Category Archives: homeschooling

I’m sure they learned something today

Foster, homeschooling, humor, imagination, Jonah, Katie, Parker, Theodore February 11, 2014 Leave a comment

Sometimes with homeschooling you just have to roll with it.  You’re tired.  Or they are tired.

This morning right after breakfast, Parker (age 4) decided he would pull out a couple of his 24 piece puzzles and then couldn’t find a piece.

That’s really how it all started.  Then Foster started to help him find his piece in the puzzle cabinet and noticed that some of the boxes were falling apart.  Foster pulled out a 300 piece puzzle and put it on the bar to work. I got out my sharpie and big Ziploc bags and started cutting up the broken boxes to get organized.  Then Katie and Theodore decided they wanted to play with the beans…but then they wanted to do puzzles when Jonah wanted the beans…

And so forth and so on…then there was playing with Legos, watching Magic School Bus, popcorn and animal crackers for lunch and a story before rest time.

I’m sure they learned something today.

(Wanted to include the knocked over basket of cardboard, the basket of dirty laundry and
you can’t make them out but the sink is full of dirty dishes too.)

homeschool and public school families can’t get it right

children, choices, homeschooling February 6, 2014 Leave a comment

For the past six months or so I’ve been serving in a communications role for our local homeschool support group and I started leading a “Homeschool 101” class within the same group.

Part of my job is to help those who are thinking about homeschooling or are new to homeschooling with all those first-timer questions.  Ones about which curriculum to use and where to get it, how to do all this legally, how you are supposed to actually get school work done without killing each other…and so forth and so on.

I’ve spoken to many moms and each situation, family and circumstance is so different.  Some families have always sent their kids to public school and some have always homeschooled. Some have children who aren’t even school age yet but they are planners and want to have it all figured out.

What I realized after almost an hour on the phone with one mom (who has very young kids) is that homeschooling families and public school families have more than one thing in common.  We actually have it all in common and that is, as parents, none of us know the “right” way to educate our children.

Oh, we think we do.

If we start them in the right pre-school by 18 months, fast track them to Kindergarten in a private school and start college dual enrollment by 9th grade then we are definitely doing it right.

If we never put them in daycare or pre-school and don’t start book work until they are 8 years old and feel like working on something…then we’re doing it right.

If we keep them home, teach Bible 3 times a day, eat organic and serve in our local soup kitchen once a week, then we’re doing it right.

If we send them to public school and in the afternoons sit beside them and do their homework for 2 hours each night before they are allowed to play a video game, then we’re doing it right.

We know we are.

We would never let our kids watch TV before the bus comes.

We would never send our kids to public school.

We would never homeschool.

We would never let them eat processed food.

Those people who do that are just wrong. THEY are definitely not doing it right.

Then again.

Maybe they are.

Maybe they love their kids as much as you love yours.  And maybe they do have their child’s best interest at heart.

Because I know I do, whether we spend $700 a year on curriculum or $5,000 on private school tuition, I love my children and I strive to do what’s “right” when it comes to their education and growing them into decent, God-fearing humans.

And knowing that we are all in the same boat…that none of us are actually doing it “right” takes a lot of pressure off, doesn’t it?

way off base

homeschooling October 3, 2013 Comments: 3

I felt hopeful when I saw the blog post “How Common Core is Slowly Changing My Child” shared on Facebook. It was shared by a teacher which I thought was even more exciting.

But then I read it and when I came to this sentence I realized that the writer doesn’t even know what the real issue is.

The writer of the blog mrsmomblog states “No, those teachers need to  instill a love of school so when children get to our middle and high schools they are not burnt out.”

I recently started leading a Homeschool 101 group with our local homeschooling co-op.  While our support group has always offered a round table about this, it was usually just once or twice a year and it seemed to me that not just new homeschooling families were needing support but so were the ones that have been doing it for 5 or even 10 years.

So when our support group’s co-op classes started back up, my friend and I started a Homeschool 101 “class” that would meet each week while the elementary age classes were meeting.  I hoped it would be a place where people could come and ask questions like these:

“My daughter is just 4 but she already knows how to read, what can I do for Kindergarten curriculum?”

