Homeschool Hacks

For Younger Kids: A Peek Into Our World

by Brea

For three nights last week, I had no children. John's mom had our two older kids, and my mom had the little one. I had all these projects I was going to do, all this wonderful stuff I was going to accomplish. Notsomuch. I watched a lot of Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. I played on the internet. I talked to friends on the phone. I went to the Farmers' Market with my husband. It was actually pretty great.

One thing we did accomplish, though, was planning the upcoming school year. Yay!! This is something we've been trying to get done for quite a while, but never managed to carve out the time. My dear friend Kristie came over a few months ago, and brought most of her school stuff with her. I love this woman. She's the one who introduced me to Charlotte Mason and Elisabeth Elliot. Anyway, Kristie had made a list of things that she's used, things she wished she had used, and things she used but didn't like.

By the way, have I ever mentioned how valuable a resource your homeschooling friends with older children can be?

So. If you want to see our schedule for what we're doing in the upcoming year, here it goes. We'll be doing school four days a week (my older ones will be 5 and 6 by the time we start in September), with a slightly different schedule on different days.

Days 1 and 3
8-8:30: read aloud during breakfast
8:30-9: brush teeth, get dressed, make beds, clean kitchen, get table ready for school
9-9:15 Grapevine Studies (a chronological Bible course)
9:15-9:30: copy work and writing (using the Grapevine lesson as the writing lesson)
9:30-10: math (I love the Kumon workbooks!)
10-11: break (chores, plan evening's supper, play outside, etc)
11-11:30: science (Eagle's Wings Considering God's Creation, using Nature Journals we've made)
11:30-1: break (lunch, cleanup, free time)
1-1:30: music
1:30-2:30: break (work outside, laundry, older kids spend time with David, etc)
2:30-3: sign language (Signs for His Glory); David takes his nap

Days 2 and 4
8-8:30: read aloud during breakfast
8:30-9: brush teeth, get dressed, make beds, clean kitchen, get table ready for school
9-9:15: Pictures from Proverbs
9:15-9:30: copy work and writing (using the Proverbs lesson as the writing lesson)
9:30-10: math (I love the Kumon workbooks!)
10-11: break (chores, plan evening's supper, play outside, etc)
11-11:30: The Mystery of History*
11:30-1: break (lunch, cleanup, free time)
1-1:30: art
1:30-2:30: break (work outside, laundry, older kids spend time with David, etc)
2:30-3: geography (complimenting the history lesson); David takes his nap

*The Mystery of History is a really neat history course. It is divided (so far) into three courses or volumes. Each volume can be used on different age levels. For example, Volume 1 covers Creation to the Resurrection. So, we'll use this volume this year for Sam and Evie. In four years, when we come back around to it, Sam and Evie (then ages 10 and 9) will be learning on the second level, David (then 6) will be on the first level, and the baby (then 3) will listen along as read aloud. Since it's not required to have learned each volume before moving on to the next, we'll probably just pick up with 'real' lessons when each younger child turns 5 or 6. We'll also be supplementing the history lessons with lots of read alouds, like Henty's books.

Sam will be starting piano lessons this year, and Evie will be doing voice lessons. We also have a short read aloud after nap/rest time each day, and we read before bed each evening. I'll try to keep everyone updated about the books we're currently on, and what we think of each one.

This schedule might seem a little ambitious (and maybe it is!), but if you add up all the times, we'll only be doing about 2.5 hours of actual school each day. I set up the schedule the way I did so that David (he'll be 2 in October) can be with us for most of the school day. He'll probably have playtime in his room while we do math, but other than that, he'll be at the table (or couch) when we are, learning along side his older siblings. We're officially starting at the beginning of September, but we're beginning a modified schedule this week to get into the swing of things. And to keep me from having to strangle my kids because they have nothing better to do than get into trouble and break things. Ahem. Sorry.

This will probably be our schedule through the beginning of February, when the next baby is due. I hope that maybe this can give you a jumping point for your schedule, if this is your first year. Any tips from moms who have been there?

(Also, to said moms: What phonics program did you like? Please help!)

Links to love today

Make your own biodegradeable starter pots for indoor and outdoor plants.

Here is a video I wanted to share also-

For younger kids: don't stress!!!

by Brea

Ok, so y'all know I'm a Charlotte Mason fan. Teach your children through books, books, and more books. And then read them a book or two. And when you're done, why not find a new great book? (Am I getting a tad repetitive here? Sorry.)

