For the past few months my husband and I have been discussing how we want our children to be educated.
Until now, I've homeschooled them until they started kindergarten - and then they went to public school. But this year, with our Little Man headed out the door, we've really been evaluating our educational values. Do we want to emphasize academics? Character? Faith? The physical body - sleep, health, sports? Family time?
We've decided that homeschooling works best for us. It will allow us to blend our values with the gifts, talents, and needs that our children have.
So today I'm really excited about a whole school year full of ...
Crayon County and the Redwood State Park (ing lot).
Crazy art projects and economics projects and lunches as a family. They're especially fun at Chick Fil-A!
More book clubs and hands-on learning and friend time and lots and lots of books.
Trying new things.
Exploring interests further. If this guy doesn't become a spare-time mechanic when he's older, I'll be shocked!
I love my family, and I love to teach, and I'm really excited about us all being able to learn together full-time. This next year will definitely be an adventure!
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**This year, with one in kindergarten and one in second grade and many shared interests, here's our basic plan:
- reading lessons for the Man and book projects for the Helper (along with monthly book clubs)
- basic math activities, teaching each one the 'next' skill they need
- daily journaling activities, including lots of real-life writing (cards, letters, menus, etc.)
- Apologia Botany coop every other week for experiments with lessons taught at home
- hands-on history lessons using The Story of the World - after we study the colonial period, the Pilgrims, Christmas, and the Titanic. They asked!
- Since I believe in being fully immersed in your learning, we'll be cooking, sewing, gardening, visiting, and generally being messy as often as possible to combine all of the above subjects. Makes it harder to keep the house clean, but it sure is fun - and we learn a lot, too.
Do you homeschool? What are your best tips/sites/lessons?
I homeschooled my kids until we moved to Germany, where it was not allowed. When we came back to the States we made the decision to go back to public school. Homeschooling was SO much fun!
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