HOW DO YOU HOMESCHOOL?


This article is about how our family homeschools.  Each family is different, and there are a million or more ways and combinations to accomplish this.  But this is our story.  I hope you will find it helpful. 

THE PLAN

We are in our 5th year of homeschooling.  Before homeschooling our own children, we had foster children in the public school system, both elementary and highschool.  Also both my husband and myself attended public school.  For various reasons, we knew that was not the direction we wanted for our family’s education.   If the foster care system had allowed us to homeschool back then, we sure would have.

The plan this year is to continue using an Eclectic approach to our homeschool learning for 2010-2011.  We are schooling grades 4th, 2nd, K, pre-K, and a Tot this year.

There are so many great things about so many “methods” (and some not so great things too), that I just have not completely “sold out” to a specific method.   

More than anything, I want to raise children who are healthy, stable, confident,  sensible-common sense, faith that moves mountains, servants of God.  Curriculum is secondary to this.

I want a happy home filled with love, respect, charity, and a bond that cannot be broken.  We were created to bring glory to God.  If my homeschooling approach does not encourage the development of this in my children’s lives, I will have failed.

I plan to continue to use several great “pieces & parts” 
from these homeschooling methods using the resources I have listed below.

Eclectic
Charlotte Mason
Traditional
Unit Study
Montessori
Unschooling


Our Day

We generally school with bible, games, story books, unit studies, and some workbooks, from 8:00 am to 12pm.  We do some afternoons if we have science experiments, crafts, or cooking in our unit studies.  Most of our field trips are every Saturday, and this way we get to include Dad and be together as a family for these outings.  Though we will do field trips during the week as they arise, and if they fit into our budget.  We are flexible, and this schedule is “subject to change” with or without notice. 

We homeschool in the dining room at the kitchen table, at the kitchen counters, on a a computer in the dining room, in the living room, in a bedroom that holds most of our materials and another computer, we watch educational programs in the living room, and we also school on the front porch, in the back yard, at the picnic tables in the park, on nature trails, and where ever else it suits us.  In North Carolina, we are expected to keep records of attendance and do annual nationally standardized testing and keep these on file for one year.  Our children have done very well on these tests, despite any “methods” we may or may not use.

Our day for grades K, 2, and 4th typically looks similar to this:
8:00 Bible (read, journal, pray, sing)
8:30 Calender
8:45 Math
9:15 Activity or Game 
9:45 Music
10:15 Break and Snack
10:45 Language Arts or Unit Study
11:30 History-Geography or Unit Study
12:00 Break for lunch
12:30 Clean up
1:00 Optional Activity: cooking, science experiment, crafts,
2:00 Free time, read books, play games, play outside, legos, computer, etc.

Our day for grades pre-K, and tot school typically looks similar to this:
8:00 Bible
8:30 Calendar
8:45 Letter Of The Week, Tot School Learning Activities, Manipulatives
9:45 Music
10:15 Break and Snack
10:45 Sensory Activity & more Manipulatives
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Crafts, Play, Stories, etc.
Naps and quiet time in the afternoon.
Color or craft during bible lesson and unit study to help them sit quietly and listen with the older children.


Resources

We have a huge home library and resource room.  One bedroom is lined with bookshelves and filled with lots of resources. 

There are literally thousands of options out there when it comes to curriculum.  Some of them are great.  None of them are perfect!  But all of them can be modified to fit your family’s needs.  Just be flexible, and think outside the box. 

Some families never open a workbook, and their children are learning and bright. Some families only use workbooks and their children are learning and bright.  Some families use a variety of workbooks and other resources and their children are learning and bright too.  Just remember you can modify what ever you have access to, and make it work for your family. 

Here are pictures of my storage room shelving units.  The unit studies I have made are on the top shelves in binders.  Unit studies I buy are further down on the shelves.  If we are using a big unit study with science kits and crafts, I dedicate a whole shelf for it.  Here you can see the airplane unit we are doing.  It is huge with lots of resources, books, art kits, science kits, model airplanes, etc.  Further down on the shelves I have my manuals and books I pull stuff from.
        