Homeschooling can be expensive!! And there's so many options! I've got a little tip for you, something I've heard from almost every mom of older children I know, and something I'm seeing from my own experience. If you do nothing but character training and reading out loud to your kids before they're six or seven, you'll have given them a vast head start over their peers. Seriously. Your kids can pick up 'the essentials' like reading and writing when they're a little older, and they will be just fine for it! A close friend of mine has a daughter I'm crazy about. 'A' is 14, and she and I love to talk books. She's borrowed some favs from me, and we're not talking teen lit here. Big, heavy, wonderful books. She's an amazing reader, devouring almost anything she can get her hands on. Want to know a secret? She didn't learn to read until after she turned nine. A's mom realized something: if she pushed her daughter to read before she was ready, she could possibly end up making her daughter hate reading. So she waited. She did other things with her. And now A is one of the most well-read 14-year-olds I know.

Let your kids learn from life. Don't start formal school with them until they're in the first grade, and even then, keep it light! There are so many ways your kids can learn from everyday things that happen around them. My oldest, Sam, is almost 6. He's starting to learn about money. Every Friday, we head down to our local Farmers' Market. (Sam's mom over here has a big ole' crush on homegrown veggies and grass-fed beef. Mmmm ...) In the last few months, Sam has become my 'money man.' For the most part, he and his sister Evie (4) pick out the veggies we'll be buying for the week. Sam knows that we start each Friday off with $20 or $25. They're each allowed to buy a treat, which costs a dollar. All prices at the market are rounded the the nearest quarter, and Sam is the one who carries the money and pays for everything. (I use ones and fives, to make it easier on him.) So if we get down to the last $5, and each of them still want to buy a treat, that's $3 left. Evie wants to buy spinach, while Sam wants broccoli. But a bag of spinach is $2.50, and four heads of broccoli cost $3.00. Hmm, dilemma! I let the two of them figure out what to do. Sam won out with the broccoli last time, because he logically pointed out to his sister that our spinach at home is getting big enough to eat, so we didn't need to buy any.

Wait, what just happened here? Let me go into this. Sam is learning math skills. Sam and Evie are learning how to interact with other grown-ups in a real-world setting (and people say homeschoolers aren't socialized!!), and they're learning where our food comes from. They're both learning logic and problem-solving skills (broccoli or spinach? It's a tough life, I tell ya!), and they're learning financial responsibility. All that from a 10 minute visit to the market. Oh, and remember the part about growing spinach at home? We have several gardens. There's my nature, science, and ecology classes for the next several years.

Do you have cheerios at home? What about skittles, raisins, or chocolate chips? A few years ago, I bought a bag of 15-bean soup. It's just a bunch of dried beans. There's our math class. We can learn grouping, patterns, addition, subtraction, and later multiplication and division. And it cost me a whopping $.79. Do your youngsters cook with you? My kids are learning fraction without even knowing it, because I can't ever find my measuring cups, so we have to measure out 1 1/2 cups of flour with the 1/2 cup scoop. Evie can tell you that there's three teaspoons in a tablespoon, and Sam knows that you can't leave sugar when it's cooking or 'it turns stinky and yucky.' (We make lots of candy around Christmas time!)

We've been reading The Chronicles of Narnia, and my kids just eat it up. They know the difference between a broadsword and a rapier, and why a ship would have sails and oars. And battle strategy. And the difference between port and starboard.

I'm not writing this to brag on my children, although I'm certainly not above that. :) I'm writing this as an encouragement. It can be really overwhelming when you start looking at curriculum, and what to buy, and when to start, and  what homeschooling method to follow. And then we start looking at the world, and what and when public schools do things. Remember that each child is different, and that's a great thing about homeschooling!! It's much easier for kids to catch up on something they're a little behind on, as opposed to trying to get them to like something that's been forced on them too early. God gave your children to you, not to me, or your mother, or your neighbor, or your friends at church. You. You are better qualified to teach them, for that reason alone, than any other person in the world.

So if you're a little stressed right now, take a deep breath. Now one more. And one more. Get up and go on a walk with your young'ens. Talk about some flowers. Look at the clouds. Why did God make bees? What do they do? Why do round things roll better than things with flat sides? Read this post and the wonderful comments, then take a trip to the library and find Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and some of the other great books. Spend 15 minutes reading, then snuggle for 10 minutes and talk about what you just read. Congratulations, you just did school for the day!! You really can do this!

Moms with older kids, what did y'all do when yours were little? Can you offer any advice?

Daily Links You Will Love

Hopeful Spirit is hosting a wonderful Carnival of Family Life.

A wonderful article from the Washington Post last week is here!

Principled Discovery has the best graphic in this one.

If you have any great articles you would like highlighted please email me- homeschoolhacks@gmail.com

Have a wonderful Monday!

