How do you homeschool?

[DharmaDisciple]

How exactly do I homeschool? I don't think I have ever known and we have just bumbled along with the kids learning on the side. But this is not enough any more. I want to be more involved to have more rhythm to our day, to have an idea of what I want to do with them and what they are learning. I am finding it hard to balance Theo who is not yet reading or writing independently with trying to challenge Jasmine as she needs to learn. Figuring out what one child can do while the other is getting time with me is so so hard.

At the moment Theo spends most of his day on my iphone, Jasmine plays on the computer and they are happy doing this but I want to broaden their horizons to get them engaged and learning new things. They don't know what they want to learn as they don't know what is out there, I have asked them. I feel it is my job to bring things into their life to show them new things, to get them learning but I don't know how to start with this for ideas of things to do. We can do a science experiment one day but if we don't read up on it then they will have forgotten it the next day and I feel our time has been wasted.

I have spent years reading up on theories of how to homeschool and I know all the theories behind it I just don't know exactly how to do it. Say I chose to do anatomy, do we draw it, read it, experiment it, lapbook it or any or all of them? Ahhhhhh!!! Feeling burnt out and lost with the whole thing :( 

[Momsteader]

Head to the library. Leave the technology at home and plan to spend hours there.  Have them each take a big book bag. Just browse, read, add books that interest them to the bags. Sit and read some of them to them and see if they want to take them home or put them back and get some more. Ask them if they'd like to go explore anywhere--museum, park, lake, whatever sparks their fancy.

Do you  mind being a relaxed unschooler (sounds like that's what you're doing)? If not, then just go with it :)

[mmmmochi]

Do you have a schedule or curriculum to follow? What are your goals in each subject? How do you record their progress?...I thought perhaps you might like to hear from a homeschooler with a different approach.

I made my own curriculum for a few months, and did all the planning myself. It was very labour intensive, about 3 hours a night were spent making worksheets and planning the goals for each child and plotting where they were. I have a 4 year old and an 8 year old. In the end I bought a ready made curriculum package. It suits us, at least for now. There are themes and it progresses logically, all the books and worksheets and some materials are included. I do not feel like we are missing anything with the 8 year old. She knows homeschool does not mean no school for us, and she understands that 3 to 4 hours in the morning are for spelling, comprehension, math, science. She has 3 hours in the afternoon for either a field trip, or other interests, as long as she is doing something, reading something, making something, then she is free to do as she likes. I sit there and teach her her in the morning, in the afternoon I am more hands off with dd. School finishes at 3pm, or later, depending on dd. After 3pm she is free to play a ds game or watch a movie, or read a magazine etc.

We have computer time planned and booked in blocks at the moment, as we need one more computer. If it is not online maths or research for a project which is quantifiable we dont count computer time as school, but as play. 

We start the morning early at 7am, with my eight year old. Take a break after 1 and a half hours. The younger one gets arts and crafts in the morning, and I start him on some easy worksheets or colouring that I can supervise while dd is writing or completing work. The afternoon is for ds and I to have time together for reading, spelling and handwriting, plus a little maths.

I have everything written out that I expect to do that day on my wall planner, and tick it off as I go. Anything not completed goes on the next days to do list.

I am not anti unschooling, and dont want to offend anyone, I just wanted to give you another point of view. This is what works best for us. I know I sound like a really pushy mother!

[PGTlatte]

For our 7.5 yo I require some sit-down time each day for lessons/work in language arts and math.  Some is on the computer and some is paper and pencil.  For our 5 yo I am just now starting a tiny bit of this type of work, 5 minutes at a time, about twice a week.   For the 7 yo I do not make it take all day - I do not feel that I should fill his day with school stuff.  If he gets it all done in an hour, that's fine.  So far science and social studies are covered in a more random way - when we find a book or video at the library, or something like that.  I am planning on getting more structured with these as well.  I just bought a series of inexpensive books for science and plan to read one per week with him.  I am looking for something similar for social studies. 

I came back to clarify - he has symptoms of dysgraphia, so I am putting some focus on keyboarding skills to give him another route into written language.  He uses the computer for Type to Learn, and also Click'n Spell, which gives him another way to practice keyboarding and to link spelling with typing, because he can't remember how to spell when he has so much trouble with the physical act of writing by hand.  He is also working through a remedial handwriting program called First Strokes.  If he did not have issues with writing, I would prefer to do almost everything on paper.

