A hand printed sign saying, School is in Session, has been taped to my front door every morning for the past week. I’m surprised by how well it works to fill people in on how our house runs. Mornings are busy with school, afternoons are busy with errand running and soaking up the knowledge of what we covered in the morning. Evenings are time to play with neighborhood kids until it’s bath time.
I still can’t decide whether summer is a dirtier time of the year or whether winter is worse. Summer involves a lot of rock, stick, dirt collections as well as filthy bodies from rolling around in the grass, water, dirt, mud or usually a combination of all of the above. Winter is terrible because it brings wet, sloppy snow boots, snow suits and clumps of wet mud all over my floors.
I have almost given up trying to convince the neighbors that we’re not your typical white trash family but if I run outside barefoot and looking crazed while chasing down a naked baby one more time I think my chances of success are nil.
Like I said though, school has started. We have received all of our Amazon and eBay mail orders. We have peeled all the plastic wrap off our books and we have sharpened all our pencils. Last year I struggled a LOT with Jason’s math. He hated it and was convinced that he couldn’t do math. It was so bad that I called my facilitator in tears and asked for any advice. By the way, a facilitator or a visiting teacher is an experienced homeschooling mom who is hired by the school board to visit at least twice a year and be of service whenever you need help. Well, I needed advice and I was shocked by what she said.
Take a break.
Take a break from math? Can a person do that? Won’t the world come crashing down and he will be left alone in his stupidity? Apparently not because we took a break and nothing terrible happened. He relaxed and worked harder on his other subjects and now that it’s time to jump back into school he’s no farther behind then he would have been. We’ve changed our curriculum to Saxon Math and it’s amazing. Jason’s having fun and surprisingly, he loves the repetition of the timed tests every morning! Go figure!
Jason is now in grade four and Jocelyn is in grade three but I’m using the same books for both of them. I go slower if I need to but so far it’s working perfectly. I have brought an unused bookcase (we forgot it was there otherwise it would have been very used since we love filling bookshelves) downstairs and filled it with all of our art supplies and school stuff. The kids are very excited to have everything in one place, almost as excited as I am. This was one of my biggest complaints last year. Our books always ended up scattered through the house. This week the kids have done school in the front yard, on the front steps, on the back deck and in their beds but they know where the books go when they’re finished. I love having a place for everything.
Here’s how our school day has been running this week, because everything can change when you’re homeschooling.
Recite the Pledge of Allegiance
Sing the US National Anthem
Sing the Canadian National Anthem
Say a prayer
Spelling using the Dolch word list
Cursive using lesson plans from Teacher Vision
Writing with Ease by Susan Wise Bauer
Math, Saxon Math 4/5
Story of the World Vol 2
I think we’re going to try out the First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise. This will teach grammar, which we’re not really working on right now.
My first impression with the idea of doing the pledge of allegiance was that it was an old practice but my kids actually asked to learn the national anthems for both countries since they are dual citizens. I figured if I was teaching them the anthems I might as well teach them the pledge of allegiance as well. It turns out that starting with the pledge, the anthems and a prayer has been a huge help in giving our morning a transition into school as well as bringing a sense of quiet and peacefulness. It’s their favorite part of the day! While the kids are doing their cursive and writing I read L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. Jason was sure that he would hate it but it’s actually written in an entertaining way that even a snooty nine year old boy will enjoy. It’s not just a girl’s book!
Besides what I listed we also memorize a poem, hopefully every 2-3 weeks and I have the kids reading a lot. I took a cue from the book The Well Trained Mind and I took the kids to the library and let them choose
1 history book
1 science book
1 biography or autobiography
1 crafty, hobby or how to book
1 art or music appreciation book
1 classic novel
1 story book
1 book of poetry.
I was sure the kids would scoff and think I was retarded for expecting them to find all these boks, let alone expect them to read them all but they loved the challenge and brought home more than 1 book in most categories. Jocelyn has already started reading the Diary of Anne Frank and Jason has his nose in a book on transportation planes throughout history. I’m really glad that I have been reading the Well Trained Mind because it has changed the way I homeschool. That’s how I know I’ve found a good homeschool book. It changes how I think, look or do something. In a better way of course. I’ve only read the first couple chapters but I’m already taking notes in the page margins and highlighting all sorts of passages that I want to find again later.
I hope that anyone else thinking of homeschooling or homeschooling right now will enjoy these same books and if not hopefully the books will get the thoughts flowing for better ideas that will work for your family.
Here are two pictures of my kids building their version of the Colosseum out of modeling clay.
Happy homeschooling!
