How do I find the time to home school my kids?

This is a question I’ve heard quite a bit recently from some who are considering home schooling - or from several who looked at our home school schedule for this year and felt overwhelmed.

Yikes, I sure didn’t mean to overwhelm anyone.  Nor did I mean to make you picture me slaving away beside my children all day.  I simply shared my schedule because many requested to see it, and because I personally needed to outline my day for the sake of my own organization.

What you need to know is that while we try to hold to this “ideal routine”, there is lots of wiggle room in there.  I schedule in thirty minutes each day to read History/Geography to my two middle boys, but sometimes it only takes ten minutes of my time before they take off on their own to finish the lesson.  Sprinkled all throughout our routine is plenty of dish washing, cooking, laundry folding and other household chores.  I just school my kids around and during our daily life activities.  And guess what?  They are home to help me with these chores, which means I can actually accomplish more while we home school than if they were away at school!!!  Mwoohaha – their laundry folding ability is the real reason I like having them home with me all day.  (Not really.)  (Except that it really is nice.)

I truly don’t believe that home schooling has created extra work in my life.  Yes, it is work.  Yes, I have to put forth the effort and spend dedicated time educating my children.

But I’ve been reading to and teaching my kids since they were newborns, and I didn’t consider that “home schooling”.  I considered it parenting.

When our oldest son became a home schooled kindergartner, not much changed in our lives.  We continued to read together and squeeze in all varieties of lessons and activities during the days, just like we had done before – working around nap times and meal times and play times and grocery store visits and all life activities.

I do have to schedule home schooling into my days, so that we can be more productive.  But what I don’t have to schedule in?  Getting my kids up and out the door with matching shoes and combed hair each morning by 8:00 (or earlier).  Driving my kids to and from school.  Preparing and packing lunches.  Figuring out how to be a room mom (especially back when I had napping babies at home).  And homework. When I hear my friends talk about how much time they spend helping their kids with homework at the end of each school day, I often think, “Wow – we spend the same amount of time (or less) on our entire school day.”

Because we’re so flexible and laid back about our home school routine - I actually consider my life to be quite “cushy” and easy compared to moms who have to get up at the crack of dawn to get their kids off to school, and stay up late with them finishing the reports and projects have to be turned in.  I personally consider my home schooling life to be easier than the alternative, simply because I get to run the day the way I want to run the day.

So yes.  I have time to home school, and it’s not because I have more hours in my day or more patience with my kids or more energy than any other mom.  I am simply doing what I’ve always done with my kids – except for instead of reading books about shapes and gingerbread men and the little engine that could, we’re now reading about the constitution and the way a marsupial feeds its young.

I love it.

P.S.  Did you know that you could fit twenty baby opossums onto a teaspoon? That’s how tiny they are when they are born before they crawl into their mama’s pouch to continue their development.  We read about that just today.  See how smart I’m getting to be?

This post was written in an effort to dispel some of the many misconceptions or fears people might have about taking on the task of home schooling.  As with all my home school posts, my intention is to simply share my thoughts and offer encouragement - not to convince everyone that home schooling is the best and only way to educate your kids.    You do what you do, and I’ll do what I’ll do and we’ll all do it to the glory of God!

For instance, this week our family is helping with our local Meals-on-Wheels. Matt’s been taking two boys with him each morning.  We’re just rearranging the schedule a little bit to make this happen.  We want our boys to understand that serving others comes first (and that they still have to get the school work done later!).

As is our tradition, we hit the store last week to purchase a few school supplies, then went out for lunch.
We’ve had this before-school tradition for at least seven years and we look forward to this treat every year!

Here, without any specific hour of the day assigned to each line item (because it truly is different each day), is what I’ve outlined for our routine this year. (Read the specifics about the curriculum we’ll be using here.)

1.  I wake up first in our household.  After beginning my morning with prayer and Bible reading, I use this quiet time to check email and do website work.   (one hour)

2.  The boys wake up and spend time reading their Bibles while I fix breakfast.  (20 minutes)

3.  We eat breakfast together and during this time, I read the Bible and a devotional book to everyone.  (We’re reading through the book of Matthew and More Than a Carpenter, by Josh McDowell right now.)  We work together to clean up the kitchen.  (one hour)

4.  Asa, Justus and Elias begin working through their assigned school lessons – doing what they can do on their own (math, English, etc.).  I work with Malachi on reading, phonics and math.  (one hour)

5.  I read History/Geography to Justus and Elias.  Malachi does individual work (if possible) or plays legos.  Asa continues to work on his own.  (30 minutes)

6.  Justus and Elias work together on their History/Geography projects (Eastern Hemisphere Explorer, adapted from Sonlight).  I read History with Asa (mostly because I want to learn myself!).  Malachi does puzzles or magnetics.  (45 minutes)

Malachi had a great time working on these Three-Letter Words Puzzle Cards today.
I highly recommend them if you have a beginning reader.  I think I got them at Walmart,
but linked them to Amazon if that’s easier for you, and so that you could see what I was talking about.

