Homeschool Valentine

What an awesome opportunity to thank all of the other homeschool blogger moms out there who have encouraged me for the past couple of years.

For a long time we were the only homeschooling family in our church and until we found our current homeschool co-op, we knew very few other families in our area. The only homeschooling contacts I had were online.

Over the years I have gleaned everything from curriculum advice to moral support from some of the greatest moms out there.

You all have been the jelly in my peanut butter homeschool sandwich and the chocolate chips in the cookies of my homeschooling days!



Thank you all so much and Happy Valentines Day!!

Homeschool Monday ~ Daily Notebooks

I recently discovered a new concept that has allowed me to add so much to our school day and accomplish it all much more efficiently. I read a blog post from 1+1+1 about daily calendar notebooks. I loved the idea because this would streamline out daily “group work” which included reviewing the days of the week, months of the year and such. This new notebook style daily review would insure first that we would get it done every day and second that we would not miss concepts. I loved it!

If you have never seen this concept before, look here and here for some free printables and even videos of daily notebooks in use.

It didn’t take me long to see many other ways to use the daily notebooks. I now have the following pages in my 4th grader’s notebooks:

Daily Gratitude List
Fruit of the Spirit Sheet
Habit Sheet
Hymn of the Month Lyrics
Composer Sheet
Artist Sheet
Poet Sheet
Spelling Sheet
Book Log
State Sheet
Weather/Season Sheet
Daily Drawing Page
Number of the Day Equations
Color Spelling/Penmanship
Shape Spelling/Penmanship
Book of Centuries Sheets
Daily Schedule
Chore List
Daily School Checklist

The possibilities for daily notebooks are endless. Kids can quickly flip through the notebook and cover section by section easily. This might be a great concept for someone who likes the idea of workboxes but does not have the space.

January 30 Day Focus

Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness
Character Trait/Habit: Diligence
Composer: Telemann




Poet:Rudyard Kipling




Artist: Degas




Hymn: I Surrender All

Go here to see how we incorporate each focus point for the month.

In addition to the ways listed in the previous post, I have now incorporated many of these monthly focus ideas into our daily notebooks. To see some printable sheets and all of the pages included in our daily notebooks, check out next Monday's homeschooling post.

Homeschool Monday ~ A Schoolroom...or Not

I have attempted to write a post about my favorite school rooms and my own personal school room for a while now but it just hasn’t happened. Most folks who know me know that I do my best to live outside of the proverbial box in every way I can. It occurred to me that it wasn’t absolutely necessary to have an actual school room with school desks. What if my kids would be more comfortable in other areas of the house? Would it be more convenient to have them doing school where I could also be doing dishes or folding laundry while answering questions? Don’t be deceived, our house is not huge at all but, with a toddler, three school age kids and all the housework that comes with a family, I often wish that I could be in several rooms at once. With that in mind, I finally took the plunge and pulled my school room apart and moved my kidos to the kitchen table. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a good bit of schoolroom envy. In fact, here are a couple of my favorites.

This is the Murphy Academy schoolroom complete with giant whiteboard, networked computers and some fancy lighting.




This is Edie's from LifeinGrace.com garage transformed into a schoolroom.




I still get the urge to go IKEA shopping when I look at those rooms but, I have finally realized that it would just be money wasted if the whole “room” thing doesn’t really work for me. When I was a new homeschooling mommy, all I wanted was a school room. We lived with my parents the first year we homeschooled and our entire school spaced consisted of a corner of my mom’s dining room where my two oldest sat at their little two seat children’s table and a 5 shelf bookshelf in another corner. One of the things I looked most forward to in moving into my newly remodeled house was my school room. We have made it work for 4 years now but only because that is what I that I needed to “properly educate” my children.

For a few weeks now, the older children have been doing school at the kitchen table where I can teach and do dishes at the same time. I have one small bookshelf where the kids keep the things they need to do school each day.

I love it! Our school room has been transformed into some multi-purpose space. It is part playroom but it also now houses our computer which was moved out of our office. This has also proved helpful. I can now do the family accounting, blogging and anything else that I need the computer for without being tucked away in our office.

Our office has also been transformed. This is my favorite part!! The old office is now our library! EEEKKK!! My own personal library complete with organized and cataloged books. I have in heaven!! I admit it. I am one of those weird souls that gets a strange endorphin release from seeing shelves lined with books, that are MINE!

Anyway, the point is that your school space, and your entire house for that matter, should work for you and your family no matter what the norms are.

October 2011 ~ 30 Day Focus

Fruit of the Spirit: Love
Character Trait/Habit: Regularity (Adhering to a Schedule or Routine)
Composer: Vivaldi
Poet:Christina Rossetti
Artist: Claude Monet
Hymn: Blessed Assurance

Go here to see how we incorporate each focus point for the month.

Monday's Homeschooling Helps ~ Turn off the Phone

Several months ago I called a fellow homeschooler in the middle of the day. I was surprised when I got her voicemail and the message politely informed me that if I was calling between the hours of 10am and 2pm I would need to leave a message because the family was busy homeschooling. I admit, I was taken aback.

