Homeschooler Mom

This week’s theme for the Home School Blog Awards Memoirs Meme is “Something New!” We’re supposed to write about something new that we’re doing this year.

Well, that’s not hard for me, since homeschooling in general is new to me. With almost three weeks under my belt, I’m realizing there is a lot I could be doing given all the materials I have, but it’s next to impossible to do it all unless I jampack every single day with stuff.

So for now, I’m trying to just take it easy, embrace each learning moment as it comes throughout the day. For example, we went outside to play, and I asked the kids to tell me how many trees were in the yard…we started counting and decided to keep walking around the property. We stumbled across a whole bunch of anthills (which we studied two weeks ago), did a review of that “lesson” and recited our memory verse (Proverbs 6:6) and how we’re applying that lesson to our life each day since we learned it.

Then, while I was working on my laptop, my daughter came over wanting to “write” a letter to friends at church. It’s not always easy to get her to practice writing her letters during “school time”, but at other points in the day, she’s in the mood to write, so I give her letters & numbers to practice…and she’s much more receptive.

While I make a point to read a story to them every day during school time, my son came to me yesterday afternoon specifically asking me to read him a book. So I stopped what I was doing and we read two. It was a welcome break from what I was doing.

I guess the “something new” that I’ve been doing this year is embracing the idea of learning all the time. There are so many learning opportunities that we can easily overlook and while the kids are hungry to learn, we need to feed them…whether it’s “school time” or not.

Being a home educator is not just for homeschooling moms. Parents at large have this privilege. While it can be seen as a responsibility to teach your children, I’m learning more and more that it’s a blessing!

This week (technically, last week…I’m a bit behind) we are talking about homeschool routines. A few years ago I came across FlyLady and she has helped me in so many ways: setting up routines in particular.

It took me a while to figure out that routines actually make everything go smoother. My kids love (& thrive on) them, and that in itself makes my life easier.  If you don’t have some kind of routine in place, I know you must be frustrated. Take it from me, they are worth the trouble of setting them up.

So here’s my homeschool routine:

6:15AM Get out of bed, brush teeth and get “dressed to shoes”

6:30AM - 7:00AM Make Breakfast for kids, Empty Dishwasher

7AM - 7:20AM Eat breakfast

7:20AM - 8AM Take oldest to school

8AM - 8:30AM Kids and I do chores, including laundry

8:30AM Kids play while I catch up on email or do some “zone” housework

9:45AM Put baby to bed

10AM Home School starts with a prayer & a pledge

We pretty much do a hodge podge of stuff starting with a Bible Story, reviewing our weekly Bible verse and doing activities related to that week’s theme. We’ll play alphabet/phonics and numbers games. We’ll do some kind of physical activity and sing some songs, and we’ll do some kind of artwork.

While we don’t always do a craft project or have music time, we always play interactive games, have a story time and practice our letters/sounds & numbers.

12NOON LUNCH (School is over!)

12:30PM Baby gets up from nap & kids watch Caillou.

1PM - 5PM Varies day to day…I really need to come up with more of a routine here so I don’t go batty during this time.

5PM Make dinner

6PM Eat dinner

6:30PM Clean up the kitchen while the kids play

7:30PM Get kids ready for bed

8:00PM - 10:00PM *Me* time

10PM Bedtime (at least this is what I shoot for, but many times this doesn’t happen until 11PM)

Like I said, FlyLady has helped me in so many ways, especially when it comes to gaining more control over my home with routines. While I still need to work on making improvements there, I’m taking “babysteps” and making progress. If you’ve never heard of her, check her out and see how she can help you too.

This week’s theme from the HSBA Homeschool Memoirs 2008-2009 is Homeschool Agendas.

This being my first year as a homeschooling mom, I could have easily been overwhelmed when it came to selecting a curriculum, but I chose to keep it simple.

I did a Google search on “Christian Home School Curriculum” and narrowed down my options to three choices. After deciding on one curriculum in particular, “ABC, I Believe“, several friends from church passed down their new or lightly used preschool-1st grade curriculum/material. So, while I’ve made the ABC curriculum the backbone of my teaching, I supplement it with these other resources.

