what our home school looks like

(Because I always try to be an honest blogger, I will tell you that I picked up the room a bit before I took these pictures...)

So beginning on a really practical level, I have a table set up in the living room with a stool on one side and two chairs on the other side. The table can be taken down over the weekend if we'd like. I have all of my teaching materials in the laundry room in a cabinet and bring a bin to the table each day with whatever books and supplies we will need. For now I love this set up. We don't have a natural room to house our homeschooling stuff, and I sort of refuse to turn one of our living rooms into a classroom...I think it has something to do with mixing work with home.  I love that I can pack up our school stuff and put it out of sight in the off time. I know this will change with more kids and more supplies in the coming years, but I hope to be strategic with built-ins and cabinets that we will likely add to the fireplace room. I want our stuff concealed so when we're not doing school it still feels like our home.

The greatest success of our first year of homeschooling has been Ivar's reading. Ivar was two months shy of age six when we started Teach you Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it fit him perfectly. He has taken to reading with ease and I think this is due to a number of factors but mainly because he was ready. I have a theory that teaching a kid to read is a lot like potty training. If you do it too early, the parent is going to end up frustrated, annoyed and forced to deal with a lot of drama. But if the child truly is ready, it will go smoothly. So I like that Ivar was almost a solid six before we began. I will likely wait to teach Elsie at the same age, unless she shows signs that she's really ready. (Again, so similar to potty training!

And here's the kicker: Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is AWESOME. I love this book so much. I looked at a few teach-your-child-to-read curriculums. Some were phonics based, some had cute music that explained the vowel sounds. Some were really colorful kits and exciting. But all of those were super expensive. For real I chose this curriculum because it was one book (requiring no extra supplies) for $19. The title seemed self explanatory enough and as I told Rory, "we'll know by Christmas if it's working. If it's not, we may need to lay down some money for one of those big curriculum sets." But here we are. Ivar is on lesson 76 and he is knocking our socks off.

The method is fascinating, if you're into this sort of thing. The lessons have their own orthography which means the letters look different, silent letters are written smaller, vowels that say their sound have a line over them.  There are clues added to the regular 26 letters to help a child learn to read. Throughout the book these clues are gradually eliminated, but Ivar has made these transitions without trial. Honestly, if you have a struggling reader, no matter if they are in public or private or home school, I'd try this method with them. It's a different approach, but amazing to watch unfold. And it truly takes 15-20 minutes a day (we don't do the handwriting). Amazing.

So that's reading. Math is pretty basic. I chose Ivar's math book because the whole book is in color and I know the boy loves a good worksheet. (And it came recommended.) It's the kindergarten book from the Critical Thinking Company and it lays the foundation for all sorts of math concepts. I use his workbook as my launching point for what I want to teach him and create math games to supplement his lesson. I like this book and will likely use it with Elsie. And, it was $40 for an entire year's worth of lessons. Elsie has gone through a number of math workbooks that I found at The Dollar Tree in September. They have a lot of number writing and counting and most importantly, stickers in the back to put on each completed page.

We've done a few unit studies on: Maps and Globes, Minnesota Geography, Birds and now we're onto Dinosaurs. The library helps supplement these lessons as well as a whole lot of coloring sheets. Ivar recently told me he would like more art projects, so I'm trying to do that as well. That's sort of my sweet spot so it shouldn't be hard to add more in the mix but it does take planning (and mess making)!

Rory and I take turns with bedtime and when it's my night I read from a few different Children's Bibles. But when it's Rory's night, he reads from his own adult Bible one chapter a night. It is amazing to hear the kids' questions and to hear his explanations to their questions. I would have thought they were much too young for the actual Bible, but they are definitely not. I am amazed and the conversations I hear coming out of that room at bedtime. We also have had our kids memorize Psalm 1, Psalm 100 and are just beginning Isaiah 55:8-13. This is done in the morning and evening.

Then we read a chapter book together. We are nearly through the Little House series and the kids love it. A few friends mentioned they wish they had kept a running list of the read alouds they had done with their kids through graduation so I am going to try to share our list on this blog as we go. We have read a few others besides Little House as well. I recently discovered the podcast Read Aloud Revival (you can listen right on the website, and it's not just for home educators...it's for all parents!) and it has been such a joy to me and renewed my enthusiasm for bedtime reading. I used to dread reading aloud at bedtime to the kids because I was so tired myself. But I just started moving their bedtime up earlier so I could still be "done" at the same time, and I sincerely love this time together. It's fun to see the shift in my own heart. Plus, the books we are reading are ones that I am eager to pick up again too.

Other than that, the kids have gym and we still do play dates. We frequent the library and more than anything, they play. And that's maybe the very most important thing happening in this house this year. My kids LOVE to play with each other. The sibling bonding I have seen this year is incredible...it amazes me to think Ivar would be gone from 8:30-4 each day if he wasn't home with us. I truly cannot imagine it. That is so much family time for us, and I love watching him take care of Hattie and be a friend to Elsie. It's a joy and a gift and again, one of the most important things happening in this house each day. They play so hard and it's very gratifying to see.

So that's our basic day in a nutshell, halfway through year one. If you've ever contemplated home schooling, I highly recommend the Minnesota Association of Christian Homeschool Association (MACHE) conference held in April at the Excel Energy Center. (Thursday is a day for first time or wondering about homeschooling parents). Our first year I thought I would see a lot of long skirts and doily headpieces (I had my own stigmas to overcome!) but when we walked in, we saw a whole lot of typical mom's and dad's. Lots of Merona cardigans and jeans. My kind of people. :)