Hi everyone! I know, I know. It's been over a year since I posted a new blog entry, but things have been BUSY! For starters Luke Timothy Garrett arrived into our lives in January AND we have ANOTHER little one on the way!! After the devastating loss of our daughter, Shiloh, in November 2010, we are feeling abundantly blessed to have more children!! SO, life is good and crazy and amazing. But I hopped on here to post a blog about home education- Not to convince anyone to do it (although I think it's one of the biggest blessings of our lives), to tell you how to do it, or to talk about why we do it. I have been wanting a place where I can send people who ask about our home education experience- a place where they can see what goes on around here. I have lots (and lots) of friends who message me and want to know how to homeschool or what it entails and this way I can at least show them what it looks like for US. Now, clearly it looks different for each individual family and child, but I do want to show what we use, and how our average day goes, just to show that if I can do it, anyone can. (wink) So below I will talk about how our schedule goes on any given day, or at least how it mostly goes. As a mom of several little ones I must be flexible and that is part of the JOY of home education. So our schedule does vary at times, but this is basically what it looks like.....
The above is a page from my planner. (I print these out for free on www.donnayoung.org) This is the page I use for the subjects we do together. I ONLY plan SPECIFICALLY for one day ahead, in pencil no less. That way if things change up a little I can adjust as I go. I do however look over the entire unit or more ahead of time and get a general idea of when we need to be finished with each one. I hope that you will be able to see these pictures clear enough to see the details. I took all of the pictures on today's post with my phone- easy is better when you are busy, busy.
The first block is the block for History. It says:
'A First Book in American History'
pg. 46-48
Henry Hudson
The second block is a rotating box that changes each day for the following subjects- Art, Vocabulary, Geography, Timeline, and History Activity. It says:
Wax Paper Art Project
Vocabulary- Unit 3, Day 3
Geography- Compass Activity
History Activity- Rivers
The reason why this box is so full is because we are playing catch up in this area from my OB appointment this week and Luke being sick one day this week. See where flexibility comes in handy? We are a month (at least- more in some areas) into our school year already and we school year round so we have wiggle room. When you home educate you have to make room for real life folks. Back to the rotating box- this box would TYPICALLY only have one of these activites listed for the day.
The next box is the poetry box. It says:
'Sea Fever' (the poem for the unit)
-Similes- (we will be covering similes on Monday)
The next box is the bible/music box. It says:
Proverbs 16:2-3
Boldness (the current character trait)
Hand Motions (that we use to memorize the passage)
We are also learning hymns this year, but we really only do music a couple of times a week.
The next box is the storytime box. It says:
Chapter 12 from 'Ben and Me' (By Robert Lawson)
The title in this box varies as we read aloud a different title or two for each genre of literature. This title is one of our biography choices.
The next box is the science box. It says:
Egg Experiment
Beak Experiment
Erosion Experiment
(notebook)
We place all of our experiment questions, hypotheses, results, etc. in a three ring binder. We are also behind a little in this subject, but only on the experiments. We caught up on our book work today. (Yay!) So we are planning on an 'Experiment Day' on Monday. The kids are looking forward to it. They LOVE science experiements. The science box also rotates somewhat. One day might be a notebooking day where we categorize something or draw and label something, etc. Another day might be an experiment and yet another day is simpler book work with narration. It keeps things interesting.
The last box is the vocabulary box. Because even though we have a rotating box for vocabulary I prefer to do a little extra in this area, so we use an extra curriculum for it. It says:
'Words of the Week' (our curriculum)
IMPRESSIVE (the word of the day)
The above are pictures from my teacher's guide, 'Bigger Hearts for His Glory' from Heart of Dakota publishers. www.heartofdakota.com It is geared towards children ages 7-9. Hannah sits in on these lessons, even though she is 5, because she is enjoys it and she actually learns a lot. She has her own time with mommy for certain subjects that she must have on her ability level. No worries. This guide also has an Expansion Pack for 10 and 11 year olds. This allows Eli and Lydia to do a lot of their work together, but it also gives Elijah extra work to do on his own which expands on the information and really challenges him for his age. It really works out great! We LOVE Heart of Dakota's stuff! In the first picture above you can see the entire left side of the lesson plans for one day. It shows the history, rotating, poetry, bible study, and music boxes that we do together every day. The other pictures show the science and story time box that we do together from the other lesson plan page (there are two pages each day). We use various other curriculums for language arts and math, so I didn't show those boxes from page 2. I will get to that soon. We have all of the books that the lesson plans state we should have for each subject. The curriculum uses real, living books for each subject instead of dry textbooks and that is part of why we love it so much. So the book she lists for each subject will vary throughout the year.