Edited by PGTlatte - 1/4/11 at 6:57am

[phathui5]

Our schedule fits around what our plans outside of the house are. For example, today looked like this:

9:25am- I ran the five year old to speech therapy at the school while dh had breakfast with the other three.

10:10am- I'm home. 10yo ds and 7yo dd both did a lesson in their CLE Bible books while I read a story from Bible Stories to Read to the 5yo and 3yo. Then 10yo ds did a lesson in Saxon Math 6/5 and 7yo did a lesson in CLE Math 204. Once math was done, the kids spent five minutes straightening up dd's room, then played for a while.

11:30am- Kids watched the lesson for Chapter 22 on Latin for Children A DVD and then listening to the first eight tracks on the Song School Latin CD.

12pm- Lunch, followed by art class at a friend's house

3:30pm- Stopped at the library

4:30pm- 10yo, 7yo and 5yo took a yoga class at the Y while I worked out

[Smithie]

At the kitchen table, with books, for about an hour every day. My son is in first grade. He spends time later watching Brainpop videos, etc. on the computer, and he plays with this here iPad, and I am fine with that, but nothing that goes "beep" is part of formal schooling in this house! Never ever ever! Ditto with extracurricular classes. All of that stuff is good and worthy and part of our daily lives, but school is the three Rs, Latin, history and science, and it's a completely unplugged experience.

[newcastlemama]

I consider us very relaxed homeschoolers and it really works for our family. I homeschool my 6yo (and have an almost 3yo) and generally after we are ready in the morning he does some Signapore math pages and some handwriting practice. (This is about 20 minutes).  While he does this my 3 yo scribbles in her "homeschool book"/ colors ect..If we have to go somewhere early we just do it later. Our general homeschool plan is focusing on reading, writing, and math basics for a short time daily then life learning fills in the rest. (I do have screen time limits as my ds is happier with less in his life).  In the evening we do family Bible/devotional time and for bedtime dh reads them a chapter book (right now it is the "Little House" series)

We spend the rest of the day running errands, chores, cooking, nature walking, meet up with friends, reading, making our own story books, library, parks, house projects, crafts/play dough/art, books on CD, library videos, Bible stories, house projects, playing, experiments, checking out stuff we learned about on you tube, going to jobs with his daddy.....

Ds will also be starting baseball soon and may start a hands on science class for homeschoolers that meets once a week..He is extroverted and likes to get out there and be with people so I try and find ways to make that happen often.

I try and find opportunites, projects, books ect that I think ds will like and go from there. The library idea is good. See what they pick out and help them expand from there. Do you have any enrichment classes in your area? Read the choices off to them and let them pick one to try. Go to a craft store and see if they would like to try making something they saw there. (I could go on if you need more ideas  )

Defining your family's goals could be a good starting point. I was also thinking maybe you are not doing much because you are recovering from the holidays and it is cold...so maybe it is just a little phase and you need a break.    

[Kindermama]

I created a curriculum from various different curriculum makers and we've gotten into a groove where dd11 does sit-down work from 9:00-noon a few days a week. She takes classes outside of our home with the homeschool co-op that we are a part of...art, spanish, anatomy, outdoor adventures, yoga, skiiing, drama, gymnastics throughout this whole school year. 

Math is computer-based and she loves it! It's working well for her. There is a huge workbook that goes along with this too. 

Science is journal-based. She reads the test and journals up afterwards and also does hands-on projects. Some Beakman and Nova/PBS science DVDs as well. 

Language Arts is workbook and living books based so lots of reading for this! Typing practice on the computer coming up----she will actually be typing out a book that she wrote! 

History is reading a textbook, summary writing, timelines, map-making, hands-on projects, dvd series on ancient civilizations, some computer time spent looking up various places and people and living books based. 

[kittie313]

How do I homeschool............. wow I can't really answer that because I have no clue how I manage to actually pull it off. LOL

But I do buy prepackaged curriculum to make my life a little bit easier.  Now I just need to find a way to create an invisible forcefield around my 3yo that will contain her in the very center of a room and a necklace or bracelet that I can put on her that will make her sit down and happily color on paper or play with a few toys while I do lessons instead of trying to make the toilet explode by flushing a whole roll of TP at once, pull every book in my house off the shelves, take apart the carpet sweeper, reach the deadbolt on the front door so she can run outside and make naked snow angels, create a beach in my kitchen by dumping all the sugar and salt on the floor then adding water to make the ocean...............................................  Yes, I would love a forcefield to contain her.

