Home Schooling

A good friend of mine has ventured to stick her big toe into the waters of homeschooling. We've had several discussions about homeschooling so I thought it might be a good idea to share what homeschooling looks like in our family.

Let me introduce myself, I'm the teacher. I usually have workout clothes on when we begin our day (let's just dispel that denim-jumper-with-an-apple-on-the-pocket myth right here and now) and a cup of coffee in my hand. We begin our day at breakfast time with Bible. We usually read our devotion for the day and go over Bible verse (we keep one Bible verse all week and by the end of the year the kids and I usually have 52 verses under our Belts - Ephesians 6:10-18). After breakfast, the kids get their personal hygiene stuff done. Hudson usually practices his piano first, then he gets going on a math lesson, Pierce and I sit down for a reading lesson, the girls play (sometimes Alayna sits at the table and works with pattern blocks or something like that). I'll admit that it's not always that clean cut. Monitoring 4 kids doing 4 different things is a beautiful picture of the controlled chaos that is my life.

2nd Period (I've never called it that before) Hudson moves on to reading, Pierce and I do his math (Alayna usually joins us), and obviously Adelle is just along for the ride at this point.

Once Adelle goes down for her morning nap, I sit down with Alayna on the rug in the living room and we do her pre-school. It takes all of 30 minutes to go over her letter of the week, number of the week, review her Bible verse, and we usually throw in some art or creative play like glueing fruit loops to the letter "A," etc. The boys get a lego-break while I work with Alayna.

I wont get into curriculum in this post, but I'll do one in the future so you can see exactly what we're learning.

Hudson finishes up with handwriting and spelling. We do a history read-aloud at snack time. I've just found that they sit still and listen better if they're putting food in their mouths! Science and art we do once a week if I have all the stuff to do something. I'll do better with this one when the baby is a little bit older.

So we're usually done with school by noon, but learning never stops. The kids help me bake and discuss measurements and the effects of yeast, etc. We helped papa plant his garden and we discussed plants and soil and water, etc. They're always asking questions and we're always finding answers. Whether you homeschool or not, your kids are always learning from you - the good the bad and the ugly. Let's face it - sometimes it really is ugly. Alayna let out a big sigh of frustration the other day and, sadly, it sounded just like me.

"The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." Isaiah 32:17

I love homeschooling right now because the opportunities to sow and reap the rewards of Isaiah 32:17 are evident daily. As a mom - that's priceless!