I have several teachers manuals (Math, Language Arts, Bible, History, Geography, Science) for grades prek-6th grade.  I also have unit studies, history books, language books, science books, music, spanish, sign language, art, and more that I pull stuff from.   I may have three to ten book on a given subject so I organized these shelves with sections of related items: Music, Foreign Language, Math, Science, History, Geography, Art Manuals, Bible
Study, Language Arts, etc.   

Several shelves are filled with art supplies, science kits, games, manipulatives, puzzles, unit studies, workbooks, and more.  Here are some pictures.

Math manipulatives (several kinds), legos, erector sets, living math books, k’nect sets, lincon logs, duplo legos, dominos, magnets sets, marble runs, etc. 
 


Science kits:  Earth Science, Life Science, Chemistry Lab, Solar System, and more.  I definitely believe in exploring through science.  I found many of these at used curriculum sales and eBay and most were still new.  But you can get just about all of them new on Amazon.  You can read about some of these great finds and the sales in this article I wrote here and more here and more here .
 

The CLOSET with art supplies, recycled materials for crafts, more science kits, felt stories, mom’s filefolder system for unit study ideas and learning plans, and extra folding table to pull out when we need too.
     


Technology: computers, robots, design programs, video technology, cameras, video game system, Leapster hand held games, and smart phones with applications.  They are way better at all of it than me.
  


Thoughts On Resources

THE BUDGET:

First of all, you can homeschool “almost” for free.  There are several websites that give you resources to do this.  We have used some of these ideas.  There are so many things you can do for free, nature walks, some museums, online learning, and so on.   We incorporate this as much as we can, but this wasn’t the way chose to homeschool for our family. 

Second, you can spend a TON of money buying curriculum, supplies, going on outings, memberships to clubs, co-op classes, music lessons, sports lessons, and so on.  We do some of these things, but can’t do a lot of it, living on one income and caring for seven people in our household. 

Here are some examples of costs we factor in:

Music lessons can easily run $30 to $40 each.  I have yet to figure out how to afford them.  Here is another example, one homeschool coop wants $80 per kid per class plus registration fees.  Ouch!   Another less expensive coop charges a membership fee and $10 per kid per class.  These classes are one morning a week.  ($20 membership + (10×5=50x3x2)classes = $320 plus class materials).  Several tickets for local outings run $5 to $20 per kid. So you could instantly drop $100 for tickets plus food and gas. 

So we even though we really want too, we just can’t do all the stuff that is offered.  We have to be very careful and choosy as there just insn’t enough money for all these things.

Third, homeschooling can fit any budget.   Even if you can’t afford outside classes, and a lot of outings, you can still make it work.  You just have to tweak your budget to make homeschooling and locating resources work for you.  How much you spend is up to you.  There have been years where I spent $200 and years where I spent over $1,000.  When you factor in gas for field trips, tickets, memberships, classes, and all the craft supplies in addition to curriculum, it can add up fast.  The resources I have, have taken a long time to put together and I will be tweaking it until all my kids have graduated.  It is a process.

CURRICULUM    

I buy curriculum on sale and used when able, sometimes new too.  I use several pieces from different brands ( Abeka, Apolgia, Sonlight, My Fathers World, Rod and Staff, Horizons,and so on).  A cuuriculum choice fom the traditional method, I have included for the past five years, to help guide me, is the Life Pac curriculum. 

The Life Pac curriculum comes complete with a years worth of materials (workbooks and readers) for the student for each subject, and really nice teachers manuals too.  Their prices per subject is very reasonable (new $49 to $70) or (they sell five subjects, a whole grade level, for $230) and you can find them in used curriculum sales too.  Compared to many other curriculums like Abeka which run several hundred dollars per subject, these are much more affordable for our family.

Teaching Textbooks Math for our 4th grader was another good purchase this year.  It runs about $130, but it is both a workbook and an interactive learning program on CDROM.  This has been a good change to help him stay motivated with math.