No, actually I cope with the stress and the burnout with my friend Pinot Noir......... one glass every Friday night after the kids are in bed.  And with an online game that I only play so that I can take out my frustrations about it all on the monsters that I throw fireballs at in that game.  I'm trying to convince my dh to get me a heavy bag to put in the garage, but that isn't going so well........... lol

[inky leeuhhh]

i think the library idea is a great one! i think we're relaxed homeschoolers, but dd needs some routine and structure. we focus on reading, writing, math, and history right now. i plan to add science in in a while here. we use a combo of stuff i planned and stuff i bought pre- packaged. for handwriting we're using the handwriting without tears program, with some copywork thrown in. for history we use story of the world as general guide, and i fill that in with lots of library books and copywork/ journaling. for math we use singapore right now (not sure we're going to keep on with it) along with manipulatives. a while ago i felt like we were sort of where you are with homeschooling, and i decided that my dd (just turned 7) was ready for more of a challenge. i work full time, and i felt like with our limited time together unschooling was just not going to work for us. she plays all day at her in home daycare during the day, but in order for me to fit in some educational experiences when i get home they need to be pre- planned and structured, or i won't keep my sanity. lol. not ideal, but it's the best we can do right now.

[moominmamma]

I have a 7-year-old as well as high schoolers. Each summer I tack lists up on the fridge and start making an "inventory of interests." Some of the interests are very clear: if someone keeps begging for pottery classes or a way to learn computer game programming, or in the case of my super-keen violinists who naturally want to continue with their lessons and orchestras or whatever. But many are more subtle. I might notice than in her YouTube browsing my dd is drawn to silly animations, and wonder whether she'd be interested in exploring that area further. Or my ds might make a casual comment one day about how he thinks it would nice to know how to cook for himself.

After the lists have at least a half dozen items on them (typically more like a dozen), I take each kid out on a date to come up with a learning plan. We use the inventory of interests as a jumping off point, discarding, adopting or adapting possibilities as my child desires. And we talk about ways to make the things they are learning about practical and sustainable... what resources we might be able to dig up, whether a structured or informal approach is desired, whether my child wants to set up any goals or systems of accountability, whetheer they want a daily or intermittent approach, how involved, if at all, they want me to be in directing, prompting or facilitating.

We go home, do a bit of research, start with what we can, and then follow up with another meeting in a month to see how we're doing with the implementation. And we adjust, re-galvanize, modify, add or discard things on the learning plan as seems appropriate throughout the year.

So our daily flow depends very much on what the we decide on at our planning meetings. We're very unschooly, though some of my kids are quite academic in their interests and natures. Today, for instance, my 7-year-old got up, read a book for a bit, did a math lesson, read some more, played a bit on the computer, came on a photography hike with me, helped prepare a late family brunch, searched for the little Brio loom in the attic, helped string up the warp, spent an hour or so learning to weave, practiced violin, watched the news and a Mythbusters episode on TV with her dad, listened to an hour of a historical fiction read aloud. And played and talked with her siblings and parents. A little bit of this (the violin and math) was daily stuff from her learning plan. The rest just came from her own interests and my offers to include her in my life and the various things I'm interested in.

If you're looking for a bit more intentionality in your days, I'd highly recommend noting down your kids' overtly or implicitly expressed interests and using those as a starting point, and simultaneously making an effort to explore your own interests whilst inviting your kids to explore them alongside you.

Miranda

[domesticidyll]

Camp Creek blog, here:

http://www.whiteoakschool.com/

has some articles I've found useful on project-based learning.

And I love crafty crow for seasonal ideas and art stuff.

We go in leaps and lulls. Focus on one big thing at a time (not intentionally; that's just where the energy seems to go). DS is more structured as a learner than I had anticipated, so it seems to help us to have a "spine," (Singapore textbook, HWT book, history encyclopedia) that we use for 10-50 percent of our work in that domain and then explore around, moving forward when DS seems bored or saturated.

Heather

[newcastlemama]

I really like this!
 

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

I have a 7-year-old as well as high schoolers. Each summer I tack lists up on the fridge and start making an "inventory of interests." Some of the interests are very clear: if someone keeps begging for pottery classes or a way to learn computer game programming, or in the case of my super-keen violinists who naturally want to continue with their lessons and orchestras or whatever. But many are more subtle. I might notice than in her YouTube browsing my dd is drawn to silly animations, and wonder whether she'd be interested in exploring that area further. Or my ds might make a casual comment one day about how he thinks it would nice to know how to cook for himself.

