Ok, I think I've found it....what I'm wanting school to look like for us on a daily basis. I've been trying to define that very thing for months without success...I've tried something only to have that aching feeling that this is not what it's about for us. I allowed myself to get so caught up in what our homeschool *should* look like, that I hardly considered what I felt was right.
A year or so ago, I found the blog of mom who's been there, done that in the homeschooling world. She raised 4 wonderful and intellectual children and homeschooled them all the way through. There's so much wisdom to be gleaned from these moms who've scaled the mountain and seen the other side. Unfortunately shortly after I found her blog, and started taking in every bit of wisdom that she had to offer, she decided to close her blogs. I read what I could, and left it at that. But her style of education truly spoke to my heart, and I wanted to know more. But I put it away for a while, and went about my own thing, still feeling a bit unsettled in our day to day of home education.
I was pleased as punch though to run across a sort of archive of her homeschooling posts, and I went through and gobbled them all up. And I found the missing link of what I was looking for. In one of her posts, she speaks of the three things that she requires of her children each day. They were reading, writing, and math. It was implied that they also did chores and Bible study, and spent less time in front of a screen and more time living life and learning, which is so important!
She said for reading they could read whatever they wanted as long as it was good quality writing. She said, they read together and on their own, and all throughout their day.
For writing, they could write whatever they wanted to write, so long as they wrote. Essays, poems, copywork, dictation, journals, letters, etc. She didn't worry about teaching writing style, so long as they wrote. If she saw recurring mistakes, she made it a point to help them fix it.
And for math, they did math according to their own level of understanding.
I love it! The simplicity, the common sense of it!
I propose to find my own way within these guidelines for my own group of eager learners.
So here are my own personal guidelines for our homeschooling experience. I will require six things from my children each day, and they are:
1. Time spent in God's Word-getting to know their Creator personally and in depth. Building godly character. Reading through their Bibles together as a family and on their own.
2. Reading-As was said above, whatever so long as it's quality writing. I'm going to ask the older children to choose 5 different books when they go to the library each week- a biography, a science book, a historical book, a literature or poetry book, and a book of their choice. I won't make them read all of those, but I want them to have the variety to choose from. We will also read daily together as a family. I use meal times and bedtimes as anchors in our day, so we do a little reading during/after each meal and at bedtime.
3. Writing-Again...they can write whatever, so long as they write each day! I will keep a list of ideas for them to choose from if they need them.
4. Arithmetic-We will choose this together as to what will fit them best.
5. Chores-A given. We're a large family, we work together to make our home an enjoyable place to live.
6. Less screen time, more real life learning and living-Self explanatory. I've allowed my children to get far to friendly with gaming and screen time. They need to experience real life, and all the wonderful things it has to offer. I want them to observe nature, build things, create things, and just take it all in. You can't do that when you're staring at a screen all day.
And lastly, a personal goal for myself. I want my children to see that learning never stops. It goes on and on all through adulthood. I want them to see me learning and living and creating, and not just surviving, or spending too much time online. I want to come up with a cottage business we can do together as a family, and that they can help me with, and I want us to grow our own food, and raise animals, and paint and fix up our home together. I want them to see that our lives are worth living, and getting to know God and His great creation should be our highest priority.
Thanks for letting me share my heart and my goals for my children and I. Now it's time to stop talking about and get to it! Be blessed!
Showing posts with label Our Homeschool Journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Our Homeschool Journey. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Unit Studies Made Easy Review
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A few weeks ago, I made a feeble attempt at starting school with my kids.....and found after the first few days, that we were quickly floundering under the stress and disorganization of what I was trying to do. I couldn't really figure out what was wrong, but realized, I just wasn't quite ready to start school with a newborn in tow just yet, so we took a step back, and I realized that one of our biggest issues is our struggle with following and sticking with a good routine, and my kids (and mine in some things) lack of knowledge about properly keeping our home as we should. I didn't know what to do with that just yet, but just resigned myself to take it slow, and thought that maybe it would help if we planned a yard sale to get rid of some our clutter. We've spent the last couple of weeks going through and doing quite a bit of decluttering throughout the house, and will be having a big yard sale this coming Saturday.
While working on decluttering, however, I started searching around the internet for some ideas and encouragement regarding homeschooling. I was considering trying another pre-planned unit study, something like KONOS, because I just didn't think I could pull together something myself in any sort of organized fashion....I was doing some research on these types of curriculum, and feeling discouraged, because our track record with these types of units have not gone over well with us in the past. I always feel too tied down, or get overwhelmed with all the projects and crafts. Well, a few nights ago, I stumbled upon a book I had heard of before, but for some reason dismissed. The book was Unit Studies Made Easy by Valerie Bendt....I looked through the previews, and thought, why not...what else do I have to lose.
Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! This large collection is full of so much great wisdom, and I repeatedly found myself physically nodding in agreement, and thinking, that's exactly what I've been wanting to do! She takes my whole thoughts on this method of homeschooling and puts it into a practical easy to do way! She covers so much information in this more than 300 page book!