7.  Matt does Spelling with Justus and Elias, then works with Asa on Science, Spelling and/or Spanish (depending on the day).  Malachi is assigned to work in his Explode the Code books.  I check email and take care of any pressing website work, then I work on fixing lunch. (one hour)

8.  Lunchtime!  Matt leads us through Bible memory work.  While we eat, I read a read aloud.  (I eat a little faster than my kids, by the way.  That’s why I’m able to read while we have meals.  Plus, this helps mealtime be a little more…calm.)  ;)

9.  I read Science to Justus, Elias and Malachi, then they work on their Science Animal Project, with help from me as needed.  Asa works on his own.  (30 minutes)

10.  Justus and Elias have their reading time.  Asa works on his own.  I read to Malachi. (30 minutes)

11.  Everyone finishes their assignments for the day and works together to put away books and tidy up the house.  (however long this takes)

12.  Downtime, Curious George time, trampoline time, mess the house back up time – for the boys.  I try to get some writing done or answer emails.  (2-3 hours)

13.  Work together to make dinner, then eat together.  We visit or read aloud while we eat.

14.  Evening times look different every day depending on whether we have company, soccer games, Bible class or a free evening.  Bedtime is therefore flexible, but always includes family prayer time and sometimes more reading aloud.

15.  After the boys are tucked in, I do more website work while Matt gets any work done that he needs to do.

Here are all of my past home school posts if you’d like to read through them to learn more about how this works for us!

I’ll be sure to let you know if ever a day actually goes exactly according to schedule.  Don’t get your hopes up.

Do you like to keep to a strict schedule each day, or do you hold a loose routine like we do?

Once I finally got all of our books organized, I decided to take a picture of our shelf.  Enjoy it now – that shelf won’t look so organized after we start digging in.  But we can pretend that it stays pretty like this.  ;)

The top shelf is Asa’s (grade 9), the middle shelf belongs to Justus and Elias (grades 6 and 4) and the bottom shelf is Malachi’s (grade 1).

We’ve been schooling with Sonlight curriculum for all nine of our home schooling years – yes this begins our tenth!  We love that Sonlight is literature based and that we are able to explore and learn without using textbooks.  Instead, we read both fiction and non-fiction books as we work our way through History, Science, Geography and Bible.  In addition, we choose what Sonlight recommends for Readers (kids reading on their own) as well as Read-Alouds (parents reading to the kids).

Here is a breakdown of our curriculum for this year:

Asa (grade 9)

• Sonlight Core 200, in which we will study Church History (I’m so excited!!!) and read through many literature classics.  Shakespeare, Austen, C.S. Lewis – it’s gonna be a great year!
• Apologia Physical Science
• Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
• Analogies 2
• Vocabulary from Classical Roots A
• Spanish (still haven’t decided – Rosetta Stone maybe?)
• Spelling Power

Justus (grade 6) and Elias (grade 4)

• Sonlight Core F, in which we will study the Eastern Hemisphere and read about many other cultures and missionaries who have lived among these cultures.
• Reading – Sonlight book lists for grades 4-5 and Readers D
• Science – using multiple science books from Sonlight, as well as others we have on hand, mainly to study animals
• Wordly Wise (book 3 for Elias and book 5 for Justus)
• Sequential Spelling
• Teaching Textbooks 6 for Justus; Saxon 54 Math for Elias
• Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting (grade 6 for J; grade 4 for E)
• Learn to Cook

Malachi (grade 1)

• Some of Sonlight Core B,  intro to World History
• Science with Justus and Elias, on a lesser scale, to learn about animals
• Reading – Bob Books and other easy readers
• Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting grade 1
• Miquon Math Red Book
• Explode the Code Books 1-3
• Teaching Your Kids to Cook

Next, I’ll share about our home school schedule for this year – stay tuned!

I’d love to know what your kids will be studying this year (whether you home school or not!).  Also, I need to know which you like better:  Books or Chocolate?

