What We’re Doing Now: Grade 3

The easy approach would be to say: ditto to the entry I wrote for What We’re Doing Now: Grade 6. But that would be akin to cheating in the blogging world. That said, there isn’t a lot more I can add, other than to say that what we are using for our daughter, does not in any way resemble what we are using for our son. I wish with all my heart it did.

When I started homeschooling, I envisioned using the one-room school house method. I pictured my children using the same materials, covering the same topics, working together. I pictured unit studies and projects galore.  Unfortunately, that has not been my reality. My children need very different approaches to learning, much to my chagrin. Though we do at least do our Morning Basket together each day, so a small part of my original vision lives.

When I shared what we were doing for my son I was able to break it down into individual subjects, since that is what he prefers. He thrives on a more traditional approach to education, and actually prefers that I give him a list each day of things to do.  His executive functioning issues mean that he actually gets overwhelmed with choice. At this stage of life, he is still a follower, not a leader.

Our approach for our daughter however, is completely different. Our daughter is a born leader, and we have learned the she thrives with learning when she is in control of it. For example, she struggled to learn to read – until we finally stopped trying to teach her. We ditched all the phonics lessons and just read out loud, and left books around for her. Within months she was reading early chapter books. Now only a year later, she is reading advanced novels, and easily spends a couple hours a day reading for fun.

We never really taught her math. When she was only four years old she started writing out 100 charts and “books” of numbers. Before long, they turned into books of addition and subtraction math facts as she recognized the patterns in the numbers. Now she is teaching herself her multiplication facts.  Time, money, calendar, basic fractions, shapes, measurement etc… have all come naturally to her through exposure in her environment. At age 7 she could add and subtract time far faster than her brother who was three years older than her. She could look at a clock and instantly tell you how much longer until Daddy is home.

Thus, our approach for our daughter is basically to follow her interests, make resources available, and then let her pick and choose what she does each day. We unschool, if you will. That said, I do deviate slightly from traditional unschooling in that I do require her to do something from the 3Rs (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic) each day, but what that something is, is up to her.

In an attempt to break down what learning looks like for our daughter, I’ll share some of the resources we have for her:

Our biggest resource is ABC Mouse. Our daughter loves online based learning, especially when presented in a game format. She saw an advertisement on the television for ABC Mouse and fell in love. Every day she does a full lesson (or two), and then plays further on it. It can be hard to get her off the website in fact!

Our daughter’s favorite subject is math, and so in addition to ABC Mouse, she also loves to play on the following websites:

Sheppard
Cool Math 4 Kids
Math Playground

We also keep some math games on hand such as Math War!, which is your classic card game played with addition & subtraction or multiplication & division flashcards. She also enjoys playing basically any board game where she gets to keep score. We also discuss math a lot in the context of life – when baking, driving, when she and her brother have their lemonade stand etc…   She also enjoys pouring through the grocery flyers, writing out grocery lists, complete with the purchase total.

Our daughter asked to learn French this year , so we have set her up with DuoLingo. I also purchased some French phrase flashcards, as well as a coloring book of French phrases, which she reviews on a daily basis.  Likewise, she asked to learn cursive writing, so we bought her the first Handwriting Without Tears cursive book.

Our daughter loves to do copywork, and every day you will find her at some point copying from a book that interests her. She will sit and copy entire pages at a time. She is currently sure she wants to be a veterinarian, so these days she is copying from books pertaining to animals, especially horses and dogs.

She also loves to write “newspaper articles” – which makes this newspaper columnist Mom proud! So she often will go to the computer and type out articles. She has written about the importance of loving God, on the value of having pets, as well as the importance of not polluting. She also enjoys it when I find and print out writing prompt pages (especially if they’re unicorn themed) for her to do.   She also enjoys doing word searches, cross word puzzles, and Mad Libs.

She really enjoys watching historical fiction shows such as Dr. Quinn and Little House on the Prairie. These often lead to great discussions and other learning opportunities on life in those days, including social issues such as the mistreatment of Natives, women, African Americans etc…  She will often ask if we can “watch a history show”. She, as well as her brother, also love reading the Little House on the Prairie series. We own the Prairie Primer curriculum, and sometimes will pull activity ideas from the book, when inspired.

She also enjoys science experiments. We have a subscription to the Magic School Bus science kits, and also own the complete series on DVD. So we will often watch a show and then work through the experiments from the kit.  She has a fascination with volcanoes, so we have built multiple volcanoes, read books on them and watched documentaries on them. We own a microscope, and she is constantly examining things under it.  She loves to mix solutions to see what will happen – something we have had to have a few safety talks on!