When it comes to workbooks, I was given some very good advice a few years ago, “Use them as a resource.  You don’t have to use all of the material.”  The key words were  “Do half the problems on a page” and “skip some pages”.  These were the wisest words I have received in all my years of homeschooling from a wise friend.  At the time these words were spoken, I was in tears trying to push the curriculum and had a new baby and felt like I was failing.  She shared with me the answer to letting go of perfection, and the frustration of trying to get it all done.  Now I feel free to pick and choose what material in the books I want them to lea
rn.  They don’t have to do it all, and neither do I.
 
Online curriculum, either interactive or downloadable is a wonderful resource too.  I use a lot of preschool curriculum from online websites.  I also obtain a lot of free worksheets and craft templates for all the grade levels too.  There are hundreds of free lapbooks and unit studies online.  These have been an invaluable resource for our learning.  Some of these free sources come through Currclick, Lapbook Lessons, Homeschool Share, DTLK, First School, and many others.

I watch for sales and I buy online downloadable curriculum too, especially unit studies from Currclick, Hands Of A Child, Amanda Bennett, Download N Go, Learnin Folders, Homeschool In The Woods, Homeschool Legacy, A Journey Through Learning, The Old School House, and more.  I have found sales for these from $.25 to $5 on products that have retail values upto $40.  One thing that helps is to get on their mailing list so you know when the sales are happening.  But some offer regular sales every week, such as Amanda Bennett and Hands Of A Child offer several units for $5.

We make good use of the internet for videos, online classes, downloadable curriculum especially unit studies, and various worksheets, virtual field trips, and interactive games.  We utilize the TV for educational movies, documentaries, entertainment, and learning programs.

Currclick has several online co-op classes taught in the fall and the spring.  We have enjoyed the classes and highly recommend them.  Some of the live classes we have been involved in were: Science Jim, Lego Club, and Cooking.

For music, we have a stereo at the kids level, that holds three cd’s at a time.  There is a large space in front of the stero where the kids can dance or move to the beat.  We also have keyboards, guitars, drums, a violin, a recorder, a zylophone, and various shakers and noise makers in addition to some music books, to help us learn about rythum and music appreciation.  I hope in the future to be able to provide some formal music lessons for our children.

We also are using workboxes, though at this time I have not implemented the workbox system as I would like.  We started using the “box” three years ago, and it came out of necessity of living in a small house and needing to keep their materials contained yet portable. 

I only recently learned there is a method called “workbox”.   Using this system for 5 children x 10 boxes each will require a lot more expense and space than I have at this time.   

Currently, each of my children have one workbox containing their workbooks.  Each child also has their own shelf on our school shelves that holds the remaining items they work on that do not fit into their workbox.  The workbox is portable so we can bring it to the table and then put it back on the shelf when we are through. 

However, as I have learned more about the “official workbox system “, and some “modified” versions of it, I want to incorporate more of its ideas and usefulness for our family in the future when finances allow for these changes. 

I have read some great articles on the “modified workbox” versions for large families and I can’t wait to implement these ideas.  It seems to me that a modified version of the workbox system would greatly improve planning, and promote more independence when that is needed for certain subjects.   If you would like to learn more about a modified version of the workbox system that works well with having more than a few children you can read here , here , here , and here  to find out more.


COMMUNITY

There are lots of community resources to help with learning opportunities for your children.

Homeschool Associations are a great place to start.  Also the library offers some classes as well as thousands of books, movies, and more.  Our local homeschool association has a resource room/library too.

Coop Classes: our local homeschool association in Hendersonville ( HCHA ), has enrichment classes on Fridays which we plan to do as it fits into our schedule and budget.  The homeschool association in Upstate Greenville County has lots of field trips and get togethers on Thursdays which we also plan to do as it fits into our schedule.

We include trips to museums, historical programs and living history events,  Farms, ocean, aquariums, Zoos, education centers and more.  We have a family membership to Hands On, a local childrens museum.  (note to self: I need to remember to get it renewed as the kids love going there.) This museum has lots of hands on activities and learning centers.  They also offer art &craft classes each month for an extra fee.  We love the Greenvile SC zoo and the Columbia Reedy River zoo.  We have been to the aquarium in Newport Kentucky three times, and in Knoxville TN three times.  Yes we love aquariums! 

We try to find outings that are very affordable and within a short drive of where we live.  We just plan something every Saturday and just go.  One resource we have found out about a lot of fun things to do is Grandparents.com and the visit (your state).com websites.

