Homeschool. How do I even do this?

Second to questions about socialization, are questions about curriculum and how I teach my own kids. People often assume that because they aren’t trained (credentialed) teachers, they can’t teach their kids. Friends, that just isn’t true. How can I say that? I can say that because I am a trained (credentialed) teacher. Stay with me…I spent years & years and dollars & dollars to get more than one degree and multiple credentials that tell me that I am qualified to teach children. The funny thing is after all those years of training, I learned more in my first few months of being with actual students than I did sitting in the classroom as a student listening to people TELL me how to teach. Experience is truly the best teacher and if you think about it, if your child is now school age, then you have that many years of experience working with that particular student. You’re off to a great start! There is NO ONE that knows your kid better than you do. No one that will go to the lengths that you will go for your child. No one that would move heaven and earth to get your child what they need like you would. You can teach your own child. The following are some ideas for curriculum & schedules that may help guide you as you start to plan your homeschool. You can do this!

Books & Curriculum

Pre-school and Kindergarten: Play (outdoors as much as possible), crafts (with lots of different textures, materials & techniques), read together, cook together, dress-up, play music & dance, did I mention read together? I am a very firm believer that this age group really doesn’t need much more than all of the above. Kids learn so much through play and by being read to, especially by their parents. There’s an amazing book that explains this so very well called The Unhurried Homeschooler by Durenda Wilson. You can find it on Amazon or at http://durendawilson.com/the-unhurried-homeschooler. In it she explains so beautifully that our children’s childhoods are something that we can never get back once it’s gone and that they certainly shouldn’t be rushed. That being said, there is one “curriculum” that I do use and absolutely love for this age. It’s called Five in a Row and it’s basically a unit study, if you need to call it anything, and it focuses on one good, quality children’s book that you read daily over the course of 5 days and it provides various mini lessons that are built around each book. This is what I will be doing with Miss Marvel this year as she begins Kindergarten. You can find more information here: https://fiveinarow.com

Now, if you’re in a similar situation as me, with multiple kids and the older ones are in grades where textbooks and workbooks are used, the little one may want to have their own school books as mine does, because, you know, big sister is so cool and she wants to do everything she does! Last year I got away with coloring books and blank paper but this year she has shown that she’s wise to me and has requested “real” school books. So, instead of saying to her, “Honey, you’re too young for school books. You need to learn through play”, at which I would get some serious kick back and eye rolls, I went ahead and purchased an inexpensive, fun & colorful math workbook. Another thing that she has ASKED about is learning to read. Like potty training, I have found that teaching my kids to read is so much easier and more productive when they show interest first. I’m not saying there’s no struggle (again, like potty training) but it is just easier. With all my kids we use the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann (available on Amazon). My two older kids learned to read at different ages and you know what? They are both voracious readers now. My point is that letting kids be kids and allowing them to enjoy their childhood without the stress of learning certain skills by a certain age won’t wreck their chances for success later on.

Elementary (grades 1-4) For me, these grades were the easiest in terms of planning and the hardest to actually pull off. Why in the world would the years where the kids’ spelling list consist of words like C-A-T or L-E-T and math problems are literally addition and subtraction be the most difficult to actually carry out? Because when you have any number of children under a certain age, you often feel like you are herding cats. Can I get an Amen?? When my oldest was in 2nd grade, I also had a pre-schooler and an infant. Now, I know many who have more kids in a shorter span and they pull this homeschooling thing off with all the grace in the world, but not me! My favorite curriculum in a box was my lifesaver. I didn’t have to worry about developing my own lessons, where to find the specific book about the particular subject she was interested in AND the teacher guide (I know, a teacher guide for 2nd grade…don’t judge) told me exactly what to do and how to do it so on 2.5 hours of sleep I could still manage to teach my 7 year old. There are lots of these types of curricula but the one I prefer for these grades specifically is Abeka. They have a strong phonics based reading program and their math program is more of a spiral approach (that basically just means lots of review) which I think is really good for building confidence in this age group. We would definitely add our own books and activities outside of the curriculum and I certainly wouldn’t follow it to a tee but it was nice to have what I needed right there, easily accessible. You can find out more about them here: https://www.abeka.com

One thing I have found that is helpful with multiple ages (and we enjoy in our homeschool) is coming all together for history and science. I have found that, for the most part, both of those subjects lend themselves nicely to a wider age range. Usually I will read aloud the text and then the oldest has a more in depth study of the subject (like labs, research reports, etc.), the middle gets a general idea of the topic being studied and the littlest gets exposure to some pretty cool information (and whether or not she fully grasps what we’re studying doesn’t really matter, she’s learning!). I will share our favorites in a future post on Middle School curriculum.

