School Daze

Oh, about a week ago I promised pictures of us doing school when I posted pictures of some of our organizational systems. Better late than never? I have a few excuses, and they're even good ones, but I'll spare you and get to the point.


JW studying his Yo, Millard Fillmore book, a sequenced cartoon picture-recognition method of memorizing the presidents in order (you really have to see it to understand; sorry for my awkward explanation)


MA working in her Miquon book with her Cuisenaire Rods


Figured out the answer!



And afterwards, she got to free-play with the rods. This second one is the L family, ex-pat friends here in town. Two of the children are being held, hence their "flotation" in the air, according to MA. The two older girls' ages even correspond to the value of the rods used to make them.


MS moved to the dining table to work at some point this day, since he had a sore throat and wanted some hot tea. We have been choosing to work in the Family Area most recently, but I didn't want to risk the tea spilling.


Meanwhile, ZL played on the computer.


And read books.


And ML fixed the washing machine. (Yay Daddy!)


And, as a treat, I let them all listen to their memorization songs at the same time (they normally listen individually) while drinking cocoa (we had a late-season cold snap that week). Notice how far I had them sitting from the computer. :-/

For a more detailed description of our school day, read this post. Today was more a visual tour. :-)

A Place for Everything (Mom, don't laugh)

I actually remembered to take pictures during school time yesterday. I think I was motivated by the fact that we will be moving (to a new house in the area) in August (more on that later), and we're starting to pack for the US, so I don't know when the house will look quite the same again. I guess, technically, never, since it will be a different house.

I have some shots of the kids doing school, which I will post soon (possibly later today), but since I actually managed to have a post showing a setup that works in our house on a Wednesday, I decided to grab all the gusto I can get and do a Works For Me Wednesday post. Who knows if I'll actually get around to linking it on her post, but it still counts, right?



So, for now, I'm going to share the basics of how our daily work books and read-alouds are organized. I would show our readers and out-of-rotation read-aloud shelf, but, well, it's not that presentable right now. Maybe after we move.


After trying out having each child have a shelf or a 1/2 shelf in a cabinet to house their school books (workbooks, artpacs, mapwork, current readers, etc.) and having them avalanche constantly, we settled on "School Books Bins." MA's and JW's are stored on this little shelf under a coffee table in our family area. MS actually has a plastic basket (somehow I managed not to get a picture of his), because his won't fit in this sized bin, and it's stored underneath one of our family room chairs. The added benefit is that they can bring their basket or bin to where we're schooling, if it's somewhere other than the family area, which the boys do on Tuesdays when we have a meeting at our house.

In this picture you will also see my crochet bag (which I often work on while supervising schoolwork; it keeps me sitting) and a cloth wipes box (okay, a recycled disposable wipes box). A fairly appropriate homeschooling hodge-podge, I thought.


After running to the shelf daily for the read-alouds we needed (where they were shelved with all the read-alouds for the year), we settled on a "school books basket" that houses all of our current read-alouds (literature, science, history and Bible) and that year's Language Arts Instructor's Guides for handy access.


We started schooling with a pencil box for each child that housed their crayons, colored pencils, pencils, scissors, glue, ruler, etc. I had fond memories of my pencil box from when I went to school in England, and it sounded like a good idea at the time. Only no one ever had what they needed in their own box, and they were constantly having to borrow from one another, and the boxes took up precious shelf room for nothing. So, we now have the "Pencil Box," which is technically the "Pencil+ Box," as you can see from the label, because it houses pencils (periodically sharpened by Mommy, because there is a pencil sharpener-eating monster in our house, and Mommy's the only one who can manage to keep up with hers...barely), scissors, and glue. The first person to get started on his/her schooling in the morning (and, therefore, require a pencil) is responsible for bringing the Pencil Box to wherever we're working (usually either the family area or the dining table, but sometimes the kitchen or the kids' room on meeting days). The last person finished is responsible for putting it away.


The Pencil Box's cousin is the "Color Box," which houses all crayons, markers and colored pencils. It is not always needed, but if someone needs it (and, most days, there's either an art project, mapwork or a Miquon page that needs colors), they are responsible for bringing it to our study area. And the last person finished puts it away at the same time as the Pencil Box.


All of our assignments are tracked on Homeschool Tracker where I laid them out at the beginning of the school year and assign them according to our school day calendar each six weeks. Even Mommy has assignments. I have all of our read-aloud assignments assigned to me. I tried e-mailing PDF versions of the kids' assignment sheets to them, but someone was always doing something on their computer when they needed to check them to see what they had next, and then I had to check them off on my computer, anyway, so now we just all work off of my laptop, which goes with us wherever we are in the house.