We have had the three older boys in tennis lessons in the past, through one of the local sports centers, and it would be nice to have a family membership and benefit from their wonderful resources year around.  The biggest two things we would like from a sports complex are tennis and swimming lessons.  (note to self: Mom could benefit from using some exercise machines too!!!)

For outdoor physical activity and play, we make good use of the yard, and local parks.  Each of our kids has a bike and they ride on our driveway and the culdesack in front of our home.  In the backyard there is room to fly a frisbee, play ball, and in the sandbox or water toys.  We have some garden boxes the children help plant too.  We have some dogs and the children walk them daily and play with them in the yard.   We don’t have a swing set yet, so we go to the park for this activity.

Parks within a short drive we frequently visit include East Flat Rock, Jackson Park, Fletcher Park (has a trout stream and wonderful walking path), Tryon Park (has a trout stream, and wonderful walking path) park at the lake at Black Mountain, and the park at Lake Lure in North Carolina; and Central Park (like a wooden castle) in Greer, SC, Reedy River Park (has a waterfall and a suspended bridge) in Greenville, SC and the park by a beautiful lake at Boiling Springs, SC.  These are wonderful parks for kids.  We also take a lot of nature walks, and our field trips tend to involve a lot of walking on Saturdays. 

We do lots of field trips.  We go on field trips almost every Saturday with Dad as a family.  Sometimes we also attend field trips during the week, and some with the local homeschool groups. 

We also take the children to a science class called Science Beyond The Classroom, taught by Ellen Kahue in Greenville, SC  as often as we can afford to take it.  She teaches a w
onderful class once a month.  She is a terrific science teacher.  But with a large family like ours, it can be expensive.  It costs $22 for the first child, $18 for the second, and $12 for the third child from the same family to take the class, so we have to pick and choose which of her great classes we can afford to take the older three boys to.  You can read about a class we took with her here .  You can see her website here .  She offers wonderful Saturday classes each month.

For the past year, we have visited a nursing home in Fletcher NC once a week.  We usually go for an hour either on Saturday or Sunday (depending on how far away our field trip was).  Our weekends very busy between field trips, nursing home visits, church, and grocery shopping.  Our busiest time of the week is Saturday and Sunday.   The only days we missed this past year were due to illness.  This has been a great confidence builder in our children to visit and care about older adults.  They had the best time during the Christmas party this year singing songs and sharing hugs with the elders.

For our faith based learning, the bible is our source.  We live it daily, talk about it when we rise, when we walk by the way, when we eat, when we lay down.  We read the bible with our children.  Our faith is life to us. 

We attend Redemption World Outreach Center  in Greenville, SC.  RWOC has Sunday morning and Wednesday evening services, with lots of encouragement in our walk with the Lord.  They have recently opened a satellite church in Fletcher, NC and hold services at the Lila Patterson Center too. 

If you are near Greenville, I encourage you to stop in and visit RWOC.  If you can’t make it there, but would like to watch the services live (Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights) or if you would like to see past services or past services and praise and worship, you can access those choices from your computer at this link .

Our children love attending the Power Source bible classes at RWOC.  They have made many friends of different and same cultural backgrounds.  They learn how to retell bible stories in a group and have often received awards for good behavior and scripture memory and being a “doer of the word”.  They assist with helping receive the tithes and offerings, worship and praise, prayers, scriptures, answers, and more.  Recently one of our sons helped with the puppet ministry too.  This class has been wonderful in building our sons confidence in helping others too.  The class is taught by Pastors James & Joy, and Pastors Mark & Faye.  Mark and Faye are also homeschooling parents of five children. 

RWOC has a wonderful homeschool ministry too.  If you live near Greenville, I strongly encourage you to get involved.  It will certainly bless you.  If you would like to read more about these and the many other ministries at RWOC, here is a link .


Here is the ECLECTIC approach to curriculum we are using this school year. 