There have been many days that I have complained that I could not get anything done because the phone is constantly ringing, but it never occurred to me to simply turn the phone off. Why do we think that just because we pay to have a telephone that we must keep it on at all times? I think I feel empowered in some way. I can turn off the phone!

Not only will this help us in minimizing distractions to our school day but it will also allow my husband, who works 3rd shift, to rest better. I think this will be a grand plan all the way around.

In fact, there may be plenty of other times that families may benefit from eliminating the distraction of the phone ringing such as dinner time, family worship or devotions, nap time for littles and special times of fellowship with company.

What about emergencies, you might say? Keep your cell phone on you. Most folks today not only have a home phone but a cell phone as well. Anyone would would need you in case of an emergency is likely to have your cell phone. You can include in your home phone message that you can be reached via text on you cell phone during school hours.

Here is my plan: Today is our first official day of school for the new year. In preparation I have changed our home phone message to say that anyone calling between the hours of 8am and 2pm will need to leave a message that we will return after schooling hours. The message will also say that anyone needing us in case of an emergency should text my cell phone.

Let's see how this goes!

August 2011 ~ 30 Day Focus ~ a little late!

Every month in the Langford house we focus on one each of the following:

Fruit of the Spirit
Character Trait/Habit
Composer
Poet
Artist
Hymn

Some of these are Simply Charlotte Mason inspired and some are items that we have built in as a family. My initial lists of artists, poets and composers came from Simply Charlotte Mason.

In preparation for the month, we check out books from library with examples of art from the artist we are covering. We also review biography of the artist at some point during the month or cover a little each day as time permits.

I include some books of poetry by the poet in our book basket for the month and read some of the poems out loud once or twice a week.

Covering composers is simple. At the beginning of the month, we discuss the composer, his style of music and some that we may be familiar with. We find a CD of his music on Ebay, at McKays or the local library and listen to it as we clean or do independent work.

The hymns come from the book Then Sings My Soul. At the beginning of the month, we read the chapter about the hymn from the book. Then we break down the words of the hymn so the children understand what they are singing about before we sing. We then sing this hymn every night during our family worship time for the month.

We work through the fruits of the spirit list in Galatians almost twice a year but this keeps them fresh in our hearts and minds. At one of our meal times, we ask the children how they demonstrated the particular fruit that day or the day before. Dad and I also share some examples. Then comes the hard part, we talk about ways we could have demonstrated this fruit and we did not. Sometimes we have crafts or activities pertaining to the fruit in our workboxes.

For character traits and habits, we use a couple of sources. I love the book Laying Down the Rails by Sonya Schafer and we use the character trait chart found on the Duggar website. Sometimes we work through the lists systematically and sometimes we see an area that needs focus and skip to that one. For Instruction in Righteousness also is also very helpful in providing appropriate scripture for habits and character traits.

Ideally, this post will come on the first day of each new month listing our focus topics, books we are using and planned activities. Feel free to follow along and comment with any ideas you may have.

Here is the list for August:
Fruit of the Spirit: Meekness
Character Trait/Habit: Regularity (Adhering to a Schedule or Routine)
Composer: Pachabel
Poet:Robert Louis Stevenson
Artist: Vangogh
Hymn: Blessed Assurance

Monday's Homeschooling Helps

I really enjoyed this post over at Raising Arrows this morning. Even though we only have four children right now and only three of them are technically "schooling," we still get this same question.

I like to think of our schooling time as very "one-room-schoolhouse" style. Even though the littles may not be ready for some of the more mature history discussions, they are still in the room and part of the story and discussion. They also may not benefit from some of the more advanced math and science concepts but the exposure is wonderful.

My new favorite example of why and how this works happened just a few weeks ago. Our youngest (3) was playing with some Lauri toys recommended in the My Father's World toddler and preschool packs, the two oldest were working independently and I was reviewing flash cards with the Kindergartner. The baby wondered over and started mimicking the Kindergartner as she reviewed her numbers. When we came to the flashcard number 3, he ran back to his Lauri toys, grabbed a foam 3 and returned all smiles and proudly announced "free, I free" pointing to himself.

For this reason and many others, we like having everyone in the same room while we are doing school. If you are schooling multiple grades at the same time, the older children are getting a review of concepts while the younger are learning them. The younger children are getting valuable exposure to new concepts while the older ones are learning. Plus, it just feels like Little House on the Prairie and that makes me smile.

Jars of Clay

"A Wife for Isaac" was the title of the children's history lesson a couple of weeks ago. We talked about how Rebecca watered the servants camels. Our hands-on activity for the day was to make clay water pots. Fortunately, the discussion went far beyond Isaac and Rebecca.



As the children diligently worked the clay in their hands, they began asking questions about the clay. They wanted to know why it took so long to make the clay take shape. Why did it mess up sometimes and make them have to start all over? Why did the clay dry up sometimes. Naturally, they were thrilled to see that you just have to add some water. They noticed that the longer they worked building up the sides of the water pots, the stronger the pots were.



I was in tears by this point. We talked about how we are clay in the hands of God. We talked about how his water of life makes us pliable. We talked about how our precious Father doesn't throw the marred and broken clay away. Praise the Lord!



