what are your 4 and 7 year olds doing?

[gilamama]

We are not a home schooling family, (that was a disclaimer or something i hope no one minds me asking questions here). I have a 6 1/2, 4, and 1 y.o. kids. We are americans living in israel and a big reasong we dont hs is for our kids to learn the language and assimilate (we are both fluent and my dh has been here since he was a kid) really well.

But I am thinking ,more and more about it. I am less satisfied with my 1st graders school than i thought i'd be and while i am happy with pre-k for dd2. I love when we are all together all the time i feel like they are such nicer kids so much less stressed and generally easier going and more creative.

BUT... Do you guys as hsing moms work your buts off? I generally had the impression that hsing and schoolschooling were just different kinds of work. But i am wondering if I was wrong. How much research and planning and I dont know what other stuff do you do (i am sure it varries from family to famliy and even with kid to kid).

I am looking for if anyone is willing and has the time, could you tell me what hsing a 7 and 4 y.o. is/was like for you? what duid they do? how much togehtr and how much seperate? how about friends and other kids for the 7 y.o. do schooled kids exclude? thanks for any input!

big respect for all you mamas!

[shoefairy3]

Homeschooling has been a billion times easier than sending my kids to school. Everything is so much more relaxed. Really, hsing an early elementary aged student shouldn't take anymore than 2 hours a day. Atleast for the actual 'work' part.

Right now I consider myself homeschooling the older 3. My 3yo is nearly 4, but we haven't started any formal lessons. We read together and color. Stuff like that.

It took me about a year to find our way so to speak. We started our journey last March, and I finally feel rather comforable with what we are doing. We started doing the 'school at home' bit and that failed with a huge flop. Then we spent the whole summer into December deschooling or unschooling. We still read as a family and seperate and did a couple worksheets here and there, but nothign intense. Kinda dabbling in a few different things (time4learning, lessonpathways, amblesideonline, complete unschooling) I finally settled on a rather relaxed version of Amblesideonline.org

Right now we aren't doing many out of the home activities, but I am gearing up to start to do more things. Homeschooling field trips, maybe some kinda classes, something like that. We definitely need to start getting out of the house more besides the library and the grocery store.

Really, we play most of the day. I really like that my kids are at home with me. I sure missed interacting with them while they were at school. Honestly, and my DH would agree, that homeschooling has been the single best thing we have decided to do with our family <3

[JoyMC]

i only have a four year old, and i don't consider myself "homeschooling" her, just living. we read lots of books, bake, color, go to the zoo and science center and children's museum, plant a garden, look things up online (videos on how the body works, what sound a panther makes, etc.)

so, for a four year old, i do NO prep. i don't actually expect that to change too much as she gets older, either. we'll follow her interests, make resources available to her, and have fun!

[zeldamomma]

My 4 year old plays, and we read to him, or do random projects. I am not at all concerned with teaching him anything academic at this point.
My 7 year old is taking suzuki violin, finally really reading ( ), spending lots of time scheming with her big sister about various business ideas, riding her bike, etc... We read things to her, including historical fiction, talk about geography when it comes up (which is surprisingly frequent), and do science projects for fun. She will often choose to work in her math book, but I don't force her. Taking this approach, she tests as being well ahead in most subjects, and its pretty easy and pleasant.

ZM

[PGTlatte]

Mine are just-turned-7 and 4.5.

I do not "do school" with the 4 yo unless he asks to, and then I set him up with whatever he asks for, and he does it for as long as he wants, and that's it. I do not do any research or make any plans for him. His learning all happens spontaneously or he comes to me with questions. He is interested in letters, letter sounds, numbers, and counting, so I do not feel a need to set up experiences with those things right now. I read him books with the names of the days and months. He already knows his shapes and colors. I am going to do some patterns with him using attribute blocks and a book from the Critical Thinking Company. He has just started to want to copy his name down. I think he's on track for his age so I am not doing anything structured or planned with him. His brother did not start doing "organized" work until he was 5.5 so I will likely wait until then unless he asks for it first.

With the 7 yo, I have been doing some structured sit-down work since he was 5.5, starting with a very short amount of time and not every day. Now he is "finishing" first grade. I do my best to spend about 1.5 hours with him a day. He is also taking two science/nature classes a week through the park district, one with his brother, and he has weekly meeting with a reading tutor and a vision therapist for his vision issues. He also plays little league baseball and takes a weekly violin lesson, which he practices for 6 days a week. Both boys take a gymnastics/fitness class each week as well.