She is also teaching herself how to play the piano. I bought the books at her request, and she reads/looks through them, and then figures it out. She has already memorized several songs, and is beginning to play with both hands together.  Her goal is to play for church. She also likes to write her own songs – copying the staff from the books and then figuring out where to place the notes.  We find that music is incredibly therapeutic for her, and when upset she will often play piano or play on her guitar (which she hasn’t yet learned to play, but does fool around on).

She is a very hands on, mechanically inclined child. If her father or grandfather are tinkering on an engine – she is there helping them, getting covered in grease.  If her carpenter father is building or repairing something around the house – she is there helping him. She was running an impact driver at the age of 6 – and could drive a screw in just as straight as any man.  She is just as happy working inside the house with me, however, and loves to help cook and bake. She entered her first baking competition at the age of seven, and won.

Ultimately, she is a completely different personality than my son, and I consider her the poster child for unschooling. She makes unschooling a breeze, and her capacity for self-directed learning never ceases to amaze me.

 

What We’re Doing Now: Grade 6

Homeschoolers love to share “their plans”. I think it’s because we drive ourselves crazy making them. So once finally complete, there’s a certain satisfaction in having others “like” or comment favorably on said plans. I have struggled a lot with my son’s education, because the reality of what he needs/prefers, did not match up with what I had originally envisioned for our homeschool. It was hard for me to let go of my ideals. I wanted to shy away from anything that even remotely resembled “school”. I was drawn to Waldorf and Unschooling methods primarily, but also Charlotte Mason. My son however, did not thrive with such methods, at least not in their pure forms.

What I ended up discovering was that he really needed an eclectic mix of approaches for his learning, and what’s more, he actually preferred that I lead it. Leaving it to him (a la unschooling) actually left him overwhelmed. My children are nothing, if not an excellent example of why no single method of education will ever work for all children – all children learn differently and thrive with different approaches.

So without further ado, after much soul searching, endless internet surfing, blog and review reading, purchases and returns, here is what we have finally found to work for us, for our son’s grade 6 year:

Math:  Teaching Textbooks. I really shied away from this program for awhile, due to reviews that it was “weak”. However, like anything in the homeschool world, a program’s value depends on it’s user. Teaching Textbooks will not work for all students, but I can tell you that it is making a big difference for my son. He is finally enjoying math for the first time in years.

We’re also using Xtra Math for math fact review, and he loves to play on Prodigy.

Spelling:  We have settled on Soaring With Spelling. As much as I wanted to use a Charlotte Mason approach to Language Arts, it just wasn’t going to happen with my son. He strongly dislikes (hates, might actually be the correct word here) the Charlotte Mason method of dictation.  Likewise, he isn’t a real big fan of copywork. What he does enjoy however, are spelling workbooks filled with activities such as cryptograms, crossword puzzles, word searches etc…  Since he is actually a fairly strong speller naturally, I have no qualms in giving him workbooks to use. We also use Spelling City as a fun supplement – I create a list of his spelling words for the week and then he plays games as desired.

Grammar: We are using an old, free text called A Child’s Own Book of English by Alice Ball, to teach the 8 parts of speech. We are loving this book. For starters, my son really prefers a mastery approach to learning, which this book offers. It is full of fun activities and games, many of which can be done orally. It also offers creative writing opportunities, which are the highlight for my son.

For “fun” we add in some Mad Libs, or he plays on the Grammaropolis website, which my son especially loves.  We have also been reading the Ruth Heller books. You are never too old for a great picture book! I also print out diagramming worksheets, since my son actually loves diagramming (not hard to tell he’s a visual-spatial kid!).

Writing: we do follow more of the Charlotte Mason approach with regards to writing. We practice the art of oral narration, and I also require a written narration once a week from either science or history.  Then of course there is some writing with his grammar.

However, my son has picked up an absolute love of creative writing this year, and asks to write every day. I really don’t like to turn that down, so on the days he doesn’t have a grammar writing assignment or a written narration, he has free creative writing – sometimes he uses fun writing prompts (such as the Harry Potter set we found online), sometimes he just uses whatever thoughts are rattling around in his brain.