Blessings, Alli

Homeschooler Discounts

by Brea

It helps to know the best places to buy resources, and it really helps to know where you can save some money. Homeschooling doesn't have to cost a fortune (more on that coming later in the week), so here's a great link at Homeschooling on Shoestring that lists a bunch of discounts. Some of the places listed are local to Michigan, but most are nation-wide.

Home Educator Discount List

And remember, it doesn't hurt to ask any place you shop if they give discounts for homeschoolers ... provided, of course, that you're purchasing school materials. :) What's the worst that can happen? You pay the same price you'd pay even if you didn't ask? That's what I thought ...

And do you already have a particular curriculum you'd like to use? Think used books. They might not be quite as pretty, but there are terrific savings to be had if you're willing to do a little looking. Amazon.com is always a great place to check (I often get books for under $.25 before shipping), and there's also Homeschool Classifieds and Second Harvest Curriculum. So check out some of these links, and save those pennies where you can!

For younger kids: Reading!

by Brea

Hi everyone! I'm new here, so I wanted to quickly introduce myself. I'm Brea (pronounced Brie, like the cheese), and I'm 25. I've got three kids: Sam is 5, Evie is 4, and David is 18 months old. We live almost in the country, and have chickens and grow lots of our own food. And, obviously, we homeschool!! I'm here to give some hacks for younger kids. Honestly, I'm completely flying by the seat of my pants with this whole homeschool thing, so I'll just be here to give some tips for what's worked for us so far. I also have a board of advisers, also known as the women from my church, who give me the best advice and ideas I could ever ask for. Most everyone in our church homeschools, and has older children, so they really help me with the stuff they've already been through. I've lived in Texas my whole life, and say things like "fixin' to" and "the Walmart" and think anyone who lived anywhere else is a little crazy. (But I'm very polite in my Southern ways,so I would never actually say that ... would I?) Click on my name above to check out the everyday craziness of our life through my blog.

Ok, so that's me. And here's my hack for you moms just starting out, and kind of wondering where to start: read to your kids!! I know, I know. We've all heard it said over and over. But it's true. I'm a huge fan of Charlotte Mason, and if you haven't read The Charlotte Mason Companion, I highly recommend it. It's great! Miss Mason believed that your kids, especially up to about fourth grade, can learn everything they need to from 'living books;' books written by an author who loved the subject, books that aren't dry and boring and just a textbook. There are so many out there. Become friends with your local librarian- they are filled with knowledge, and love to help people when asked.

And don't be afraid to read a little above your children's level. I'm not saying to go out and buy Tolstoy just yet, but kids just soak up knowledge! We're in the middle of the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia, and my kids just beg me to read more everyday. Your kids will learn new vocabulary, their grammar will improve, and their attention span will develop beyond The Cat and The Hat (not knocking Dr Seuss, whom I utterly love!). And let me elaborate a little on the attention span theory. When we read, my kids can't do anything else. No jumping around, no coloring, no talking, no nose-picking, no singing. Even David, at 18 months, has to sit calmly on my lap and listen. It takes a while to work up to this, but it really does pay off in the long run.

If you're new to chapter books with your younger kids, there are some wonderful ones out there! (And I'm hoping people will chime in with more suggestions in the comments.) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is great, with great morals. The chapters are really short, and this has been our new bedtime book, so it's not uncommon for us to read 3 or 4 chapters in one sitting. Actually, Roald Dahl has many wonderful books. EB White's books are fantastic, too, like Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Stuart Little. I remember loving Mrs Piggle-Wiggle when I was younger, and I'm sure your kids will, too.

Ask your kids to narrate back what you've just read to them, and you're helping them to develop critical thinking skills. Also, it's really funny sometimes. And they'll pick up more than you'd expect, and retain little pieces of the story that will surprise you!

So go out there! Ask your kids what they're interested in. Make friends with your librarian. Don't be afraid to read just because you think you're not a strong reader; this is a fairly common fear. Start slowly. Trust me, your kids won't remember if you stuttered over a word or two, but they will remember spending time with you, and the wonderful adventures you take them on through great books, and you'll be giving the wonderful gift of loving books!!

Readers, any other read aloud suggestions? What's worked for you?

 

Bullying in the School System

Summer at Mom is Teaching wrote a brilliant article on bullying. Go read it!

From her article-

"I don’t want to teach my sons to deal with bullies. I want to teach them that this behavior is unacceptable, that hurting others in any way does not make them “cool”, that they don’t have to fit into the crowd and that standing out does not have to be painful, and that they do not have to become the kind of adults that use words that hurt as much as fists. They can be better. If that means keeping them out of the bully-rich environment until they have a solid foundation built up and a strong enough personal base to stand up to those who use power-over, then good. They will be strong er for it in the long run."

