the past 2 years is dealing with the fact that I have to tote my kidos with me all the time. church functions, lunches out with friends, meetings, they are always there. I get a bit of anxiety from it all at times, because I am constantly dealing with 4 children while maintaining my adult duties. Anyone else have a hard time coping with this all? So far, I have found that if I come prepared with toys, activities and reading the children stay pretty occupied. I also make sure that I get out and about by myself here and there throughout the week to keep my sanity!
This being only my 2nd year homeschooing, I still question myself, more than I would like. I also find that I have to prove myself to anyone who questions or inquires about my decision to homeschool. It is easy to try and keep with public school standards. Some examples are : reading levels, math levels, hand writing abilities and so on. I find myself from time to time worrying if everyone is where they should be for their grade level. Then I take a step back. I started homeschooling so my children could learn at their own pace. There are some things they will excel quickly in and some things they will struggle with. It is all a process and why we do the things we do.
We are trying a year round schedule this year. I am interested in seeing how it works for our family. The beauty of making your own schedule is just divine!
Here is a glance of my plan:
January, February, March- School schedule
April- School Break- Except for family projects
May, June, July- School schedule
August-School Break- Except family projects
September, October, November- School schedule
December- School Break - Except family projects.
I don't know about you, but we burn out after a while and our school schedule slacks a bit, and we dwindle off into the land of chaos. I am thinking with a month break here and there, it will help us and give us time to rejuvenate.
One of the largest obstacles I have found in homeschooling, is trying to manage teaching three different children -three different levels of varied subjects. I was always running, answering 20 million questions at one time and burnt out very quickly. It took me about a year to realize... I need to schedule differently.
We started making a weekly schedule for about everything. From cleaning to one on one time for learning, it works great!!! Mondays- we have combined work, group projects and planning Tuesdays- My middle boy has one on one time with me Wednesday -- the youngest boy works with me Thursday-- My eldest boy works with me Friday is a combined day again. I fill their cubbies with work for the week, and when I am working with someone else, the others work on their other projects or do computer work.
The past few weeks, I have had a strong impression that we need to be focusing on character. This is the beauty of homeschooling. Along side math, spelling and science, we can teach them and learn together to be good people. I came across Michelle Duggar's Character Qualities chart. I think we are going to start this in September. I love this! There are 49 qualities. With each quality the opposite of the quality is listed.
Year two of homeschooling for us. I am really seeing the benefits and enjoying the freedoms this year.
Perks of year two in homeschooling
We are more organized
I am more flexible
I am more confident in my abilities to teach my children.
We can have a nice ebb and flow. I can really push the kids hard, and get a lot done, and we can take off a week or so when illness creeps in, or we have a busy week.
The boys know what to expect and what is expected of them.
We are busier and busier every passing month.
Keep at it out there. If you have the mindset to homeschool your children, you can do it as long as you have faith. Faith and doubt cannot exist in the mind at the same time, as one will always dispel the other. -- Thomas S. Monson
Socializing, one of the fore most concerns of people when you tell them you homeschool. They ask, " What do you do to socialize the children?"
This is my first reaction that I suppress until I walk away and they are out of earshot
I cannot blame people though, it is just a natural question to ask. A lot of the reason we send out little ones out into the world, is for them to learn how to interact with others and how to act appropriately in public situations. They only difference, I think, with homschoolers is, we would like to teach our children how to act in various situations, and to help them strengthen themselves and their values, so when they are out in the world, they have the self esteem and knowledge to handle things with grace and care, not by being thrown into the fire and learning from hurt feelings, damaged hearts, and punishments. Don't get me wrong, children learn and socialize just fine in a public school setting. I am not down grading or looking down upon those who have their children in school out side of the home, I am simply giving my side of the story.
This article explains things a lot better than I can, and makes it easy to understand.
We are slowly merging into our next school year. I feel a lot more confident and sure of myself as we venture into year two of our homeschool adventure. I bought a 10 drawer organizing cart and made labels for each drawer. I will have to take pictures once I am all finished. I love organizing and sorting. It makes me feel sane and somewhat in control. Each one of my boys has their own drawer, a drawer for finished work, one for crayons, one for colored pencils and crayons, tape-glue-and scissors drawer, craft item drawer, stickers--playing cards and extra items, and a paper drawer. A place for everything and everything in its place!
I am also trying to plan out, with the boys, what we will be covering, as well as a tentative schedule. Last school year, around Valentine's Day, and a few other holidays, we studied the holiday, typed out what we learned, and made fun treats and crafts and gave them to friends and family. The boys really enjoyed doing this, so we mapped out different holidays and planned to do the same things through out the year. It is a fun way to learn and share what we learn with those we love.
I am also planning for those tough days. I came across this on Pinterest and thought I should share it and have it where I could re read it when those days surface.
"So what do you, sweet homeschool mom? When you’re on the brink of burn out and ready to call it quits?
Try this.
Take a deep breath. Go somewhere you can be alone. Fall on your knees and cry out to God. He led you to this place. Surely He can take you by the hand and guide you through these hard times.
God knows you don’t have it all together. He knows that as hard as you try, you’ll never have it all together. But listen, He didn’t call you to this life because you had it all figured out, He called you because He wanted to do a work in your life and the lives of your children. Trust Him. Let Him do His work, it will be your greatest blessing.