The most difficult thing I deal with is getting the 4.5 yo to let us have some quiet time to do work that involves reading and writing. Many days the only way I can accomplish this is to do it late in the afternoon when the little one is run down and will settle down with a movie in another room.

I do not make up daily lesson plans. I use workbooks for language arts and math that make it easy - basically I only have to get the next page or section ready. I did spend quite a bit of time finding and choosing what to use, but now that I have them it's not hard. Most of the research I do is to select library books to check out and to request them through the library system. I check out a lot of early readers or simple books on science, history, and social studies topics because that is a large part of how I cover those topics. I read a lot of book lists, and reviews at Amazon. I also read posts here and at the Well-Trained Mind forum. I get a lot of ideas from what other homeschoolers post. I also spend a lot of time at Amazon following the links at the bottom to find related books, and reading people's Listmania lists.

[cappuccinosmom]

I don't work my butt off. Sometimes I feel guilty about that but my kids are thriving academically, so...

We do school in the morning, rarely more than 3 hours total, and there's quite a bit of "taking a break" in there.

My 7 yo officially finished second grade last month. Right now we're reviewing math (he definitly needs that) and doing a lot of supplemental stuff-reading comprehension, a little creative writing practice (I give him prompts, he writes 3-4 lines, we talk about it), a little science. I review lapbooks and other homeschool stuff, so I pull from the review products to supplement as well. Last week we started a Ben Franklin lapbook that was pretty darn thorough and lots of fun. He has some lessons that he can do independently onling--typing, reading comp, a little social studies. Some days he does more independant work, other days he needs me more.

My almost 5 year old is in K5. A lot of the curriculum is stuff we already do naturally (play with playdough, read stories, go on nature walks, etc). The actual bookwork takes very little time, which is good because he simply woudln't tolerate a full school day.

Their official curriculum takes the least amount of work. It is "boxed"--so eveything is there, and each day's lesson is laid out for me. It takes me 5 minutes to pull their books, set up for the day, and call them to the table. The lapbooks and htings I review take more prep. I usually prep on the weekends so everything is ready for me to pull along with their regular work every day. Maybe 1 hour total, if I've got something unusually complicated to prepare?

As to friends, I'm not convinced of the whole "socialization" argument against hs. However, currently my sons will often spend several hours every afternoon playing with neighbor boys their age. We babysit once a week, so they play with the little girls in that family. They attend Sunday School every week, and spend time with the kids there, and prior to our move here they had weekly "homeschool gym" with kids from several other families. We are meeting one of those families at a state park sometime soon, as we haven't seen them since our move. My kids have no lack of friends and no lack of appropriate social skills. They are not skilled at bragging, bullying, and participating in a pecking order, and frankly I don't consider the lack of those scales any sort of loss.

[linclane]

Let me preface with the fact that I have no actual experience yet - we will be starting hs this Summer. So I've just been researching, reading, prepping, buying, etc ...

With that said, my kids are 6 and 3. I have not made a plan for the 3 year old - other than him just being there and observing and participating when he wants. He likes doing some letter work, so we'll fit a little of that in - but nothing structured for him. For ds1, who will be first grade, I have more of a plan. He's a routine oriented kid. So we do plan to do our "table work" and lessons about the same time each day. And to have a familiar rhythm to each day. The plan right now is to incorporate some Montessori (because he's been in a Montessori classroom for a couple years, and likes it). I bought New Child Montessori Guides - they give flexible lesson plans for the whole year - adaptable to different age groups. I like the idea of "unit studies" and incorporating things. I also might chunk that idea out the window and be mostly "child-led." Right now he's into Ancient Rome, so we've been making a Roman Lapbook, and he's loving it, and learning a lot. So I'm feeling more and more comfortable with just following him and digging into whatever he's interested in.

Get some books from the library on homeschooling maybe, and lurk around here. The best advice I've been given is that whatever you decide - it doesn't have to be permanent - you can try it, and if it doesn't work, that's OK.

Best of luck!!

