Category Archives: Home Schooling

Our Home School: The First Two Weeks

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We’re officially two weeks into home schooling, and after an interesting conversation with a friend about home school critics and a documentary that aired on 20/20 last year about home schooling I decided to share our daily schedule with you.  The documentary painted a very disparaging picture of home schooling families, a picture that is contrary to what I know to be true of my sisters and now of myself.  I know that home schools vary from family to family, but I offer our home school happenings here to provide a example of a Type-A mommy who is both academically concerned and discipleship minded.  Feel free to contact me should you have any questions I don’t address.

I made some initial decisions about curriculum based on conversations I’d had with my sisters.  I added to those curricula with materials I found available at our local university’s Instructional Resource Center and materials recommended by another veteran home school mom.  I planned the months of June and July; however, I know my plan will be dynamic, changing as I “study” the results, this being uncharted waters for our family.

We jumped in Monday, August 12th at 7:00am.

Two years ago we started morning Bible study with the family, so beginning our day with family Bible time was a given.  We’re using the Veritas Press Bible cards (Creation-Joshua) as a guide this year and are reading from The Child’s Story Bible.  This adaptation is a narrative story format that is both easily understood by our children and beautifully written to keep the adults engaged.  The kids and I are journaling after prayer and reflection as a family.

After Bible, we moved straight into memory work.  I was surprised that my children didn’t know the books of the Bible.  Obviously I’d assumed that these are somehow learned through osmosis.  We started with the Old Testament.  I downloaded a fun video from YouTube (Worship for Kids’ “These are the Books of the Bible”) and streamed it with our AppleTV.  Emma and Caden watched (and sang with) the video twice in a sitting and read through the list of books I’d typed out as a reference after each viewing.  Of course they sang the song throughout the day as it just sticks in your mind and they had mastered the song by Thursday evening.  The second week was spent, Bible in hand, as we learned about the 5 categories of books of the Old Testament and enjoyed 10 or so rounds of an old fashioned “sword drill”.  I said a book, the kids found the book and category on our chart, we talked about the general location of the book based on our song, and practiced finding the book.

Our next subject in the morning is geography.  As we were planning this summer, I found that Emma knows little about geography that she hadn’t learned herself through independent reading and Netflix documentaries.  Last year she learned the states and capitals in school, but hadn’t learned them as a part of an in-depth study on regions.  She doesn’t recall learning much about US waterways, landforms, climate, populations, or maps.

We began with The Middle East, as it correlates with our history curriculum, and will spend 6 three week chunks of time this year learning about major regions in the world.  After 3 weeks in geography and social studies, we’ll spend 3 weeks in science and classic children’s literature read aloud time.  For science we’ve chosen the creation-based Apologia Science curriculum “Zoology 2:  Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.”  The student text can be multi-age and two workbooks are published, one for early readers and writers that we purchased for Caden, and one for intermediate students, which we purchased for Emma.  Emma sees herself as a marine biologist or working with animals as a career.  She is thrilled with our content rich approach in general.

I’ve chosen 4 fairly challenging “read alouds” for our geography/history unit.  The past two weeks I learned more about The Middle East (land, climate, people, history, countries, and communities) than I’ve ever learned on the evening news in years.  We took notes and transferred the most noteworthy for 6 “major” Middle Eastern countries, the land dispute, religion, and terrorism to a display board notes organizer.  We’ll finish our display with the map and pictures this coming week.  Emma also began a rough draft for her culminating essay.

I divided the Middle East map items I want the kids to master into three weeks’ work; week 1 was political features, week 2 they will focus on waterways, and week 3 we will add landforms.  They will round out this unit with a cumulative map test.  Emma is responsible for about 30 features and Caden has 18 to learn.

At roughly 9:00 each morning we took a break to complete daily chores, harvest the garden, and shower.  If the shower weren’t officially a part of the routine, I’m not sure it would have happened!

At 9:45 we began our math and language arts time.  Emma is working with a video supplement for Saxon 7/6.  Each lesson is taught, via a video of direct instruction on an animated “blackboard”, and fact fluency, lesson practice and mixed practice is much the same that would be found in the classroom setting.  Emma wanted to complete 2 lessons a day the first week, as the first 10 looked like they would be review for her, and recognized immediately that I was there to grade her work, provide time for corrections, and move on quickly to a language arts activity.  She was so happy to realize that “waiting” is not going to have to be a part of our home school routine and that she will receive a quick re-teach on problems she knows she’s struggled with.

Emma was challenged daily by Wordly Wise.  A vocabulary curriculum that’s designed for deep understanding and application of 20 new words a week, Emma struggled the first several days.  It wasn’t “easy” and Emma was emotionally frustrated by the challenge.  She’s used to quickly completing work without much critical concentration.  She and I were both pleased this Friday with her progress week 2 compared to week 1 and the critical thinking she had to grapple with.