This is a picture of the books that are listed in the lesson plans that go with each subject. They vary, like I said, but these are the ones we are using currently. *The big yellow book (Bigger Hearts for His Glory) is my teacher's guide where all of my lesson plans are written for me (for the most part). I don't know if you can tell, but it is tabbed so that I can quickly find the poem we need, Eli's or Lydia's reading schedule, etc.
*The blue and red book is 'A First Book in American History' which is our current history title.
*The book to the left, on top, is 'Ben and Me' our current literature title for our biography genre. We read this during storytime.
*The book underneath our biography is 'One Small Square; Seashore' and it's our current science title.
*The book under our science title is 'Words of the Week' and it is the extra vocabulary curriculum that we use. We learn five new words a week (related to a picture that they "study") that have basically the same meaning as one another. It's a simple and effective way to expand their vocabulary. It is published by Queen Homeschool Supplies www.queenhomeschool.com and is not part of our Heart of Dakota stuff. We love Queen too!
*The book in the back is one of our 'Life of Fred' math books. We have several and Eli and Lydia are both using 'Life of Fred.' It is it's own curriculum and it's not part of our Heart of Dakota stuff either. It is, however, recommended by Queen Homeschool Supplies and you can even order it through them.
These pictures are also from my teacher's guide.
*The top left is a small portion of Lydia's reading schedule for the books on her reading level. I do use that portion of Heart of Dakota's language arts. It's an excellent list of well chosen titles. Everything from Amelia Bedelia to First Flight (the Wright Brothers) to Buffalo Bill. She really enjoys them.
*The top right is a small portion of Eli's reading schedule for his expansion pack. This additional reading provides the extra work that he needs to be challenged at his age and ability level. Some of the books he will be reading this year (at 10) are on a 7.5 grade level- and he is meeting the challenge.
*The bottom picture is part of the index for the poems that we will be studying this year. All of the poems are located in the appendix of the teacher's guide so that makes it VERY handy.
*The left picture is of some additional books that we will use this year. Some are our other science and history titles, some are our additional literature titles, and there are a couple of DVDs in there too (on some of the missionaries that we are studying this year).
*The right picture is of some of our Life of Fred math titles. The rest are being used.
This picture is of another page from my planner. This is Elijah's page for all of his individual work that needs to be completed throughout the week. He is 10 years old. Again, I ONLY plan ONE day ahead. So this page is for next week, starting on Monday. On Monday afternoon I will likely plan for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Just in case you can't see it clearly....the top box is History and it says-
Weekly Reading:
'A Child's History of America' pg. 15-16/pg. 23-25
'Pocahontas and the Strangers' up to chapter 12
The second box is Science and it says-
Weekly Reading:
'Exploring Planet Earth' pg. 16-22 with questions
The third box is Handwriting and it says-
'Pictures in Cursive' Week 4, Day 5
The fourth box is Language Arts and it says-
Language Lesson 23
The fifth box is Literature and it says-
Weekly Reading:
'Old Yeller'
The sixth box is Math and it says-
'Life of Fred' Chapter 11
The seventh box is Spelling and it says-
'Learning to Spell Through Copywork, Book B'
Week 1, Day 4
Here is a picture of the bulk of Elijah's books. On the left is his extra reading titles for history and science and on the right is his Language Lessons for the Elementary Child book from Queen Homeschool, his handwriting book from Queen Homeschool, and his Spelling book from Queen Homeschool. The composition book is where we record our vocabulary words from the vocabulary box in my teacher's guide. He also has a three ring binder that is divided for math, science notebooking, and history notebooking. The binder also holds his memory verse cards, his timeline, and a pencil pouch for pencils, crayons, glue, erasers, etc.