Some of the things I've found wonderful are:
-Practical tips for pulling together your own unit studies
-She references my two favorite homeschool authors often....Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason
-She references my two favorite homeschool authors often....Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason
-How to use your library for doing units, including how to find appropriate poetry, art, or music to go along with your unit
-Including Biblical principles in your unit
-The importance of copywork and dictation
-Lots of ideas for unit studies and things to include
-There is a section on teaching reading that I have gotten many ideas from as well
-She talks about the importance of routines, but with flexibility
As far as negatives...the only thing I felt was really missing was I wanted to read more about how she incorporated writing into her units. Though she does give many suggestions!
I'm super excited about our upcoming unit that I've already started planning, and you'll see that it's a bit outside the box for a unit study, but one that I know our family will greatly benefit from!
If you're looking for a way to put together your own homeschool curriculum so that you can do what you know is best for your family, and save money while doing it, this is a great book! It's the perfect book for a mom who is looking to homeschool her large (or small) family using a relaxed, family oriented, unit study! It's not going to be for moms who need the step by steps of homeschooling completely laid out for you, but there is still so much information to glean from it, that I think anyone can benefit from reading this book!
Blessings,
sara
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Homeschool Planning for 2013-2014
I guess I'm a creature of habit. Or maybe it's because nothing else seems to measure up the way I think it should.
We seem to follow the same pattern every school year though...We start off strong doing our own thing, tossing (most) of the school-ish looking books, and just living more of a homeschool is lifeschool approach. But then sometime around March, April, or May, I start doubting my methods, and start looking for something better.
This year, Simply Charlotte Mason caught my attention again, and we started using many of the resources from there, most we already had on hand. We really enjoyed it, and while I took a lot away from it, and other books like Karen Andreola's "A Charlotte Mason Companion", it still lacked the enjoyment of what we were doing before. So, while I was on my babymoon over the last few weeks, I decided it was time to start getting back to the basics of what has worked for us, and what we have really enjoyed.
Here we are at the cusp of a new school year. We start every year about mid-July while the weather is still scorching, and we can't spend much time outside, reserving more breaks for the cooler fall and spring weather. Though we really don't focus on grade levels too much here, this year I will be blessed to have an 8th grader, a 6th grader, a 3rd grader, and a preschooler, along with a baby girl in tow.
Most of what I'll be putting down here may sound familiar if you've read my blog long. But it's always nice to sit down and get all your thoughts down about the upcoming year to give you a fresh outlook.
Here are our plans for 2013-2014:
Basically what school for us boils down to are the three R's....Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. All other subjects fall under those three things.
So let's start with Reading:
Bible reading and study is the most important subject we can cover every day. If nothing else gets done, my goal is to at the very least, have read our Bibles. Here are the ways we will do this:
-Every child who is a proficient reader will have a personal time of study each morning. My oldest son is going to be reading the book Boyhood and Beyond this year as part of his devotional time, and my oldest daughter will be reading through Beautiful Girlhood. They will also work on personal memorization goals. My non-readers will have a short devotional with mom every day where we can read and talk about the Bible together, so that they may understand it better.
-We will have a time of study together as a family. Every morning at the breakfast table, we will read through the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month, as well as a short devotional, probably something from Keys for Kids, or something else we have around. During our family learning time we will focus in on character study. After dinner we will have a time of reading through our Bibles and discussing various chapters together as I learned from the Maxwells cds. At bedtime, we read a chapter from Psalms. We will cover many memory verses, and my hope is to have at least one whole chapter memorized by the end of the year along with several other key verses. We'll also work daily on learning new hymns.
In addition to Bible reading, we will cover history, science, etc using unit studies. We decided to try covering larger time periods to start off with over single events or people in history, such as our first unit on the Middle ages. We will alternate with a science unit throughout the year. For most of our units we will all work together, but I do plan to have my older two do at least a couple units on their own this year. My oldest specifically will cover a unit on our state history, and on civics. For civics, we plan on using the book Under God. It's an excellent study for kids as an introduction to our government system and giving students the understanding what our duties as citizens of this country are.
-The way I usually handle our family unit studies is we have a spine of some sort on our topic of choice that I read aloud, while the older two read a book or more on their own time. My 3rd grader listens in and takes part in some of the activities, but her focus is mostly on becoming a proficient reader. I expect the olders to report back to me through oral or written narration, or any other creative way they want to show me about what they've read.
-For individual units, the children will read 2-3 books on their unit, and as before report back to me in some way what they've learned.
-Each of my children who are reading, or are still learning to read, have free time literature that they read on their own time.
-We also have a family literature read aloud. Right now we're in the middle of reading through the Chronicles of Narnia together.
-At bedtime, in addition to a chapter from Psalms, we will read a poem (or a few) from a selected poet or poetry book.
-I have a separate read aloud to read with the younger group.
-For my kids learning to read, we us multiple resources including Learning Language Arts through Literature, Bob books, and whatever I find helpful.
Writing is just an extension of our reading:
My kids have learned one thing this last year.....they must write something every. single. day. That's not including copywork or dictation that we do to work on learning to write well. I do not care what they write (within reason, no hate letters to the media or opposing political parties....although....just kidding:) Here's some of the writing they do:
-First there's of course the copywork and dictation. This comes directly from something we're reading. It could be a memory verse, a poem, or a paragraph from a book we're reading. Sometimes we focus in on one copy work for the week to learn dictation from, but as they get older they will sometimes do 2-3, or sometimes only dictations. It just depends on their level. We pick out selected areas to focus in on grammar work that they need to learn through the week as well. This is assigned work daily, and as I said, not considered their daily writing, only their writing practice.