Middle School (grades 5-8) This is my favorite age so far! These kids are becoming much more independent and have opinions of their own and this is the age that I start to include my kids in decision making regarding our plan for the year. They have a say from choosing our topics of study to what kind of curriculum we use. There are some non-negotiables like the fact that we will be studying a science, but I will let them choose which area and then maybe give them 3 curriculum/text choices of which I have researched and am comfortable with them choosing. (I will do another post specifically on what materials/curriculum we usually use for our middle school years later.) I also let them take control of their schedule and let them figure out (in an environment in which they feel safe and secure) what happens when their priorities don’t line up with due dates or when time isn’t well spent studying for a test. Natural consequences are a great teacher.

Calendar & Schedule

We live in a part of the country where our winters & springs are absolutely gorgeous but our summers and into the fall, in most people’s opinions, are pure misery. We have insane heat combined with humidity that has you sweating like a pig just from simply walking to the mailbox. That being said, we like to start our school year mid-July when the weather tends to keep people inside anyway and then take some nice long breaks when the weather is nice…another perk of homeschooling – you create your own schedule! We also follow what is called a Sabbath Schedule which is simply six weeks on/one week off. I read about it in Sarah Mackenzie’s book Teaching from Rest (I highly recommend this book to all homeschoolers – https://readaloudrevival.com/rest/). We were finding that when we would try to stick to the traditional schedule of Monday – Friday, September – June (with the usual breaks for holidays & such), we would all burn out. When I read about Sabbath Schedule and gave it a try, it was a game changer. I found that we were all much more willing and able to stay focused for those six weeks when we knew a week of rest was not too far off. I works great for us.

Now, explaining what our year looks like is much easier than what our days look like. We do lean more toward a traditional approach in the schedule I try to keep for our homeschool, but the reality is that everyday brings the unexpected…good and bad. Something that I’ve learned over the years is because things do come up during the day, it helps to rotate the subjects that you start with each day. That way if you get interrupted 3 days out of the week, they will have gotten into some of each subject rather than skipping the same subject each day because you weren’t able to get to it.

I will say that one thing you can expect if you are transitioning from the school setting to homeschool is you do not need to feel like your kids have to be “doing school” for 8 hours/day. You will find that you are able to accomplish a lot more in a much shorter period of time. There are days that we are done with our school day by lunchtime! Seriously. Although you can expect some delays and interruptions, they certainly aren’t the same kind nor are they as frequent as they are in the typical classroom.

As a family, we do have the kids wake up at a set time (except if they had a late night for whatever reason, like sports or something) and we have breakfast together followed by Bible Study. Once we wrap that up, they all head upstairs to get dressed, brush teeth, etc. and then we get started on our school day. I will usually have the older two start on something that is completely independent so I can focus my attention on the littlest. We try to do something that she enjoys like play Memory or do a puzzle or even play doll house (oddly enough, I always have to be the mom there too). This helps “fill her tank” so to speak and lets her know that she’s important and valued. And then when I do have to spend some one-on-one time with her siblings, she’s not constantly demanding my attention. It’s not a perfect offensive play, but the majority of the time, it does buy me the time I need.

You will find that as with so much of homeschooling, you’ll figure out what works for you & your family and often it looks nothing like what you expected. You may start off with a beautifully detailed schedule and find that it works for no one. Then you’ll change it up a few times before you get your groove. And that’s perfectly fine! You may spend hours pouring over curriculum and settle on the perfect one only to find that by October, you just can’t. Guess what? That’s fine too. So, take this bit of information and use it as a jumping off point and then figure out what works for you and yours. You can do this! You can homeschool your kids!