Update on Homeschooling

Well, we are back into the swing of life! Big changes in the way we School this year has taken place, or one –  we have a dedicated School room now, yeah!!!!! I LOVE this space. I feel that it allows the kids space to learn and be creative. I made my own bulletin boards for each of the kids complete with some “tips” to help them out as well as reward charts! I am all about the positive affirmations! In this post I will go into more detail as to how the reward charts work and what our homeschooling day typically looks like. One thing I would suggest and have found it to be invaluable is finding someone you can bounce ideas off of and to have some time to have a hang out, with the kids. For me I have formed a new friendship with someone whom we have some similar friends but never really hung out together. Well I am SO THANKFUL for this friendship!!! She is very creative, seems to know all the cool programs and websites and is so fun to hang out with! We both started around the same time homeschooling so we are both figuring this out together, it is also awesome to note that our husbands get along so even double dates have happened, well one double date has happened – but we had so much fun I know many more will happen! We have made it a priority to meet up once a week and go to the library. This is much for us as it is the kids. They get out and get to get new books and continue to learn and well, we get to sit and have a tea, or try to amidst many interruptions by our sweet babies.

Our typical day is pretty straight forward to be honest. We start our day by praying for whatever needs we find to be of importance, right now we are praying for our church’s second campus and a permit we need to get to open our doors! Then our family devotional and journaling. This book is new to our personal library, “Sheila Walsh’s Family Devotions”. Then we switch which one goes first doing their flash cards.  We switch between spelling for Kennedy and math and for Cole sight words and math. Then into the books they go. This year we switched from a computer based program curriculum to books. For Cole I made up a binder for the first 4 weeks which was all review of what we have done last year to make sure that his skills where sharp. Starting next week he is back to his grade 1 Complete Canadian Curriculum book as well as reading 9 pages from a level 1 reader, and 5 pages from a level 2 reader. Spelling is his area of opportunity so his day is heavy in reading. Kennedy is doing a grade 5 Complete math and English smart books as well as a grade 6 Complete Canadian Curriculum book for extra English, spelling, science and socials. She also has a Canadian geography book that gets done 2 times a week. Next month we are going to introduce French. We also signed up for Letters from Afar, I would recommend looking them up on Instagram! Monthly we get a letter from “Isabelle” who is an explorer and it tells of her adventures. We then go and do some research on where she is, some of the local things that are common and then do a small presentation with our friends. It’s a great way to teach them about the world, what other cultures do and also gives them public speaking experience. We have a giant wall map and when we get a new letter we move the arrow to show where Isabelle is for the month we are studying her. We also on the map have an arrow for a friend of ours who travels for Ministry, so the kids can also see how far he travels, where he travels too and gives them a visual of where in the world he is. The kids came up with the idea and I love it.

The reward charts are super fun! The kids each have 2 of them. Kennedy’s 2 are for good behavior/80% on tests and the other is for being patient with her Brother as he reads to her. I felt this was important to teach her patience, to show her that not everyone learns the same as you and to have pride in teaching her Brother how to read. Some days as I watch them, I am so happy I did this and other days I want to call it off! Cole’s 2 are for good behavior and his 2nd one is for reading to Kennedy with a good attitude. Lets be real, siblings don’t really like to work together a whole lot so this has been good for him to learn that his Sister wants to help him and for her to learn how to be gentle and kind in a leadership role while getting your point across. It also for both of them, I feel prepares them for marriage one day, not to each other let me clarify, lol. I often say “listen one day you will be married and that person won’t always make you very happy or might do things to anger you BUT your partners so you have to learn to work through it, speak to each other with kindness and respect so this is a training ground for your future marriages, WORK IT OUT”!! I figure it’s never too young to teach them lessons that will hopefully propel them into the future full of successes, time will tell.

Here are some pictures of what the school room looks like, before it gets messed up in a day.

 

 

 

 

Until next time, keep exploring life.

 

Jen

We are Homeschooling!! Part 2

So in my previous post I began to tell you how we got to where we are now, Homeschooling. It has been a journey. When I first felt that question pop into my head, why not Homeschooling? to now, it has been 2 years. I began to do research on my own and I knew I would have to present my case (so to speak) to my husband because, to be honest, this was coming out of left field! I began to get excited about setting up our house for Homeschooling in a room on the 2 second floor and all the fun possibilities that could be. Now, thankfully our kids were in an amazing private school, so there was no need right away to act on this, yet another reason it comes out of nowhere! I spoke with Mark about what I felt God was saying, and well, his reaction was one of less then impressed with the idea.  I left it with him and spoke with that friend who I wasn’t so supportive towards. I wanted to tell her how I was feeling and get some input from her. It was now 6 months later and a new school year was fast approaching. I wanted to know what its like to Homeschool, and she suggested we do more research and wait. Gather more information to see if its something I really wanted to do, and Mark and I needed to be on the same page. Well I was discouraged but understood where she was coming from, the timing wasn’t the greatest and it would be rushed.  Mark and I were on board late in the summer, as in August! We were scared, excited and a bit nervous but we knew that this is what we wanted to do, so we decided to jump both feet in and Homeschool this year.