[LuxPerpetua]

My dd is nearly 4.5, and we are Waldorf-inspired unschoolers. We don't do anything "academic" but we do do a lot of just fun things--nature walks, making and playing with playdough, painting, block building, imaginative play, housework, baking, gardening, etc. We also read A LOT. I follow the Ambleside Online recommendation for year 0 currently, and we also get lots of seasonal books from the library (I like to follow the Waldorf board here on MDC for book recommendations). I also supplement sometimes with Seasons of Joy and Little Acorn Learning when we seem to be getting bored (like Fall and Winter, not so much now). Really, my focus for right now is just to have fun experiencing life--we focus on the practical work of just living (like housework and chores), nature, and gross motor skills (running, jumping, swinging). My dd is currently teaching herself how to read (she's known her letters since 15 months) and the four mathmatical processes--we also discuss other academic things when they come up on conversation but it definitely isn't a focus of what we do. I like the idea of emergent learning, where you allow children to discover connections on their own. When she's 5.5 and kindy age we will be using Enki Education. This fall I plan on getting some nature story books from Yesterday's Classics online, and that's about it.

[moominmamma]

I have a newly-7yo who is my youngest. Today we did a little math bookwork from Singapore Primary Math. First time in a couple of weeks. While my kiddo likes structured academics, life has got in the way big-time over the last while and we've happily just gone with the flow.

She has available Editor-in-Chief and Getty-Dubay for writing, Singapore Primary Math and Hands-on Equations for math, Real Science for Kids Chemistry and Biology, Theory Time music theory. Her other structured pursuits include aikido, violin and piano. Her actual level is very advanced in all these areas, but I think they're good at a 1st or 2nd grade level as well.

As for the in-the-flow inspiration and real life stuff, that's included lots of Greek mythology, music performances, rehearsals and workshops, science fiction, kayaking, hiking, music performances, baking, more music performances, traveling, and did I mention more music performances?

I have felt very busy lately juggling all the kids' various music endeavors, travel and such, but the actual academic end of things rarely takes more than an hour.

Miranda

[Daffodil]

I have a 7 year old and a 4 year old. I don't do anything with the 4 year old that I wouldn't do if I were planning to send him to school. I read to him a lot, sometimes we talk about numbers or sounding out words or something, mostly he just plays with his sister.

I don't do much research or planning - or at least I haven't up until now. Lately I've been spending a fair amount of time researching reading disabilities because I'm beginning to think my 7 year old has one. I've also been stepping up the amount of reading practice she gets, and putting more effort into preparing and planning specific reading exercises. I try to make sure she does some reading every day. She sometimes does some math stuff - I may write up a few math problems for her, or get her to do a page from a workbook. Back in fall and winter, I was encouraging her to practice writing somewhat regularly, but since she decided she really, really hated writing, I haven't been pushing that. I read to both kids a lot - both fiction and non-fiction. Sometimes we do a science experiment or look at stuff through a microscope. When the weather is nice, we spend a lot of time outside. We hike and catch things in the river or my sister's pond. DD is interested in insects, and has spent a lot of time catching and observing them. She's also gotten quite interested in drawing, and spends a lot of time doing that. Sometimes I draw with her, working on exercises from a book we have on drawing with children. This past winter, DD and I went downhill skiing about once a week, and I took both kids ice skating another day most weeks. Last year, I let her have her own bed in the garden and helped her plant flowers and vegetables, and she wants to do that again this year.

There are a fair number of other homeschoolers around here, so there are kids her age we can get together with. Right now, we have a weekly park get-together with some other homeschoolers, and a bi-monthly game day. During the winter, there was homeschool ice skating once a week. We recently went on tours of the post office, newspaper, and fire station that were set up for homeschoolers.

The things that take the most time and effort from me are not the schooly things. It really doesn't take much time to cover the basics a kid would get in school. The time-consuming stuff is mostly fun stuff - skiing, ice skating, hiking, working together on drawing, reading at night before bed (and a lot during the day too.)

The hardest part is finding time to do things just with the 7 year old. The 4 year old hates to play by himself and tends to complain and get in the way if I try to take time to work on something with DD that he can't participate in or isn't interested in. The two kids spend almost all their time together, which is mostly good because they have a lot of fun. But I think DD could benefit from a little more time by herself or alone with a parent. I may send DS to preschool part-time in the fall.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by linclane

Let me preface with the fact that I have no actual experience yet - we will be starting hs this Summer. So I've just been researching, reading, prepping, buying, etc ...