MA and JW both have a "Letters Page" and a "Number Line." Actually, they're supposed to have a Number Line per math book, so two each, one for Miquon and one for Singapore, but I think by this point in the year they may only each have one that just floats in their school books bin and is retrieved when needed. These help with basic letter/number formation in the beginning and are referred to to avoid reversals after that point. The number line goes to 20, and so can also be used for basic addition and subtraction, if needed. These were both created using StartWrite handwriting software, and I print new ones out (usually in new colors) at the beginning of each school year.

For long-term homeschoolers, I'm sure none of this is earth-shattering, but maybe you'll find an idea that's just what you've been needing. If you're starting out, hopefully it can spark a solution that would work perfectly for your family.

Our School Day

I had an e-mail from a new friend the other day* asking a few questions. Among them, she wanted to know what curriculum we use and what our school day looks like. She and her family are moving to our area of the world this spring, and she will begin homeschooling at that point. Although she has been a classroom teacher in the past, she has this wild idea that homeschooling will be somewhat different. Hm, probably because it will be. Anyway, I'm shamelessly cutting and pasting from my e-mail reply to share with you here.

The short answer is that we use Sonlight. We are, by definition, a "Sonlight Family." The literature-rich educational track very much fits who ML and I are (basically, bibliovores :-). It also fits with the educational philosophy I was taught under at Baylor, which I really resonated with. In my earliest days of planning to homeschool (before we had kids, even, when I knew I would be raising kids overseas), what I thought out is exactly what Sonlight has done for me. Bottom line, I have come to realize just in the last year that my personal educational philosophy is to surround my kids with books and then supplement with workbooks, as needed.

Now, when I say we use Sonlight, that's going to look very different from someone who orders the deluxe, all-in-one package and teaches straight from the Instructor's Guide. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing just that, and it will get your kids a great education. Curriculum planning, though, was my favorite part of teacher training and of teaching public school (6th grade Language Arts, Reading and History for two years), so while I am infinitely grateful to Sonlight for all of the planning they do for me, I just can't leave it alone. :-P

For example, we're finishing up Core 4 right now, having done Cores K-3 the previous years (and bits and pieces of Core Pre-K 4/5 here and there for whomever it was age-appropriate), but for K, I added lots of sequels, and for Cores 1-4, I have rearranged them to flow with the Story of the World series, books 1-4, which we've read as our history "spine" each year (Sonlight uses two different spines over those four years). If you want to see how I laid all that out, I'd be happy to show it to you, but I share that more to say: you can make whatever you pick work for you.

CM, for example, when she homeschooled her kids, used a workbook curriculum that some would consider very dry. She, though, supplemented with so many fun projects and tie-ins that many, if not most, of her homeschool days looked a heck of a lot more fun than ours. :-)

As for our homeschool days, I'll lay out a basic one for you. Of course, it doesn't always go like this, actually, but this is the general flow (keep in mind, this is with a 4th and 2nd grader and a K'er, so it's much more intense than when they were younger).

We start schoolwork after breakfast, between 8 & 9, ideally closer to 8, but we sometimes have late nights, so occasionally it's even 10 (devotionals and Bible reading happen before breakfast, so I don't include that as part of the school day). We start with "independent work," which includes their Math (currently, we do Singapore and Miquon and the boys have drill books from Rod & Staff with a 1/2 page of basic problems to quickly work) and Language Arts (sometimes more independent than others) every day and art, music, map work, timeline, science and/or history projects, depending on the day.

I lay out each book at the beginning of the year and input them into a software program called Homeschool Tracker. Each six weeks, I then lay that out into daily assignments, so they know to check my computer for their list when they need to know what to do. I'm sitting with them during this time (unless I'm off changing a diaper), but I'm not always available to give the next assignment, if I'm helping someone else. They come to me when they have questions, and I'm just generally interacting with them as they do their work, so although we call it independent work, it's still pretty hands-on for me (I often knit or crochet to keep me sitting still; I find if I'm on the computer, I'm not as tuned in as I need to be, even if I'm still sitting right there).

When they've finished with their independent work (which is usually youngest to oldest, since my K'er has just a few things she works on), they listen to their memorization songs on their computer (in another room). In their assignments, I list which songs they're supposed to memorize each week, and MS sets those up in playlists at the beginning of the week with each song repeated three times, so they just listen through their playlists each day. This year, this includes two Wee Sing America songs, a Bible memory song (we've finished the GodRocks! series and just started Seeds Family Worship), and a Schoolhouse Rock multiplication song for all of them (the multiplication song was just supposed to be for JW, but MA and MS wanted them, too, because they are actually videos, and they enjoy them). MS also has a geography song to listen to about every other week. This year, his are US geography. When we start back through our four-year cycle of history, JW and MA will also have geography songs.

