getting to know you: EmoMom

What are your kids' ages and pseudonyms?

Grace (6), Lily (3), and Felicity (6 mo)

How long have you been home schooling? Is there a story behind it?
We have been homeschooling for almost 2 years, formally. I wanted to homeschool when I was in college, having decided I was far too concerned with how kids were "doing" and not concerned enough about having the same expectations of every child in my classroom when I was student teaching. It is part of what drove me from becoming a teacher. I ended up with a double major in pysch and special ed instead of a special ed major and a psych minor. My husband was against the idea at first, when we met, because he had not seen good things out of homeschooled kids once they came to his college. But he started teaching a junior high/high school Sunday school class at our church about 8 yrs ago, and saw how much "undoing" and "deprogramming" our pastor was having to do each week with his own kids to balance out what the public school system was feeding his kids. I wont give a location, but it was in one of the worst areas. My husband began doing some reading, notably "Recovering The Lost Tools of Learning" by Doug Wilson, and "The Case For Classical Christian Education" also by Doug Wilson. These really solidified his support of it.

Does your home school have a name or a mission statement?
St. John Crystostom Academy (yes it's long, and I want to change it before we register with the state this fall!)

What is your general home schooling philosophy?

Classical

Do you use a curriculum?

We use Classical Conversations curriculum, based on the trivium, which has everything but math and language arts. We are currently using Christian Light math and First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind for grammar. We are using Victory Drill phonics. History of the World for history. No science yet, that is fairly child-led, and may involve unit studies, or involve cooking, or nature walks.

Do you or your children have any special interests or hobbies that influence your home schooling?

We do a unit study on things Grace asks about. The Old West and Cowboys and Cowgirls, Mammals, the Solar System, the Human Body.. it varies.

What is your typical daily routine? weekly routine?

Up and mom on computer, kids watch tv. Then breakfast, then school, then playtime no tv till lunch. Then craft time, then mommy playtime with each older girl sepraretly, then they agree to leave mommy alone for an hour (and never get all the way through it, while I am reading for myself), then whatever cleaning area we are working on that day (today will be kitchen day and Grace will do the otuside of the fridge, the outside front of oven and dishwasher, and Lily will do the fronts of the low cabinets and drawers). Then dinner prep, dinner, play or tv, bath for 3 yr old, books, and bed. I have a 6 month old, so much of this is subject to change on how well she is napping. And we try to take a field trip per week. We belong to a co-op that meets each Friday for 3 hrs, and we also belong to a homeschool moms group of about 20 that has a monthly meeting and weekly field trips scheduled. We get out a lot!

Do you have any special methods/tips for planning? household organization? storage? record keeping?

I personally need lesson plans done for me. Sometime later I will want the ability to pick and choose a lot of what we do, but right now, I want someone to tell me what to do! Also, I have about 5 homeschool moms I admire and trust, and I take their recommendations for books and curriculuml, and with whatever I might have found myself, those are all I really look at. THere's just too much out there!!! Household organization... DECLUTTER. Decide on a room, and take everything out but the furniture. Put back in only what you want in there, and then figure out if youre gonna store, give away, or sell the rest. We havent started keeping records yet, but I have a big 3 ring binder for stuff I am saving from last year and this year.. copywork, art, that sort of thing.

Tell us what you did today!
Yesterday we did math, lesson 30, and it dealt with addition, subtraction, and adding/subtracting 0 to numbers. Grammar was learning more about the 4 types of sentences and the rules that govern them as well as Grace telling me an example of each of the 4 sentences. Phonics was blends with R. History was a lesson on the Greeks. We are takinga short break from Classical Conversations, but will resume soon. We joined the co-op and got the curriculum in March, at lesson 15 out of 24. So this summer I am going to start over with lesson 1 in the current year's curriculum (year 3). This fall, the co-op will start over with year 1 again. The CC part of our day takes about 30-40 minutes, and that's all we will do this summer, probably. Today we have MOPS, and will likely only do math and grammar this afternoon when we get home, since our day and the baby's naps will be somewhat thrown off.