I know, that is hardly a fair question.  (And yes, your answer can be “chocolate with a side of books”).

If you’re new here, you may want to go back and read my Homeschool Hubbub posts to learn more about how school happens (or tries to happen) at our house, and to learn about our curriculum of choice.

I want to share with you my favorite pile of books for this year so that if you haven’t read them yet, you can look them up, and if you have read them already you can say, “I KNOW, that IS an awesome book!  I’m not posting all the books we read, and that doesn’t mean I didn’t like all of them, these were just my very favorites.  Here they are in no particular order (because by the end of our school year, our book shelf is not at all organized!):

The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr

We read this book as a family and got a big kick out of this adventure.  I love books that crack you up and make you think all at the same time.

 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor

We also read this book as a family.  Our kids were able to understand better the turmoil in the U.S. that was still going on years after the Civil War.  Fantastic book.

 

The Journeyman, by Elizabeth Yates

 

Elizabeth Yates is an awesome writer, helping the reader fit right into the shoes of the main character all while teaching important facts of history.  I never knew what a journeyman was before this.  We learned about that and so much more.

Mountain Born, by Elizabeth  Yates

Another great one by Elizabeth Yates!  This book was absolutely precious.  Our boys could completely relate to the main character in this book, as the story was told through his point of view.  This was one of those that I choked up at several times while reading it out loud.  My boys love it when I do that {cough}.

Helen Keller, by Margaret Davidson

Justus and Elias declared this to be one of their favorite readers this year.  They found it so interesting they could barely put it down.  That rarely happens for my boys.  (It’s usually pretty easy for them to put a book down and start kicking a ball instead.)  I love the understanding they gained and the inspiration they felt by reading Helen Keller’s story.

Indian Captive, by Lois Lenski

Wow, this book still haunts me and I can’t imagine that this “happened in real life”.  And yet, what a story of love and courage.  You’ve gotta read it.  (Our eighth grader read this on his own – I read it too.  I wouldn’t recommend it for younger grades.  There’s a lot to chew on in this book.)

Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse

This was another book our eighth grader read this year.  I believe he read it in two days…I read it in one.  It is incredibly written and heart jolting.  And obviously, hard to put down.

 

 

 

 

 

The Story of US, by Joy Hakim

Asa (8th grade) and I read through this series during the year as a part of his history program.  I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again:  Never did I know that studying history could be so intriguing.  Joy Hakim is a fantastic writer.  These books were so simple to understand and taught us so much.  I recommend this series as a great set of books to have on your shelves to read and re-read through the years.

Books we’ll be reading this summer (this of course is not an exhaustive list, just some I’d really like to read through with the kids):

• Tell Me the Secrets, Treasures for Eternity, by Max Lucado and Ron DiCianni
• Missionary Books by Dave and Neta Jackson (someone gave us a nice set of these and I can’t wait to read through them with the boys!)
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (again, someone gave us several of these books, which are historical fiction and perfect for my boys’ interests)
• By the Great Horn Spoon, by Sid Fleischman

What have been some of your favorite books you’ve read during the past few months?  Are you reading anything exciting this summer that I should add to my list?! :)

Art is one of those subjects that can be pushed out of our schedule when reading, math and dirty dishes seem to take priority.  Each school year, I’ve told myself that I need to be more intentional about teaching Art to my kids.

This is hard in that while I LOVE art and coloring and drawing…I really stink at it.  :)  It’s not my gift, I don’t know much about it and my circles always look like lop-sided gourds.  It’s not pretty.

This year, I prepared in advance.  I decided that we were at least going to learn some basics of drawing.  I bought a few “How to Draw” books for the kids, and more importantly, the excellent book:  Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad.  These books have been a blast, have been simple to plug into our day for a few minutes at a time, and have taught us all so much about making the pencil do what we have in mind for it to do on our sketch pads.

While the folks at See the Light (Drawing Kids to Him) didn’t know I was on an “art mission” this year, they’ve been helping to meet this goal too.  At Christmas, they sent The Gift of Love Art DVD.  Most recently, they sent us Art Class Volume 1:  The Basics DVD and another that I’m very excited about…The Crossmaker Art DVD, which focuses on the story of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection!!

These DVDs are a wonderful way to teach art to your kids (or to yourself, if you also draw lop-sided gourd shaped circles).  They are produced by talented art teachers, showing step-by-step drawing instructions so that your child can have a successful art experience and learn all the fundamentals. 

