A New Outlook

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.

1. Classics, Not Textbooks
2. Mentors, Not Professors
3. Inspire, Not Require
4. Structure Time, Not Content
5. Simplicity, Not Complexity
6. Quality, Not Conformity
7. 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.

Our Day

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!

8pm bath time, scriptures, family prayer

8:30pm bed time.

How It All Started

 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.