 

We are using an online based curriculum from http://elementaryplanet.com. It has made life easier because I am a planner in many ways but would have no a clue what to use, curriculum wise. It lays it all out and we just help them along the way. Now, we do utilize some paperwork as well. Such as printing for Cole and cursive writing for Kennedy. They also have offline projects to do and sheets we print off to help them along the way. The program isn’t perfect but for the most part it is working for us. Maybe next year we move back to text books and paper, who knows. Really that has been the best part, flexibility! I’m not a huge fan of every day, day in and day out schedules. I get bored of them and find them less then exciting. Now don’t get me wrong, we do have a daily schedule we follow but some days we have field trips with our Homeschooling group or we go out and help my Grandma. If the kids are done early we can go visit family or go to the park, if they’re not done early, well you can image how that goes. Each day is different and brings about its joys and challenges.

 

Remember how I said I don’t edit my blog cause my grammar is awful, well I feel like I’m back in school because Kennedy is in Grade 5 and heavy into grammar in her English work…..borrrrring. I mean you need to learn it sweet girl 😉 Thankfully my husband Mark and I are a team and where I lack He picks up the slack. Some days I just want to yell I DON’T KNOW FIGURE IT OUT! but instead I breathe, sit down, and try to figure it out together. I’m not ashamed to say to her, I don’t get it lets Google it. Even less ashamed to say, wait to ask Daddy when He gets home. Both kids have adjusted well to being home and doing school online. It amazes me to see Cole learning words and spelling!!! He is rocking his program and loving it! Math is totally his thing for sure! Kennedy has had some struggles but it is nice to be able to cheer her on, encourage her and support her to be all she can be. She is doing amazing as well and has taken a liking to cooking, and I’m ok with that. Homeschooling just isn’t about books, its about learning thru experiences. Bringing the books to life, if you will. I look forward to sharing more of our journey, the great and not so great parts because that’s life, not every day is amazing but you can find amazing things in every day.

An afternoon at the local park, chatting with Great Grandma, PJ days and baking cookies. Which is basically, gym, social studies, learning to rest and math. Because Homeschooling is all about life long learning.

 

 

Until next time,

 

Jen

We decided to Homeschool! Part 1

Well, I’m back at it! I have not been on here much. I just felt I needed a break and as you can tell we have made some big life changes. I look forward to sharing all that’s going on in our life right now and what is to come. Have a great day and enjoy.

 

I find it so funny, as the words ” I will never….” roll off my tongue, I almost feel like God is saying, “Oh yeah? Wait and see what I have in store for you!” Now, the times that I have said that phrase, and God makes the opposite happen, it has ALWAYS been a blessing! So when I say what I did, it is in no way a mean or malaise type of thing, but one of love and I have a “sense of feeling” humor. So as you can guess, Homeschooling was “one of those times”. In fact a friend of mine started homeschooling many years ago and I wasn’t supportive or encouraging at all, just the opposite! Now here I am 8 years later, homeschooling!

 

It was a journey to get here. It wasn’t some deep desire in my heart to do this. It wasn’t a dream that I had and felt the need to do it. It wasn’t even something I could see myself doing to be honest.  Having kids has taught me that as humans we are selfish. They expect us to do everything for them from the day they are born, and depending how you raise them, hopefully not their whole life. Then we become adults, still selfish at times, well most of the time. I wouldn’t consider myself overly selfish but the thought of homeschooling made me realize how selfish I can be. How would I do what I want to do during the day when they would be home all the time?! What about “Free time” during the day to have coffee with my husband,  hang with friends,  nap, do what I want to do!? Well, here I am, homeschooling. Free time is limited but I am OK with it. How we got here, well only God can make that happen! I was working full time with great people but with a commute and job I didn’t love. I was putting away stock at work when all of a sudden I had this question pop in my head, “why not Homeschool???”….. I looked around to make sure no one was around as I began to think and daydream about such things. I thought maybe it was the stress I was under, because there is no way God you’re asking me to do this, cause i said I would nev……er oh boy!

I didn’t go running home telling my husband with great joy and excitement hey I think we should Homeschool, because to be honest I felt like such a hypocrite. All those years ago being, well, mean to be honest, and now here I was thinking about it?! I began to read blogs, Pintrest ideas, and speak to other Moms I know who do. I felt scared but excited but worried about what will people think?! I don’t feel like I fit  “Homeschooling Mom” mold so to speak. I am not soft spoken, Suzy Homemaker, Martha Stewart, Bill Nye the Science Guy type person. My personality fits more of the corporate world. I’m great with people and sales, not so much at math, science and english. I don’t edit my own blog cause my grammar is well, really bad lol.  I will share in part 2 how we got here and what life is like now, 4 months in. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

These pictures are from a field trip we took to Westfield Heritage Village.

 

Unitl next time,

 

Jen