Obviously I'm no expert, with my less than a month of part-time homeschooling under my belt, but I've been thinking about time. One of the reasons I am choosing to homeschool is because I think that public schools take way longer than is necessary for the amount that a child learns on any given day. Especially for young children, I think an hour or two of "formal" learning is more than enough (maybe too much). My kids do the rest of their learning through play, cooking, books, and yes, the occasional TV show (I love Curious George, BTW). As my kids get older I want them to have some dedicated time each day to pursue whatever topic interests them most. I'm not an unschooler, but I love the flexibility to have some kid-directed learning. Public school kids can do it too, but it seems much more difficult when you're at school for 7 hours and then have to do homework. If my kid is into robotics, dinosaurs, music, whatever, I want him to have time to pursue that interest.
So, I keep my kids home to save them from hours sitting at a desk. I also think there's a good chance that we'll end up with stronger familial bonds, because we'll be spending so much time together, learning together, discussing together, etc. Although, there's a chance the opposite could happen if I totally lose my mind. ;)
I plan to school year-round, as summer break is an antiquated, ridiculous idea. Our format might change over the summer, and we'll certainly take some breaks here and there for vacations and holidays, but there's no way we're going to take a break on learning for a quarter of each year.
All that being said though, it is HARD to squeeze out a dedicated hour to work on school stuff, when you've got a family's-worth of obligations, classes, and chores. You'd think, oh sure, an hour, that's easy peasy, but it is not as easy as it sounds. For now I've been doing it while my 1 and 3 year old are napping in the afternoon. This setup works really well for my 5 year old, but I don't love that I don't have any time with my 3 year old to play around on starfall or read books. Plus, I'm an introvert, and I REALLY appreciate my afternoon nap time break to read, work on something, sleep, or do whatever else I want. Me time is being sacrificed, which I hopefully won't end up regretting.
Anyway, so I have really been thinking that homeschooling is about TIME. Time spent with our kids, time saved from having our kids in a desk, time spent learning and growing together, and somehow finding the time to do it all joyfully. This is going to be an adventure.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
A New Beginning
I had kind of given up on this blog because I was forcing myself to post something I learned Every. Day. That was kind of awesome, and I still think that most people do or should learn something every day (even if it's something they've learned before), but it got tedious. However, I'm bringing the blog back to life because I'm officially starting homeschool with my 5-year-old. She would start kindergarten in the Fall (she's old for her grade) and I'm not shipping her off to school.
I've been devouring homeschool books, blogs, and articles lately (and yes, I'm a fan of the oxford comma), and found myself wishing that I was journaling about all the things I've learned and the thoughts I've had about the different philosophies, learning styles, teaching materials, etc. I'm not going to go back in time to give details on everything but I'll give a brief summary of where I'm at right now.
First off all, Lydia is reading at a 1st to 2nd grade level, though she still needs help, of course. She likes to draw pictures and she will write on her own for little storybooks and whatnot. To this point I've used Usborne's Very First Reading Set, First Reading Set, and Phonics Readers with her (which we've loved), as well as the Hooked on Phonics App on the iPad (all of this is rather expensive, but worth it, IMO). We also read a LOT of books, we're currently working through the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. She's also gradually worked her way through big Preschool and Kindergarten workbooks and is partway through a big First Grade workbook. I don't force her to do these, especially in the preschool stages, but I would often ask her if she wanted to or pull it out, and if she didn't want to or got bored I let it go. She likes them pretty well at this point. And of course, Adam and I are science nerds so we talk about random scientific topics a LOT. Just last month she started showing an interest in piano so I've started to teach her (again, very laid back at this point... I want her to WANT to play, and she's only 5) and she's mastered a few simple songs.
Last week I added in our first "homeschool curriculum" piece (as if all that other stuff doesn't count). She started using Math-U-See Alpha, mostly because my sister gave us a few years worth of Math-U-See materials and she will like the hands-on aspect of the manipulatives. We've only done one lesson so far but she likes it. I'm also planning on purchasing Core A from Sonlight (or whatever name they change it to on April 1st.... I think they're trying to make sure they don't get confused with Common Core Curriculum because THAT would cost them some business from the homeschool community!). I like that Sonlight is literature-based, and though it is expensive, I like that I can re-use it with my other kids (the question of ending up doing 3 or 4 cores at once as my kids get older is a question for another day!) For now we're just going to do some nature walks and gardening for science, and will add a science curriculum maybe in the fall or winter (I'm leaning toward Apologia based on reviews, but I'm not convinced yet). For writing/language arts, I think she'll just do some copywork and I'll let her keep improving there on her own.