-So in addition to that, they write daily. They start off just writing a sentence or two and move up to eventually writing whole pages daily, or sometimes they can be a bit more creative doing things like advertisements, plays, or speeches. They can also write letters, they can journal, or they can write something to go along with our unit. I will sometimes give them prompts. I love the book Story Starters by Karen Andreola.
-Typing is part of writing too. Especially in this digital age, it's important to have keyboarding skills. I don't allow them to do all their writing on the computer, but do let them do so occasionally.
-Nature study doesn't necessarily fit under writing, but it's one way we put pencil to paper. Studying God's great outdoors is an amazing way for you and your kids to connect with God and learn so much. It teaches so much more than science. It teaches patience and teaches them to have a watchful eye. We try to get out at least once a week to do this. We keep lots of field guides around for whatever we may find.
And then there's math:
Math has been my hardest subject to teach. We had found that Math Mammoth worked the best for us this past year, and if I had my choice we would continue with it. But we came to realize that it was costing us an arm and a leg to print. It wouldn't be so bad if we could print in gray scale, but when we did that, many of the necessary illustrations didn't show up. So we are going to be doing things a little different. Our primary curriculum for math will be Math on the Level. I really love MOTL. It's a great curriculum. It's just hard for me because it's so hands on, and takes a lot of daily preparation. One way I've found to help with that, is I'm going to be using Khan Academy to help teach the more difficult topics, and then review them using our MOTL "five a days". They will cover speed drills a few times a week as well. In addition to that we will do some math reading using books from the library, and Life of Fred.
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And that about covers our school year. I'll do some more posts later on, on how I've organized our school "stuff". I'm also going to be discussing some ways I'm working on healing my oldest daughter's dyslexia. And I'm hoping, though not promising, to do a weekly post on our Learning Journal covering things we're doing during the week.
Blessings,
sara
We seem to follow the same pattern every school year though...We start off strong doing our own thing, tossing (most) of the school-ish looking books, and just living more of a homeschool is lifeschool approach. But then sometime around March, April, or May, I start doubting my methods, and start looking for something better.
This year, Simply Charlotte Mason caught my attention again, and we started using many of the resources from there, most we already had on hand. We really enjoyed it, and while I took a lot away from it, and other books like Karen Andreola's "A Charlotte Mason Companion", it still lacked the enjoyment of what we were doing before. So, while I was on my babymoon over the last few weeks, I decided it was time to start getting back to the basics of what has worked for us, and what we have really enjoyed.
Here we are at the cusp of a new school year. We start every year about mid-July while the weather is still scorching, and we can't spend much time outside, reserving more breaks for the cooler fall and spring weather. Though we really don't focus on grade levels too much here, this year I will be blessed to have an 8th grader, a 6th grader, a 3rd grader, and a preschooler, along with a baby girl in tow.
Most of what I'll be putting down here may sound familiar if you've read my blog long. But it's always nice to sit down and get all your thoughts down about the upcoming year to give you a fresh outlook.
Here are our plans for 2013-2014:
Basically what school for us boils down to are the three R's....Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. All other subjects fall under those three things.
One of my biggest resources for teaching my kids!
Bible reading and study is the most important subject we can cover every day. If nothing else gets done, my goal is to at the very least, have read our Bibles. Here are the ways we will do this:
-Every child who is a proficient reader will have a personal time of study each morning. My oldest son is going to be reading the book Boyhood and Beyond this year as part of his devotional time, and my oldest daughter will be reading through Beautiful Girlhood. They will also work on personal memorization goals. My non-readers will have a short devotional with mom every day where we can read and talk about the Bible together, so that they may understand it better.
-We will have a time of study together as a family. Every morning at the breakfast table, we will read through the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month, as well as a short devotional, probably something from Keys for Kids, or something else we have around. During our family learning time we will focus in on character study. After dinner we will have a time of reading through our Bibles and discussing various chapters together as I learned from the Maxwells cds. At bedtime, we read a chapter from Psalms. We will cover many memory verses, and my hope is to have at least one whole chapter memorized by the end of the year along with several other key verses. We'll also work daily on learning new hymns.
In addition to Bible reading, we will cover history, science, etc using unit studies. We decided to try covering larger time periods to start off with over single events or people in history, such as our first unit on the Middle ages. We will alternate with a science unit throughout the year. For most of our units we will all work together, but I do plan to have my older two do at least a couple units on their own this year. My oldest specifically will cover a unit on our state history, and on civics. For civics, we plan on using the book Under God. It's an excellent study for kids as an introduction to our government system and giving students the understanding what our duties as citizens of this country are.
Another huge resource! So much information to help teach your children.
-For individual units, the children will read 2-3 books on their unit, and as before report back to me in some way what they've learned.
-Each of my children who are reading, or are still learning to read, have free time literature that they read on their own time.
-We also have a family literature read aloud. Right now we're in the middle of reading through the Chronicles of Narnia together.
-At bedtime, in addition to a chapter from Psalms, we will read a poem (or a few) from a selected poet or poetry book.
-I have a separate read aloud to read with the younger group.
-For my kids learning to read, we us multiple resources including Learning Language Arts through Literature, Bob books, and whatever I find helpful.