I am careful not to stifle his enthusiasm with too much correction. Nothing is more discouraging than having your writing torn apart. Thus, the only writing I correct are the pieces related to his grammar lessons, and even then I stick to only two key points – that which relates to the lesson being studied, and perhaps one other item (such as breaking up his writing in paragraphs or proper use of quotation marks etc…)

Reading/Literature: we do a daily Morning Basket which includes the bulk of our literature (Shakespeare, poetry, classic picture and chapter books etc…). I am also blessed to have a son that absolutely loves to read – he spends at least a couple hours a day reading for fun. We are particular about the books that come into the house, and thus almost anything he reads is that of fairly high literary value. That said, I do still give him an assigned literature book for lessons.

I choose the books from the Memoria Press literature lists. Currently,  he is reading Robin Hood.  I do use the literature guides, but only loosely. I tend to pick one certain thing to focus on each day – perhaps discussion one day, vocabulary another day, direct comprehension questions another day. While I do appreciate the value in reading comprehension programs and their ability to help work on critical thinking skills, I also strongly dislike ruining good literature with excessive analysis.

Science:  My son loves science, especially that which pertains to nature. Since his dream is to work in wildlife conservation, we choose his science resources with his goal in mind.  This year, my son has chosen to read biographies of naturalists (John Muir, Steve Irwin, Jane Goodall, John Audubon etc…) as well as reading through select books from the Scientists in the Field series.  His passion for saving animals is incredibly deep, and quite beautiful to see. More than once a book has brought him to tears, and only fueled his determination to make his dream of working in the field with animals, come true. On the website linked, there are resources for each book, and so we sometimes will add in some of their suggested activities, but mostly we just read and discuss.

History: My son has never really had much interest in history. He definitely has never been interested in your typical textbooks that are too focused on dates and events.  I heard reviews that A Child’s History of the World is supposed to be excellent, so I showed some samples to my son, and he decided to try it.   I have to say, thanks to this book, my son who has always sworn to not like history, is now often choosing to start his school day with history.  What I thought I would have to force him to read a couple times a week, he is eagerly reading every day. His narrations from the book are incredibly engaging.

Everything Else:  the rest of my son’s education falls under what I call “Morning Basket”.  Every day at breakfast, we read from the Bible.  We also are working through a program from Memoria Press called Myself and Others. This is a social skills program designed for children with special needs. While I am using it primarily with my daughter in mind (who has Autism), my son joins in. We also read from our family read aloud daily, though this often happens during lunch.

After our dailies,  we rotate through a variety of resources, again incorporating many Charlotte Mason elements, though we’re not nearly as rigid/scheduled with them as she would have been.  We just meander through the resources as the mood strikes us. Those resources include:

– Nature Journals
– Music Appreciation
– Art Appreciation
– Poetry
– Shakespeare
– Hymn Study

For applied art and music, my son naturally loves to draw and spends time every day drawing. We also loosely follow the Waldorf-inspired Wee Folk Art program. Once a week, typically either Monday or Friday, we read a seasonal picture book and then do an art activity such as watercolor paintings, or drawing with oil pastels etc… Sometimes the activities are handicrafts such as sewing, working with wool roving, beeswax or even baking.  For music, my son is taking trumpet lessons. We also sing a lot in our home, and a couple times a year, we go as a family and perform at a local nursing home.

And there you have it – a hodge podge of curriculum and approaches if I’ve ever seen one!

A New Year, A New Beginning

We are now in our seventh year of homeschooling – eighth if you include my son’s preschool year. I would love to say that it’s been easy, but it hasn’t. The reality is that homeschooling has been my biggest joy, and also my biggest challenge. It has been the source of some of our greatest highs, and also our greatest lows. I have considered tossing in the towel more than once, going so far in fact as to call various schools to get enrollment information. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for the world – except for the days when I would trade it for anything.

There are a few reasons that homeschooling has been challenging for us. Granted, to be fair, I think the first couple years are difficult for everyone. After all, homeschooling naturally has a huge learning curve –  it takes time to learn your children’s learning preferences and styles, their strengths and weaknesses. Then too, we had some extra challenges, specifically our children’s neurological diagnoses (Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, Tourette Syndrome and Executive Functioning issues, collectively) as well as additional health issues for my daughter. Homeschooling is hard enough on it’s own, but when you throw in some extra obstacles such as special needs and health issues, it just adds a whole new level of difficulty to it.

However, perhaps one of the main reasons homeschooling has been challenging, is because I have made it so.  I made it more difficult than it needed to be, by my own fears, doubts and insecurities. I made it more difficult by paying too much attention to what everyone else was doing, by being swayed by other people’s pedagogical ideals, opinions on what is “the best way” to homeschool, and thoughts on which curriculum to use, or not use. I made it more difficult by sub-consciously worrying about making sure my child kept up to public school outcomes.

