I Love Homeschooling Because...........

 

This picture is a perfect example of one of the big reasons I love homeschooling! 

Last night was Connection Sunday, our church's monthly small group get together.  This year, our family is hosting a (not so small) group, which meant 36 people at our house for an evening of fellowship, praying for each other, talking through what we've been learning from God's Word, dinner together, and lots more visiting.  By the time the last friends have left, the house is tidied up, and the kids finally get their showers, Connection Sunday inevitably means a later-than-normal bedtime for kids who have had a busier-than-normal Sunday, which leads to a sleepier-than-normal Monday morning.

As it was, because we homeschool, I was able to let them have an extra hour of sleep and then have an hour of quiet play upstairs while they came around.  Instead of tired, not-really-ready-to-learn kids who were forced out of the house early, I now have well-rested children who are refreshed, thrilled to have built their best train track ever, and ready to tackle some slightly more "formal" learning. 

Homeschooling gives me the freedom to embrace what is really important, opening up our home for hospitality and fellowship without worrying about the time on the clock, knowing that I can adjust the schedule to ensure that the kids will still get the rest they need to be at their best for learning. 

Having 2 very able students who need to be pushed and challenged and 1 struggling learner who requires almost constant interaction and supervision means there never seem to be enough hours to get in all of the "learning" written into my lesson plans.  I don't always do a good job at  relaxing and choosing relationship over schedules, but when I do, it is such a blessing! 

As we finish up this school year and I begin drawing up plans for the 2013-2014 school year, one of the challenges I have set for myself is to more fully take advantage of the freedoms that a "homeschooling lifestyle" offers, like the blessing of not having to choose between hospitality/ relationships and well-rested/well-educated children.

Disclaimer:  The fact that I (usually) love homeschooling and occasionally blog about why I love it and how it blesses our family in no way means that I believe that everyone has to homeschool their children or that you are not acting in your child's/family's best interests if you choose not to, so please don't send me nasty e-mails or post snarky facebook comments about us "judgmental" homeschoolers :-) 

Soda Crackers

I've mentioned before that as part of their writing curriculum, the boys keep a journal that we write back and forth to each other in.  This week, Nathan's journal assignment was to write about a time when he was sick.  This was his entry:

Dear Mommy,

Remember when I was sick at Grandma and Grandpa's house?  You said I started throwing up when I was aslee.  I wished I hadn't eaten so much.  You and Dad took care of me until 2:00 in the morning.  I did not feel good.  I was sick for about a day and a half.  I did like the fizzy drink.  And the soda crackers were okay, but they are not my favorite things to eat.
                  
                                                                                                                                                         Love,
                                                                                                                                                          Nate

P.S.  I would NEVER live on soda crackers.

Such typical Nathan!  He never fails to leave me smiling.

Answered Prayer

Noah has never enjoyed writing.  Creative writing, essays, letters, you name it.  He hated it all.  From kindergarten on, it has been a daily struggle and a source of much frustration and many tears from both of us.  He is such a good student in every other aspect, but writing assignments have never failed to produce wailing and gnashing of teeth.  I knew he could do it, but have really struggled with how to help him become the excellent writer I was sure he could become.  

One of the (many) reasons we chose to home-educate our children was the freedom that it would give us to individualise each child's education, using their natural learning style as a guide, challenging them where they excelled, and providing extra support if they struggled. 

English and writing are definitely where Noah struggled.  In every other subject, Noah did great regardless of curriculum-choice or teaching style.  But over the past 5 years, I have gone through 7 different curriculums/writing programs, hours of brain-storming, and lots of prayer as I tried to find a solution to the nightmare that writing had become.

At the beginning of 2012, we made a complete change of curriculum for Noah and ordered Bob Jones Univeristy's Distance Learning program.  It was a huge change of pace for both of us and felt a bit risky as 50% of their Language Arts curriculum is dedicated to the writing process.

