Our Homeschool Method is, well……..

Eclectic. 

Aren’t we all a little bit.


We our going to be beginning our 4th year.  WOW!  So we have just been finding our way.  

Katey doing a math lesson.

Our first year began with about 6 months or so of de-schooling.  Lots of reading and math games.  Spending time as a family and doing a few unit studies together.  After that we settled in and purchased Math-U-See and added that in.  That year we just slowly added stuff in and took some away.


At the Children Learning Center in Yellowstone
Our next year we joined the Schoolhouse Review Crew and got a real feel for what eclectic feels like.  LOL.   We did not stick it out with Math-U-See.  We moved on to Life of Fred and trying out anything and everything we received from the crew.

A picnic after visiting the fish hatchery

This past year we tried virtual schooling while remaining on the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  That was crazy.  We went with K12 and they really keep your days so full.  The kids also began some co-op classes.  Talk about over doing it that year. 

The Dinosaur Museum.

This year we are going back to doing it on our own with very literature rich curriculum base.  K12 left hardly any time for reading for fun and we would like to get back into that.  We are also sticking with some of our co-op classes. 

Using the Discovery Scope at the beach.

Like I said, we are still finding our way and even if something works great at one time, it may not fit our needs in the future.  We remain flexible and open minded. 

Creating a home, complete with a swimming pool, for the bugs.


We do always try to fit learning and exploring in at every opportunity. 

Read what other methods the crew is using.

Why homeschool?

 

There are endless reasons that homeschoolers do what they do.  A few of my reasons in no particular order.

• To spend quality time as a family
• To spend time allowing my children to develop who they are without constant peer influence

     

• To teach them character traits that I wish to instill in them
• To give them one on one education in which is taught to their learning styles
• To give them the opportunity to take advantage of new and exciting experiences

     

• So they realize that they can be friends with siblings

I have written many a posts about Why I Homeschool.

Now my children were not always homeschooled they have gone to public school.  The experience we both had there, as student and parent left me feeling that there was just something more for us.

Enter homeschooling. 

We love it so much now and have changed as individuals and as a family in wonderful incredible ways. 

I am a strong believer that homeschooling is not for everyone.  It is definitely right for us! 

This has been a part of the blog cruise.  Click the graphic to read about why some others homeschool.

Our Classroom ~ A Video Tour

 
I decided to do something a little different since we do not have a classroom per say, we have a house that promotes education. 

I will give you a video tour of our main living areas.  Sorry in advance for the amateur video skills.  :)

I hope you enjoyed your tour and realize that space truly doesn’t matter when it comes to homeschooling!  

This is linked up to The Not Back to School Blog Hop! 

How I plan what I purchased?

Can you believe it?  This year I am going to plan!  Years past we have done everything from fly by the seat of our pants type planning to having it all planned out for us. 

This year, we are taking majority of the summer off from “official schooling.”  We do still do 3 subjects each day, reading, math and a choice.





I am using this time to plan out months at a time.  I set up a part time desk in the kitchen, that way I don’t have to clean up to cook and eat. LOL!  (seriously though).






Let’s begin with how I am planning Before Five in a Row and Five in a Row. 
I am using the planner page I got from All of A Kind Family. 
I use the book as well as the internet, (mainly Pinterest and Homeschool Share) to get my ideas.  I have collected and preprinted everything I need.  I precut and laminated many things too.  I store those in a Ziploc.

I then put everything I need in a manila folder and label it.  I write on the outside of the folder anything I will need to either purchase or gather from around the house.


I then store all these folders on my teacher bookshelf.  And I use the year long planning page from the Schoolhouse Planner to fill in when we will do each book.  I have planned out our first 8 books and plan to have 12 planned out before the end of August.  Then I am going to try and plan a book a week so I can stay ahead of the game.  I am going to leave room for flexibility.








How I have planned Prairie Primer 


The first thing I did was take the book over to Staples and had them cut the binding off and have it spiral bound.
 



Then I began using the weekly planner in the Schoolhouse Planner.  I wrote the number of the lesson on the planner page.  So for example she will need to do numbers 1-6 and 8 on the first day. Next to each item number that has something to go with it, I added small notes, LB= lapbook piece, NB= Notebooking page, WS= worksheet, if she is supposed to watch something on YouTube then that is written in there, etc.