The ABC Curriculum naturally covers 26 weeks, so I’m having to supplement it with something else for the remainder of the year. I will probably throw in some unit studies around the various holidays and touch on particular areas of interest. I took a sneak peak into the Schoolhouse Planner put out by the Old Schoolhouse Magazine to get some ideas. And my kids are involved with Cubbies as part of the AWANA program at our church. I plan on integrating that into our weekly lesson plans as well.

Another thing I did was I downloaded the Standards of Learning (SOL’s) from my state (Virginia) and am using that as a checklist of things to be sure to cover throughout the year. My kids are only 3 and 4 years old, so I’m not worried about getting everything perfect this go around. But I would like to have my oldest proficient at the Kindergarten level this year (she’ll be 5 in December).

We just completed our first week of school and I found I really need to come up with something to occupy the younger one while I work with the older one (and vice versa). They are only 15 months apart but the two are not at the same level when it comes to letters, sounds and numbers. The problem is the older one wants to demonstrate that she can do what I’m trying to teach the younger one instead of staying focused on what I’ve set up for her to work on. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, but I’d love to hear what others have come up with in similar situations.

School starts next week, and I’m working feverishly to get ready.

I chose a Christian homeschool curriculum several weeks ago and started fixing up my homeschool school room shortly thereafter. This week I’m trying to get organized planning out what I want to accomplish and finish getting my HS room up to par to “start”.

Thankfully, I have an incredible resource of information through the homeschooling families of my home church.

Dana, the lady who heads up our Homeschool Support Group informed me last night that our first meeting is slated to take place at the end of September. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend that, and let me tell you, I’m bummed about that. But I am thrilled at all the materials these ladies have been throwing my way already.

Elizabeth gave me a box full of stuff to go through including some Hooked on Phonics materials. I’m loving that! I haven’t had the chance to really delve into that yet…it’s geared mostly towards the 1st grade. But there were all sorts of flash cards, activity books and such that I know I’ll use this year. She also gave me a catalog for Christian Book Distributors that should help me in figuring out where to buy some popular homeschooling books and materials.

Jennifer gave me a bag of stuff (wipe on/off flash cards and a few books) as well. One thing in particular I enjoyed going through last night was playing with playdough (& saltdough). Wow! I’m excited about incorporating some of the art/craft projects into our weekly lessons. She’s very creative, and I look forward to tapping into her gift.

About two weeks ago I had a great talk with Suzanne who will be homeschooling her girls for the first time this fall since their plans to move this summer fell through. Both she and her husband will be teaching the girls and I’m thrilled to be going through this journey with her. She was a kindergarten teacher last year at a local private school and I expect she can help me in preparing me with what to teach my preschoolers this year.

There are many other moms (& one dad) that I’ve also received some great insight from in the past few months. I look forward to learning more from them, as well as sharing my own experiences with them. You’ll meet each of them in future posts, I’m sure.

If you aren’t tied into a local support group for homeschoolers, I encourage you to call some churches in your area and see if they can put you in touch with some homeschooling families in your area. These individuals will prove to be very helpful in so many ways. Whether it’s finding appropriate curriculum materials, learning about other homeschooling resources or just being able to identify with someone else going through the same journey, having other homeschooler moms (and dads) to turn to is well worth the trouble of seeking them out.

The Homeschool Blog Awards (HSBA) announced the first assignment for the new Homeschool Memoirs meme yesterday: All About You!

“This week, we want to hear about YOU. The author behind the words. The Momma behind all the homeschooling kiddos. Just write up something about you, your family, and your home. How long you’ve been homeschooling and why you decided to homeschool. It doesn’t have to be anything lengthy at all, but we’d love to hear it! You might include a family photo too!”

My name is Carrie and this is my first year homeschooling. I have a 13 year old stepson who’s attending a private school this year, a 4 year old daughter who is chomping at the bit to start school (she’ll be 5 by the end of the year), a 3 year old son who gets excited about learning new things as well, and a 13-month old baby boy.

I decided to start with my daughter this year because she is SO READY and while my 3 year old is still not potty-trained and is a bit behind in his speech, I know he’s ready for a concentrated effort on my part to teach him.

My husband and I work from home on our own internet business. We have several wallcovering websites with our most popular being Wallpaper Illusions, along with a few centered around my passions: writing memoirs and faith, family & freedom.