Writing is just an extension of our reading:
My kids have learned one thing this last year.....they must write something every. single. day. That's not including copywork or dictation that we do to work on learning to write well. I do not care what they write (within reason, no hate letters to the media or opposing political parties....although....just kidding:) Here's some of the writing they do:
-First there's of course the copywork and dictation. This comes directly from something we're reading. It could be a memory verse, a poem, or a paragraph from a book we're reading. Sometimes we focus in on one copy work for the week to learn dictation from, but as they get older they will sometimes do 2-3, or sometimes only dictations. It just depends on their level. We pick out selected areas to focus in on grammar work that they need to learn through the week as well. This is assigned work daily, and as I said, not considered their daily writing, only their writing practice.
-So in addition to that, they write daily. They start off just writing a sentence or two and move up to eventually writing whole pages daily, or sometimes they can be a bit more creative doing things like advertisements, plays, or speeches. They can also write letters, they can journal, or they can write something to go along with our unit. I will sometimes give them prompts. I love the book Story Starters by Karen Andreola.
-Typing is part of writing too. Especially in this digital age, it's important to have keyboarding skills. I don't allow them to do all their writing on the computer, but do let them do so occasionally.
-Nature study doesn't necessarily fit under writing, but it's one way we put pencil to paper. Studying God's great outdoors is an amazing way for you and your kids to connect with God and learn so much. It teaches so much more than science. It teaches patience and teaches them to have a watchful eye. We try to get out at least once a week to do this. We keep lots of field guides around for whatever we may find.
And then there's math:
Math has been my hardest subject to teach. We had found that Math Mammoth worked the best for us this past year, and if I had my choice we would continue with it. But we came to realize that it was costing us an arm and a leg to print. It wouldn't be so bad if we could print in gray scale, but when we did that, many of the necessary illustrations didn't show up. So we are going to be doing things a little different. Our primary curriculum for math will be Math on the Level. I really love MOTL. It's a great curriculum. It's just hard for me because it's so hands on, and takes a lot of daily preparation. One way I've found to help with that, is I'm going to be using Khan Academy to help teach the more difficult topics, and then review them using our MOTL "five a days". They will cover speed drills a few times a week as well. In addition to that we will do some math reading using books from the library, and Life of Fred.
.jpg)
And that about covers our school year. I'll do some more posts later on, on how I've organized our school "stuff". I'm also going to be discussing some ways I'm working on healing my oldest daughter's dyslexia. And I'm hoping, though not promising, to do a weekly post on our Learning Journal covering things we're doing during the week.
Blessings,
sara
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Learning Journal-February-Week 1
This week, has unfortunately, not been as productive as I would have liked. I had an off week for whatever reason, and just didn't feel well most of the time. We got done what we could, and will do better next week, though!
-Reading-
-Read alouds-
-Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew-a few chapters left...
-Personal reading-
My older two both have chapter books they are currently in the middle of , and my younger too both go through several books each day being read to, and practicing reading for themselves.
-wRiting-
-M10-Spent time working on her story about a family getting a new puppy
-N12 & M10- worked on cursive copywork and did several mad libs
-aRithmetic-
-N12 & M10-did 5-a-days and speed drills
-J4-counted mama's stitches as she knit, counting up to 60
-Played a game of skip-bo with my girls
-M10 & E7-helped regularly in the kitchen
-N12-had a length discussion with him about how taxes work
-Music-
-music practiced daily-guitar, piano, and recorder
-Life-school-
-E7-played a few games of checkers
-We had the pleasure of getting to watch a magic show put on by my oldest 3, with a bit of guitar playing as well. Quite entertaining!
-Lots of discussion about many topics....
I'm working this weekend on being more prepared and a bit more organized for the upcoming week. I'd like to see my kids be able to move on with school even when I'm not feeling 100%.
Blessings,
sara
-Reading-
-Read alouds-
-Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew-a few chapters left...
-Personal reading-
My older two both have chapter books they are currently in the middle of , and my younger too both go through several books each day being read to, and practicing reading for themselves.
-wRiting-
-M10-Spent time working on her story about a family getting a new puppy
-N12 & M10- worked on cursive copywork and did several mad libs
-aRithmetic-
-N12 & M10-did 5-a-days and speed drills
-J4-counted mama's stitches as she knit, counting up to 60
-Played a game of skip-bo with my girls
-M10 & E7-helped regularly in the kitchen
-N12-had a length discussion with him about how taxes work
-Music-
-music practiced daily-guitar, piano, and recorder
-Life-school-
-E7-played a few games of checkers
-We had the pleasure of getting to watch a magic show put on by my oldest 3, with a bit of guitar playing as well. Quite entertaining!
-Lots of discussion about many topics....
I'm working this weekend on being more prepared and a bit more organized for the upcoming week. I'd like to see my kids be able to move on with school even when I'm not feeling 100%.
Blessings,
sara
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Differences in Methods-Beechick vs. Mason
*This is a re-post I wrote a while back about the difference in Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason*
I was recently explaining to someone the differences between the Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason methods of education, and thought I'd share here, in case someone else might be wondering the same thing. These are merely my opinions and findings from what I've read. I don't claim to know all about either method.
Both methods are very similar, but there are some distinct differences. First I'll discuss some of the ways that they are similar:
- They both endorse the use of "real" or "living" books as a means to educate children.
- They both encourage memorization of poetry.