LOL emphasis mine.. if you're like the rest of us, a WHOLE LOTTA buying I like the buying part

OP, I have a just turned 8, just turned 6, and almost 4yr old. So I'm kinda close. I don't feel I work my buns off really, but I do ENJOY planning and such So if I do, I don't notice it because I like it

Mr 7 last year had a bit of math, writing, reading and a touch of grammar thrown in every day. Then we had history odyssey and a little science thrown in a couple of days a week each (my then 5yo would hang out for some of it and leave when he was ready, which was fine by us. the youngest was playing, disrupting or napping )

This year the almost 4yo is asking 'for to do school too mummy!' (so very cutely at that) so I printed off some simple shape matching games, size sorting games & pattern activities. So when he ASKS to do school I set him up with one of those and he has a ball. Other than that ... NOTHING formal for at least a year for him.

I occasionally think about the 's word'...but dismiss it pretty quickly. in 8wk blocks the boys have weekly art, gymnastics and science activities one day a week (with loads of extra time for playground play with their friends from class), they have monthly free art gallery & do it yourself workshops, every other weekly park days (all of these are with the same group, so same friends) AND we go shopping, to the coffee shop, local park, the library... all places where they practice social skills

[MyLittleWonders]

I have a Pre K (almost 4) and a 1st grader (almost 6 1/2). (I also have a 3rd grader.) My PreK'er does as much or as little as he likes. Often he'll sit at the table with us - I buy some Kumon type PreK books for him - he loves cutting and gluing things to paper; he does not like to color as much. We read. He listens in on his brothers' lessons. He watches LeapFrog videos (not every day). And sometimes he just likes making a lot of mischief for the rest of us.

My 1st grader has the same basic subjects as my 3rd grader, though often he is finished with his lessons before his brother. He does Latin, math, spelling, writing or narration, reading, grammar, and an elective every day. I don't work my buns off, though I like planning (usually I plan on Sunday evenings). We take a couple breaks during the day, and we tend to have about 3 1/2 to 4 hours of schoolwork a day. (It is usually on the lower end, though some days it is like moving through molasses and other days we just get caught up with what we are doing - and some days that time includes DVDs/programs based on what we are studying, for instance watching Liberty's Kids for US History).

And my usual disclaimer for MDC: we are structured and follow the Latin Centered Curriculum and Well Trained Mind.

[jlpumkin]

I wouldn't say I work my butt off. This is our first year hsing.. so I anticipate that next year will be easier, but I can say this year wasn't anything that I thought was difficult. My dd did K & 1st in school and it was a lot more work I felt. The stress of getting her ready in her uniform (which was itchy), w/ everything she needed for the day (which it seemed I was always behind on forms, money, supplies that popped up), then the homework! Getting a child who should really be playing after a long day- to sit down and do homework!! That's one relief that we are so grateful for daily! Hsing has NOTHING on that struggle...

So the real question what are we doing - 4 y.o. pretty much whatever he wants. When I need time for dd to focus then he can watch a leap frog video or play on time4learning or starfall. If dd doesn't need me then he & I read books. We have been making this book just because we love the arts and crafts of it and I love that a lot are his little finger prints. I want to save it for when my little is grown

We've followed a lot of Sonlight this year. My 4 yo loves the history so he likes to sit and listen. If he changes his mind he can do whatever he wants as long as he isn't disruptive. But he's learned a ton about the Ancients.. he loves warriors & soldiers so it's a great year for him. He joins in other activities as it peaks his interest.

DD is working reg 2d grade stuff and her own side interests. I'd say we do about 3.5 - 4.5 hours of "school" per day but I'm pretty loose in my definition. If we are learning, it counts. At this age, there aren't many activities that don't end up with them learning something new.

[mombh]

I just saw this

We are still finding our way and some things work and some don't, it has been a very busy year for us.
With my 6 1/2 yr old I do reading, both english and hebrew and he is reading both at a beginer level. If Iam not able to then one of the sibs will sit with him and read and that way he gets a few minutes of reading everyday. He lives to play and can spend hours building, puzzles, lego etc; and loves to listen to story CD's while he plays. He also does a little bit of math he has singapore math earlybird series which he just finnished and I have not yet ordered the next ones. He also likes playing on some of the websites and before he was reading we loved doing phonics and the reading games.
His older brothers learn online in the mornings at room613.net and sometimes he sits with them. the classes are 1/2 hour and some of them are geared to an older child, but if he sits and enjoys, it works for us
I started writing with him but he was resisting and he has the basics down so we have left that for now and really do a lot of games, gardening, stories, housework, library, field trips etc;
He is playing baseball for the first time and is learning so much from being part of a team etc;
Iam so busy with the older sibs and the baby that he gets away with probably even more play time than I would like to admit .....but he is so happy and well adjusted, Iam not going to stress about it