We are going to continue our posts on Homeschooling. This is part 2 so if you missed the first one make sure you check it out. On the first one we chatted about how it all got started for us. Today I will try to answer a couple of the other consistent questions we always get...
Are you homeschooling the whole time? What does our schedule look like? What do I do with them all day?
Like I mentioned on the last post our first year was HARD!! Homeschooling while working, having little ones and being pregnant is not for the faint of heart! But like I said before if I would of known then what I know now it would of been so much smoother. My poor 5 year old was in all possible ways our testing kiddo. He was our first home schooler and I was still in my public teacher mindset... get where I am going with this? Instead of being relaxed I brought public school into my home. I needed to check all the boxes, get all the curriculum, make sure we got all subjects done and my poor little guy was so advanced already reading and writing before we started Kindergarten. He started first grade and I was a very tired mama from nighttime feedings, chasing babies and I was adjusting to being at home full time. (Which was great but definitely a difference from being with adults all the time). I continued to push him until I started seeing the joy of learning leave him and I was crushed. I felt like I was failing at this and I knew something had to change... I needed a community that home schooled as well. People I could relate to and could help me out.
At this time we were in FL and found a two groups and a family in our neighborhood that also home schooled and had a little boy my oldest age! I was over joyed!. We did an enrichment co-op and a field trip co-op and it was amazing to be surrounded with other kids and families that did the same thing we did. When we moved from FL to Kansas the first thing before we got there that I did was research and make sure that we found our "tribe" and we did. And it was in that co-op that my eyes were truly opened to other possibilities in our homeschool journey. Homeschooling doesn't have to be treated like a classroom with checking off the boxes and getting tons of curriculum. You definitely have to do what works best for your child/children. I have very different kiddos with different personalities and learning styles and when my second kiddo started I realized I needed to change things. I needed to relax and enjoy my moment with them. After all that was part of the reason I was homeschooling them. To enjoy seeing them grow up and being part of the process.
Our Schedule...I laugh when I even think of that word because well like mentioned I was all about the schedule and checking the boxes off. I wanted to make sure that everything got done and that they were learning at all times of the day. Well guess what learning occurs at all hours of the day whether there is a book in front of them or not.
But just so you have peek into our life... I have four kiddos under the age of 10 and although I don't typically do school grade levels for the sake of this blog I will tell you the grades they are technically in if they were in public school although they are all working on different levels based on their strengths. I have 3 boys and 1 girl which are in 5th, 3rd, K and Pre-K.
They are allowed to leave their rooms at 8:30 a.m (After mom has had her time with Jesus and some coffee!!) and we eat breakfast and while they are eating I am usually reading them a chapter book. We do our devotions, recite our Bible Memory Verse for the month, Family Rules, and sing our Hymn that we are working for the month as well. We also sing a couple of nursery rhymes for the little ones to join in. We also do Art, Composer and Nature studies. These we don't do everyday but we integrate them into our morning at least twice a week. We do some fun picture books and then I read them Science and History. (Mind you this is all happening at the breakfast table!! All together) We call this our Morning Time and it works well for us! If you want any more ideas about Morning Time I suggest you read the book by Pam Barnhill called Morning Time Plans!
Morning Time can last an hour to two depending on how much we delve into a subject or veer off a subject because they had a question and we decided to research more on it. When we are done with our morning time we move on to our classroom and the two oldest ones independently work on their core subjects which are Reading, Math and Language Arts. I sit in a rolling chair and maneuver between the two oldest and the littles while they are working. We are typically done with all of our work by noon!! We have lunch and I read them another chapter book and the rest of the day are for playing outside or inside and chores. There are times where our afternoon are filled with different experiments or art projects from our studies during morning time. Those are always fun and don't even seem like "school time"
(Oh, we also go to a co-op on Fridays because to us its important to have a "tribe"; a community in which you know people are pretty much doing some of the things you are doing with your kids.)
If you notice we do a ton of reading around here! I think that's the best thing for our kids and they learn so much more that way. Books are everywhere in our house and its a beautiful thing to be raising bookish kiddos like their mama!
Will we home school the whole time?... as of right now the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES!!! My kids have absolutely zero interest in going to school and sitting in a chair for multiple hours a day and as Christian parents we do not want them to have any part of what goes on the secular education system.
Homeschooling is definitely not for every mama and that's perfectly fine. But if you are teetering with the idea I am here to let you know that you can totally do this but it may not be all sunshine and rainbows the first year but it does get easier and it is so very rewarding. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! I am here to help!
I have made this post long enough... but I hope you join me next time for Part 3 (the last part) where I show you which curriculum we are currently using with our kiddos!
Until then blessings,
Kelly-Ann
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