- They both say that the education of the "whole child" is what's important, as in teach to the child, not to the grade level.
- Both of them use copywork and dictation as a means to teach language arts, but in very different ways.
- The both believe in delaying formal grammer.
- Both teach that math should be learned by real life application for the most part.
- Charlotte Mason, in my opinion, had a much more liberal worldview. I do believe she was a Christian, but at that time, the evolutionary theory was accepted as the norm. Ruth Beechick, has a very strong Biblical view of everything from creation on.
- Charlotte Mason pushed heavy structure from an early age, though she did say that children should get their school done in the morning, so that they could be free to play and enjoy nature in their afternoon free time. School time was very structured though. Children started learning history, science, and other subjects, at the same time they were learning to read, and learn basic writing and math. Ruth Beechick teaches a much more relaxed approach, learning most things, especially early on through real life learning, or the "immersion method", otherwise know as living what you learn. This continues, adding structure and curriculum as needed, pushing the child only to their frustration point, not past it. She said children should be able to focus on the "3 R's" (reading, writing, and arithmetic) until 4th grade on up, when they start learning other subjects.
- Charlotte Mason used copywork as a means mostly to learn handwriting. She taught formal grammer as a seperate subject when the student was around 10 or 11. Dictation was used to teach spelling. Narration was used to teach composition, first orally, and later as written narrations. Ruth Beechick uses copywork and dictation to teach all aspects of language arts, from handwriting to grammer(using only gentle introductions until middle school), to spelling, and even composition. She also helps you condense things further by saying you can get your copywork/dictation passages from whatever the child is reading, general reading, Bible, history, or science. You can read a little more about how this is done here.
- Charlotte Mason teaches history in chronological order, I believe in 6 year rotations. History is taught by reading lots of "living" books for that time period, and having the children narrate them. Ruth Beechick promotes the use of unit studies, incorporating your language arts and other writing around what you are studying, and says that there really is no need to teach history chronologically, except for maybe in high school, simply to pull together all that they've learned.
- Science, from what I've seen, in the Charlotte Mason method is taught mostly through nature study, and again "living" books. For Ruth Beechick there's not much a difference except that she says that you can also learn science through unit studies as well.
Blessings,
sara
Monday, February 4, 2013
Homeschool is Lifeschool
I've been wanting to do a post on what homeschooling looks like for us right now. We've evolved a bit over the years, and I've had a lot of failures throughout that time....but I am currently in a place where I feel completely comfortable with what we are doing, and see no need to change it for the forseeable future.
Just for those who might not know, a bit of background info.....
We've been homeschooling for almost 6 years now. I'm currently homeschooling 4 children, with one little one due in May. My students are my son who is 12 in 7th grade, my two daughters, one who is almost 11 and in 5th grade, and another who is almost 8 and in 2nd grade, and my 4 year old son who technically doesn't do any formal school, but the way we homeschool he is included in a lot of what we do.
I've tried a few different methods, including traditional workbooks to almost unschooling. If you know me, or have read my blog before, you probably already know I'm a huge fan of Ruth Beechick. If I had to describe homeschooling the "Ruth Beechick way", I'd say it's a relaxed version of Charlotte Mason style homeschooling. Real books, real life, down to earth teaching. It's also a lot easier, because it's more conducive to teaching multiple ages than the way Charlotte Mason suggests.
What we do....
Like I said, real books, real life, and down to earth teaching.... Because of that we really don't use a lot, if any curriculum. That's not to say that Beechick is anti-curriculum, but she advocates that it's not always necessary and if and when you do use it, you bend it to fit your needs at the time, and not let it run you. But for the moment, we don't really use a curriculum, except for math, and even it is not the traditional type of math curriculum.
So, what do we do? Well, here's the rundown.....
The Bible-It is the foundation that everything else we do is layed upon. We do several different things at different times. Sometimes we just pick a book of the Bible and read through it, stopping every few verses to discuss. Sometimes we use devotionals or study guides. Currently though, we are using a book called "Character Building for Families: Volume 1" by Lee Ann Rubsam. We haven't finished the book or even gotten half way through, but so far, we have really enjoyed it. I'll review it more thoroughly when we've finished it. In addition, we also read a chapter from Proverbs with breakfast, and a chapter or two of Psalms at bedtime. I'm hoping to add an additional time of study during our dinner time, but haven't managed to successfully do that. We also memorize lots of scripture using the Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory Box System, and regularly learn new hymns.
Unit Studies-I love unit studies! I don't see how moms of many can handle teaching multiple history or science topics to different ages at a time. I'm sure it's doable, but it was just never something I could do. We have used curriculums in the past that use a unit study approach, but I struggled with them, mostly because I felt too tied to them to make them enjoyable for any of us. They usually included too many projects, or too many writing assignments for us, so we just sort of wing it on our own now. I don't try to make big plans, all we do is I let my kids give input on what they would like to learn about, or I suggest something. We go to the library and try to find books on what we want to study next, or if I have to, I order what we need. And we read aloud every day, and when one of us think of a project or something we do it. Sometimes we may just look stuff up on a map or research further online, or if there is one available, we watch a documentary. If there's a craft or related science project that we want to do, and it sounds interesting we do it, but that doesn't happen too often. Sometimes, I will have another book for one of the older kids to read on their own on the same topic to give them a different perspective. I'm also working on giving my oldest two chances to do unit studies on their own. We read, we research, and when we have learned all we care to learn about the topic...we move on.
Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic-
The rest of what we do boils down to the 3 R's, as well as what you might call a few extra-curriculuars.
Reading-This encompasses all manner of reading.....we are a reading family....we love to read...we almost always have the max number of books checked out on our library cards every two weeks (and we shall not discuss the amount of fines I often have to pay :P). The unit studies we do fall under this category. On a day to day basis, we have as many as 8-10 books being read between all of us, in addition to small read alouds with the little guy. Each of the older 3 kids have a book or two they are reading on their own free time. The older two will regularly also have a book that they are reading on our unit study topic. Then as a family, we have our unit study read aloud, a family read aloud, a poetry book we read at bedtime, as well as other books we reference throughout the week for things such as composer study, artist study, or nature study. We regularly use discussion or narration for comprehension of the books we are reading.
My almost 8 year old is still getting reading lessons every day, and for that we use Ruth Beechick's, The Three R's. It is such a great book for teaching reading (as well as writing, and math)! Very straightforward and easy to use! Where she struggled with some of the other things we used to teach reading, she has greatly excelled with this book!
wRiting-Just like reading, writing is covered in all writing that we do. In teaching "formal writing", we use copywork and dictation. I pull copywork and dictation exercises from whatever books we are currently reading. I also regularly look for writing oppurtunities as they come up. My older two are encouraged to write something every single day. I don't care what...just write. I'm happy to give them ideas if they want them, and sometimes they do. They are currently both writing their first books...my son a fiction story on survivalism, and my daughter, a fun story about a family and a new dog. Other writing they may do is writing on our unit study topic, thank you notes, letters to family and friends, shopping lists, poems, and anything else we think of. My almost 8 year old is at the stage of learning where she is working more on form, so she mostly does copywork and dictation, but every once in a while I'll have her dictate something to me that she wants to write. Once a week or as needed, I have a grammar lesson pulled from their writing for the week, and occasionally, in addition to the dictation, we will work on some spelling issues from their writing. When they get to about 4th grade they learn typing on the computer, and if they prefer, I let them do their writing on the computer, (not copywork or dictation though).
aRithmetic-This is the only area where we use curriculum, in fact we use two, but as I said, the curriculum we use is not the traditional type....We use Math on the Level and Life of Fred. Math on the Level is a very unique way of teaching math, that encourages hands-on, real life application, but they also throw in a review system where in your child has to do 5 math problems a day to review things they have learned. You as the parent get to decide what to teach and when. There are no grade levels, just concepts to teach, and you can move as quick or as slow as your child needs. They have tons of ideas of how to use real life application in your teaching. Right now, just my older two do the 5 a days every day, they also cover math facts using speed drills a couple times a week. My younger daughter does more hands on type stuff, but will probably begin 5 a days soon. Life of Fred is just a fun read aloud that we enjoy that has a fun way of explaining math to the kids. Some other things we do to help with math concepts in every day life is we play LOTS of games, I include the kids in budgeting, paying bills, and shopping using a budget, and doing price comparisons, and I let them help me in the kitchen every single day.
Everything Else-
These are the few things that I consider extra-curriculars...but really, I can't imagine doing school without them.
Nature study-My kids love doing nature study! We keep a handful of guides and books to help us, and we spend at least an hour once or twice a week either at home in our own back yard or out and about at parks or other places where we have found. One of our favorite resources is the Handbook of Nature Study, and the website by the same name that helps you get a handle on actually getting out there and doing nature study every week.
Artist/Composer Study-This is just a little thing we do to expose ourselves to other things that we may not regularly come across. For about 10 minutes every day, usually during lunch, we either listen to a certain composer or study a specific piece of art, and then take a few minutes to read a little about whoever it is that did it.
Handicrafts/Projects-I'm a crafty person...or I try to be....I sew, I knit, I paint (though not well), I embroider. I also enjoy lots of other things-gardening, urban homesteading, self sufficiency, baking, etc....I love learning new skills. And as part of that, I try to teach my children these new skills. They may not always enjoy everything I do, and may have some of their own they want to try, but the point is to teach them that learning new skills or handicrafts is important. I also try to just let them do crafts, the messy kind even, that every mom dreads. I let them paint, cut up paper, whatever. They love it...but they also have to help clean it up :o)
Music-All of my children are pretty active musically. My oldest plays guitar and a bit of piano, my second oldest plays the recorder and piano, and my third also plays piano. They also all are in church choirs and singing groups. At this time they are all either self led, or I instruct them as best as I can. I know enough usually to help them, or we learn together.
Sports/P.E.-We don't do any specific P.E. type curriculum. I just make sure to encourage my kids to be outside. They help in the garden, doing yard work, hanging laundry out to dry, we go for walks, we go to the park, etc. The only organized sport we are involved in, aside from church softball games during the summer, is my oldest son, who plays for little league baseball. We make it a family activity though! We practice together, we watch all his games, and we encourage him! We are also currently learning more about nutrition, and making changes to eat healthier, and I'm making sure the kids are understanding and taking part in that change. I want them to know why we eat the way we eat!
