How We Homeschool

I hesitate to even participate in the "How We Homeschool" thingy, because I feel like the least of the least among such able homeschool mothers as my fellow bloggers. :) But, here goes.

As of right now, our homeschool is extremely flexible and pretty much unstructured. My older children work on the basics, mostly independently, while I assist my younger daughter. We work on Bible, History, and some science together. I use a multilevel curriculum for these subjects, which I'll explain in a minute. In the meantime I try to keep my youngest child, a rambunctious boy, out of trouble as much as possible. To help with this I'm planning to put together a bin of "school-time-only" toys, puzzles, art supplies, etc, that he can work on during school. I've done something sort of similar to that but I haven't been very consistent with it. To be honest, he has spent far too much time watching something on the computer just so he'll be quiet and let the girls work. :( I know, I know. Shame on me. I'm working on it! I want to start working with him more as well. He's shown some promise and I think he'll pick up fairly quickly. 

Working away from home. Love flexibility!

I was clueless about homeschooling when our oldest child was ready for Kindergarten. I relied almost completely on the recommendations of a friend who was one year ahead of me on her homeschool journey. (I don"t know what I would have done, would do, without the help and support of other homeschool moms.) I was under the impression (and had been warned by someone) that I needed to stick to one line of curriculum. I have since found out that mixing and matching works just fine. I tried some completely different angles this year and they seem to have helped a lot. I've learned through trial and error what works for us, and I've learned that you cannot go by what works for other families. One mother I talked to thought that a certain curriculum was the best there was. It didn't work for us. At all. We're all different, and our children learn differently. Learning to be flexible and creative when choosing curriculum is important.

Just in case you're interested, here's a list of what we use:

For our multilevel subjects:

Mystery of History  Love this so far. It's multilevel with lists of activities/seatwork for different ages. It's very biblically-based.

Apologia Science.  My oldest daughter will start General Science soon, but will also work on Apologia Astronomy along with the younger ones, working in a higher-level notebook.

Who is God? series (Bible). This book works for all three of my children and I'm very pleased with it. 

For my 4th and 7th graders:

Growing with Grammar

Soaring with Spelling

A Beka Reading. Mainly A Beka reading books, (I have some of them already and can find most of the others on their reading list at the library) as well as other books that I think will be good for them. My 7th grader is doing A Beka Literature as well.

For my K-1st grader:

She's still working on some of the A Beka Kindergarten Reading Program. She'll start on Rod & Staff 1st Grade Reading, Phonics, and Penmanship soon.

All three girls are doing Math U See. So far I love this program!

I supplement (or will supplement) with:

Drive-Thru History DVDs

Science DVDs Moody Bible Institute has an excellent set called The Moody Science Classics Series. (You can see previews of the DVDs at Moody's site. We actually bought them through Vision Forum during a sale event. Incidentally, I'm a Vision Forum affiliate. If you'd like to order anything from them, please feel free to use the link here on my blog! ;))

Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett

Besides the Basics:

The girls are taking art and violin lessons from a wonderfully generous and incredibly talented young lady who attends our church. I'm so thankful for her! As far as P.E., um, they play outside or run like wild things through the house. :) We don't do anything structured with that. I probably should, I know.

In my dream-school, I'd also have them learn Latin. Sigh....

Note: I always try to buy our curriculum as cheaply as I can. I'm especially thrilled when I can find nice, used curriculum online for a fraction of the cost of the new stuff!

And that's how it goes at our house. There's a LOT of room for improvement, but I'm thankful for how God has helped us this far!

You can check out the other "How We Homeschool" post here. 

How We Do Our Laundry

In case you haven't picked up on it I'll just blurt it out: our lives are far from normal right now! (Whatever normal is.) I won't even try to explain. Just trust me. :)

Today, I'm supposed to tell you how we do laundry. Well, okay. It's humbling, but I will.

My husband, bless his heart, hauls the laundry to the former parsonage across the street and washes and dries it over there because we don't have a washing machine or working dryer in the house in which we're staying right now. It's very sweet of him to do this for me. Isn't he wonderful!? There are reasons for this. I'm not just being lazy. :) Still, I appreciate his help more than he knows! Anyway, when it's all washed and dried he hauls it back home and the girls and I put it away.

And that's how we do laundry. For now.

I do want to share two things related to doing laundry that I would never want to go without (not counting my hubby):

Shout stain remover. This stuff is A.Ma.Zing. Really. It's worth every penny.

The Honey-Can-Do 3-Bag Mesh Laundry Sorter. 

Don't you just love the name? :) This laundry sorter isn't pretty, but it sure is a time-saver. I wouldn't want any other hamper! So simple even the little ones know how to use it. Towels/washcloths in this one...lights in that one...and darks in that one. Voila! Laundry all sorted. 'Sides, these bags are easier for my hubby to lug across the street than a bulky laundry basket. ;)

(Oh...here's a totally random reminder. Don't forget to clean your dryer vent no less than once per year to avoid causing a fire.)

And that's that. 

How 'bout heading on over to Cherish the Call to see how Jennifer tackles laundry? 

                                             

How We Schedule Our Days

Schedule? Did I hear someone say "schedule"? Ah! What a wonderful word.....

I like to think of myself as an organized person. I adore lists. I make 'em all the time. For everything. Somehow, even if I never accomplish half of the items on that list I feel better just for making it. :) I even made a schedule. A really great schedule, planning out my day to a T and leaving a little room for the unexpected things that pop up in a normal day.

One of these days I'll start following that schedule.

In the meantime, we're following the "do the next thing"...um...thing. We get up, eat breakfast, get ready for the day, do some school work, eat lunch, do some more school work, eat dinner, clean up, and so on and so forth. No set time for anything...just doing the next thing. It works, but it's not what I want. And that was before our little winter break. Our company just left two days ago, so we're not back to even that much of a "schedule"! (Bows head in shame....) As you know, I homeschool our children, and right now we're rather behind. I've got the "January Panic"!

My husband, at the ripe ol' age of 34, started college classes last week. (I'm so proud of him!) With his classes and homework we are forced to get back to a regular schedule, which will be good for all of us. It will probably be a combination of my dream schedule and the "do the next thing" routine. I don't want to be too rigid, because I know I'd tend to get a knot in my tummy if we didn't stick to the clock, and then I'd stress all of us out. I'll let you know how it works out.... :)

Now you can go see how these ladies schedule their days. (And they really do! :))
Jennifer @ Cherish the Call
Joanna @ The LaVans