“I have a 2nd grader who loves airplanes but won’t focus on Math for two minutes, what does everyone else do in that situation?”

“How do you get all the laundry done and teach at the same time?”

You know…practical questions…

What has come up just as often are heart-wrenching discussions about suffering children.

“My daughter was lost, she didn’t understand why she was so different, a year after pulling her out of public school we are still working to unravel the harmful effects.”

“I have no support outside this room, my family doesn’t get why I want to homeschool.”

“I hate that it took so many years for me to get up the courage to start to homeschool.”

“My son is being bullied but I just don’t know if I can pull him out of school right now.”

What the writer said in her post about getting teachers “to instill a love of school” is way off base. 

Peter Gray, the author of Free to Learn writes “Children are pawns in a competitive game in which the adults around them are trying to squeeze the highest possible scores out of them on standardized tests.” (p. 9)

Who can “love” an institution who does not see or care about them as the individual people they are?

No child wants to be used as a pawn. No human wants to be.

first day of school 2013-2014

daddy, Foster, homeschooling, Jonah, Katie, Parker, Theodore August 28, 2013 Comments: 2
 
Jonah Amos (1 year 23 months old)
 
Parker Elijah (4 years old)

Theodore Reece (6 years old)
 
Katie Belle (7 years 10 months old)
 
Foster Owen (9 years 6 months old)
 
Christopher Brent (33 years old, but still 4 years younger than me.)
 
 
 
 

reading out loud

homeschooling, parenting, reading, Theodore June 7, 2013 Comments: 4

My 5 year old has just finished up Kindergarten.  If he was in public school he would probably be starting to read.

3 years ago I had 6 year old who finished up Kindergarten and couldn’t read. Although I had pushed him more, sitting down with excruciatingly boring phonics curriculum that made me want to jab myself in the eye with a pencil. Foster was (is) such a flexible, kind child that he humored me and was only occasionally driven to tears.

Foster and I soldiered on and finished that whole stinking phonics curriculum by the end of 1st grade.
He was starting to read at 6 but still out loud and slowly. I was really starting to worry. What was wrong with this kid? (Poor first child.)

Then, the spring after Foster turned 7 he took off. He started reading everything that wasn’t nailed down. At 8, I had to order a grade level above for his readers. Now at 9, he’s reading at a 5th grade (or above) level. He reads constantly. As in, I think he just finished almost 150 Hardy Boys books from our local library. He stays up reading until 2 am sometimes.

Katie, my second, had a little less pressure from me, but pressure just the same. Being a much more sensitive child, the amount of tears and wailing caused us to do less in the book and only make it through about half.  Now she is 7 and guess what? She is starting to take-off. She’s reading chapter books in her bed. Staying up with her flashlight to read all about Ramona and Beezus, Judy Moody and other little girl favorites.

So with Theodore the third, I did pick up the book a couple of weeks before Kindergarten was over. I felt like I should. We sat down 2 or 3 times and tried to get through a page. He didn’t cry. He was compliant, he just didn’t get it.

A few days ago, Theodore was on the couch looking at a Star Wars book I had gotten him. He looked over at me and said “Look Mommy, I can read this.”

I was in shock. I couldn’t believe he was about to just read something to me. Then he looked at his book. First the left page, then the right, tracking the words with his eyes and being completely silent. He looked up with the best, big dimpled smile and said “See, that’s how you read Mommy! You look at the book and be real quiet.”

This morning, Theodore told his 3 year old brother Parker, “I can’t read those words out loud. I can only read them quite.”

So if you ask Theodore if he’s reading yet, he’ll be sure to tell you he is.

And one day, he’ll be telling the truth.

Theodore the graduate

homeschooling, Theodore June 1, 2013 Comments: 2

Theodore hit another milestone yesterday. He graduated from Kindergarten. The coordinators of the graduation asked us to send in some things that our little graduates had accomplished this school year and my response was kind of lame. I basically sent in that he’s been learning Kindergarten stuff and that he loves playing baseball. To be honest, Theodore’s past year has been full of changing and growing, way too much to sum up in a 30 second snippet as he received his diploma.

