I can't believe it. We are starting year 8, which is a little mind blowing that we have 7 years under our belt already.
A little background to this point. Locke went to kinder and 1st in public school in Texas. Breck went to half a year of kinder in Utah before I realized what a waist of time it was. They weren't letting her move forward and she was bored. Riz is my 1st to never attend public school, thats why I don't know what grade he is in lol. But really, I think we will go with 3rd. And Berdee is thrilled to start home kinder with me in a month.
I never know what "grade" my kids are in when Dr's/people ask, so I'm going to go ahead and assign a "grade" to them for the sake of avoiding awkward social situations.
Locke, age 14 entering 9th
Breck, age 12 entering 7th wait, WHAT? Jr High??? What the. When did this happen?
Riz, age 8 entering 3rd I think...
Berdee, age 5 entering Kinder!
Wells, age 1 entering the most destructive and distracting age of all
wish me luck!
Berdee (kinder)
Our focus will be WONDER, a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. desire or be curious to know something
This year we will have 2 whole days with just the 2 of us (and Wells of course) to explore, create, and have fun! I never really did kinder with my other kids, we just did lots of coloring and reading and then started "school" in 1st grade, so i'm really looking forward to this year and adding a little magic and wonder to our days.
I found the most dreamy music for our art time. Ditties for Kiddies www.wildpicklepress.com
We will have our main focus be art & reading, with a side of math and language. I have this art book in my amazon cart, also incorporating ones we already have here, here, and here.
I didn't do any formal math with Riz and then started him right on 3rd grade teaching textbooks when he started 1st grade (thats the lowest level they have). So for now, we will not be using a math curriculum, but tie in math concepts with cooking/baking, art, and science. Basically, life. We will jump rope to the months of the year, count the cracks in the sidewalk, and add and subtract with chocolate chips and bugs.
For reading, we will be following in her brothers footsteps with 4weeks2read. I wrote about our experience teaching Riz to read HERE. Simple, easy, and fun.
She has already started The Good and The Beautiful handwriting, Wet Dry Try app on the iPad for handwriting, and Typing. So we will continue to do those. She also dictates to me for her journal entries and then draws a picture. I use these journals for all of my younger kids. They love incorporating pictures with their entires.
I won't be starting any formal Language lessons until she can read. I did this with Riz as well, he learned to read half way through his 1st grade year and then flew through LA levels K, 1, 2 and jumped from beginning reader to reading at a 3rd grade level within 1 calendar year. I am a firm believer in waiting until the child is ready rather than pushing for the sake of your own time line.
Riz (3rd)
Our focus for the older 3 will be ASCEND, go up or climb. I want to focus on the small and simple things becoming great. We will keep our focus right in front of us. It's easy to look forward 3-5 year and have a panic attack! Will they be ready? Have I taught them enough? Instead, we will take it one day at a time. As long as we are constantly building, growing, moving forward, and mastering new concepts, we will be able to stack them all up and those small and simple things will become great without getting overwhelmed. It's about enjoying the journey vs racing to the finish line. We climb a mountain one step at a time.
He is almost finished with 4th level math, so we will be starting 5th level teaching textbooks in a few weeks. He is about half way through 2nd level LA from The Good and The Beautiful. So we will finish up, then move to 3rd level as soon as he's done.
We will also continue journaling, typing, and TGTB handwriting. Once his writing is legible, we will move him to cursive, but I don't think that will happen for another year or two.
Breck (7th)
Her daily study will include typing, journaling, and handwriting. She will be starting Teaching Textbooks level 6, and TGTB again for LA. And something super exciting for her and I both, she has started writing blog posts for The Salt Project!
She loves photography and takes a lot of photos for our blog so I'll be teaching her more photography techniques this year too. And my ultimate goal, would be for her to create a blog post beginning to end, photos downloaded, uploaded, inserted, links, all the work that goes into that. So we'll see how far we get with that.
Something new this year that we are looking into is Latin for Locke and Breckyn (but all the kids can join in of course). I've heard great things about his course. I'm going to get started first and see how things feel and if we have some extra room we'll get it.
I don't like to overwhelm my self straight out the gate, we all know the crash dieter/exerciser that works out for 3 hrs a day for a week and only eats greens and then never enters a gym again and lives of cupcakes for the rest of the year. I like to ease my way into our school routine, slowly adding more each week until we feel like we have hit our sweet spot and have a good sustainable routine going. Something that we can keep up for the year. Then we can add extras as we go along. But if I add it all at once then we fall right off the wagon and I feel like i'm waving the white flag the rest of the year.
Locke (9th)
Hight School! How is that even possible. He was just in second grade and didn't know how to read and I didn't know how to teach him and I decided to start homeschooling like a crazy person. All because I had a "feeling". Acting on that feeling has been such a gift. I'm so beyond grateful for so many things that this experience has giving me. But most of all, i'm grateful for the time. He will be learning to drive next year! And then he'll be getting a job and going out into the world. So if there is one thing that I am most grateful for, it is time.
Locke is my little, or not so little any more, adventure buddy. Always up for a hike or to explore a new place with his mom. He also took one for the team unknowingly when I jumped off the beaten path, held his little hand tight, and forged our own way in a different direction. You guys, the views!!! If everyone could see the views from this side, it has been such a gift.
Locke is starting TGTB high school level 1 LA program. It is a 10 unit study to be worked through at the students own pace. I'm so excited for this program that I want to work through it with him. I might be looking over his shoulder a lot this year to see what he is learning next.