And really, (long as this post has gotten), that is all we do, and my kids seem to be truly flourishing under this way of schooling....and actually, so am I! I love doing school with them.! I'm not overwhelmed, I'm not stressed! I honestly look forward to it! It's simple, and effective. I regularly refer to all of Ruth Beechick's books to give me ideas, helps, and sometimes just to help me remember why I'm doing what I'm doing. I won't deny, we have bad days (can you say first trimester blahs? Or even 2nd trimester blahs?) But at the very least, when we do have a bad day or even two, I don't feel like we are so behind, and we have to go in to overkill to catch up.
I realize that homeschooling this way is not for everybody, but it has certainly blessed our family! I look forward to it, and I'm even looking forward to making this way of homeschooling work through the highschool years, and I gotta say, they are creeping up on me fast! Thanks for letting me share what's working for us! I'm hoping to be doing something once a week, in a way of record-keeping, is to have what we will call our learning journal to share with you what exactly we do each week!
See some of the resources in my sidebar for great articles by Ruth Beechick, and also if you get a chance to read any of her books, here are the links to ones I have and love!
The Three R's
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
A Biblical Home Education
Dr. Beechick's Homeschool Answer Book
The Language Wars
Language and Thinking for Young Children
How to Write Clearly
Heart and Mind
World History Made Simple
Genesis: Finding our Roots
Blessings,
sara
Just for those who might not know, a bit of background info.....
We've been homeschooling for almost 6 years now. I'm currently homeschooling 4 children, with one little one due in May. My students are my son who is 12 in 7th grade, my two daughters, one who is almost 11 and in 5th grade, and another who is almost 8 and in 2nd grade, and my 4 year old son who technically doesn't do any formal school, but the way we homeschool he is included in a lot of what we do.
I've tried a few different methods, including traditional workbooks to almost unschooling. If you know me, or have read my blog before, you probably already know I'm a huge fan of Ruth Beechick. If I had to describe homeschooling the "Ruth Beechick way", I'd say it's a relaxed version of Charlotte Mason style homeschooling. Real books, real life, down to earth teaching. It's also a lot easier, because it's more conducive to teaching multiple ages than the way Charlotte Mason suggests.
What we do....
Like I said, real books, real life, and down to earth teaching.... Because of that we really don't use a lot, if any curriculum. That's not to say that Beechick is anti-curriculum, but she advocates that it's not always necessary and if and when you do use it, you bend it to fit your needs at the time, and not let it run you. But for the moment, we don't really use a curriculum, except for math, and even it is not the traditional type of math curriculum.
So, what do we do? Well, here's the rundown.....
The Bible-It is the foundation that everything else we do is layed upon. We do several different things at different times. Sometimes we just pick a book of the Bible and read through it, stopping every few verses to discuss. Sometimes we use devotionals or study guides. Currently though, we are using a book called "Character Building for Families: Volume 1" by Lee Ann Rubsam. We haven't finished the book or even gotten half way through, but so far, we have really enjoyed it. I'll review it more thoroughly when we've finished it. In addition, we also read a chapter from Proverbs with breakfast, and a chapter or two of Psalms at bedtime. I'm hoping to add an additional time of study during our dinner time, but haven't managed to successfully do that. We also memorize lots of scripture using the Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory Box System, and regularly learn new hymns.
Unit Studies-I love unit studies! I don't see how moms of many can handle teaching multiple history or science topics to different ages at a time. I'm sure it's doable, but it was just never something I could do. We have used curriculums in the past that use a unit study approach, but I struggled with them, mostly because I felt too tied to them to make them enjoyable for any of us. They usually included too many projects, or too many writing assignments for us, so we just sort of wing it on our own now. I don't try to make big plans, all we do is I let my kids give input on what they would like to learn about, or I suggest something. We go to the library and try to find books on what we want to study next, or if I have to, I order what we need. And we read aloud every day, and when one of us think of a project or something we do it. Sometimes we may just look stuff up on a map or research further online, or if there is one available, we watch a documentary. If there's a craft or related science project that we want to do, and it sounds interesting we do it, but that doesn't happen too often. Sometimes, I will have another book for one of the older kids to read on their own on the same topic to give them a different perspective. I'm also working on giving my oldest two chances to do unit studies on their own. We read, we research, and when we have learned all we care to learn about the topic...we move on.
Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic-
The rest of what we do boils down to the 3 R's, as well as what you might call a few extra-curriculuars.
Reading-This encompasses all manner of reading.....we are a reading family....we love to read...we almost always have the max number of books checked out on our library cards every two weeks (and we shall not discuss the amount of fines I often have to pay :P). The unit studies we do fall under this category. On a day to day basis, we have as many as 8-10 books being read between all of us, in addition to small read alouds with the little guy. Each of the older 3 kids have a book or two they are reading on their own free time. The older two will regularly also have a book that they are reading on our unit study topic. Then as a family, we have our unit study read aloud, a family read aloud, a poetry book we read at bedtime, as well as other books we reference throughout the week for things such as composer study, artist study, or nature study. We regularly use discussion or narration for comprehension of the books we are reading.