What I love most about these these See the Light DVDs is that right along with the art lessons, the teachers sprinkle in words of God’s truth.  These teachers are gifted to be able to show children how to draw and shade and sketch and smudge and do all the basic forms of art…all while talking about God’s gifts and blessings to us.  I think these DVDs are fantastic.  I just love them! 

You can preview some See the Light vidoes on You Tube if you’d like.  I’m excited to have these DVDs in my home as wonderful resources for my family to use and to share with other families in my area. 

You have the chance today to win Art Class Volume 1:  The Basics DVD and The Crossmaker Art DVD!  If you’re interested, leave a comment on this post for a chance to win.  I’ll draw a random winner of this giveaway on Friday, March 25.

And now, I’m going to go practice drawing gourds.  I mean circles.  :)

This giveaway is now closed…thank you!

On a completely different note, and don’t ask me why I feel the need to share this with you, but ever since I lost my mom to ALS six years ago…there have been random moments when I sing or speak that I am able to HEAR her voice through mine.  I think the older I get, the more I sound like her.  I am her daughter after all.  Occasionally at church I’ll be singing away and suddenly notice…WOW, that sounded just like Mom!  And then I melt into a puddle right there in the pew because “hearing her voice” makes me miss her so much more.

That’s what happened when I listened to myself at the beginning of this podcast.  Not the whole thing…just when I open with the word “Hello!”  It completely took me by surprise and I immediately began weeping all over the computer right there in my headset.  Whew…I was not expecting that.  It’s amazing how the pain fades, yet the tears and yearning are always there.  Perhaps God has given me a gift today in being able to “hear” what my mom’s voice sounded like.  Yes, it is amazing really.

Thanks for letting me share that.  You all are really, really great and I appreciate all of you so much.  {She says, as she pauses to blow her nose again.  Man, I’m weepy today.}

I really am okay.  :)  {deep breath}  In today’s podcast, I address the question of which curriculum I recommend and how in the world to keep curriculum affordable!!  Also, I talk about how to handle it when our kids are handed sugary, food coloring filled snacks after events such as little league games.  Isn’t that counter productive to the exercise they just participated in to keep them healthy?!

Sit back and relax…or get some dishes done while you listen.  (Actually if you’d like to get some of my dishes done while I sit back and relax and we can listen together…that would be great!)

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast Two

Links refered to during the podcast:

• Swagbucks (the online search engine that has enabled me to earn free Amazon dollars to use toward some of our homeschool curriculum)
• Heavenly Homemakers Homeschool Curriculum Share Forum

Thanks for taking the time to read and listen to the podcast!

(In case you’re interested, here’s a look at our schedule for 2009-2010 and our schedule for 2008-2009.)

And now for 2010-2011…

Our schedule has changed from year to year, but one thing has stayed the same:  We always read the Bible at breakfast.  We LOVE starting our kids’ day like this.  We are currently reading a chapter of Matthew together, then reading a section from Why Pray?  (Why Pray? is a GREAT read by the way!)  Our older boys also read their Bibles on their own each morning before they come downstairs for breakfast.

After breakfast/Bible reading begins a general organized hubbub.  If possible, I sit down with Justus and Elias right after breakfast and read History and work through Spelling words.  (You can see a list of their books and curriculum here.)  Malachi (Kindergarten) heads off to play Legos or super heros or army guys or something else very manly.  Asa begins his reading assignments for the day.  He works on his own for most of the morning, making his way through his history books, literature and math.  Once I’ve finished History and Spelling with Justus and Elias, they do their individual work (handwriting, math, phonics, vocabulary).

IF by chance all the boys are working on their own without trouble at this point of the morning (of course I am available to answer questions at any time), I will start some laundry, wash some dishes, have a conversation with my husband (joy!), cook something, or scrub some unidentified gooey substance from the kitchen floor.

If I can, I try to put a big, nice meal on the table for lunch.  Matt often works evenings, so I want to send him off with a healthy meal.  I am finding that having good pre-made food in the freezer is a HUGE help for me since I don’t always have time to cook a big meal from start to finish during school time.  Pulling something from the freezer and throwing some veggies on the table with it has been a life saver!!

While we’re eating lunch, Matt works with us on memory verses.  Have I ever written about how we do “repeat afters”?  Why have I not ever written about how we do “repeat afters”?  I’ll put that on my list.  It’s so simple, yet so effective.