I preprinted any notebooking pages, lapbooking pages and worksheets she would need.  They are all sorted by week and will be going in a 3 ring binder.

On the bottom of the schedule I have a list of supplies to gather for that week.  I just grab the sheet a week or two in advance and gather what is necessary. 

I have also pre-bookmarked many of her science pages.  I am also  incorporating The Daring Book for Girls into her lessons, and am in the process of fitting that all in. 

She will do Prairie Primer 4 days per week.

Fridays will be set aside for:

• game days
• art projects
• home ec.
• finish up work.
• character lessons

Other things such as grammar and math they will just do the next lesson each day.  So not much preplanning there.

Our Curriculum Choices this year!

Decisions have been made, orders have been placed, packages have arrived, planning has began (more on that tomorrow).

This year our curriculum will go as follows
Tyler, age 3

• Before Five In A Row
• Very Gently introduce All About Reading ~ Pre Level 1
• Tag along with the rest of the children in learning

Katey, age 7

• Five In A Row, using lots of science from the Usborne science books and Nature in a Nutshell as well as history/geography
• Hooked on Phonics upper level phonics
• Copywork
• Lots of reading
• I am still undecided on her math, right now we are working on fact memorization.
• Leaving room for review items

Emily, age 11 (almost 12)

• Prairie Primer, using How Nature Works, How Science Works, How the Earth Works as our main science supplements
• Painless Grammar
• Life of Fred as well as Math Essentials (We have loved this program)
• Finish up Keyboarding
• Review Items
• Rosetta Stone French when time allows
• Co-op classes, sewing and The Art of Argument

Tommy, age 13

• Beyond Five In A Row (Which I still need to purchase and plan out)
• Apologia Physical Science
• Math Essentials
• Painless Grammar
• Copy work for Future Heroes
• Review Items
• The Art of Argument (co-op class)
• He will continue with his MMA classes

As you can see I am trying not to put to much pressure on the kids this year as far as curriculum goes.  I am really looking forward to a more organic learning environment after using K12 last year.  I am also going to make a much bigger effort to do a family read aloud more often.  We have begun reading The Hardy Boys series this Summer and have really enjoyed the time together.


Click on the button at the top of this post to see what other crew members are using. 

What is your favorite curriculum?

E is for Education

I have been blogging through the alphabet.  This week we are on “E”. 

E is for Education.

Isn’t that what this homeschooling thing is all about?  I definitely want the best education for my children.  I want my children to be life long learners.  I want them to be able to educate themselves. 

Homeschooling began for me as much more than an educational choice.  It began for us as a character training.  I didn’t like who my children were becoming and the habits and traits they were picking up at pubic school.  On top of all that we actually enjoy being with each other.  (well, most of the time.)

We have been very grateful for the type of education homeschooling has afforded us.  It is totally personalized and tailored to our learning style.  It is exactly at our level all of the time.  We can take breaks to study things that really interest us.  
 
We just love homeschooling.  We love the flexibility, we love the fun we have and we really love the education we are all getting!

Homeschool Encouragement!

I have 2 sick kids :'(  So I called the doctors office and made them appointments for tonight.  We go to a practice with about 4 doctors.  I knew that one had recently quit/moved.  I ended up seeing the new doctor tonight and she asked me if Katey got sick at school.  Katey said, "No, I'm homeschooled!"  Then the doctor told me SHE WAS HOMESCHOOLED too. 
I seriously think that is the coolest thing.  I proceeded to ask her what curriculum and how she made it into medical school.  It was so neat.  She was homeschooled using Abeka.  She then went to ?A Christian University?  I can't remember which one.  And she scored really well on her MCAT. 
She was homeschooled clear through Highschool, with some dual enrollment for higher physics and chemistry.  She graduated homeschool.  So think about it.  We could be homeschooling the next doctors. I just feel so encouraged now.  And I needed it.

What to do on the first day of Public School.

Public School has started here and we spent the day schooling in the morning and then we went out for a family fun day. 

We went bowling. 

I set Tommy and Emily up on their own lane and I set Katey, Tyler and I up on the next lane.  Boy, am I glad I did that.  

This actually turned into an educational experience.  Tyler definitely needed a BIG lesson in taking turns!  This was the first time that I have actually let him bowl.  He was more than excited.  Which is why I wasn’t able to get many pictures.  I had to keep track of him.  He kept on grabbing all the balls and trying to throw them down any lanes. 

