Two things I’ve learned since we’ve started homeschooling

Three and a half years ago I wasn’t sure exactly how homeschooling would work for my family.  My oldest had completed Kindergarten, and while we thought everything was fine, we saw changes that we didn’t like.  Gone was the strict phonics based reading that she had learned at home the year before Kindergarten, instead she was confused by little pictures and bored with sight word stories that made little sense.  She was stressed with interpersonal issues that a 5 year old shouldn’t have to deal with.  She cried every Thursday as she faced timed Math tests.   She was coming unraveled.  She wanted to excel, but when she did she was placed in a peer group of children she could “mentor.”  Her bright and joyful disposition became shadowed and stressed.  

Our first year of homeschooling was a challenge to say the least.  We had Naomi starting first grade,  4-year-old Rebekah, and 1-year-old Nathaniel.  The transition home was harder than I thought it would be.  But I learned some important lessons since we’ve started not so long ago.

My first big lesson was taught to me by Rebekah.  She loved homeschooling.  I had no intention of starting her until her age fell in line with that of her peers would be attending school.  I figured this would give me time to get a handle on what I was doing.  Rebekah asked me when she was 4 to teach her how to read.  She accused me of wanting her to be dumb when I put her off, and finally I had a moment when it clicked--I realized here was a child who wanted to learn, I should teach her regardless of her age.  There is no age limit to curiosity.  Of course, this natural desire to learn can backfire.  Now four years old himself, spouting off facts that he’s learned by listening in on his sisters’ physics lessons, Nathaniel joyfully experimented with gravity.  No one was injured, nothing important was broken.

My second big lesson came this year.  Naomi is not fond of language arts.  Somehow last year our program did not work for her.  I bemoaned her atrocious spelling and worried about her writing skills. By the middle of spring, I realized that I was failing to teach Naomi in a manner that she could understand.  By the end of the year, I decided to “fail” Naomi in language arts.  In reality, it wasn’t so much a decision; it was an all out failure on my part to teach her adequately.  Up to this point, I never thought about a child who has failed at something, or how the method of learning and the method of teaching can vary so greatly.  The onus falls on me to teach my children in the manner that best serves them.  We don’t despair about failing though, we try something else.  Fortunately, we’ve found an English curriculum that makes sense to Naomi.

If I had known even these two things, which it’s ok to try again, that it’s ok to follow your child’s natural inclinations maybe our homeschooling would have been a little less fraught with anxiety.  

How we work it all out

I am sometimes asked how I schedule our days.  I always want to laugh, because really, I don't schedule our days.  Scheduling implies that we have a time line to follow, that we might know what we are doing.  We don't.  This is my third year of homeschooling and we still don't know what we are doing.  But for the curious, here is the basic breakdown:

We are all usually up before 8 o'clockish and have breakfast around 8:30.  We mostly eat breakfast together as a family.  Then the short people are supposed to go get dressed and get ready to face the day.  Usually this works out to mean that around 9:00 I realize they are all hiding somewhere reading, so I have to get after them to get dressed, make beds and face the day.  Fifteen minutes later, I have to get after them again.  Hopefully, by 9:30 we are ready to start school, but that might actually not happen until 10:00.  I suppose that I could be stricter with the chores and getting ready in a timely manner, but I enjoy my coffee, straighten up the kitchen and such, and face the day slowly.

We have what we call "couch time", which is when we tackle Bible, History, Memorization, Geography, Readers, Literature and Poetry.  I follow the schedule that we get from Sonlight for those subjects, and I aim for 4 days of work a week (although I use the 5-day schedule in the curriculum).  This year we added in Christian Studies from Memoria Press to see if we like it, so that is also included in couch time, as well as the readings for Latin and Physics.

Usually, we break from the couch, put things away and have lunch and play time.  We reconvene close to 1:00 for "table time".  This is usually when The Boy is sent to bed for a nap.  Coincidentally, he plays during couch time, unless I have a hint of foresight and print him off a coloring sheet to go with what the girls are learning.  Table time isn't scheduled other than the stack of written work comes out and is tackled. We hit the subjects that require more direct supervision first.

Over the course of a week we watch the Latin DVD, work on drill sheets and derivative sheets, read and review history, work through exercises in the books and a quick quiz at the end of a lesson.  English is completed together with direct instruction, as well as Spelling.  Math and Cursive are worked on individually with facilitation.  Physics is done 3 times a week.  We read the chapter during couch time on one day, the next day we complete the experiment, and the third day we finish the follow-up.

Normally, we are done around 2:30-3:30 for school work.  But its not unusual for someone to finish something up a little later, or for someone to go back to a subject and work on another part or section.  If a day spirals out of control and things don't get done, I will require them to work on something after dinner, or before breakfast the next morning.  Sometimes Physics is taught by the Man, in the evenings.  We aren't tied to any sort of schedule, and there are days where we don't get half of this done, but call it a good day because we were together.

One thing is that while I have 5-day schedules, and I buy 5-day curricula, we very rarely work 5 days a week.  Some days we are tired, some days we are lazy, and some days we just want to have fun, or do chores, or any number of things that distract us.

So that in a nutshell (emphasis on NUT), is how our week works.  Far from a schedule, but we have a general routine we keep up.