The LA program also has geography and grammar flash cards. We use these amazing durable flash card envelopes to keep things organized.
For math, he is still working through teaching textbooks level 7 and will be starting level 8 by mid year. I switched math programs twice, 2 years in a row, so I started Locke and Breckyn back a year so they wouldn't miss anything with all the switching.
In addition to math and LA, he also does TGTB handwriting, typing lessons, and journaling. He is attending Knox with Riz and Breck 2 days per week again this year. Knox is a private project based school where homeschoolers can go to be socialized.... lol, you guys i'm kidding. If you didn't know this already, children are properly socialized by their parents and other adults, not by 20-30 other kids their age, we all know what happens to their social skills in that situation. At Knox they learn to work in groups, integrate all subjects through one area of study at a time, learn GRIT, and just have fun. More about this type of learning in this documentary.
Topics of study this year will be Russia, Space, The Golden age, and nature. They will learn about each topic for a term and explore all subjects of study such as geography, math, science, art, technology, history and more.
Family school!
All of the rest of the subjects are taught/learned family style. Segregating subjects began in 1890. Each subject was taught alone (for the first time in the history of the world). Segregated from each other and taught for a specific amount of time each day.
We integrate as many subjects as we can. History becomes science and art, music becomes art and history, everything is tied together.
For example, we learned about Chernobyl a few months ago. Which sent us on a wild goose chase through the history of events and technology, geography of Russia, art in diagraming atoms, all the science behind nuclear power, atoms, atom bombs, different types of energy, clean energy options, comparing and contrasting power plants, types of government, economics, and on and on. I didn't come up with a lesson plan or a study manual. There was no test to study for, no grade to pass. They studied day and night because they were interested. They couldn't get enough. They searched for answers until their questions ran out. And along the way, we covered about every topic under the sun. This is how we prefer to do things around here. So we don't use a history, geography, or science curriculum. I will use them to help answer questions, but don't use them to guide us. We tried TGTB science unit last year for our science co-op and it sucked every ounce of joy from our learning experience. So we are keeping it all organic this year.
For history, we have used and love A Childs History of the World, but most of our history in learned through living books. True stories from the people that were there. This approach to history leaves the learner having learned more than a date on a time line. It leaves them having learned from history, isn't that why we teach history? So we can learn from others mistakes and not repeat them? To learn why things happened, not just when they occurred.
Most of our living history books are from Beautiful Feet Books. They have all been SO good!
For morning time we start with a prayer, study the scriptures with Come Follow Me, and study/sing one hymn until we have mastered it. We also work on memory work (card holder here) as a family (scriptures, poetry, articles of faith), or other important things we need to know by heart). Then I'll take some time to read to the kids while they eat or color or lay on the ground wishing they were still asleep.
Some of the topics we cover are character development (loving one anther, telling the truth, being kind, serving, having integrity...) My all time favorite read aloud ever is A Children's Book of Virtues by William J Bennett. I loved it so much that I bought every children's book of his that I could find! They are full of beautiful short stories that hold so much goodness and high moral content.
Other topics during our morning time include artist/musician study, Shakespeare/poetry, current events, or anything else that I want to share with them while I have their full attention. Sometimes we even read a novel, but I usually save our family reading time for when the baby naps or in the evenings since we don't watch TV (we do have family movie night, we are just very mindful of what we watch and when).
And then they are off! Everyone starts on their personal studies. I help who ever needs help or has questions, keep the baby happy and entertained, and try to keep everyone on task.
We are usually done in 2-3 hrs (3 students vs 20-30), so we can get a lot done in a lot less time. 7 hrs of public school includes recess, lining up, lunch time, library time, free time, announcements, assemblies, fire drills, busy work, testing and on and on in their "school time". I don't. Our 2-3 hrs is only counting our structured learning. If I counted library trips, weekly field trips, meal time, free time, reading time, personal projects, life skills (cooking/chores), we would probably be closer to 10-12 hrs of school each day. And none of that includes tests or busy work.
After lunch, the kids usually head outside. When they come in they read, work on a project, or play, I'm not to picky. Chores or "to dos" are done first thing in the morning, so unless there are other things that need to be done with the home or yard then they kids are fine to explore their own intrests for as long as they like.
We try to keep our mornings reserved for "school time", so our afternoons are usually filled with youth activities, scouts, science co-op, appointments, library, reading, shopping, but most importantly, time, space, freedom, and a good adventure!
I still remember years ago, reading a blog post by cloisteredaway about simplicity and it has always stuck with me. In it she says,
"I will give you a hint of my educational philosophy here in a simple list, not because yours should be the same, but to share the ways that homeschooling (and planning) ought to be simplified and allowed room to breathe:
pray and read together
read, write, and draw/paint a little something everyday
practice with numbers
play outside
work with your hands
talk about ideas and happenings in the world
leave some room for the unimaginable"
My goal isn't for my kids to be wealthy
or popular.
It isn't for them to be the smartest
or get into the best school.
It isn't for them to be the best.
My goal for my kids is to be the best version of themselves
to be true to themselves
to love to learn
to have courage
to follow their heart
to dream big
to fight for what they want
and
to never give up.
So I give them time
time to dream
time to fail
time to try again
time to build courage
time to follow their heart
and
time to fight for what they want.
This post is as much for me as it is for all of you that were interested in our plans for the year. I need to remember what is most important in our journey, to see how far we have come, and to see where we are headed next.
I hope it has been helpful. The most important thing to remember is to listen to your heart and do what works for you and your family, we are all different.
xo, Steph
