Curriculum and Schedule

One of the first questions I get about homeschooling is: What are you using for curriculum? This isn't too surprising since when I considered making the change it was one of my primary thoughts. After all, once you decide to keep the kids home, what exactly should you do with them? There are many different homeschooling paths, and ours takes a little from each method. I believe a lot in free time, and reading, and finding education in the ordinary. But I also believe in meeting goals and having rock-solid foundational knowledge. So, our morning is fairly "schoolish" and our afternoon is faily "run-wildish."

The kids wake up and while I read and exercise they get ready and eat breakfast.

We meet for family scripture study which consists of memorizing a scripture together, reading a scripture story, reading a section of the little booklets the missionaries hand out, and doing personal study (I encourage them to read at least one verse). They also color.

At this point, I finish morning household jobs, feed and water Sterling, and get dressed. At 9:00 Sterling goes to his nap, the boys go downstairs to play (they only earn iPad time if they play nicely without interrupting us), and the girls and I do math for an hour. We are using Everyday Mathematics from the school because I didn't want to buy a math curriculum for half a year, and we can get it from the school for free. I read the lessons for the week and pull out the activities I like, but I have yet to make a real long lesson of it. We also do the worksheets associated with those units. This takes about 20 minutes. Then, because I'm most nervous about math we do Khan Academy online for practice and Splash Math on the iPad (recommended to me by my cousin Laura). Ellie does a lot of multiplication drilling right now.

At 10:00 the boys get their 20 minutes each on the iPad. Grant does math, Spencer plays Angry Birds and renames all my files. The girls and I do "English" which consists of Grammar with "Well-Trained Mind," Spelling with "Spelling Workout," and "Handwriting Without Tears." We also have some creative prompts they work on at the end.

Then we break and do lunch and playing. Sterling usually wakes up at this point. Today Ellie made lunch while I did jobs with Grant and Meg. Every day they each get to pick which kind of job they are going to do based on who finishes their morning jobs first (dressed, bed made, teeth/hair, breakfast, room tidied). Because Ellie always finishes first she picks "project" - which is whatever random job is floating around in my mind. She's weeded, emptied the dishwasher, cleaned her desk, and made lunch. Meg usually picks "cleaning." Today that meant she cleaned the bathrooms with me. Grant always gets stuck with "laundry" which makes him cry until he gets downstairs and gets to turn the water on. He likes that.

After lunch we do "Special". On Monday we do Family History, on Tuesday we do Science, on Wednesday we do History, on Thursday we do Piano/Ballet, on Friday we Art (we don't do Math and English on Friday - and I hope to get some service planned for this day also).

Spencer and Sterling go to sleep again at 2 or 3. Before this happens we read. Grant reads me a book, I read him a book. The girls and I read together and then do "Dictation" and "Narration" which is mostly remembering what your read and understanding the story. Spencer picks his book, and we head up to naps. 

At this point the kids can go downstairs and do whatever they want except fight or bother me. I get about 2 hours to write upstairs while the little boys sleep. That's on a good day. After writing, it's dinner and finish up the jobs time. 

I still haven't figured out where to fit my big extra jobs like doing the budget or going grocery shopping. I also haven't figured out how to balance our "schedule" with extra items that get thrown in the week of. There were some activities this week at the co-op, but I didn't know how much I wanted to give up at home to go there. I'm not sure. I still can't decide. I also have a dentist appt tomorrow, so we'll see what happens with that. I have not one clue how to go Visiting Teaching. And I am trying to get some friend time in as well. 

So, that's our basic schedule and curriculum. Next, I want to talk about what has been good and what has been bad.....

Homeschool

This week our family began homeschooling. Some of my greatest advice regarding homeschooling has centered on staying in line with specific goals. Before we began, Justin and I made a list of what we wanted to accomplish with homeschooling, and I am trying to check in with those goals and make sure that the process is successful and purposeful for our family. I decided I would try reporting online because for the many years I considered homeschooling I wished and wished to be able to see inside others' experiences with homeschooling. Maybe I can provide that for someone else here.

First of all, for clairification, reasons we DID NOT choose homeschooling.

1. Bad Schools - Our family lives in the boundaries for a great school. Our kids have wonderful friends with good values and had fantastic teachers. They had access to excellent programs and learned many  wonderful things. When we made our choice, it was not between bad and good, or right and wrong. It was a decision of "better for our family right now."

2. Common Core - I don't have a problem with common core. Shoot me.

3. Those crazy liberals! That crazy curriculum! - Nope. Never had a problem with this. We love meeting different people and learning about them. We are great with figuring out how to hear things at school and come home to learn how that fits into our belief system. Plus, our kids are in elementary school, and this just hasn't been a problem.

Reasons we did choose homeschooling.

1. We have goals for our children beyond academics. Look, I loved school, and I was good at it. Achievement in school is big for us. Doing your best, going to college, learning, learning, learning! But there is so much more to life. I want my kids to learn so much more. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, taking care of family. And I just don't think this is less important, even though as a society we turn down our noses at it. I want my children to find proficiency and value in the tasks they are going to be spending their whole lives doing. I am glad I passed on AP Chem exam, but I still hate cooking with everything in my soul, and it is part of my life three times every day. Oh, the horror! I have a friend who loves cooking because it is Chemistry. How cool is that? I want to give my children more to find in these realities of life.

2. School eats up time. Sending my children to other people for five days of a seven day week and seven of the thirteen hours they're awake has never sat well with me. Add to that increased homework and I start getting a little grumpy. Add to that the fact that - of necessity - the teacher must share her time with 30 children and I begin to change my mind about the efficiency of the program in using all that time I'm handing over to them. We can finish academics in the morning and then use our time for other learning. We can do extracurriculars without running around with our heads chopped off. I do not want to plan my family's life around the one hour left to us each day when school is finished with its requirements. Free time! I truly think my little cherubs need some free time to imagine and create and play. And more then 15 minutes to eat!!!! What is up with that? They are children, and they are so smart. They learn through discovery and excitement. I want to give them time to do that.

4. We value family relationships. My children are so grumpy and tired after school (and starving) that they take it out on each other. Also, they have begun to buy into the idea that their friends are cooler than their siblings. I want my children to be best friends with each other. If I'm going to birth them, they better darn well love each other. This is probably the biggest one for me. We do have access to a homeschool group here, and we have already used it for week one. I have arranged for beloved school friends to have regularly schedule play dates. We will be going to volunteer with the elderly as a service. We are not going to sit home and stare at each other all day. But our primary relationships are with our family members. Already the conflict in our home has been greatly reduced.

5. We believe in spiritual education. The world is a heavy place to live, and there is so much garbage. I want my children to obtain a spiritual education that receives just as much emphasis as their academic education. As a recent conference talk says: I want them to be prepared in a manner that was never seen before. I've always loved the idea of the Jewish Yeshiva (which I'm probably spelling wrong) where children are taught about Faith throughout the day. We now start our days with a devotional and personal scripture time. We discuss at length those questions I always brush aside at bedtime because I'm exhausted and don't want to talk to people under the age of ten anymore.

Well, it's late now, so I will have to give my update on week one another time. Plus, the baby's crying....