While we’re doing “repeat afters”, I stuff my lunch down.  Then, while the boys are still eating (because eating is an art form for them), I will read from our latest science book, then from our latest “read-aloud” book.  They generally finish eating while I’m reading, but we all just sit around the table enjoying the books.  I LOVE reading during meal times!!!

After lunch, before the boys scatter…we’ll do a quick grammar lesson (Grammar Ace) or art lesson (Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad).   After that, I sit with Asa and help him finish his History, Spelling and Science lessons.  This has been a really great time with my teenager!  While I’m doing this with Asa, Justus and Elias set the timer for 25 minutes and sit down in a quiet room to read.  Malachi has gone back to his Legos again.

Somewhere in there, we send Matt off to work (or soccer practice, depending on the day).  Then finally, I call Malachi in to do his school work.  I don’t do every subject with him every day.  I don’t find it necessary.  The main thing is that he gets it all done eventually…and he’s getting some one-on-one time with Mama.

Now keep in mind that this order of events is how an “ideal” day looks.  I’m actually finding that by staying very laid back about our schedule has helped all of us stay stress-free during the day!  Sometimes we’re still finishing up some of our lessons at 8 pm.  Sometimes we don’t get everything finished and have to carry our work over to the next day. 

I have given up assigning a “time schedule” to our days.  I pretty much HATED having a schedule that said, “Science 9:00-9:30; History 9:30-10:00…”  We could NEVER stick to a schedule like that (read here if you want to know why) and it always made me a Frantic Freaked-Out Mama.  NO ONE wants to do school work with a Frantic Freaked-Out Mama!  Not even me.

I think that the main point is to just get everything done (mostly) and to keep the most important things the most important things.  I don’t want my kids to remember school days with a Frantic Freaked-Out Mama.  I want them to remember “repeat afters” and reading with Mama while they eat lunch and snuggling on the couch to learn about Abraham Lincoln.

We get it all done somehow…so it doesn’t really matter what time the clock says, does it?

Here are some other posts you may be interested in reading about how we used to accomplish “school” when we had littler guys and  babies in the house!

• How Can I Do This Along With Everything Else I’m Doing?!
• Am I Qualified to Teach?
• What To Do With Little Ones During School Time

Want to know what a real day looks like at our house?  Now that I can tell you about.  Messy, loud, fun, frustrating, silly, scattered, satisfying…those are the kinds of days we usually have.  Schedule?  Yes we have one…just because we have to have SOMETHING to go by so that we can accomplish SOMETHING.  But if I were to force us each day to stick to the exact schedule…I would make all of our lives miserable.  Especially my own. 

I’ve learned through these past eight years of homeschooling to keep our days flexible.  To write down what I’d like a school day to look like and then to follow the plan loosely.  Because just about the time I finally get all of my children in the room at the same time, settle them comfortably into their spots on the couches with pillows, wait for all of them to look up expectantly at me so that I can begin reading an enlightening chapter from our latest history book…someone is going to have to go to the bathroom. 

And while that someone is in the bathroom, another someone will remember that he forgot his pencil but on his way to go get it he will see the Lego man on the steps that he had been missing and then he will accusingly ask which of his other brothers left the Lego man on the stairs when clearly Lego men are not allowed out of the Lego room because this is how we lose Lego people and the other brothers (the ones that are not in the bathroom) will run to see which Lego man it is and then they will all go to the Lego room, forget all about history and start to build a space ship. 

In the meantime, the phone will ring with a call I can’t ignore and by the time I can corral them all back into the living room for history a good forty-five minutes will have passed and we’ll all finally get settled back down again…just in time for someone else to need to go to the bathroom. 

These are the days of our lives.

I work very hard to keep our school days free of outside appointments, and I almost never answer the phone while we’re schooling…but sometimes things can come up that are out of my control.  We have to roll with it.  (No, boys!  I did not say that you could roll and wrestle all over the art materials which are on the floor…I meant roll with the schedule!  Get off the sketchbooks!!!)

Somehow our children are learning in spite of all of the “life” that is going on around us. 

Hey, it would appear that “life” is what they need to be learning about anyway.

Well, I’m so glad I worked that into the schedule.  ;)

If you’ve been hanging around here long, you might already know that the boys and I have a tradition each year a few days before we start school.  Each boy gets his very own “school supply list” and off to Walmart we go so that they can pick out new notebooks and folders for the year.