At this point, I don't quiz them on their songs. They just listen to them, and in the process, usually memorize them. I plan to be more purposeful about making sure they're memorizing the second time we use these same songs when they're older (although probably not with the Wee Sing America songs, since it's mainly things like Yankee Doodle Dandy :-). Many people have the kids listen to songs at the same time and sing them together. For us, it's more difficult/disruptive to try to find a time that everyone's at a good stopping point or just stop everyone in the middle of something to do this. Up until now, we've still done this weekly to watch our science DVD (since I'm not the best about getting around to the science experiments, I'm super-grateful that Sonlight provides a DVD demonstrating them), and once a week is hard enough. Next year, I think I'm going to rip the DVD and import the experiments into iTunes to include in their memorization songs time, too.

After memorization songs, they each do a lesson of Rosetta Stone Arabic and then have "learning game" time. This rotates between computer, LeapPad, Leapster and Wii. They pick what they play, but it has to be educational (and I make the call on that). Some days, MSi and JW do not get to this point, since they have a decent amount of work to do and/or they dawdle. It's a nice incentive, though, for them to work quickly.

During this time, as long as they've been putting effort into their work, they can get a snack (most often fruit) once breakfast starts to wear off. We break for lunch later or they eat as they finish their independent work, either before or after doing computer schoolwork.

Usually, we then have rest time, which is reading (Sonlight or history-related readers, unless they're way ahead of the game in these). After a little while, I will allow MA (my K'er) to move on to listening to audio books or songs on the iPod once she's read for long enough (she was an early reader, but she still has an age-average attention span).

After rest time, we do read-alouds, which is literature every day, history 1-2 days/week and science 1 day/week. MS has outlining to do for each history chapter and a test to take afterwards (another thing which MA and JW will join in on next time through history).

And that's our school day.

Oh, and what's my 3-year-old doing this whole time? Unfortunately, spending way too much time on the computer, but also often playing independently or sitting to be read a book or stopping in for a snuggle in my lap. Next year, he will be more incorporated into our routine. He's very introverted, though, so it suits him well to kind of keep out of the thick of things at this point, and I make sure he gets some one-on-one attention later in the day, in addition to what he gets during school time.

*(read: over a month ago. I'm very bad about putting off things that I think will take a while to do. Like e-mails that require more than one-sentence replies. I'm working on that. I promised I would reply to her follow-up questions with less than a month turn-around. I'm sure that encouraged her.)

I Corinthians 13...for homeschooling moms

I missed this on the SL forums, because I've been hanging mainly on the International Board, but BETHANY posted it on her blog, and I got the author's permission to re-post it here (see Misty's original post).

Wow, it speaks to some of the primary struggles of homeschooling moms. I'm going to need to revisit it periodically.

So, whether you're a homeschooling mom yourself or know someone who is or would just like a peek into that "foreign culture," I present "I Corinthians 13 for the Homeschooling Mom."

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and teach my children Latin conjugations, Chinese and Portuguese, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, and no matter what I say, they will not hear me.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know my children’s bents and God’s plan for their lives, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and am the keeper of the teacher’s editions and solutions manuals, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and even keep up with my giant piles of laundry and dishes, but do not have love, I am nothing, even if all the people at church think I’m Supermom.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and my formal dining room gets turned into a schoolroom and our family vacations look more like educational fieldtrips, and if I surrender my body to be burned, never having time to get my nails done, put makeup on or even take a bath, but do not have love, it profits me nothing, because all my family cares about is the expression on my face, anyway.

Love is patient with the child who still can’t get double-digit subtraction with borrowing, and kind to the one who hasn’t turned in his research paper. It is not jealous of moms with more, fewer, neater, more self-directed, better-behaved or smarter children. Love does not brag about homemade bread, book lists, or scholarships and is not arrogant about her lifestyle or curriculum choices. It does not act unbecomingly or correct the children in front of their friends. It does not seek its own, trying to squeeze in alone time when someone still needs help; it is not provoked when interrupted for the nineteenth time by a child, the phone, the doorbell or the dog; does not take into account a wrong suffered, even when no one compliments the dinner that took hours to make or the house that took so long to clean.

Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness or pointing out everyone else’s flaws, but rejoices with the truth and with every small step her children take in becoming more like Jesus, knowing it’s only by the grace of God when that occurs.

Love bears all things even while running on no sleep; believes all things, especially God’s promise to indwell and empower her, hopes all things, such as that she’ll actually complete the English curriculum this year and the kids will eventually graduate, endures all things, even questioning from strangers, worried relatives, and most of all, herself.

Love never fails. And neither will she. As long as she never, never, never gives up.

Misty Krasawski, December 8, 2008