Is anyone tired of hearing how we should put our kids in school to socialize them? Middle School and High School are artificial environments that children are expected to 'get through'. It is ridiculous to feel we need to expose our children to this simply because most children are forced to deal with it! The school experience for most children has nothing to do with real-life in adulthood. I say we start laughing when we are asked, "What about socialization?" I say the proof is in the pudding, as my grandmother used to say.

Tidal Learning Tuesday -Strategic Strewing

Welcome to the third installment of Tidal Learning Tuesday. The most wonderful Melissa Wiley originally posted this article in January 2005 and she has so graciously allowed me to republish.

I consider my primary function as a homeschooling mom to be Strategic Strewing of the Path. Coined by Sandra Dodd, "strewing" is a favorite term of homeschoolers, especially unschoolers, which describes the habit of oh-so-subtlely leaving books lying on tables and counters and in the car where unsuspecting children will find them. (Check out Sandra’s extensive page on strewing here.)

I learned the benefits of strewing from my husband. He hates to be told what to read. In high school, his favorite books were the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He read and re-read them for pleasure year after year. In college, he took a class on Tolkien. A certain number of chapters of The Lord of the Rings was assigned for each class. And Scott found that he never wanted to read the material. It had become "material." It was an assignment, chopped up into increments and parceled out over a semester. He procrastinated or completely blew off the daily reading assignments. At home the following summer, he lounged under the air conditioner and read the whole trilogy for pleasure.

He told me that story early in our relationship, and I’m glad, because it tipped me off to the fact that if I really want him to read something, I shouldn’t ask him to. Instead, if I have a book I’m dying to share with him, I leave it in the bathroom and take all other reading material out of there. That’s strategic strewing.

It works with my children, too. I know their interests. I know where they like to hang out in the house. So I choose books I think will capture my 9-year-old’s imagination and leave them on the windowsill beside her chair at the lunch table, or on the sofa where she likes to sprawl. I leave baskets of books all over the house; I casually lay a picture book or two on my 4-year-old’s nightstand when I’m putting her down for a nap. I sneak into my sleeping daughters’ room and put books at the foot of their bed, because I know that when they wake up they’ll find them and look at them and maybe I’ll get to sleep ten minutes past dawn the next morning.

I have to be careful, because sometimes this gets me in trouble. Two summers ago I wanted to know what was growing in our unlandscaped side yard, so I checked a book on weeds out of the library. I glanced at it but decided this book was too dry to make it worth the effort and tossed it onto the kitchen table. The next day I returned it to the library. The next day, then-7-year-old Jane summoned me with an anguished wail. "Mommy, where’s that great book I was reading? The one about weeds? It was SO interesting!" She’d found it lying on the table and naturally assumed that it was meant for her. I admitted I’d returned it, and she was crushed. I had to promise to schedule a special trip to re-check it out. Apparently what is one person’s giant yawn is another person’s heart-pounder.

Scatter enough books in their paths, and they’ll find the heart-pounders for themselves."

Read more of Melissa's inspirational posts at  Here in the Bonny Glen.

Hackers Love Bravewriter

I can not say enough wonderful things about Julie Bogart at Bravewriter.com.

Here is a brief intro from her site-

"Kids are tremendously interesting people, even the ones who write poorly. My goal is to help you do your job—to draw out the mind life of your child so that you can capture those precious thoughts in writing. What's on paper ought to be a fair and insightful representation of all that goes on in your kids' busy heads. And when it is, you and your young writers will love the results.

That, in a nutshell, is why Brave Writer exists.

Self-expression in written form should not be so infuriatingly difficult to teach. But it is for most of us. We have to learn what writing isn't before we can teach what it is."

If you have not yet fallen in love with Bravewriter, get ready to thank me!

Tidal Learning Tuesday -Connections

This post was so graciously shared from the archives of Melissa Wiley. To read the original article and discover her treasure trove of wonderful articles, click here.

"Learning," says Sandra Dodd, "comes from connecting something new to what you've already thought or known."

Charlotte Mason called this understanding of education "the science of relations." Relations, connections, rabbit trails: these are the terms homeschoolers use to describe the natural processes of learning. One topic, even one word, sparks an interest or a memory, and zing, learning happens.

It's like playing with those magnetic rods and balls you stick together to make cool geometric shapes. (You know, the ones currently banished to the top of my closet because they are so fearfully dangerous for babies.) When you touch one of the little rods to one of the shiny silver balls, there's such a satisfying click as they draw together. You can feel the power of the connection.