As part of his spelling curriculum, Noah writes a journal to me each Thursday.  The topic is assigned, a few questions to get him thinking are provided, and the rest is left up to him.  When we made the switch, he really disliked journal days and his entries were perfunctory at best.  This year, he has begun to enjoy writing in his journal and really looks forward to receiving my replies.  I enjoy the chance to read about what he thinks and feels about all sorts of topics.  And this week's journal made my heart so happy!  It read:

Dear Mommy Dearest,

My favorite subject is English.  I enjoy it, because we have writing chapters.  I like to learn new things.  I have learned how to plan a persuasive essay.  I think my least favorite subject is art.  I am not good at art.
                     

                                                                                                                                          Cordially,

 

Your big boy Noah

 

What?  English is his favorite subject?  And he enjoys it because of the "writing chapters"?   This is progress I never expected.  I was just praying that God would help him to learn to write without hating it!  Thank you God for answering above and beyond what I asked.  And, thank you BJU press for providing the perfect curriculum for my boy.

 

P.S.  Yes, he calls me "Mommy Dearest" most of the time.  No, I don't bribe him to do so :)

 

Satisfying

Noah has been reading for over a year now. The novelty still hasn't worn off for me. I LOVE to listen to him reading. There is just so much satisfaction in it. This summer, he couldn't wait to get enrolled for the Tulsa County Library's summer reading program, and he finished reading the required 20 books in under 3 weeks. Now, he is busy reading to Nathan so that Nathan can finish the program, too. That sure makes it nice for Mommy! And, it's so good for Nathan. Books that he might not normally choose to sit and listen to are fine if Noah reads them to him. Last week, Noah picked out "George Washington: Soldier, Hero, President" and set out to read the biography to Nathan.

On Thursday evening I could hear Noah reading and crept in to find this:
So sweet. It brought a big lump to my throat to see the little buddies curled up reading together and then a big smile as I heard words like Massachusetts, ailing, continental, smallpox, and Hessians rolling off his lips without hesitation.

It may be summer-time, but I really think that lots of Noah's days could still count as school right now. He's interested in so much, and every time he asks me a question, I counter with, "That's a great question. Why don't we see what we can find out about it". Then, we pick our library books around those themes. It's always lots of fun to have him come running in to the room I'm in, and tell me about what he has learned. Usually it's followed with, "Isn't that just so cool!"

This week, Noah wanted to know where lightning comes from. So, today at the library we selected 3 books about weather and storms. Then, in anticipation of next weeks' flight to England, he selected 1 book about Great Britain, 2 books about castles, 1 book about knights, and 2 books about the ocean.

Although you couldn't have convinced me that I would half-way through my first year of home-schooling, I love it. There is just nothing quite like watching your children learn, and seeing them take the initiative to learn is so rewarding!

The Reading Explosion

So, last Tuesday, Nathan read his first words. And, it's just kind of exploded from there. On Sunday he was playing upstairs with his Daddy, when out of the blue he pointed to one of the posters on the playroom wall and said: O-C-T-O-B-E-R, That word says October, Daddy!
Daddy's jaw about hit the floor!

Yesterday, he decided that he wants to write letters. So, he sat down to write a letter to his Grumpy. When he got to some bits he didn't know how to spell, he asked Noah to help him.

He's also decided that he wants to learn about even and odd numbers. I'm kind of letting him set his own agenda for learning right now. We are continuing with phonics and following the Kindergarten math workbooks, but if he expresses an interest in something else, we're going for it.

Looks like Nathan will be reading before he starts Kindergarten! As Gareth likes to put it, "I bet that blesses your Mommy Teacher's heart!" And yes, it does.

Penmanship

Okay, the picture quality is terrible! But, hopefully you will still be able to see how Noah's handwriting is improving. These were his vocabulary words for Science yesterday. Last year he HATED having to write neatly, and we were both frustrated.

This year, something has clicked! The days of trying to teach him that doing his work "with all his might" and offering his best the first time seem to be sinking in. Combine that with improving fine motor skills, and his handwriting is so much better! He is taking the initiative to check for neatness himself before handing his work to me. So proud of my boy!

