What our homeschool looks like... (pt 1)

To those who have not researched or done homeschooling, often I get the question – how do you do it??? Well, I must admit to a little jealousy of those who homeschool (HS) one child – having 3 doing school now and a very active toddler is certainly a challenge.

Every family does HS differently. It takes a while to figure out what works for the mom and the student(s). I am starting my third year; it is said that it takes 3 years to get a real handle on HSing, so here I go!! I have learned a lot in the last 2 years and I am sure I will continue to refine what we do. For those who read this blog and are interested (and for my own historical documentation) – here is a series of posts to tell what I do and how I do it!

Last year I was blessed to come upon a learning community that was just starting called Classical Conversations. I initially decided not to go with CC, but Leroy encouraged me to look again, and when I did, I found that this would be a good opportunity for us, and it very much was!

We go on Tuesdays to a local church where we meet with, this year, 26 families (more than 75 total people) for an organized learning time. See these posts (here, here) on the details of CC. This year we will be staying for the full day, as Erica is now in the Essentials Program which is an in-depth study of the English Language using IEW and also Math Games.

So for the rest of the week, we focus on reviewing and expounding on the information presented on Tuesdays (you can see an example here - page 8). We review it for 30min to 1 hour each day. Then we may read a book on one of the topics presented, may color or outline maps for geography, may work out the math concept presented, learn more about the science topics presented, or something else to grow on the concepts we have learned.

CC has an online subscription I use that is an amazing supplement to our weekly program. It has an interactive slide show that further presents the information we learned, as well as a File Sharing site to post and download other files that people around the US have created to supplement what we are learning. So a couple of times a week we log onto that and go through the material that way.

In addition to our CC curriculum, we need to have a math curriculum to do functional math (CC teaches skip counting and math concepts, but not how to do math problems) so we use Singapore Math. It is a perfect fit for my math-oriented kids. We also need a Language Arts curriculum. Erica’s LA will be largely satisfied with Essentials, but we will need to do spelling and reading in addition. Ryan will be finishing the second half of “First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind” which is mostly grammar and will be doing reading, spelling, and writing additionally.

Nathan is in CC this year – he is SOOO excited. They are so great with the little ones – the only goal is introduction of the information to this age, but it is amazing how much they absorb and understand. He will be doing basic preschool stuff at home. I purchased an ABC curriculum online for $10 that will guide us through phonics and beginning reading skills. He is VERY interested in reading; I would love to see him reading by the end of the year, but that is only a thought, not a goal. I want to move forward him at his readiness, which I am paying attention to all the time.

Next week I will show you HOW I try to keep organized…also something that is ever changing...

Questions anyone???