My almost 8 year old is still getting reading lessons every day, and for that we use Ruth Beechick's, The Three R's. It is such a great book for teaching reading (as well as writing, and math)! Very straightforward and easy to use! Where she struggled with some of the other things we used to teach reading, she has greatly excelled with this book!
wRiting-Just like reading, writing is covered in all writing that we do. In teaching "formal writing", we use copywork and dictation. I pull copywork and dictation exercises from whatever books we are currently reading. I also regularly look for writing oppurtunities as they come up. My older two are encouraged to write something every single day. I don't care what...just write. I'm happy to give them ideas if they want them, and sometimes they do. They are currently both writing their first books...my son a fiction story on survivalism, and my daughter, a fun story about a family and a new dog. Other writing they may do is writing on our unit study topic, thank you notes, letters to family and friends, shopping lists, poems, and anything else we think of. My almost 8 year old is at the stage of learning where she is working more on form, so she mostly does copywork and dictation, but every once in a while I'll have her dictate something to me that she wants to write. Once a week or as needed, I have a grammar lesson pulled from their writing for the week, and occasionally, in addition to the dictation, we will work on some spelling issues from their writing. When they get to about 4th grade they learn typing on the computer, and if they prefer, I let them do their writing on the computer, (not copywork or dictation though).
aRithmetic-This is the only area where we use curriculum, in fact we use two, but as I said, the curriculum we use is not the traditional type....We use Math on the Level and Life of Fred. Math on the Level is a very unique way of teaching math, that encourages hands-on, real life application, but they also throw in a review system where in your child has to do 5 math problems a day to review things they have learned. You as the parent get to decide what to teach and when. There are no grade levels, just concepts to teach, and you can move as quick or as slow as your child needs. They have tons of ideas of how to use real life application in your teaching. Right now, just my older two do the 5 a days every day, they also cover math facts using speed drills a couple times a week. My younger daughter does more hands on type stuff, but will probably begin 5 a days soon. Life of Fred is just a fun read aloud that we enjoy that has a fun way of explaining math to the kids. Some other things we do to help with math concepts in every day life is we play LOTS of games, I include the kids in budgeting, paying bills, and shopping using a budget, and doing price comparisons, and I let them help me in the kitchen every single day.
Everything Else-
These are the few things that I consider extra-curriculars...but really, I can't imagine doing school without them.
Nature study-My kids love doing nature study! We keep a handful of guides and books to help us, and we spend at least an hour once or twice a week either at home in our own back yard or out and about at parks or other places where we have found. One of our favorite resources is the Handbook of Nature Study, and the website by the same name that helps you get a handle on actually getting out there and doing nature study every week.
Artist/Composer Study-This is just a little thing we do to expose ourselves to other things that we may not regularly come across. For about 10 minutes every day, usually during lunch, we either listen to a certain composer or study a specific piece of art, and then take a few minutes to read a little about whoever it is that did it.
Handicrafts/Projects-I'm a crafty person...or I try to be....I sew, I knit, I paint (though not well), I embroider. I also enjoy lots of other things-gardening, urban homesteading, self sufficiency, baking, etc....I love learning new skills. And as part of that, I try to teach my children these new skills. They may not always enjoy everything I do, and may have some of their own they want to try, but the point is to teach them that learning new skills or handicrafts is important. I also try to just let them do crafts, the messy kind even, that every mom dreads. I let them paint, cut up paper, whatever. They love it...but they also have to help clean it up :o)
Music-All of my children are pretty active musically. My oldest plays guitar and a bit of piano, my second oldest plays the recorder and piano, and my third also plays piano. They also all are in church choirs and singing groups. At this time they are all either self led, or I instruct them as best as I can. I know enough usually to help them, or we learn together.
Sports/P.E.-We don't do any specific P.E. type curriculum. I just make sure to encourage my kids to be outside. They help in the garden, doing yard work, hanging laundry out to dry, we go for walks, we go to the park, etc. The only organized sport we are involved in, aside from church softball games during the summer, is my oldest son, who plays for little league baseball. We make it a family activity though! We practice together, we watch all his games, and we encourage him! We are also currently learning more about nutrition, and making changes to eat healthier, and I'm making sure the kids are understanding and taking part in that change. I want them to know why we eat the way we eat!
And really, (long as this post has gotten), that is all we do, and my kids seem to be truly flourishing under this way of schooling....and actually, so am I! I love doing school with them.! I'm not overwhelmed, I'm not stressed! I honestly look forward to it! It's simple, and effective. I regularly refer to all of Ruth Beechick's books to give me ideas, helps, and sometimes just to help me remember why I'm doing what I'm doing. I won't deny, we have bad days (can you say first trimester blahs? Or even 2nd trimester blahs?) But at the very least, when we do have a bad day or even two, I don't feel like we are so behind, and we have to go in to overkill to catch up.
I realize that homeschooling this way is not for everybody, but it has certainly blessed our family! I look forward to it, and I'm even looking forward to making this way of homeschooling work through the highschool years, and I gotta say, they are creeping up on me fast! Thanks for letting me share what's working for us! I'm hoping to be doing something once a week, in a way of record-keeping, is to have what we will call our learning journal to share with you what exactly we do each week!
See some of the resources in my sidebar for great articles by Ruth Beechick, and also if you get a chance to read any of her books, here are the links to ones I have and love!
The Three R's
You Can Teach Your Child Successfully
A Biblical Home Education
Dr. Beechick's Homeschool Answer Book
The Language Wars
Language and Thinking for Young Children
How to Write Clearly
Heart and Mind
World History Made Simple
Genesis: Finding our Roots
Blessings,
sara
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