Showing posts with label christian homeschoolers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christian homeschoolers. Show all posts
I know school is almost over for some but since you are just getting to know me a bit better I figured you would want to know what we use. We actually homeschool year round. We take breaks as we need them but my kids do great with structure and so does this mama! And like I mentioned before we typically only homeschool 4 days a week and then one day we go to co-op.
Before I begin I should also mention I DO NOT DO SCHOOL GRADES. I mean the kids know which grade they would technically be considered in public school for social purposes (when someone asks them or when they have to be put in a group at church or something similar) but in our house we call them levels because we are all working on what we are capable of doing. For here I will put what "grade" they would be just so you are aware. Also for the sole purpose of this blog I will not mention our kids actual names just because I want to keep their lives private so they have nicknames that suit them!
Let's dig in!
Jedi Master - 5th Grade
He has always been my early reader and writer. He loves to read and as you can see by his nickname he is a HUGE Star Wars geek. I think he has learned most of his typing skills by searching more info about Star Wars!We use Christian Light Education for his Core Subjects. We have been using that since the very beginning and it has been great for him. Its more workbook type material but he enjoys that.
Language Arts ~ The program is superb and goes hand in hand with the reading program. The Language Arts contains grammar and spelling lists. They teach how to write a letter, abbreviations, cursive!! It's a great program that truly builds up every year.
Reading ~ We have loved all the stories in the readers. Mind you that this program is written by Menonites so it has been fun to see stories based on their lifestyle it definitely has been interesting for my kiddos to see how they live.
His grammar skills and Reading are superb and because of that, this is his last semester with Christian Light for these subjects. But we have loved every minute of this program and recommended to anyone looking for a solid Reading and Language Arts program. Its also very affordable.
Math - Oh boy.. so we use Christian Light Education for Math since the beginning of schooling and this year I had the craziest idea to switch Math to give them a break because CLE's (Christian Light Education) is very intensive but if you aren't Math savvy like me then it helps a lot because it walks you through the problems and helps you understand them. I swear I have learned more Math from teaching him than I did when I was in school. Anyways back to my epic fail.... I thought let's switch it up and give you something lighter so we went with Masterbooks (insert screaming, pulling hair mama). I am sure the Math program is great if you have started from the beginning with them but I didn't think so. It was way too light and not enough help for this non-mathy mama. So in the middle of the books we switched back to CLE and we are never changing again until we absolutely have to!
Handwriting ~ This term I did get him a cursive book because I wanted him to practice it some more and definitely do not want him to forget. We love this book by Queen Homeschool Supplies because it is a picture study along with the writing lessons.
The Gentle Ninja - 3rd Grade
My ADHD, Sensory kiddo that surprises me daily. It has been a slower pace with him especially in reading but he is starting to catch on he is so proud of himself! He absolutely LOVES MATH like his daddy. He however can't stay still to save his life but he loves pets and loving on his mama!
Reading ~ He is also doing CLE although he is working on Level 2 and so far its good but we know its definitely not a good fit for him. He loves the workbooks but he still has trouble reading long stories. He is still in the beginning stages of reading and ROCKING IT!!! He is finally confident in his ability and that makes this book nerd mama happy!! That being said we know we are switching to another program that will help him a lot more.
Language Arts ~ As much as I wanted to stick with CLE I knew it wasn't the path for him. Masterbooks Language Lessons for a Living Education is the right fit for him. The lessons are short and sweet perfect for this active boy.
Math - Well you already read my fiasco about that so we went back to CLE and we are so much happier. He thrives on Math and welcomes the challenge with open arms!
Handwriting ~ We have been practicing on his Printing so this is the book I chose for him and it has been working well. It also by Queen Homeschool Supplies. He loves the pictures especially since they are all about animals so doing picture walks with him are always fun. He always has something interesting to say about them.
The Cuddly Scientist ~ Kindergarten
This kiddo is my cuddle bear. He absolutely loves Science and anything to do with learning about animals. We don't push him too much when it comes to learning but we do a little bit of curriculum with him and he enjoys it.He has started his journey with CLE's Kindergarten Program and so far that seems to be working great for him. He is learning his letters and numbers, simple addition and sounding out CVC words. Mainly he PLAYS!!! Because that's what this age group is meant to be doing! Learning through play! He works on puzzles, board games, play-doh, songs, stories, using his wild imagination and that is what I want him to do. Not be bombarded by a full days of work.
The Firecracker ~ Pre-K
Ah yes, my miracle baby girl. She was not only an unexpected surprise but she truly was a miracle! We are so thankful for her but she is definitely different from the boys. This little girl is pretty fearless and total girly girl. She just started getting interested in sitting down and doing "work" like her brothers so I got her one of those big Pre-K workbooks at BJ's Wholesale. She loves it. But again she PLAYS!! She loves to paint and play with Play-Doh. She already knows all her letters and most sounds all by watching Super Why!