Heavenly Father, it’s so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life. Help us to remember to keep focused on you and to put you first in our lives and everything else will fall into place. Remind us that even those these days seem to drag on forever, the years pass by so quickly. We must cherish the little lives you’ve entrusted us with. Though we may not say it often enough, thank you for the opportunity to homeschool our children. We know the lessons and memories will go well beyond a textbook. Lord, please give us strength and courage to face another day. Remind us that a happy child is more important than a clean house. Thank you for loving us enough to give us new mercies each morning. In Jesus’ sweet name we pray, Amen."
My 7 year old has been a slow started on reading. His one year in public school focused more on phonemes, syllables and testing than they did actually reading. So, I took the TJed approach and made it simple. I read to him. Then, I had him read to me basic Dick and Jane books. This past week I started having him keep a journal. I did this just to have him simply write words he knew, then I had him write words he read about in his book or in a book I read to him. He quickly progressed and by the end of the week, he was writing his own sentences. I am not worrying about spelling or punctuation right now. He spells what he knows and what he does not know he tries his best. It has been wonderful. Last, we talk about what we have read to make sure comprehension is taking place. It is fun to talk about books you are reading. The boys often come up with new endings or what if type questions. It gets their minds moving!
One thing I have learned over the past few months, is that the life of a home schooling family is ever changing. My husband and I went to a meeting the other night, where a woman spoke to many of us "new" or "younger" home schooling families, who had home schooled for 22 years. It was refreshing to hear some one speak who had taught her children at home, and had children who had graduated and gone on to live their lives.
Back to basics, back to basics, back to basics. It is as simple as that. We were all reminded to get off the the public school conveyor belt, and remember why we decided to homeschool in the first place.
I was brought back to the Thomas Jefferson Education approach. I follow this plan loosely, but it is a great plan.
7 Keys of Great Teaching
There are seven principles of successful education. When they are
applied, learning occurs for any learning style or interests. When they
are ignored or rejected, the quantity and quality of education
decreases.
Classics, Not Textbooks
Mentors, Not Professors
Inspire, Not Require
Structure Time, Not Content
Simplicity, Not Complexity
Quality, Not Conformity
You, Not Them
She added an 8th, which has stuck in my mind. Faith not Fear. Fear is the work of the adversary, who wants us to fail and wants us to be scared that we are not doing enough or a good enough job. We need to have faith in our selves and Heavenly Father to do the best we can.
Other things that that helped get us back on track:
Read. READ READ READ READ READ. Read to your kids.
Then Discuss. Talk while you are reading. Don't get upset at interruptions and encourage conversation about the story at hand.
And last, write. Once the child is old enough, have them write about what they have heard.
These are great concepts that have already taken shape in our home. I cannot believe how amazing and effective they are.
So, our schedule is pretty important. Do we always follow it? No. Do I schedule everything? No. We loosely base our home school education off of the Thomas Jefferson Education Plan. The children learn to love by doing what they are interested in, and what they are drawn to .. at first. Then we go into higher education and more disciplined activities and studies after they learn to LOVE learning.
So, normally this is what a day at our house looks like.
8:00am everyone up
8:30-9- Breakfast and get dressed
9:00 -9:30 Family devotional- scriptures, prayer, song, gospel principle lesson
9:30am-10:30am- Family Planning time ( what we will do for the day) chores, and work time around the house
10:30am- School work time
12pm- Lunch and clean up time. We are usually done with school work by now unless they want to do more.
1pm- Reading time
2pm- Outside play--rain or shine, sunny, hot or cold.. the kids get kicked outside! Wednesday and Friday they go to a home school PE class from 2-3pm at our local Rec. center.
4pm- clean up time and get ready for dinner.
5p,-6pm dinner time.
6-7pm family time- reading, fun games, cocoa in the winter, and just plain fun!
It all began way back when, when my oldest entered into Pre-School. the silly rules, and the PC stuff that started holding back my son. He was bored and tired, and was doing the same thing day after day. He was gone 7 hours a day, and it was too much for the both of us. So, we ended up doing homeschool for pre-school. It went well.
By the time he was 5, it was time for him to head to public school for Kindergarten. Mainstream schooling was just what you did, and that was how life was suppose to go.
I never felt right about sending my kids off to school. Things were out of my control, teachers and administration handled things in the proper manner, but over all it left my son in limbo and never being challenged. I had always tossed around the idea of homeschooling. I looked into online programs, set cirriculum, home school co-ops and so on. Nothing seemed to fit.
After fighting the school district to skip my oldest son up a grade, and having school administration not inform me of emergency medical issues, and many many other trivial, but important things, my husband and I decided the time had come to take the leap and begin the homeschool journey. Before fully deciding we watched this video. This is a smart woman, who shares the same religious values.
To learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, click here.
So, we began homeschooling in September. I have three boys, and we are expecting our first baby girl in April. My boys are 9, 7, and 4 years old. I myself am in college right now, majoring as an Educational Assistant. I am married, and have been with my husband for 12 years now. We joined our faith about 4 years ago.
Our method is very free based. The main focus to every subject is the Gospel. My children learn to read through reading the scriptures, they learn to count through looking up scriptures and counting Apostles, and varied religious leaders. This is how we teach, and plan on doing so until they graduate from high school.