I am leaning a little toward the Charlotte Mason philosophy and she doesn't start teaching grammar formally until age 9! No composition until 14! I'm not sure if I'll wait quite that long, but I do think that Lydia will continue to advance well based on all the books we read, copywork, and talking to me when she has questions. She is figuring out apostrophes and things on her own so I'm not worried about it for now.
Speaking of Charlotte Mason, I just finished reading When Children Love to Learn by Elaine Cooper, which is a condensed, edited book about Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy. I'd like to do more research and reading about it but so far I like what I've read. It's very natural, structured but not forced, and seems developmentally appropriate for different ages and skills of children. I think I will have some trouble getting Lydia to do narration, but I think it is important for children (and adults) to be able to talk about what they've heard and learned, and to pay attention well enough to narrate effectively.
So, that's where I'm at! Hopefully I'll keep this blog active, with updates about how homeschool is going with the kids, and with things that I learn along the way. Happy Learning!
I've been devouring homeschool books, blogs, and articles lately (and yes, I'm a fan of the oxford comma), and found myself wishing that I was journaling about all the things I've learned and the thoughts I've had about the different philosophies, learning styles, teaching materials, etc. I'm not going to go back in time to give details on everything but I'll give a brief summary of where I'm at right now.
First off all, Lydia is reading at a 1st to 2nd grade level, though she still needs help, of course. She likes to draw pictures and she will write on her own for little storybooks and whatnot. To this point I've used Usborne's Very First Reading Set, First Reading Set, and Phonics Readers with her (which we've loved), as well as the Hooked on Phonics App on the iPad (all of this is rather expensive, but worth it, IMO). We also read a LOT of books, we're currently working through the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. She's also gradually worked her way through big Preschool and Kindergarten workbooks and is partway through a big First Grade workbook. I don't force her to do these, especially in the preschool stages, but I would often ask her if she wanted to or pull it out, and if she didn't want to or got bored I let it go. She likes them pretty well at this point. And of course, Adam and I are science nerds so we talk about random scientific topics a LOT. Just last month she started showing an interest in piano so I've started to teach her (again, very laid back at this point... I want her to WANT to play, and she's only 5) and she's mastered a few simple songs.
Last week I added in our first "homeschool curriculum" piece (as if all that other stuff doesn't count). She started using Math-U-See Alpha, mostly because my sister gave us a few years worth of Math-U-See materials and she will like the hands-on aspect of the manipulatives. We've only done one lesson so far but she likes it. I'm also planning on purchasing Core A from Sonlight (or whatever name they change it to on April 1st.... I think they're trying to make sure they don't get confused with Common Core Curriculum because THAT would cost them some business from the homeschool community!). I like that Sonlight is literature-based, and though it is expensive, I like that I can re-use it with my other kids (the question of ending up doing 3 or 4 cores at once as my kids get older is a question for another day!) For now we're just going to do some nature walks and gardening for science, and will add a science curriculum maybe in the fall or winter (I'm leaning toward Apologia based on reviews, but I'm not convinced yet). For writing/language arts, I think she'll just do some copywork and I'll let her keep improving there on her own.
I am leaning a little toward the Charlotte Mason philosophy and she doesn't start teaching grammar formally until age 9! No composition until 14! I'm not sure if I'll wait quite that long, but I do think that Lydia will continue to advance well based on all the books we read, copywork, and talking to me when she has questions. She is figuring out apostrophes and things on her own so I'm not worried about it for now.
Speaking of Charlotte Mason, I just finished reading When Children Love to Learn by Elaine Cooper, which is a condensed, edited book about Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy. I'd like to do more research and reading about it but so far I like what I've read. It's very natural, structured but not forced, and seems developmentally appropriate for different ages and skills of children. I think I will have some trouble getting Lydia to do narration, but I think it is important for children (and adults) to be able to talk about what they've heard and learned, and to pay attention well enough to narrate effectively.
So, that's where I'm at! Hopefully I'll keep this blog active, with updates about how homeschool is going with the kids, and with things that I learn along the way. Happy Learning!
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