Long Over Due Update

 We have been very busy lately and had a lot of changes around the house and with school. I was noticing that all of us, me included, were dreading school each day. 

We have decided in March that what we were doing was not working and we needed to make changes to reduce stress and make learning more fun. We needed to do something different. I had hoped we could use a one size fits all box curriculum but that was just not working. Instead we have picked from here and there and see if that worked any better. That way we could tailor things to each child. Before we were trying to stay with the same grade with the youngest three since they are 11, 12, and 12. However, some of our kids needed more help, and others needed to be able to go faster in some areas.

We are still doing So Happy to Learn but also use workbooks, and story books for a good part of their learning. 

We found a spelling program, Evan Moor Spelling Skills, we all love that all the kids can use but we are just doing different grades for the kids so it is meeting them where they are at.  For math, Willow is no longer using the Study Time Math program. It is a very good program, but it was moving too fast for her and she was getting very frustrated. She needed constant direction with it. We found a program called Teaching Textbooks that is on the computer and it will explain when she gets something wrong. It also grades her work as she goes along. If she misses too many she can just redo the lesson so she has a better understanding of what is being covered. 

Veronika and Gavyn are doing some work in Teaching Textbooks but it is not their main math program. We are focusing on learning their addition and subtraction facts with Easy Addition and Easy Subtraction. When they have mastered that, they will move onto Abeka math. 

For history, science, and geography I have put together a curriculum with read aloud books. For the month of April we are learning about Biomes and learning about South America. I am reading books about the rainforest, deserts, books about South America, and drawing animals that live in South America. So far the kids have drawn a sloth and a toucan.  We will be learning about the polar regions and forests and looking at map books to discover where all the things we are reading about are. 

Art has now become a daily activity. The kids are loving it! They are learning how to draw all kinds of things with Art for Kids Hub on youtube. This is where they learned how to draw a sloth and toucan. 

For reading and phonics Veronika and Gavyn are working with the Abeka program. They watch the video of the teacher for both classes, and then they read with me afterwards. It is working out very well. Willow is reading from the Pathway readers and has a workbook that goes along with it. 

All the kids have a handwriting program. Veronika and Gavyn struggle with fine motor so we are focusing on printing well and learning to stay in the lines and making letters the correct size before we worry about cursive. Willow is using Pentime for her cursive lessons. Pentime is more than just practicing letters but it has facts that she can learn as she is writing. 

Our day starts with Breakfast and the Bible at the house were we read from the One Year Bible for Children, read from one of our devotional books, read from Luther's Small Catechism for Kids, practice our monthly bible verse, practice our monthly hymn, talk about virtues and manners, we also review our monthly poem. Each child has a folder with their bible verse, hymn, virtue and manners, as well as phonics charts and rhymes which we use for both our Bible and Breakfast time as well as our classroom meeting times. 

Afterwards I head out to the classroom to get everything set up, the kids brush their teeth, use the bathroom, grab their lunch boxes, and head out to the classroom.  We start with a morning meeting where we say the Pledge of Allegiance, have calendar time, go over our phonics, practice the Rhyme a Week (we spend two weeks on the same rhyme), and practice our monthly poem. 

The kids then have a little break from just sitting by doing shelf activities. Each week I place different educational activities on the top shelf and they get to pick which one they want to work on that day. They have to pick a new one each day until they have had a chance to do each one. The activities are things like puzzles, logic clip it cards, matching famous landmark figures with the card that tells what it is, matching bird figures with their name cards, and so much more. The kids enjoy getting to have a time to "play" and do not even realize they are learning.  

Independent work is next. Veronika and Gavyn start working on their school books while Willow works on math on the computer using Teaching Textbooks.  

When the kids are all finished with their books/computer work it is snack time.  While the kids are having snack, I start reading our monthly themed books. This month we were learning about South America and Biomes around the world. So far the kids have learned about deserts and rainforests in South America and some of the animals that live there. Today in art the kids drew a sloth, yesterday it was a toucan, since those are some animals that live in South America. 

After the stories are over the kids go outside to play for about 20 mins before coming back for an afternoon circle/meeting time. We review phonics, bible verses, poems, and flash cards. We also work on conversation cards and answering with full sentences which is one of the things they all struggle with. 

Lunch is next, the kids bring their lunchboxes into the classroom and then get started on their independent work once they are finished, Willow works on her school books, and Veronika and Gavyn start working on their Abeka Phonics and Reading. 

To end the day the kids do art with Art for Kids Hub. We have only been doing this since the start of April but it is going so well and the kids are loving all the changes we made. 

Back To School - September 2023

This new school year marks exciting times for our family. 

One of our kids started school in August and is going to public school. Our older girls who live at home, will be working at their first job part time and doing homeschool on days they are not working. And our three youngest kids excited about all that is to come in this new homeschool year.

It is so wonderful to see how learning can take place even when you don't set it up yourself. 

While working around the house I noticed Ellie looking at the clock on the laptop. She was fascinated with the changing of time and decided to practice writing the time. It kept her busy and occupied for over 30 minutes. While it might seem boring or a waste of time, she was actively learning. Not just learning but leading her own learning session. She discovered how long a minute was, she got to see how time continues on even when she stops writing it down. It was a beautiful thing to see. Most of the time, to get her to learn something takes very deliberate planning, but in this moment, it was all her. Something sparked her interest and she ran with it. 

This September we have finished the final things to make the schoolhouse usable. We wired it all up so we can have outlets that we will use with solar and generators, added solar lighting, insulated the walls, put up internal walls, painted the walls, and finished the flooring, I would have loved the ease of vinyl flooring, but we had left over laminate flooring from the house so we used what we had on hand. Mark also found plans online for the child size chairs that will work perfectly in the schoolroom with the desks we have for the kids. 