We live in rural central Virginia on 16+ acres. I grew up in New Jersey and spent summers and Christmases coming down to visit my grandparents here in Virginia. Four years ago I was blessed with the opportunity of purchasing my grandparents farm. With a pond out back (mostly for my husband’s enjoyment), a nature preserve behind our land and rolling hills/pasture all around, the country setting does a body good. I love it!

I graduated from Oral Roberts University with a degree in Accounting. While I pursued a passion for acting on stage in my mid-20s to early-30s and worked as an Accountant, I gave it all up when I met my husband online and became an instant mom (stepmom) in 2001. (The online romance will have to wait for another post.)

I chose to homeschool for several reasons. The main reason is that I believe I can do a better job of teaching my children my values than the public school system can. When I learned that the church I’ve been attending for the past year or so had such a strong homeschool community right here, it gave me the encouragement I needed to take the plunge.

Here’s a picture of my husband and I with our three youngest children:

This was taken in April of this year at a river not too far from home. Our oldest was at a friend’s house that day, so he’s not included in the picture. In fact, I’m having a hard time finding a current picture of him at the moment.

So that’s about all for now. You can learn more about my life at Memoir Lane (I haven’t been very good at keeping that updated, but hope to do so more this fall) and what matters to me at my personal blog.

I opened an email this morning from The Homeschool Blog Awards and was so excited about a new topic being discussed this year, Homeschool Memoirs. This subject carries a particular interest of mine, that of sharing personal life stories through writing & reading memoirs. I’ve felt so passionate about the idea that I started my own website in 2004 called Memoirs By: Me. I’ll write more about that in another post.

The purpose of this meme is to not only keep a “memoir” (posts) of your homeschool year, but to make a way for homeschoolers to get to know each other. Each week, on Wednesdays, we’ll (HSBA) post a new theme and you can participate by posting it on your site with your own homeschool memoirs.”

This is my first time participating in a “meme”, but I’m excited about doing so. In fact, I think I’ll cover it here for all my Homeschooler Mom readers as well as over at my Memoir-Writing and Personal Memoirs blogs.

If you have a blog and are a homeschooler, then I encourage you to join in as well. If you don’t have a blog, then hop on over to MemoirsByMe.com and let me help you get started in sharing your life stories today.

I came across the following video clip on YouTube and it looked so fun…it almost made me want to have more kids (please don’t tell my husband). Watch it for yourself and enjoy!

I’m so blessed to have an area in my house that we can use for our “school room” (not pictured here). Up until now we’ve used it as a “family room”, but that’s in name only. It’s actually been used mostly as a place for me to keep all of my pre-schoolers’ toys that I don’t want cluttering up the main part of the house. The kids occasionally play down there, but mostly they stay upstairs with me.

Well, this year we’re officially making it the school room. Admittedly I was a bit unsure of what to do to create my homeschool room so I checked around to see what other homeschooler moms were doing for their rooms. This is what I found and how I’m incorporating it into our school room:

SHELVING

Shelving is a great way to stay organized.

My husband installed a built in shelving unit late last year, so it’s perfect to keep school stuff up and out of my littlest ones’ reach…now if I can just get my 4 year old to stop climbing chairs to get to her school stuff.

Having a separate shelf for each child, for various subjects (one for art materials, one for science stuff, and one for reading material) and for MY stuff (teachers materials) should make finding and putting things away a breeze for all of us.

READING AREA

Having a place to read to the kids or for them to read by themselves is needed. Whether it’s in the same room or not, it’s a good idea to have a “zone” for that task. Thankfully we already have a couch down there perfect for snuggling up to a good book.

Good lighting is also very important. This is something I need to improve upon in our room. Right now we just have one table lamp. While I don’t believe we’ll put in a ceiling fixture, we can certainly have more table/floor lamps strategically placed throughout the room, being careful to hide electrical cords. (I have to still keep this room toddler proof…my 12 month old is pretty mobile these days.)

WORK STATION: TABLE/DESK AND CHAIR

Having a place for the kids to sit and write/draw unimpeded is very important. We have a small table with two small chairs right now, but I think I need something more in case they both want to work at the same time. The table is great for them to play together on, but not so great for them to work on separate projects at the same time.

We have a student chair in storage I will pull out. It’s a bit cumbersome, but serves an important purpose.