Her literature the first three weeks is a daily self-selected article from Holt, Rinnehart, and Winston’s The Ancient World: Prehistory to the Roman Empire content-are reader.  Most of the selections are primary sources and the comprehension questions have led to some important cross-curriculum conversations.

While Emma was working through her Saxon lessons, vocabulary practice, and literature comprehension each day, Caden and I had time for his math lesson, spelling, vocabulary and grammar practice and guided reading.  In one week he zipped through 2 chapters of a state adopted curriculum, Harcourt Math, acing both “chapter” tests and is ready for what would be, if he were in the public school classroom, the 6th or 7th week’s work tomorrow, day 1 of week 3.

Facebook allowed us to “survey” for both a histogram Emma worked on this week and 4 surveys, tally tables, bar and picture graphs Caden worked on.  We were both shocked and grateful that we received literally hundreds of responses to our “input” requests!  Caden had so much fun with math, stating our math time together was his favorite part of the week.

Emma and I checked all her work, Emma made corrections, and we worked on her spelling and grammar (Phillips Easy Grammar Grade 6) lessons while Caden started “The Magic Tree House” books on CD.  He’s got a great attention span and enjoyed listening to these stories for most of an hour while Emma and I worked.  He’ll start book 9 Monday and when piano begins again this will also be piano practice time for Caden.

After a lunch break we finished our “school day” with history.  We are using Margaret Wise Bauer’s The Story of World: Ancient Times this year.  We’re listening to a CD reading of the chapters, taking notes, creating a time line, and completing the activity pages from the curriculum guide.  We supplemented our reading with two primary source readings on Tutankhamen’s tomb.

Monday and Tuesday afternoons the kids played well together, and Wednesday and Thursday afternoons we had cousins’ play-date time.  Friday was (and will be) more of an out and about kind of a day.  Week 1 we had public library time and went to Clovis for the Curry County Fair animals and exhibits.  Week 2 the kids had cooking class with their grandmother (warm homemade tortillas for lunch – yum!) who plans to pass on her Hispanic cooking secrets this year.

Emma and Caden have Tae Kwon Do, the ENMU Children’s Choir, and piano lessons to round out their week.  My clarinets are both being re-padded in anticipation of Emma and I beginning clarinet in September, we will continue our Spanish acquisition at ENMU when the language lab community hours are set for the semester and when our backyard swimming pool is closed for the season we will look into swimming lesson at ENMU’s nat.

I’m certainly not saying that this is or should be the model for all home schools.  I do not presume to know, after 2 weeks, much of anything, but I’m grateful to have the flexibility to do what I feel called to do and what I feel is appropriate for my children.  I’ve made decisions knowing these two children more intimately than any human on Earth, with the exception of their daddy, and I know that what feels right for me might not feel right for all home schooling families.  Many families are even more academically focused with a classical bent that I’ve yet to wrap my mind around; however, I do hope that in sharing our story a more balanced understanding of what home school looks like can be achieved than the picture portrayed by the 20/20 documentary.

And because there’s certainly more to our story than the schedule and curriculum alone…

After managing 18-21 in the classroom the last 17 years, managing 2, and specifically 2 whom I can discipline, was fairly easy.  Reading aloud for an hour every morning was a wee-bit taxing, but is nothing compared to the alternative of having to repeat every directive over and again and teach with a “teacher-voice” in the classroom.  Caden and Emma were attentive and interested in everything we did, worked hard to do their best, wasted little time during “school” and accomplished at least 2 weeks worth of academics each week without the “down time” that is a given when the classroom teacher is managing 20+ students at a time, many of whom are not interested, not ready and not willing.

Our oldest son, Bailey, is a senior this year, is taking classes at our local University, has just started his first job, and has a sweet girlfriend named Hannah.  In being home, I’ve had so many short conversations and several longer stretches of time with him; opportunities that I’ve missed in the past.  I’m so excited to enjoy this year and this season of life with him!

I knew this year would be a blessing for all of us, but I didn’t realize the many blessings of it would be so easily seen the first few days.  I do believe this year will be amazing for our family and I’m so grateful that Franklin was willing to let us take this adventure, that I have home-schooling sisters who’ve forged the way for me, that I’ve begun to build some support-system relationships locally and that my family is willing to live a more simple lifestyle to allow this.  My stress level is nil, when compared to years past, and my family seems to be settling into a less hurried schedule.  Words cannot express how blessed I am.  And to you my friends… blessings!

Need an Idea for a Family Read Aloud?

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Spoiler alert!  If you’ve not read The Chronicles of Narnia and want the thrill of the adventure first hand, read no further!