Here is a stack of some of the other books that Elijah will be reading this year, either for science and history, or literature.
I'm throwing this picture in in case I forget to later. It's kind of random. These are the books we are reading, throughout the year, on some amazing missionaries. We are reading about Amy right now.
Here is Elijah's current literature title.
Here is Lydia's planner page. She is 7 years old.
The first box is the Handwriting box and it says-
'Printing With Pictures; Book A'
Week 7, Day 2
The second box is the Language Arts box and it says-
Language Lesson 29
(in case you are wondering, the Language Lessons curriculum includes grammar, writing, spelling, poetry, art, etc.)
The third box is the Literature box and it says-
'Early Reader's Bible' pg. 114-121
This is where Lydia reads a book from the list that Heart of Dakota recommends and she follows the recommended schedule that I posted a picture of above.
The fourth box is the Math box and it says-
'Life of Fred' Chapter 11
The fifth box is the Spelling box and it says-
'Learning to Spell Through Copywork; Book A'
Week 1, Day 4
(I just recently added this separate spelling curriculum because I felt the Heart of Dakota plans for spelling were not as challenging as I would have liked.)
Here is the bulk of Lydia's books- minus the many literature titles she will read this year. From top to bottom:
Language Lessons for the Young Child (from Queen)
Learning to Spelling Through Copywork, Book A (from Queen)
Printing With Pictures, Book A (from Queen)
her vocabulary composition notebook
and her current reading title
Lydia also has a binder, divided the same way Elijah's is
Here is Hannah's planner page. She is five years old.
The first box is the Handwriting box and it says-
'Printing With Pictures; Primer' Lesson 21
The second box is the Language Arts box and it says-
Language Lesson 35
Her Language Lesson book is also a complete phonics program as well as several other things pertaining to language arts at her age.
The third box is the Phonics box and it says-
Review letters A, B, C, D, E
Focus on Letter F
Bob Books
We do little activities to reenforce what she is learning in her Language Lesson. Hands on letter activities, read alouds, etc.
The fourth box is the Math box and it says-
'Earlybird Math' pg. 59+
She's using Singapore math, currently. She is blazing through it, however, so I will be ordering Queen Homeschool's early math soon.
Here are Hannah's books- minus the read alouds we use. From top to bottom:
Language Lessons for Little Ones
Printing With Pictures; Primer
Earlybird Math
Thinking Skills; grade one (she uses this a couple of times a week to learn problem solving, fine motor skills, and some extra math skills)
and her box of BOB Books- Alphabet
She also has a binder so that she can "work" with us when she wants- she draws the pictures for science, listens to the stories, labels her drawings, etc.
My planner binder also holds the calendar for the year, an attendance record, a detailed list of our curriculums and schedule, a running list of books we read, a list of field trips that we take/movies we watch/etc. for the year, and all of the rest of my home management stuff like budget, bills, menus, etc. Although I think I am about to move all of my school stuff to a separate binder- it's getting TOO fat.
Our typical schedule consists of starting in the morning, when possible, and doing all of the subjects, that the kiddos can do together, first. Then they each separate to work on their individual work with my help and/or guidance. I check things off as they are completed and they don't get to move forward until their work is above satisfactory. If we start by 9:00 we are typically done by 12:30 or so. Really. We are. It's fabulous. The afternoons include things like gymnastics, playing, piano, or violin lessons. Honestly, home education is a lifestyle and our kiddos never really stop learning. Our schedule allows for exploration, imagination, and the time to study things that they just plain enjoy. So this schedule is more about our "formal" lesson time. I hope this gives you an idea of how simple I try to keep things and how we organize the academics portion. The pictures I posted of the kids' individual books- those books are stored in little red boxes along with their binders, on top of a chest I have on the landing (upstairs). My books and the extra titles are held either in a big basket, all lined up, or on a bookshelf that is specfically for school items. We also have a large world map, globe, bulletin board, pencil sharpener, flashcards, games, math manipulatives, etc. like anyone else might have to educate children. If you have ANY questions feel free to leave me a comment and if there is anything that you would like me to add, that I didn't add, just let me know!
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