We don’t follow all the materials in the mentioned workbooks listed below.  We may only do half the materials, or less, in a given subject.  Instead, we pull from these what seems appropriate for the direction we are learning on a given day. This is the best approach for our family.  For a longtime, I used to feel guilty if my children didn’t finish a workbook or whole course.  At some point I realized I was looking at it from a public school point of view, rather than a living school or homeschool point of view.  Wow.  There is freedom in realizing that.

Now we live life.  We include in our schooling what promotes our living.  We don’t serve the education, the education serves us.  No more guilt. 

Learning is and should be fun!  If we are miserable, then why do it?  What are we wanting to achieve by homeschooling our children?  My goal is not to recreate the public school in my home.  My goal is to teach my children skills they will need to function in a healthy way as adults, while bringing God glory through their lives. 

The first and most important thing is to “Love God.”  The next is to “Love Others as they Love Themselves.”  Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is summed up in these.  The education I give my children must keep these as the main goal.


What’s In The Box & What’s On The Shelf?

As we go along this journey, I plan to post several “what’s in the box or on the shelf this week” articles.  So stay tuned….
    
On the right in this picture, is our workbox and shelf for each child.  Tot is on the bottom, pre-k is next up, then K, 2nd, and 4th.  Above 4th is baskets of pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, and flash cards.  Above that is phonics manipulatives, word tiles, more flash cards, and word puzzles.  To the left, the green shelves contain games and puzzles. 
            

4th Grade

Various Unit Studies.  Unit studies incorporate all the different disciplines including Language Arts, Math, Science, History, Geography, Life Skills, Copywork, Art, Poetry, Bible, Lapbooks, Notebooks, and more.

Various Sensory Activities.

Nature Studies-Outdoor Hour Challenge, Season Challenges,

Math- Teaching Textbooks 4th, Cuisinaire Rods, Math Manipulatives Kits,

Language Arts-Abeka Readers, Life Pac Language Arts 4th, various story books and book reports.  Writing stories for local news articles.

Science-Switched On School 4th, Lots of Science Kits covering various themes.  I found a lot of these on eBay for very cheap.  Calender and Weather Time.

History & Geography-Life Pac 4th

Bible-Life Pac 4th, Devotions, Power Source classes through RWOC, Scripture Memorization and copywork,

Music-Praise and Worship through RWOC, CD’s, Learning Keyboard, Learning Guitar Chords,

Art-work through the art instructions found on Samantha Bells website, attend Samantha’s classes and other art classes when able, utilize drawing books and the internet for how to draw things he is interested in.  Visit an art museum.  Also he loves to make paper crafts, so I will continue to support his interest in this.  He also wants to learn to sew costumes, have purchased a boys sewing book Buttons To Bobbins to help him get started.  Will look into a sewing class when we can.

Technology & Computer-spend time several days a week learning how to use these.

Construction & Building-Legos, Erector Sets, K’
nect, Construction Bricks, Wood working, etc.

Physical Activity-Daily walk with dogs, chores, outdoor play, weekly park day with homeschool families, weekly field trips, etc.

Life Skills & Stewardship- learn about health, hygiene, and self care, learn recipes, help with cooking, laundry, grocery shopping, chores, helping with younger siblings, responsible for the care of family dogs, learn to use bow and arrow, learn about hunting, help dad with projects in the garage, help mow the lawn, learn to save his earnings, learn about tithing, and how to spend his earnings responsibly.


2nd Grade

Various Unit Studies. Unit studies incorporate all the different disciplines including Language Arts, Math, Science, History, Geography, Life Skills, Copywork, Art, Poetry, Bible, Lapbooks, Notebooks, and more.

Various Sensory Activities

Nature Studies- Outdoor Hour, Nature Challenge

Math-Life Pac 2nd, Cuisinaire Rods, Math Manipulatives Kits, computer math games, Leapster games,

Language Arts-Life Pac 2nd, Abeka Readers, various story books, Leap Pad reading books,

Science-Life Pac 2nd, Lots of Science Kits covering various themes, Calender and Weather Time

History & Geography-Life Pac 2nd

Bible-Life Pac 2nd, Power Source classes through RWOC, Scripture Memorization and copywork,

Music-Praise and worship through RWOC, CD’s, loves music and is self learning the guitar, drums, and piano. I am teaching him voice and harmonization skills.  Would like to get him into a childrens choir, but so far have not found an affordable one or one that fits into our family life.