My husband and I left two weeks ago today with our daughter Emma on what has become in our home a family tradition.  six years ago we took our oldest son Bailey on a week-long camping trip.  I remember wanting time alone with him to really re-connect.  If you’ve raised a son you know that somewhere between ten and twelve, as testosterone begins to flood the brain, a boy has the potential of losing the majority of their common sense.  I’m so grateful that Franklin has taught junior high and high school for many years.  I found peace in his reminders that Bailey was in fact, although I questioned it, a very normal boy.

This year was Emma’s turn.  5th grade was trying for Emma.  She’s bright and quick with her school work so she spent a lot of time reading and watching her peers.  She found that she could relate to very few students in her classes.  Although she is very relational, sensitive, and social her peers were focused on very worldly things, things Emma is uncomfortable with, praise the Lord!  What a wonderful time we had spending every minute of a whole week focused on encouraging her and learning as much as we could about our precious, only daughter.

We spent 2 nights at the Arches National Park in Moab, Utah and 3 nights at The Grand Canyon’s North Rim.  And, just as we had with Bailey, we listened to The Chronicles of Narnia, all seven books, during our drive time.  Each time I’ve read these books I’ve been awed by the sheer quantity of scriptural truth found throughout the collection.  It boggles my mind that many in academia deny any parallel.

I’d like to share our observations.  Maybe you’ve read the collection yourself and drew the same parallels.  I’d love to hear others the Holy Spirit might have led you to.  And maybe you’ve not read The Chronicles of Narnia.  My musings might help you decide if this is a worthy reading adventure for your family to embark upon.  Because there are seven books to pick apart here I’ve divided this post.  I’m including my thoughts about the first three books this week and will save my thoughts over the final four for next week.

The Chronicles of Narnia begins with The Magician’s Nephew.  In a nutshell, two children use magic rings to travel from their world to parallel worlds.  We have our first glimpse of Aslan, a mighty lion who is, throughout The Chronicles, a shadow of Jesus Christ.  In a world that is completely dark Aslan sings a wordless song to create the world of Narnia.  Aslan fills Narnia with creatures and animals.  Throughout The Chronicles, when the name of Aslan is spoken, when touches the animals, and when he breathes on them they are recreated.  They are no longer what they use to be.

The second, and certainly the most familiar of the seven, The Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe brings four children to Narnia.  Narnia is controlled by the White Witch who has reigned with terror and an endless winter for 100 years.  The children fulfill a prophecy in coming and hope is restored as word of Aslan’s return travels through Narnia.  When the name of Aslan is spoken, everyone feels better; taller, stronger, more alive, and more brave.  As the animals tell the children about Narnia and the witch,  Lucy cries, “Can no one help us?” and Mr. Beaver replies, “Only Aslan.  He’s our only hope.”

In his desire for the sweet candy Turkish Delight, one of the boys selfishly although unwittingly, joins forces with the White Witch.  His sin is paid for by Aslan who is shaved, bound, and killed on a stone table by the witch and her followers.   But Aslan raises from the dead, having paid the price for Edmond’s betrayal, and leads the battle against the witch and her entourage.  In one of the final scenes Aslan roars, “The witch is mine!”   Just as we, without the intercession of Jesus Christ, cannot battle evil, the children couldn’t kill the witch alone.  Aslan went after her wand, removing her authority, as Jesus has removed Satan’s authority in our lives.

The third story, A Horse and His Boy, tells the story of a talking horse and a boy who team up to run away from cruel masters.  The horse remembers his youth in Narnia but the boy, who looks Narnian, knows nothing of the land to the north.

As they travel toward Narnia they meet and join forces with a second talking horse and a girl.  The four are unknowingly helped along the way by Aslan.  This book in particular gives us much to think about with regard to the topic of fear when Aslan reveals himself and explains his unseen aid in their journey.

When Shasta and Bree needed companionship, Aslan forced Wynn and Aravis to their side.  When the horses were exhausted and ready to quit Aslan sent jackels to give the horses a new strength.  And even before the journey, Aslan provided the wind that pushed Shasta’s small forgotten boat to the shore where a man sat wakeful to receive him.

I was reminded that, in partnership with Jesus I can run straight ahead, over every obstacle…  I can go faster than I think I can….  I might not understand in the midst of the storm, but if there ever is a time when I must understand it will be revealed to me…  Sometimes, all that can be done is to rest and recharge for tomorrow’s battle…   When we think we’ve hit the mark, it is really that we’ve been helped along the way…  When we are frightened we need to draw close to Jesus.  He will give us confidence to dare to dare…  And finally, Aravis observes “I would sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else,” bringing to mind Psalm 84:10, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere….”

Check in again next Saturday for my thoughts and musings on the final four.  And take time to read with your children today.  They will love the cuddle time and you will impart the value of a good read.  Be blessed!