Homeschooling

I thought I'd write a bit tonight about what we are doing these days homeschooling-wise. Now that we've been here in SB 3+ weeks, things are settling down a bit and we are finding a routine. I am personally appreciating the fact that we don't have to run off to this, that, and the other thing each afternoon/evening... we are able to take our time with lessons.

Each morning, somewhere around 9 or 9:30 am (these days it's more like 9:30 since the sun is not up until almost 8 am!) the four of us gather in the living room. Mostly the dog joins us too, doing his best to get one of his people to give him some nice scratches around the ears. We read from the Bible, following the Book of Common Prayer daily reading schedule. This means ds takes the Old Testament reading, older dd reads from the New Testament, and younger dd gets the Gospel. Sometimes we briefly discuss something in the readings. Then we pray, taking turns from day to day to be the one to voice the prayer.

Ds (age 16.5, 11th grade) has usually been up and working in his room since around 7:30. He likes to get an early start... this year he has been doing two math courses, both from Teaching Textbooks, their Algebra 2 and their Geometry. I like their approach and the course includes CDs with full explanations for each problem in the course. Then he works on Spanish--he is using this book I found at Borders. He leaves the math pages and his completed Spanish exercise downstairs on the dining room table for me to correct -- which I usually do by lunchtime, if not before. (One way my kids are spoiled with homeschooling is that they get to see the results of their labors very quickly, compared to schooled kids!) We go over any missed problems. A 100% correct paper is rewarded with a small (goofy) round sticker at the top. The sticker is very important.

Meanwhile the girls & I are at the dining table... it works best if I've already taken my shower and gotten any other chores done BEFORE this time but that doesn't always happen. Thankfully they are both fairly independent and can get started without me hovering over them. Older ds (age 14.5, 9th grade) usually starts with her history lesson which usually involves reading, adding information to her history notebook or timeline and sometimes discussion with me. We use Beautiful Feet study guides. This year she is working through Ancient History. I basically follow the guide but feel free to adjust if need be. (For ex., she is using an Usborne encyclopedia that we already owned instead of an out-of-print book the guide recommends for the Greece portion of the study.)

Next she might do the day's Pre-Algebra lesson. (Again, I correct it by the end of the morning and we go over any problems and she gets a sticker for a perfect paper.) Or the day's Spanish lesson -- she is using this DVD-based program.

Each of my children has a one-page summary (Word doc) of the work they are to complete for the week, divided into work for each day, Monday-Friday. The order of the work done is entirely up to each of them as long as it is all done before they put their books away for the day. (They must check it off when it's completed.) I usually put these schedules together a few weeks at a time, printing out the new one for them every Monday morning. I include their out-of-the-home activities on the schedule so they have full picture of everything they are doing. (For ex., ballet class, chorus, Bible study, skating, other exercise, guitar lesson, additional projects they might be involved in, field trips, other classes, holidays, special events, etc.)

More later...