We are quickly approaching our second year of homeschooling and thought I would share how I'm getting ready and the best advice given to me this past year :)
You can basically look back through my blog this past year to see that it was a struggle. We chose to home school because 2 out of the 3 kids in school didn't want to be there. I had one breaking out of his classroom, running down the hall screaming to be with me. Well after 4 months of it I decided during Christmas break we were going to try to home school.
I had my "ideas" of what it would look like. Basically in my mind it needed to look like public school right? I needed to get the kids up and start right away with calendar work, counting, and work all day until 3. It didn't take me long to realize that was not the case...I have a dear friend who mentored me through it and really helped me shape our lives around teaching the kids. Here are some of the best pieces of advice given to me during this past year...
Just like everything else in life we cannot compare the way we teach our children. We are each different and have different roles even in our parenting. I have a friend who has a special needs child...she is not going to teach her son the same way I teach mine. I have another friend who has a child who is above her years in standards...I cannot teach my boys the same way she teaches her children. So first and foremost...
DO NOT COMPARE YOUR HOME SCHOOL TO ANYONE ELSE'S
Homeschooling doesn't and shouldn't look like "school". In fact we are still working to not call it school..but to just allow the kids to learn as we live. Yes there are books and letters and such but put them into games and make those books about your life...you are teaching! So second, DON'T THINK HOMESCHOOLING NEEDS TO LOOK LIKE PUBLIC SCHOOL
You can do this! The world may say you can't and the world may say your kids will be socially underdeveloped but you are not here to please the world. You are here to raise your children and teach them. You may get comments about not having a degree or even people telling you you are crazy. You'll even get other moms saying they could never do it, making you question your ability to do it. LISTEN TO GOD AND YOUR KIDS. My oldest LOVED school...now...he really doesn't care to go back right now. He loves being home.
It's okay to take a day off. In fact it's okay to take a week off or one day off a week. We didn't finish all 36 weeks last year but you know what? William is reading well...really well and he loves it. He started writing and he loves it. He discovered that he loves learning about animals...all kinds. Zakary came out of his shy shell. Yes! He is still shy but that is his personality. He is excelling well and his character is building wonderfully. Both of my kids know how to run a house a little, learned about saving their money and the most important thing in running a household...making coffee.
TAKE A DAY OFF ... OR A WEEK
Lastly for now...it's okay to cry. I think it's normal to feel like you're failing your kids but it is also a sign of caring. When you are upset about teaching your kids or worried about not teaching them enough...take a breath, pray and tell yourself you love your kids and you care for them and you want them to excel. To help this...make a list of reasons you are homeschooling. Post it somewhere for you to see it and read it to yourself...and remember, "His mercies are new every morning".
CRY IT OUT!
As the year is fast approaching I am a little nervous but also excited. I did get new curriculum this year and it can be so expensive it puts a pit in my stomach. But I found two core subjects that are versatile for different ages. I wanted something that Will and Zak can read together but that I can put into different age levels. So we bought The Mystery of History for our History (Core study/what everything will center around).
This study has four different volumes and caters to the grades of K-8th grade. It has a pre-test, a lesson and an activity and you do 2 lessons per week. It also has instructions on how to teach these lessons to the different age levels.
For Science we bought Apologia Science which is the same idea. There are 7 different books and this caters to the grades of K-8th as well. They do not go in a certain order and they have workbooks for the older child and for the younger child. Because William is so obsessed with animals we decided to start off with creatures of the sea.
To help myself with THREE different schedules this year I made myself a binder...
In this binder I have it separated for each child. I have the goals I'd like to see in them for the year and the schedules and weekly schedules planned out (only for the first few weeks)...
No joke here...all of these were found on pinterest. I searched Homeschool Planner and these templates popped up.
I will be putting this cute image on the front of my binder and this will be a daily practice...
and daily...in the morning I want to meditate on these...with this...
Our theme this year is The Fruit of the Spirits. We choose a theme to focus on and really place on our hearts. Last years was Love...everything you do...do it out of love.
My talented sister designed these for the covers of the boys' binders...
The week before we "officially" start we are going to focus on this verse. I found, again on Pinterest, activities and print outs on this...
William learned cursive last year. I want to make sure it's something he keeps up on ;)
For the extra subjects (for Zak, Matt and Ben) I turned to this cute little site called
www.1plus1plus1equals1.com
where you can download seasonal pre-school packets and a Kindergarten one
Also there is www.teacherspayteachers.com where you can download seasonal packets according to grade which is where I will be getting Zaks math and writing from.
Here are some previews...
These are the extra books we are reading through (well just a few...not going to show all of the extras) but we plan to keep a reading log for each kid and reward them...really putting a focus on reading and educating yourself through that...
Now I want to mention and mention it strongly...this does not mean this will work for you. This is what works for me and to be honest come Christmas...maybe I will change everything. Maybe I am overdoing it and putting too much work into but with a big move coming up, catching up on editing and homeschooling...i NEED a schedule and I need it planned out. So let me stress it one more time...THIS IS WHAT WORKS FOR ME...not necessarily for you ;)
This looks great! I've heard good things about MOH, is it ancient history? We do Apologia and really like it. Right now we're in flying animals. I hope your year goes well. We finally sold our house and bought a house in IN. We're holding off on our structured lessons until Oct. hopefully we'll feel a little settled and have a better mindset to focus on growing our brains.
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