Theodore’s Kindergarten year has looked the way I wish more little boys and girls year could look, he’s spent most of his time just playing, just being five.

Yes we talked a little about letter sounds, did some handwriting practice and started writing numbers and adding. We also got dirty in the backyard, watched cartoons and played games. We spent lots of time with friends and fights with siblings. Theodore learned (is still learning) to be kind and patient, rather than lose his temper so quickly. He spent hours building Lego’s and chasing his big brother down the street. He did not receive one report card, grade or “progress report”. Yet, I know he has progressed.

Theodore’s Kindergarten year has also included something that I am thankful not ALL little boys and girls must face. He has spent the majority of it without his daddy. That boy and his daddy are very close. They have a special connection that Theodore really doesn’t have with anyone else. They understand each other. So having Chris deployed for the past 6 months has also been part of his Kindergarten experience, one that probably “grew” him more than any other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

field day 2013

Foster, homeschooling, Jonah, Katie, Parker, sports, Theodore May 2, 2013 Leave a comment

This is the first year we participated in our local homeschooling group’s field day. The kids had lots of questions but since I only had my past public school experiences to draw on I just shared what was important.

1. “Field Day was one of the best days of the year because it meant school was almost out for summer.”

2. “Field Day was great because we got to spend almost all day outside with our friends.”

3. “Field Day was my favorite because it meant NO school work (and usually NO homework either)!”

I guess you can gather by my responses that I am not very athletic. I didn’t mention trying to win ribbons or win races. I don’t remember ever actually winning anything at field day. I know I enjoyed the 3-legged race the most but I’m not sure why. It could have been my partner was a cute boy. Who knows?

It turns out, they did just fine even though they didn’t know what to expect.

 
We stumbled to the car 5 long, hot hours after we had arrived. We left talking about the ribbons everyone had won, our friends, the fun we had.
Foster said as we were leaving, “that was so much fun! Can we do this every day?”
 
 

smile it’s spring!

Foster, homeschooling, Jonah, Katie, Parker, siblings May 2, 2013 Leave a comment
Cheese!

 
“Are you talkin’ to me?”

 
 

 
So much to explore!

 
Where’s sissy?

 
“I don’t want to go for a walk, AGAIN!”

 
My princess!

 
Getting to know the neighbors.

 
Taking it all in!

mommy fail

homeschooling, humor, Katie, motherhood April 14, 2013 1 Comment

Katie has begun reading more and more on her own. I was excited when she picked up a couple of Scooby Doo books at the library the other day because I knew they would likely challenge her. I feel like Foster really took off after tackling those level readers on his own.

I asked her yesterday if she thought she would be able to take them to bed and read them on her own and she said “sure!” Then today we had this conversation:

Me: “Katie how did you do with the Scooby Doo book?”

Katie: “Well, not very good.”

Me: “Really?” (genuinely surprised)

Katie: “Yeah, they are really hard.”

Me: “Are you just having trouble with certain words?”

Katie: “No, I don’t understand hardly any of the words.”

Me: (finally paying full attention) “What do you mean? What are some of the words?”

Katie: “There are all these 2 letter words that I don’t understand like el and la and se…”

Me: (so confused) “Could you bring the book please?”

Katie: “Sure.” (hands me the book)

…and the book is written in Spanish…

Total mommy fail. This is what happens when I take the preschooler and toddler to the library. I didn’t even notice that she had checked out 2 Spanish Scooby Doo books. I just had to laugh and tell her I was sorry that I am sure she will have an easier time reading the ones written in English.

Good grief.

bike rodeo

Foster, homeschooling April 3, 2013 Leave a comment

Foster was able to participate in this years bike rodeo for Cub Scouts. The boys had a great time and learned a lot about bike safety. Today when he and his brothers and sister were outside he told them all that he would need to check their helmets and their bikes (or scooters) before they went for a ride. It was great to watch him sharing all the new things he had learned about how to stay safe on the road.