MEDIA STATION

Having an area to play music and/or instructional material is beneficial, though not necessary. We already have a TV with VCR/DVD/CD player down there. There’s no antenna reception for the TV down there, so the TV-viewing is limited to what we have in our video library, which is fine with me.

COMPUTER CENTER

There are many great educational resources (CD-ROMs) available for all ages. Up until now I haven’t allowed my children on the computer, but I can see incorporating this into their lives could be beneficial. I think I’m going to hold off on that (unless someone can give me some GOOD reasons why I shouldn’t).

Otherwise I have a laptop which I use on a regular basis, and that goes wherever I go (wireless internet access is a beautiful thing). Also, I have an office separate from this room where my printer is housed along with all my files and office supplies…it’s easy enough to get to when I need it, but out of the way enough to not to disturb our schooling activities.

WALLS

The walls are a great place for housing all sorts of valuable resources. Things such as:

• a Calendar and Schedule
• a Clock for keeping and teaching time
• a Map for teaching geography
• Posters, charts, signs & pictures to promote whatever you want (ie. Alphabet, Numbers, Bible Verses, Character Traits, Colors, Shapes, etc.)
• a White Board or Chalk Board to write assignments or teach lessons on.
• a Bulletin Board
• Artwork

Having a place to hang a calendar is great for both the teacher and the student. My daughter is learning the days of the week and we’ve used the Kitchen calendar in the past for a sticker showcase for both my preschoolers potty-training successes. We like calendars.

I have both a White Board and a Bulletin Board that I still have to mount on the wall. And we have peel and stick alphabet decals that I’ll put up. This reminds me, there are so many removable wall appliques/decals available today to help promote various themes. Whether you’re teaching about dinosaurs, outer space, animals/wildlife, plants/flowers, or colors/shapes, you can find this easy-to-apply and remove wall art to complement your lessons.

CONCLUSION

While there may be more great ideas out there, this is what I’ve come up with for creating a schoolroom in our home. If you have any more suggestions on how I can get things set up based on your experience, please feel free to share them with me. I’m just getting started and I can use all the help I can get. Thanks.

I’ll post pictures when we get the room up and ready…hopefully before school starts! For more great pictures of the Homeschool Blogger’s room pictured above, visit Less of Me, More of Him.

Technorati Tags: homeschool, schoolroom, classroom

I’m so excited about starting to home school my 3 and 4 year olds this fall. I started looking into Christian Homeschool Curriculum this evening and this is what I found in my Google Search:

1. Sonlight Curriculum - They offer a preschool program for 3-4 year olds: P3/4 Fiction, Fairy Tales & Fun for Little Learners. This basically includes a bunch of books and some craft materials. All about $270.
2. My Father’s World - They offer a 3-4 year old program which basically consists of mostly toys to teach fine motor skills, the alphabet, numbers and shapes. All for about $100.
3. Danielle’s Place - They offer an “ABC, I Believe” Bible Study Curriculum for preschool through 3rd grade. It’s 26 weeks of lessons (with the first four free) focusing on a letter each week. This seems like a lot more hands on involvement and covers learning a memory verse and a weekly teaching concept. It incorporates games, crafts, songs, food, handwriting, science, numbers, letters, reading, and physical fitness. All of this for about $13.

From what I’ve found so far, I’m leaning towards the “ABC, I Believe” Bible Study Curriculum for several reasons. Besides the fact that it appears to be the cheapest (I don’t know how much all the supplies are going to end up costing me), I like the weekly Bible-based themes and the creativity built into each lesson. They offer a lot of great resources & ideas with each lesson, and I can see myself really enjoying preparing for and teaching the lessons.

For those who are like me and have easy access to a computer (with a DSL-connection) and a printer, this last choice seems like an excellent one. However, if you don’t have high-speed internet access or a decent printer, then you might want to go with one of the other two options.

I will say that the “My Father’s World” was recommended to me by a trusted friend who has homeschooled all four of her children with it. I signed up for a free catalog and will keep it in mind, but in the meantime, I’m going to test drive the first four FREE lessons offered in the “ABC, I Believe” program.

I’ll keep you posted as to how that goes.

Technorati Tags: christian homeschool curriculum, homeschooling