After the lists have at least a half dozen items on them (typically more like a dozen), I take each kid out on a date to come up with a learning plan. We use the inventory of interests as a jumping off point, discarding, adopting or adapting possibilities as my child desires. And we talk about ways to make the things they are learning about practical and sustainable... what resources we might be able to dig up, whether a structured or informal approach is desired, whether my child wants to set up any goals or systems of accountability, whetheer they want a daily or intermittent approach, how involved, if at all, they want me to be in directing, prompting or facilitating.

We go home, do a bit of research, start with what we can, and then follow up with another meeting in a month to see how we're doing with the implementation. And we adjust, re-galvanize, modify, add or discard things on the learning plan as seems appropriate throughout the year.

 

[chaoticzenmom]

We're bumbling along as well...I'm replying here mostly so I can get ideas from this thread.

I have set up some things that work though.  We're  trying to stay off of electronics until 4pm so that we do stuff that engages us less passively.  That's not always working...today was a "massive fail" as my 10yo would say.

If I get up, get breakfast made and get a plan set up, we usually do pretty well.  I've been searching through curriculum and am really disappointed by what's out there.  Not sure what I want from any of it, so maybe that's my problem.  My kids take outside science classes and read books for pleasure, so there's that that's going right.  I'm pretty sure my 10yo hasn't ever written an entire paragraph by hand though.

My kids have 3 things they must get done in the mornings (most mornings this works out)  2 page of singapore math, 2 pages of explode the code and one page of cursive practice.  It keeps us moving forward at least a little.  I've just added spelling and that's going well and then we all participate in my 5yo's reading lesson. I find that if I have them all doing something similar at the same time, it usually goes well.  Anything that needs my help though can get overwhelming quickly.  I send all of the kids to their rooms for quiet play while I work with the one needing help.  Then, bring out the next and work with them.

[mary3mama]

Taking book bags and browsing at the library is a fantastic suggestion!

We're deep unschoolers here. 

I strew all the time.

But I also facilitate them self-strewing (did I just coin a phrase there? 

My children have questions all day long. I love that! If we are at home when they ask something that I am clueless about (frequent occurrence) we grab a computer and look it up. If we are away from home, it is awesome to have an internet-enabled phone (pretty common...mine isn't even a 'smart phone') and the ability to do a quick google search.

I keep tabs on these question topics and find web sites, blogs, books, movies, etc. about that topic.

Their interests drive our path.

Unschooling certainly doesn't mean we do nothing....just that I don't predetermine what they learn or how...nothing compulsory around here. 

So maybe instead of asking the children what they want to learn about (when someone asks me a question like that my mind goes completely BLANK.  ) you could just see what they are interested in, what are they curious about, what do they gravitate towards when giving free reign. 

I believe, wholeheartedly, that people only actually learn things when they have a need for that knowledge or skill....and the need could be practical as well as just plain ole curiosity-based. 

[Greenmama2]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

I have a 7-year-old as well as high schoolers. Each summer I tack lists up on the fridge and start making an "inventory of interests." Some of the interests are very clear: if someone keeps begging for pottery classes or a way to learn computer game programming, or in the case of my super-keen violinists who naturally want to continue with their lessons and orchestras or whatever. But many are more subtle. I might notice than in her YouTube browsing my dd is drawn to silly animations, and wonder whether she'd be interested in exploring that area further. Or my ds might make a casual comment one day about how he thinks it would nice to know how to cook for himself.

After the lists have at least a half dozen items on them (typically more like a dozen), I take each kid out on a date to come up with a learning plan. We use the inventory of interests as a jumping off point, discarding, adopting or adapting possibilities as my child desires. And we talk about ways to make the things they are learning about practical and sustainable... what resources we might be able to dig up, whether a structured or informal approach is desired, whether my child wants to set up any goals or systems of accountability, whetheer they want a daily or intermittent approach, how involved, if at all, they want me to be in directing, prompting or facilitating.

We go home, do a bit of research, start with what we can, and then follow up with another meeting in a month to see how we're doing with the implementation. And we adjust, re-galvanize, modify, add or discard things on the learning plan as seems appropriate throughout the year.