From theClassroom

Hurrah for the first week of school! Noah and I have had a good time together. I am encouraged to see that he doesn't seem to have forgotten any of what we learned last year, and although it was a little tough on him to sit and concentrate for the full time on Tuesday, he was back into the swing of things by Wednesday.

I thought you might like to see what we are studying each week, so here's what we are doing this week:

Bible-focusing on creation, specifically this week on day and night. We have used this as a springboard to look at how the sun and moon affect tides and seasons an have looked at what would happen without the sun.

Math-We are reviewing number formation, sets, number lines, and have reviewed counting by 1's to 100.

History & Geography- We will be studying family units and community this year. We started this week, by looking at our place in history as a special creation of God and each individuals uniqueness and special gifts. We are also using this as a springboard to talk about man's relationship to God. We are making a book all about Noah, and tomorrow we will be using our lesson to move us into art, making a life-sized picture of Noah for him to decorate with his physical features.

Language Arts (Reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and hand-writing)-We are reviewing alphabet formation, consonant sounds, short vowel sounds, rhyming words, alphabetizing and punctuation. We have a reader that we work from and are supplementing our reading diet with books that expand on what we are studying in science. We are also working on oral story-telling. This is Noah's most difficult subject, as he does not enjoy practicing hand-writing for very long. We tend to break up our language arts lesson into small chunks spaced in-between our other lessons.

Science-For the first part of the school year, we are studying our 5 senses. This week we have been studying the sense of sight. In particular, our ability to detect color, which we could not sense without our eyes. We have experimented with blending primary colors, looked at how we use color to tell us about the world around us, and today we were looking at how God has given animals the ability to use color to camouflage themselves as they hunt for their prey or hide from their predators. Noah has really enjoyed science today. I found several great books about animal camouflage. It was so much fun to see Noah so excited about what he was learning that he didn't put them to walk to the van when it was time to go pick up Nathan and Rosie! I think the sight of him with his nose stuck in a book while trying to stay on the sidewalk is my favorite image of the week. He read to me all the way home.

We are also studying American Sign Language(ASL)and the founding of America this year. These are our "for fun" subjects. They are DVD-based and there is no handwriting involved! We have ASL one week and American history the next.

Noah saw someone using sign language last year, and he wanted to learn it, too. Last year we learned the ASL alphabet, and he wanted to continue learning this year. I found the "Signing Time" DVDs last year, and we LOVE them. They are such a great educational tool. Written by a mother who wanted to teach ASL to her daughter so that she could communicate with her deaf cousin, these are fun and colorful and there are LOADS of them. Noah loves them, and Nathan and Rosie do, too. I am playing these in the evenings while Daddy and I clean up the kitchen after supper so that we can all learn together. This week we are studying words related to meal-time.

For American history, we are using the "Liberty's Kids" DVDs. PBS outdid themselves when they made these DVDs. Liberty's Kids is an animated series that visits all of the major events that led up to the making of our Constitution and into war with England. They are fast-paced and exciting, but (at least the 10 episodes we have seen so far) remain true to history. And, as a family who has both American and British parts, I love the fact that one of the main characters is a young Englishwoman who illustrates the difficulties for both sides without watering down the abuse of power that led to our founding father's seeking liberty and independence. Hearing Noah describing the "intolerable acts" cracks me up. And watching the 3 munchkins dressing up and acting out their favorite scenes is priceless. What a fantastic way this is to instill a love of history in our kids! Whether your children are homeschooled, private schooled or public schooled, I can't recommend these DVDs enough. A major bonus for us is that we our using the sign language DVDs from our local library, which is free and renting the history DVD's from netflix, so this is also a very inexpensive option. I would love to own these DVD sets, but being able to borrow or rent them is still a great second option.

I am enjoying myself so far (early days, I know), and I nearly burst with joy this morning when Noah told me that even if he could go to school somewhere else, that he would rather learn with me!