Art-lots of it!

Technology & Computer-spend time several days a week learning how to use these.

Construction & Building-Legos, Erector Sets, K’nect, Construction Bricks, Wood working,

Physical Activity-Daily walk with dogs, chores, outdoor play, weekly park day with homeschool families

Life Skills & Stewardship- learn about health, hygiene, and self care, learn recipes, help with cooking, laundry, grocery shopping, chores, helping with younger siblings, responsible for the care of family dogs, learn to use bow and arrow, help dad with projects in the garage, help mow the lawn, learn to save his earnings, about tithing, and how to spend responsibly.


Kindergarten

Play is the most important method of teaching and learning at this age.  Free play, guided play, role play, and games are a big part of what we do each day.

Various Unit Studies.  Unit studies incorporate all the different disciplines including Language Arts, Math, Science, History, Geography, Life Skills, Copywork, Art, Poetry, Bible, Lapbooks, Notebooks, and more.

Various Sensory Activities & Discovery Bins

Nature Studies- Outdoor Hour, Nature Challenge

Language Arts-Life Pac K, various story books

Math-Life Pac K, Math Manipulatives Kits, computer math games, leapster math games,

Science-Lots of Science Kits covering various themes, Calendar and Weather Time,
 
Bible-Power Source classes through RWOC, Scripture Memorization and copywork,

Music-lots

Art-lots of it!

Technology & Computer-spend time several days a week learning how to use these.

Construction & Building-Legos, Erector Sets, K’nect, Construction Bricks, Wood working,

Physical Activity-Daily walk with dogs, chores, outdoor play, weekly park day with homeschool families

Life Skills & Stewardship-lots of this, see above



Preschool

Play is the most important method of teaching and learning at this age.  Free play, guided play, role play, and games are a big part of what we do each day.

Include in many of the science, history, art learning activities, bible, and music with the older children mentioned above.

Calender and Weather Time
Discovery Bins
Various Sensory Activities
Various Crafts
ABC Notebook
Unit Studies with older siblings
and ideas from these resources:
    Raising Rock Stars (1+1+1+=1)
    Letter of the Week (Confessions of a Homeschooler)
    Tot School (Spell Out Loud)
Play Academy
We Play


Tot School

Play is the most important method of teaching and learning at this age.  Free play, guided play, role play, and games are a big part of what we do each day.

Include in many of the science, history, art learning activities, bible, and music with the older children mentioned above.

Calender and Weather Time
Discovery Bins
Various Sensory Activities
Various Crafts
ABC Notebook
Unit Studies with older siblings
and ideas from these resources:
    Raising Rock Stars (1+1+1+=1)
    Letter of the Week (Confessions of a Homeschooler)
    Tot School (Spell Out Loud)
Play Academy
We Play



Mom School

Yeah, thats right, I need to keep learning too.  I have a lot to learn.  I have been to college and numerous training programs, read way to many books, etc.  But my learning still seems new and it is a continuing process.  

These are the resources for me in this season of my life.  I hope to utilize them well, be flexible, take what will benefit, and meet challenges in these, to improve and grow in my faith, in my role as a mom, my role as a wife, and friend, as I go along the way.

Church
Devotions
Bible Study
Dates with Dad
Raising Homemakers-web articles
Above Rubies-magazine articles and website
Weston A Price Foundation-website
Nourishing Traditions-magazine articles based on WAPF principles
Physical Activity with Teresa Tapp Program
Menu Planning
Homeschool Conferences
Mom’s Meetings & Get Togethers
Speak at groups on various topics of living and homeschooling
Curriculum Reviews
Product Reviews
Read Homeschool blogs and websites
Read Homemaking blogs and websites


WHEW!
That about sums up the plan!
And that in a nut shell is how we homeschool.

Don’t forget homeschool is living school, and it is a process.  The key to success in this process is to be flexible, and make it work for your family.  Look around at various homeschool blogs, visit with other homeschoolers in you
r community, read books on homeschooling and make a plan that works for you.



What is your learning plan?  Feel free to leave a comment and tell us about it.