Our Together Time
There are certain things we do together as group. Morning Time is a big part of our day. This is when we do our main chapter book, devotions, prayer, Memorization, Geography, Science and History. This time we do right after breakfast and it doesn't take us that long now that we have a routine in place. (It took us a few weeks and trial and error to get to where we are!) We started on the couch but that was too relaxed for my kids and they lacked focus especially the Gentle Ninja. So now we do our morning time at the dinner table and move on to our classroom for our core subjects. The Cuddly Scientist and the Firecracker definitely stick around for a bulk of it but by the time we get to Geography and History they are playing or coloring and that is totally fine. It isn't fully geared to them. We use Notgrass History which we absolutely love! We are almost done with Our Star Spangled Story. We are sad to see it be done because we have really enjoyed it. The extra activities include crafts, cooking or building something and that is really up my kiddos alley. They really enjoy being quizzed Jeopardy style on the Timeline book and there is literature that you can read along with the units and we chose to do that so although is not pictured here so far we have read and enjoyed: Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin, Farmer Boy, Toliver's Secret and Freedom Crossing just to name a few. I highly recommend this program if you want to do it with just one kiddo or multiple children.
For Science we are doing Masterbooks Zoology course this semester. I have mixed feelings on this. We all have loved the books. Its written with strong Christian perspective which we absolutely LOVE! The books are absolutely stunning and full of information. But at times it seems like its very wordy and the workbooks is a lot of busy work and not enough hands on for my kiddos. That being said I would do it all over again because they love animals and with this program you do two field trips to bring the learning to life. A Aquarium and Zoo field trip. We have not taken those yet but hopefully we will sometime this summer.Next term we will be adding a few other things into our Morning Routine so I am excited about that and I sure I will write all about it when I do our next curriculum picks!
If you have any questions that I can answer don't hesitate to ask me! All opinions are mine and I don't receive any monies from any of these companies.
Until next time,
Kelly-Ann
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
How did your homeschool journey begin? Why did you decide to homeschool? Are you homeschooling the whole time? What does your schedule look like? What do you do with them all day?
These are just a sampling of the questions I often get from friends, family or even strangers when they find out I am a homeschooling mom. To answer the questions for you I will give you a little back story first. (But I will warn you this will be Part 1 of our homeschooling journey!)
I am a former Kindergarten teacher (I did a stint in first grade for a year and went back to my love which was the Kindy's) I was a single gal when I started my journey into education and it actually was never my plan to be a teacher, I came home from college with a Human Development and Family Studies degree and I was ready to conquer the world and work in the Department of Children Services and rescue children from abusive homes... but alas in order to do that I needed to get my masters degree and honestly I just didn't have it in me to go back to school at that moment but I definitely needed a job. So a friend let me know about a Kindergarten Assistant Position and I applied and got the job. After working with four amazing seasoned teachers I just knew this was what I wanted to do. They encouraged me and helped me take the test and voila I became a teacher. (Obviously it wasn't that quick and a lot of studying took place but you get the gist!)
I started teaching and absolutely loved it! Loved having my own classroom, decorating and seeing little ones eyes brighten when they read their first book. You have to understand that when I started teaching, school looked a lot different, the children actually played!! They did social centers and were engaged by books, art, music, etc... and then everything changed. I know it seems like I taught eons ago and honestly it feels that way but the demands on teachers and what we needed these babies to know was to me overwhelming not only of me but for the kids. I mean we went from learning by play to sitting in a desk all day, removing art, music, social centers and even rest time. The expectations for teachers and the degree on which we were being monitored and rated was just unreal and honestly sad.
I got married and of course we started talking about having a family and I remember telling my husband if things continued changing in the education system then we were homeschooling our own children. Of course this sent me into a journey of researching all the things dealing with homeschooling since I didn't really know much about it and didn't know anyone who home-schooled at all.
Well lo and behold we got pregnant and had our first baby boy! So exciting and yet terrifying that we had this little one we are supposed to take care of and shape into a future adult!! After being with him for months I now had to find someone to take care of him because I had to return to work (insert tears... like heavy uncontrollable sobbing tears people) It was hard but God knew what He was doing because the person that took care of him was a homeschool mom and she taught and confirmed that this was the right path for us to take with our own children.
Let's fast-forward a bit because you don't want to really know all the details. So now my little one was 4 about to turn 5 which means soon to be in Kindergarten and well at this point I am being observed in the classroom by a random person that has never taught Kindergarten, I have students that are throwing chairs and disrupting classroom, hurting other students...(did I mention I was now pregnant with kiddo number 3). I mean who can really teach in that kind of environment and I knew that I just did not want my own children to be part of that. I wanted to be in control of what I taught them based on our Christian beliefs. I did not want them sitting on a chair all day. I wanted them to be able to explore things they wanted to learn without a time limit. And I definitely did not want to miss a single growing moment of their lives. So we decided that homeschooling was definitely for us.
The first year was hard ya'll!! I was working and I was pregnant with baby number 3. Our schedule was crazy. My hubby at that time worked nights so he would teach Math and Bible and I would come home in the afternoon and teach Reading. We would do Science and Social Studies during the weekends. We somehow made it work but it was tiring!! And of course we didn't have time for any type of co-ops or field trips or anything like that. I felt bad for the poor kid. I knew he craved being with other kids besides church and sports. Kids that were home schooled just like him.
After that first year we got a surprise and got pregnant again! And so we decided that with four kiddos under the age of 6 it was time for me to stay home and do this thing full time. And I am so glad we did!! We have now been homeschooling for 6 years and things in our home school lives have changed for the better. If I would of known then what I know now, it would have definitely been a lot easier and relaxed... but I have to admit that becoming a homeschooling family has been the best decision we have made.
I hope you join me tomorrow as I continue with Homeschooling Part 2!
Until next time,
Kelly-Ann
Kelly-Ann
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