I dearly love, at the end of a day, to think about all the connections my kids made—or that I made!—that day. So many satisfying little clicks, so many pieces of knowledge fitting together in interesting ways.

I had the Sandra Dodd "connections" page open on the laptop today because I wanted to look up that quote for a post. (This post, I suppose, although, as you'll see, the page took over and became the impetus of the post.) If you scroll down Sandra's page a little, you'll see there's a fun exercise for sparking connections, the bit with all the words in balloons. This caught Jane's eye and she wanted to know what it was about. I showed her, and she asked if we could try it. She decided to start with the word "purple."

We started shouting out ideas or things we associate with purple, and of course "royalty" came up, and neither one of us could remember the name of the shellfish the original purple dye came from. We looked it up and found this page, which told some tidbits I'd never heard before. Did you know the legend says it was actually Hercules's dog who discovered the dye? Hercules noticed its mouth was stained purple after it ate some snails.

King Phoenix received a purple-dyed robe from Herakles and decreed the rulers of Phoenicia should wear this color as a royal symbol.

  We also found this part particularly interesting:

The chemical birth of the synthetic dye industry can be traced to the discovery of an aniline-based purple dye, mauveine, by William H. Perkin in 1856, who accomplished this while searching for a cure for malaria. Perkin was an English chemist who changed the world of his time by making this purple color available to the masses. It became quite fashionable to wear clothing dyed with “mauve,” and Mr. Perkin became a very wealthy man.

We had lots of other associations with purple, but the Hercules thing was so interesting we got sidetracked, and about that time Rose asked me to make a baby duck out of felt for Beanie, to match Rose's Beanie Baby duck (!), and in the middle of that endeavor I remembered I'd picked up a book of patterns for knitted animals, and hadn't shown it to Jane yet, and she got all excited and went off to translate the knitting patterns into crochet patterns, because she much prefers crocheting.

Rose asked for a felt dog next, or maybe Jane will crochet her one, but I don't think we'll stain its mouth purple."

"Learning," says Sandra Dodd, "comes from connecting something new to what you've already thought or known."

Charlotte Mason called this understanding of education "the science of relations." Relations, connections, rabbit trails: these are the terms homeschoolers use to describe the natural processes of learning. One topic, even one word, sparks an interest or a memory, and zing, learning happens.

It's like playing with those magnetic rods and balls you stick together to make cool geometric shapes. (You know, the ones currently banished to the top of my closet because they are so fearfully dangerous for babies.) When you touch one of the little rods to one of the shiny silver balls, there's such a satisfying click as they draw together. You can feel the power of the connection.

I dearly love, at the end of a day, to think about all the connections my kids made—or that I made!—that day. So many satisfying little clicks, so many pieces of knowledge fitting together in interesting ways.

I had the Sandra Dodd "connections" page open on the laptop today because I wanted to look up that quote for a post. (This post, I suppose, although, as you'll see, the page took over and became the impetus of the post.) If you scroll down Sandra's page a little, you'll see there's a fun exercise for sparking connections, the bit with all the words in balloons. This caught Jane's eye and she wanted to know what it was about. I showed her, and she asked if we could try it. She decided to start with the word "purple."

We started shouting out ideas or things we associate with purple, and of course "royalty" came up, and neither one of us could remember the name of the shellfish the original purple dye came from. We looked it up and found this page, which told some tidbits I'd never heard before. Did you know the legend says it was actually Hercules's dog who discovered the dye? Hercules noticed its mouth was stained purple after it ate some snails.

King Phoenix received a purple-dyed robe from Herakles and decreed the rulers of Phoenicia should wear this color as a royal symbol.

  We also found this part particularly interesting:

The chemical birth of the synthetic dye industry can be traced to the discovery of an aniline-based purple dye, mauveine, by William H. Perkin in 1856, who accomplished this while searching for a cure for malaria. Perkin was an English chemist who changed the world of his time by making this purple color available to the masses. It became quite fashionable to wear clothing dyed with “mauve,” and Mr. Perkin became a very wealthy man.

We had lots of other associations with purple, but the Hercules thing was so interesting we got sidetracked, and about that time Rose asked me to make a baby duck out of felt for Beanie, to match Rose's Beanie Baby duck (!), and in the middle of that endeavor I remembered I'd picked up a book of patterns for knitted animals, and hadn't shown it to Jane yet, and she got all excited and went off to translate the knitting patterns into crochet patterns, because she much prefers crocheting.

Rose asked for a felt dog next, or maybe Jane will crochet her one, but I don't think we'll stain its mouth purple."