So our daily flow depends very much on what the we decide on at our planning meetings. We're very unschooly, though some of my kids are quite academic in their interests and natures. Today, for instance, my 7-year-old got up, read a book for a bit, did a math lesson, read some more, played a bit on the computer, came on a photography hike with me, helped prepare a late family brunch, searched for the little Brio loom in the attic, helped string up the warp, spent an hour or so learning to weave, practiced violin, watched the news and a Mythbusters episode on TV with her dad, listened to an hour of a historical fiction read aloud. And played and talked with her siblings and parents. A little bit of this (the violin and math) was daily stuff from her learning plan. The rest just came from her own interests and my offers to include her in my life and the various things I'm interested in.

If you're looking for a bit more intentionality in your days, I'd highly recommend noting down your kids' overtly or implicitly expressed interests and using those as a starting point, and simultaneously making an effort to explore your own interests whilst inviting your kids to explore them alongside you.

Miranda

Miranda do you research any of those little things that come up before your meeting? For new interests I mean. Animation for e.g. would you look into classes/books/online resources before discussing it with your dc? If so, is it not hard not to be invested in whether they decide to pursue it or let it go in favour of something else?

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Greenmama2 

Miranda do you research any of those little things that come up before your meeting? For new interests I mean. Animation for e.g. would you look into classes/books/online resources before discussing it with your dc? If so, is it not hard not to be invested in whether they decide to pursue it or let it go in favour of something else?

Not normally. Our meeting is our pre-research brainstorming session. My kids are often involved in the research that follows, so if they develop second thoughts about pursuing something I'm usually made aware of that pretty early in the process.

Miranda

[momofmine]

Originally Posted by kittie313 

How do I homeschool............. wow I can't really answer that because I have no clue how I manage to actually pull it off. LOL

But I do buy prepackaged curriculum to make my life a little bit easier.  Now I just need to find a way to create an invisible forcefield around my 3yo that will contain her in the very center of a room and a necklace or bracelet that I can put on her that will make her sit down and happily color on paper or play with a few toys while I do lessons instead of trying to make the toilet explode by flushing a whole roll of TP at once, pull every book in my house off the shelves, take apart the carpet sweeper, reach the deadbolt on the front door so she can run outside and make naked snow angels, create a beach in my kitchen by dumping all the sugar and salt on the floor then adding water to make the ocean...............................................  Yes, I would love a forcefield to contain her.

No, actually I cope with the stress and the burnout with my friend Pinot Noir......... one glass every Friday night after the kids are in bed.  And with an online game that I only play so that I can take out my frustrations about it all on the monsters that I throw fireballs at in that game.  I'm trying to convince my dh to get me a heavy bag to put in the garage, but that isn't going so well........... lol

Love this.

[kittie313]

Originally Posted by momofmine 

Originally Posted by kittie313 

How do I homeschool............. wow I can't really answer that because I have no clue how I manage to actually pull it off. LOL

But I do buy prepackaged curriculum to make my life a little bit easier.  Now I just need to find a way to create an invisible forcefield around my 3yo that will contain her in the very center of a room and a necklace or bracelet that I can put on her that will make her sit down and happily color on paper or play with a few toys while I do lessons instead of trying to make the toilet explode by flushing a whole roll of TP at once, pull every book in my house off the shelves, take apart the carpet sweeper, reach the deadbolt on the front door so she can run outside and make naked snow angels, create a beach in my kitchen by dumping all the sugar and salt on the floor then adding water to make the ocean...............................................  Yes, I would love a forcefield to contain her.

No, actually I cope with the stress and the burnout with my friend Pinot Noir......... one glass every Friday night after the kids are in bed.  And with an online game that I only play so that I can take out my frustrations about it all on the monsters that I throw fireballs at in that game.  I'm trying to convince my dh to get me a heavy bag to put in the garage, but that isn't going so well........... lol

Love this.

And anyone who has ever tried to homeschool elementary kids with a very curious 3yo knows exactly what I mean..........  She is our little 3yo tornado and she's VERY good at it.

[DharmaDisciple]

I tend to lean towards unschooling/relaxed homeschooling. My children have shown some interests like cooking and animals so I think the first thing I will do is go from there. I just need to get more motivated and strew their day with more fun things- science experiments, handicrafts, read alouds, music etc. We are due to go to the library soon, so will fill up with books, trying to get my 10 yr old interested in things LOL