Jeremiah 18: 1-4 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

I Just Needed a Laugh Today!

The following is obviously not my original work. It was published by the Examiner but, considering the fact that we as a homeschooling family have actually encountered some of these arguments before, I thought it was absolutely hilarious!

Memo: Top 10 Reasons to Criminalize Homeschooling

In an effort to increase the public drumbeat for criminalizing homeschooling, a memo has been distributed containing the top 10 reasons why public schooling is better than homeschooling. Here is an excerpt from that memo:

1. Most parents were educated in the under funded public school system, and so are not smart enough to homeschool their own children.

2. Children who receive one-on-one homeschooling will learn more than others, giving them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. This is undemocratic.

3. How can children learn to defend themselves unless they have to fight off bullies on a daily basis?

4. Ridicule from other children is important to the socialization process.

5. Children in public schools can get more practice "Just Saying No" to drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

6. Fluorescent lighting may have significant health benefits.

7. Publicly asking permission to go to the bathroom teaches young people their place in society.

8. The fashion industry depends upon the peer pressure that only public schools can generate.

9. Public schools foster cultural literacy, passing on important traditions like the singing of "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg..."

10. Homeschooled children may not learn important office career skills, like how to sit still for six hours straight.

My Father's World

I know that the official "school year" is just about to start for most of our neighbors but we have been "doing school" for quite a while now. We just couldn't help ourselves! My kids have been so excited about school time ever since the new "box" arrived.
I went to an amazing homeschool conference and resource fair back in May in North Carolina. What an amazing experience. There were tons of homeschool families in the same place. It was absolutely heavenly! In the resource fair, you could find any kind of book, curriculum, teaching tool you can imagine. Even a few other things like this magnet I found for the back of my van :)

Anyway, the conference was more than a shopping excursion. There were more seminars than I could ever get to. I am so glad though that I popped into one seminar called "Keeping your Preschoolers Occupied during School Time" or something to that effect. This one was particularly appealing to me since last year I had even numbers; two preschoolers and two school age. In that seminar I was introduced to Lauri Toys. They are fun, appealing and educational all in one. At the same time, I was introduced to My Father's World.

Keep in mind that up to this point, we used one curriculum for everything. We used Abeka. Don't misunderstand me. Abeka is wonderful. It is strong in all areas and very aggressive. You will have plenty of worksheets, lots of teaching aids and a day full of work. It is just like "real school" at home. Looking back now, I know that is never what I truly wanted. Why should it really matter to my kids where they would spend hours sitting in a desk doing worksheet after worksheet. It mattered to me of course. I would never risk sending them to public school. At least if they were home, they were safe. Plus, the 1-1 student teacher ratio did cut the time in half. However, I still wasn't grasping all of the wonderful opportunities that homeschooling had to offer.

I spent about an hour at that conference in the MFW booth talking to one of the owners and learning why both I and my children would like this approach so much better. It was hands on. Instead of using worksheets, we would use real life activities to learn. There would still be a daily lesson plan for each day, a strong math component and a phonics based reading program but the best was yet to come. I learned what a real "Christ Centered" curriculum looked like. It was not just incorporating christian elements into each subject. Every aspect of the day grew out of the bible lesson for the day. Even the math and science were beautifully woven together into the bible lesson. This is what sold me. We pray that our children can see that Christ truly is the center of our home and family. This was another way to show them.

So far, we are loving it! We look forward to school time each day. I highly recommend My Father's World for anyone who wants Christ at the center of their homeschool.

Activities

One of my favorite parts of the whole homeschooling experience is all of the extracurricular activities my kids get to participate in. Not being tied up in school for 8 hours a day loosens our schedule so that they can do lots more and we are not pushed as a family. We are able to schedule our activities around meal times and family time and anything else important. We also group our activities so that we are only away from home a couple of days a week and to save time and money in gas.

Here everyone is ready for dance classes on Tuesdays. Below The Monkey Man and the Tater are visiting the state veterans home for a scouting activity.

The Monkey and the Screecher also take gymnastics. Our three oldest co-op on Fridays with our friends at Trinity Chapel and the oldest two take piano lessons. It all makes for a busy week but we love it!

Homeschooling 24/7

Finally, we are all home and healthy. Praise the Lord! Lily Grace is doing well and our little Joshua is 7 lbs 3 oz as of Tuesday. We have been home from the hospital for almost three weeks now and is seems that we are settling back into our new old routines :)

I admit that homeschooling with a new baby has been my biggest challenge. There have been many days when all I felt like teaching was a hands-on unit study on sleep! Even though I could use a lot more of that, the kids didn't seem so excited about the possibility.

Anyway, Dad is being helpful as always. I am terrified of bugs and those creepy crawly things that are so interesting to the little ones. Thus, Dad is always in charge of the hands-on science. Here are the latest pictures of the Science visitor/Entertainment that crawled through our garage. When I stepped into the garage to pick up the laptop case that I was listing on ebay. This little fellow ran across my hand. I screamed, the children laughed and Stacy commenced with the science lesson at 10pm!