I will admit that I tend to forget each year that while this is an incredibly wonderful experience and I love doing it…there is also a fair amount of chaos involved with four boys, four baskets, four lists and an aisle full of bright and attractive objects.  My older guys can be calm and patient while basically picking their supplies without much help.  My youngers require more help and also um…they don’t always like to follow their list so much.  My youngest doesn’t know how to read the prices on the shelves, which means that I have to quickly redirect him to the 15¢ notebooks instead of the really cool $2.50 notebooks.  The paper inside is the same, ya know.  ;)

Oh yeah, and this year I had a fifth boy with me…because if you’re already taking four, you might as well take five.  Five boys, five lists, five baskets.  Five hundred questions.  All at once.  (“Is this the kind of folder I need Mom?”  “I don’t know…why don’t you get it out of my face so that I can actually see it?”)

And yet, I do it because the boys love it.  And mostly, so do I.  It is SO much fun to watch them enjoy getting excited for school to start.  It is so much fun to watch them walk out of the store with their very own bags of supplies. 

And…it is so much fun to only pay 20¢ for glue sticks.

The best part is watching them come home and pour the contents of their bags out to look at all over again.  Then they put it all away to have it ready for the first day of school.  (Or, they leave it sprawled out all over the floor so that it can get ruined already before it even has a chance to be written in yet.)

There really is something magical about new school supplies and new books that brings an excitement to the beginning of a new school year.  So far we’ve had three days of school and every one of them has been just wonderful.  Perfect?  No.  But wonderful nonetheless. 

Today, I’m grateful for the chance to be my boys’ teacher and thankful that we share traditions that will be lifetime memories.  I’m even grateful for that crazy joy in the Walmart school supply section.  Having a bunch of boys eager to start a new school year…now that’s something to be grateful for!

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday?  Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here.  If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post!  Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Asa (13) will be working through most of Sonlight 100 this year (History, Geography, Literature, Current Events, Creative Writing, Spelling) and will be doing much of it on his own.  He’ll begin Apologia Science this year, Exploring Creating with General Science.  For math, he will be going through Teaching Textbook Pre-Algebra.  We LOVE Teaching Textbooks and HIGHLY recommend them!!!!!

Justus (10) and Elias (8) will be doing much of their work together this year.

We’ll be studying American History with them (from Civil War era to present) using Sonlight’s Level 4 Books.  I remember studying these with Asa a few years ago, so I’m really excited to revisit them with Justus and Elias!

These two boys are about on the same reading level, so I’ve put together a big shelf of Sonlight readers for them to choose from throughout the year.  Most of the books on their list are found here.  Ooh, such good books!!

For science, we’ll be making a monthly trip to our local science museum, where they have a special  program just for home schoolers!  They’ll also be going to a once-a-week science class here in town taught by a wonderful gal who really knows her science.  Here and there at home, we’ll be reading through a few of these science books that I’ve purchased in years past and never got around to reading.

Elias will be finishing the last two Miquon Math books this year.  Justus will be working through Teaching Textbooks 5.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Teaching Textbooks!!?!!  For the older kids, it is a tremendous teaching tool!

I use Sequential Spelling with them and they work through MCP Phonics books. 

Whatwe do with ALL four boys together (well, Malachi is hit and miss with some of this!):

•  Grammar Ace - These activities are simple and fun.  (When asked to make a list of nouns, one of my boys wrote “boogers”.  It was a proud moment.)  Grammar Ace goes along with the School House Rock DVD, which is so much fun and is bringing back so many memories for me!  (“Conjuntion Junction, what’s your function” - remember?!)

• Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad - I’ve pretty much been TERRIBLE in the past about making time for art lessons with the boys.  Sonlight recommened Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad…I got it, along with a nice sketch pad and some pencils for each boy and we are all learning to draw together.  (By all, I mean all.  Mom is learning too because up until now I have had NO artistic ability.  Hand Mama Mark Kistler’s book and give her her very own sketch pad!)



• Bible – I don’t know why I’m mentioning the most important part last.  ;)  We read the Bible together at breakfast time (currently reading through the book of Matthew).  In addition, I read a section of Why Pray? each morning and we discuss it a little bit.  It is AWESOME that the boys are old enough to have thoughtful Bible discussions now.  (Which sometimes ends with, “Mom can I have more french toast?”  But still.)

I’m sure I forgot something off of our list.  What are your kids studying this year?

I’ll try to take time this week to tell you more about our schedule and what our school days look like.  Because yes, we sort of have a schedule.  Sometimes.