How We Homeschool

I'm really not even sure I should be writing a post about this, because it changes a lot. So I guess I'll just write a few main theories or principles I believe in that we use to try and guide our day to day learning.

1. I think that young children learn best through work and play
2. I think they have such a natural love of learning and curiosity about everything! My job is to try not to ruin that. For the most part, I am a believer in the quote, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -W. B. Yeats
3. I believe in real-life learning as the most effective method, rather than strictly textbooks and workbooks
4. I think it's easiest to teach what they are interested in and passionate about. They are more excited about it, and retain more of the information. We try to do somewhat of a student-led approach, as much as possible.
5. Every day there are many "learning opportunities" that come up, and we should try to take advantage of them. I'm not just talking about shoving facts in their little brains, but learning proper conduct and manners, right from wrong, empathy for others, etc.

When I first started homeschooling, I had no idea what I was doing (heck, I still don't). But I didn't trust myself yet so I just bought a total and completely done curriculum with the schedule for every subject, every day that we could live by. (It was Sonlight, for those interested. It's a literature-based, Christian curriculum, and I think they do a good job.) And we did live by that schedule, for many months. It wasn't until about halfway through the year I started to think about things for myself. I didn't want to just take the public school system and bring it into my own home. We could do better than that. I had the advantage of more time with each student, and the ability to cater it as I saw fit. I started reading a lot of different books on different methods and deciding what I liked the best for our own family, and my children individually.

The first thing we do in the morning is "family school". This is when everyone is in the room together. We work on memorizing either a poem or a scripture. We say the pledge of allegiance. We sometimes work on a primary song, and we discuss some gospel-related topic. Some weeks we talk about a specific virtue or character trait, with supporting scriptures/stories/videos. We might read from the Friend magazine. Or focus on the stories and meaning behind upcoming holidays. Sometimes I will just think of a person in history I admire that is a good example of something and we'll learn about them through books and movies (youtube is a great resource). It isn't by schedule, it's just whatever I feel like teaching them about, or if there's something specific we need to work on in our home.

There are certain things I require to be done every day, for Tyler. I'm a little more relaxed with Bryn since she's still in preschool. But Tyler is required to read 25-30 minutes a day, do copy work (he copies down a verse in the scriptures, or a short poem) or journaling to work on handwriting, and also math. Unfortunately with math I think especially with the basics you just have to do it over and over again. (I use the Math Mammoth curriculum)We do play games that involve math (with cards, etc.) because it's funner that way, and mostly for Bryn. But Tyler doesn't mind it, in fact I think he is a "workbook kid" and enjoys accomplishing each page, and turning back to see how much he has already done. They don't bother him a bit. So I guess the "three R's" are what I require each day. Oh and piano, Tyler has to practice the piano every day.

Brynlee does have some workbooks that we like. I use the Code series, and some Kumon workbooks. It just gives her extra practice in learning to write her letters and numbers. Though a lot of days we just have a small dry-erase board or paper and do notes to grandma, etc.

I also bought an art curriculum. Not because Tyler doesn't already spend hours (literally) a day on artwork, but because I thought it would be good to receive actual instruction so he can continue to improve. It's a DVD-based instruction, and he really loves it and Bryn does it with him too. (It's called Atelier, for those interested.)

For everything else we just kind of wing it. We learn about whatever the kids are interested in. Tyler loves science a lot, so while I don't have a curriculum, we do it a lot and kind of go off of his current interests. Usually bugs and animals :). Recently Tyler has wanted to learn to type. So we've started working on typing with his fingers on the right keys.

We read and read and read A LOT. Every single one of our kids is really, really into books and I love that. We keep a lot of the best ones in the front room, but of course there's another bookshelf full upstairs and they are constantly all over the house. But I never mind because it means that they are in them a lot, and that makes me so happy. We go to the library every week. They can each pick out their own books, and Tyler heads straight to the juvenile non-fiction section to get his animal fact books :). They like to listen to book-on-CD at night to fall asleep. And we like to read novels as a family. The latest one we tried reading was Little Britches by Ralph Moody. But I think it was a little premature, so we didn't finish it. Well I finished it and loved it. It's a great classic, but Ty and Kenny were the only ones who enjoyed it, the little girls just ran around like crazy being noisy. So we switched to Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl and they loved that. Anyway, the point is we read a lot, and I think that's really important.

So that's kind of what we do, in a nutshell. I know this sounds very loosy-goosy and like it's "not enough" to people who are only used to the public school way of thinking. And it took me a while to come to this too. My sister Steph and I often talk about how there's a right time for everyone to learn different things. You have to be at a certain place in your life where you're ready and open to a new way of thinking. For example, I used to think people that did home births and water births were so crazy, they were foolish for putting themselves at risk, and I just couldn't see past anything but the hospital. But now I've had 4 kids, 2 of them naturally. With each birth I think I read more and am a little more open to other ideas. Then with my last one, Kelsey, I had her at a birthing center in a tub. And I think a home birth sounds like a really nice option! Total 180 from my thinking a few years before that. We all learn and grow line upon line and as we're ready for more, or new ways of thinking. My journey with homeschooling as evolved the same way. So if you're not into this and think I'm a total nut-job and ruining my children, don't worry, I'm not offended. But if you have any respectful questions, I would be happy to answer them :).