I made it more difficult by reading studies, articles, and blog posts about education, ad nauseum. I made it more difficult by worrying, incessantly.  When I was following a relaxed approach, I worried we weren’t being rigorous enough. I worried that we weren’t doing music and art appreciation, Latin or French.  When I was following a more traditional approach, I worried we were losing the “joy of learning”, falling into a “school at home trap” and that I was stifling my children’s creativity. I worried that we were doing too much.  Either way, I worried that I wasn’t allowing my children to reach their full potential.

I second-guessed my decisions, constantly. We changed curriculum and direction in our homeschool so fast, so many times, that it left my children’s heads spinning. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of math programs we have tried.  I wouldn’t even want to guess at how much money we wasted.  One moderator of a Facebook curriculum swap group actually assumed that I had a buy/sell business going (which wasn’t allowed). Nope, I assured them, I’m just another over-anxious, insecure, self-doubting homeschooling Mom. You would think that his assumption would have been my wake up call, but no.

For many years, I let fear drive our homeschool. Which is technically to say that I let Satan drive our homeschool. Ultimately, the biggest reason why our homeschool ended up being more difficult than it needed to be, is because I forgot Who was in control.

I have been struggling in my personal faith for several years now, slowly feeling my well dry up, until this last year especially, I have felt completely empty. Somewhere along the way, I lost my connection to God. I continued to go through the proper motions, but I stopped living my life like God was in control. Instead, I was living as though I was in control. And what I have learned is, that is an incredibly overwhelming, scary feeling. One that leaves a person struggling with anxiety, fear, doubt, insecurity and worry. And I can tell you, it is not a good place to be in when you are homeschooling.

What I am happy to say is that my greatest gift this Christmas, was finding a new church home and a return to my faith. For the first time in a long time, I find myself filled with the joy of Christ again, with hope and what’s more… faith. Faith in His goodness, in His ability to guide not only my life, but those of my family. I find myself able to trust once more that God is in control. Of everything. And with that, comes a feeling of security and confidence.  It is okay.

It is okay that my son actually likes his traditional Language Arts workbook, instead of the Charlotte Mason approach to Language Arts. It’s okay that we’re using Teaching Textbooks even though some say it’s not rigorous enough. It’s okay that he is not learning Latin.  It’s okay that we are following his passions in science instead of doing traditional programs.

It’s okay that my daughter has a completely different learning style. It’s okay that she learned to read via sight words instead of phonics. It’s okay that she is unschooled, but that we’re formally focusing on social skills. It’s okay that she is learning French and my son is not. It’s okay that I don’t force her to do art and music appreciation, knowing that she hates it.

It’s okay that the bulk of our learning is just reading books and discussing them. It’s okay that I hatecbusywork activities that I know will only end up in the garbage. It’s okay that I am handing my son a daily planner with a to-do list of segregated subjects that he can check off as he completes them. It’s okay that we’re not taking a more integrated, holistic approach. It’s okay to admit that even though I absolutely love the philosophy behind unschooling, that it is just not for my son. Likewise, it is okay to admit the the rigor of a Charlotte Mason or Classical education or traditional education, also is not for my daughter. It is okay to not be a purist. It is okay that my children do different things.

Most of all, while I suppose I could be tempted to get caught up in regret for the mistakes I’ve made these last years, instead, I say – it is okay. It is okay I messed up. It is okay that they saw me struggle with doubt and insecurity.  It is okay, because I have learned from my mistakes.  It is okay, because I trust that God had a reason for letting me go through this experience, and that He will use it for the greater good of our homeschool. I need not fear that we are behind in our journey,  because I know that God will guide us to where we need to be, when we need to be there.

So many times in the online homeschooling world, I have seen people talk about naming their homeschool, or adopting a motto. It honestly is not something I ever did. However, I feel like a new person these days, and I feel like we are turning over a fresh leaf in our homeschool, thus, I have decided to follow suit of the others in naming our homeschool. I chose Corinthians Academy, based off one of my favorite verses:

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7

I feel like we can change the word walk, for homeschool: For we homeschool by faith, not by sight.  We may not always know what this journey is going to look like, or what it is going to entail. Despite my renewed faith and joy, I am not naive – I know there will continue to be unforeseen challenges, discouraging days, and obstacles to overcome. But, we only need to keep the faith that God is in control, and that He works all things together for our good. If we love Him, and offer up our efforts for His glory, then we need never fear the outcome.