Mark drilled the holes for the wires and I put in the wires and the insulation. I painted the room and he worked on the flooring. A couple of the kids even came over to help paint. 

The first day of school for the kids was so exciting! The youngest three kids are the only ones who are doing school together so it feels a bit different. It is certainly a lot different than when I had a whole class of 20 kids back in the day. The older two girls are working on their own time as and when they want since they are also working part-time. I still help them with their school work when needed, but it is more for their own enjoyment (they love doing schoolwork) than anything else as they are both adults now. 

The view outside of our classroom window is always fun to look out of. Our turkeys and chickens are free range and love to hang out near the classroom. With the weather really good we like to have the door in the classroom open, however, sometimes we get visitors and have to shoo the chickens and turkeys out. 

We made bookmarks today to keep track of our reading. The kids drew a picture then colored it on one side, and on the other side I will be using it as a sticker chart to keep track of how many books they have read. 

She was very excited to find a frog outside and brought him in to the classroom to show me. 

We are looking forward to a year full of fun and learning. And can hardly wait to share all our adventures. 

Plans for the Future with Homeschooling

There are several changes that we have already made to our curriculum for the fall before we have even started. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Simply Classical. There are so many things I like about it. I love the math, and the science books we read. I love introducing kids to artists and composers. When I was teaching years ago, I always played classical music and we spent time each month doing a minor study of artists then would do artwork in that style. It made things fun. We did not do the full classical approach where we were actually doing a study of the person behind the music and art. It was simplified for kids. Some kids in my class really were interested in the artists and composers and asked more questions and learned more about the artists and composers. Other kids just were able to enjoy  the paintings of the artists work and listening to the composers music. 

One struggle we had this year was the history books. They were all great books, however, some of the books were way over our kids head. To combat that I ended up spending more money buying books that were easy reader books. It was during this time that I started looking back on our Abeka history books. They were easier to read, they gave more detailed information in bite sizes about different people and events in history (several pages rather than bigger chapter books)

I looked more into the Simply Classical curriculum and realized that while SC3 had the history chapter books, it was an option for SC5/6, the same history books! Had I known this I would have waited on the history books and I am sure I would have been more successful. 

There are so many things I do love about Simply Classical but I struggle with the the classical method since I did not grow up with that. I wonder about the practicality or even the necessity of it in our children's lives. Will it enrich their lives to see works of art and hear classical music? I am sure it will! Will it enrich their lives to learn when the composer or artist was born and in what country and how many works of arts they made in their lifetime? Probably not. While they are able to tell me the days of the week, months of the year, and tell time, they do not relate to time like we do. If we are talking about going to the Grand Canyon they can not recall things like it being done last year around this time. They might remember going, but the time line would not be something they are able to fully comprehend. 

So what do they need to know? What WOULD be the best ways to enrich their lives? Learning how to do basic math so they can learn how to double or triple a recipe. Learn fractions well enough so if they can't find the right measuring cup they know how to adapt. Learn how to read well enough that they can enjoy the Bible and books. They should learn how to do some basic sewing, learn how to follow a recipe. Learn healthy habits and hygiene. Learn how to use tools properly, learn life skills. Learn how to tend a garden, gather eggs, care for animals. 

We will be doing a good part of what we had already planned but with a few changes. 

The kids are doing very well in Spanish and they enjoy it so we will be sticking to Spanish and ASL as our two languages we are working on. We have decided to drop Latin. 

Another change we are adding is adding in a review of the Abeka Science and Social Studies book since Simply Classical does not cover science and history in level 4, instead it covers mythology and folk tales. 

Another thing we will be doing is adding a craft day once per week. We were doing that with Abeka and the kids have really missed it. I actually do not enjoy art, but some dear friends of ours do and have offered to come over a couple times per month to do art with the kids. 

We will also go back to doing a puzzle every day. We had been doing this before we moved and had see great strides in our kids focus but have gotten out of the habit and those skills need brushing up on again. 

Goals for the future in homeschooling. 

Home Economics - Sewing, grocery shopping, cooking (goals - to learn to sew on buttons, make a meal plan and grocery list, and to be able to cook simple meals with the use of Raddish Kids cooking club)

P.E. -Special Olympics, hikes

We also want to make trips to places part of their education. And be more active in our local homeschool group. 

We will be starting school in a couple of weeks and while we homeschool year round, we do take a short break for summer (about 1-2 weeks once the kids are done with all their books from the previous year). 

Homeschool in May

 This month we have been reading Stone Soup, Wagon Wheels, Johnny Appleseed, How do Apples Grow, There's a Map in my Lap, What is the World Made Of, The Boy Who Drew Birds, How to Draw Birds, How We Crossed the West, and much much more. We are learning States and Capitals in the order that they joined the USA. 
Our Composer of the month is: Frédéric François Chopin

Our Artist of the month is: Salvador Dali

Our poem of the month is My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson 

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

Our Bible verse of the month is,

 Proverbs 3:5-7 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

Alina has been loving taking pictures as part of art for homeschooling. She is given our old cell phone that is now just used as a camera and go exploring through the woods on our property and take pictures. These are the pictures she has taken. 

Grandpa came to visit and Gavyn loved helping Grandpa plant the blueberry bushes. 

For Mother's Day we all went down to a local creek that is bigger than ours here at home. We were happy to discover they have BBQ grills as well as bathrooms and picnic tables. 

There are new chicks and even some turkeys on the homestead! The kids are loving seeing the chicks and turkeys and how fast they are growing. 

We got season passes for Silver Dollar City for Christmas for the kids. One of the things we love about it is how they are not afraid to celebrate God! Inside the theme park is a Wilderness Church! They have a service on Sundays but for the rest of the week they have it where you can go in during certain times and sing along with the hymns and even request your favorite ones are played.