We asked to go and see the back of the alley.  They  let us!  I have never seen the back of a bowling lane before.    It is much more complicated then I had imagined.

 

The employee was so nice and explained a lot to us.  There were even some other people bowling so we were able to see to see the machines in action. 

 

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It was so much cooler than I could even get pictures of. 

I love it when a normal activity turns out to be an educational one.

After that we went out for to our local bookstore with an ice cream shop in the back.  We bought some new books, and had ice cream.  We window shopped at the hobby store.  Next, we headed to the library.   

 

All in the day of a homeschooler. 

Katey can read!!!!

 

Actually, she has been reading for a while.  I am so proud of her.  It has taken us a while to get here, and there was a point when I thought she wasn’t learning as quickly my older kids did.  I couldn’t figure out where I was going wrong.  So I enrolled her in public school.  She was in enrolled for a month, and I noticed her reading getting worse!  She was also much more stressed out and she began having night terrors.  I decided to bring her back home.  We did a review of letters using Explode the Code, and All About Reading, I purchased The Letter Factory, she watched it almost daily and we used good old Hooked On Phonics. 

 

She passed off Level 1 of Hooked On Phonics in about 2 months. 

These are all the books she can read!  There is even a chapter book!  She is extremely proud of herself. 

We even had an “I Can Read Party” to celebrate!  We had Monkey Bread and Ice Cream.  It was all very exciting. 

 

We are moving on to Level 2, and we are also adding it Hooked On Math Level 1, which she is sailing right through. 

 

I am also working with her on realizing that she can read more than the small HOP books.  I have been working with her on sounding out words everywhere we go, the store, restaurants, driving down the road, even around the house.    She is very proud of herself, I just don’t think she realizes her full potential.  She things the HOP books are all she knows how to read. 

 

She has also been interested in writing her own short stories and then reading them. 

The 3 she has written so far are titled:

King Bird

Cats and Dogs

Mom has a Cat

She loves to read these books to Tyler.

 

I love having be the one that taught her to read!  That was/is very important to me with all my children. 

I am so glad that I homeschool her.  It is so amazing to see how much she is learning. 

 

Learning about money

 

I am trying to teach Katey about money, just the basics right now.  A Penny is worth 1 cent, Nickel, 5 cents, etc.  I tried just flashcard style.  Holding one up, telling her, then seeing if she would remember.  That wasn’t really working.  

We also have the make the date with money on our morning board.  That works better. 

We tried some interactive activities this week.

I hid some change in some playdoh I made.  As she would uncover them, she had to tell me what each one was, and then we would count them up together. 

 

She really thought that this was so neat.  She really loved this game.  Then she hid them for me to dig.  It was alot of fun.

A little later in the day, I showed her this game that I had made.  (It is my first shot at making my own printables)

It’s basically 4 pictures and 4 price tags.  She had to price each item, then show the coin that would buy it.

Sometimes I would switch up the prices and sometimes she would. 

 

It’s such an eye opener for me to see how much different she learns in different environments.  She caught on so quickly with these simple games, whereas she was struggling with just talking about them. 

 

I have also realized that homeschooling doesn’t have to be over the top.  Just simple time with your children is all it really takes. 

Going to the Farm

 

Our homeschool co-op set up a field trip to go to a farm.  So of course we jumped at the opportunity to go. 

 

Our day started off with a tractor pulled hay ride to see all the crops. 

 

We stopped occasionally and our tour guide would go and pick some vegetables and tell us about them.  We learned that an onion lives for 2 years. 

 

 

One stop we made was at the pumpkin patch, were we each got to pick a pumpkin.  The children were told to carefully look around for their perfect pumpkin, and when they found it they were to raise their hand.  Then the tour guide would run around and cut the pumpkins off the vine.

Katey set a goal to find the smallest orange pumpkin she could find.   

Then we were able to do some exploring, they had a “left turn only” hay maze. 

 

Playing on the neat tire swings.

 

Next came the giant slides, which were a little wet, but none of the kids seemed to mind. 

 

 

Then we got to play in a farm band, and

 

ride an animal train.

There was a really cool pumpkin bounce house, they enjoyed for a while.

We finished the day by getting lost (literally) in the famous corn maze. 

 

We had such a fun time on this field trip.  Emily tells me one of the things she likes best about homeschooling is that she gets to go on more field trips than the public school children near us.