Homeschooling it for 2015-16...

Mac is 2nd grade and Oak is Kinder.

We are very fortunate to be a part of a homeschool program (through the school district) where we are able to use $1,500 per child towards curriculum . So we have a lot of options to choose and try from. If I don't like it, no loss to me and I can try something else. 

Also I tend to gravitate more towards unschooling so I like to focus the most on reading, writing and math and everything else is an added bonus. 

MATH:

I really like the idea behind this math program that I got for Mac, but I am not so sure I will keep it for him. I actually ended up starting Oak on it because some of it was under Mac's level. Although I would prefer not to do a curriculum for math for her for kinder.  My goal for him this year is to work on his subtraction skills, introduce multiplication and get better with addition math facts. He understands time, but we need to work on a clock with hands and he knows how to count money. 

SPELLING

I have heard so many people say they like All About Spelling, but I was skeptical. I got this for Mac since he needs a lot of work on his spelling. We have done four lesson and I LOVE IT. I am excited to see how Mac grows in his spelling from it.  

PHONICS

I plan on continuing this with Oak but not sure about Mac. I don't want to overload him so it will probably mostly be something he does when I need him to do something on his own. Since Oak is reading now I am trying to get her through the Get Set books to get her up to the Explode The Code. 

WRITING:

I am pretty excited about this although we haven't started it yet. I am waiting on another book from my order so both Oak and Mac can do it together. 

VOCABULARY:

And something I started this week, although I am not sure how long it will last is having Mac look up  a word he doesn't know and copy it and the meaning and then try to use the word through out the day. My MIL who is a retired elementary teacher gave me this dictionary. 

READING:

I did this reading chart with Mac last year and it was a success. Now that Oak is reading I thought we would do it with her. 

SCIENCE:

We are able to get science kits through our homeschool program and I got the first few sets of these. We will be doing a kit every week. We will also watch Bill Nye as Oak got the whole set of videos as a birthday gift. 

Other things we are doing:

 READING:

--listening to books on CD

--I have one read-a-loud that I read to the both of them.

--Mac is reading his own chapter books now, but I will sit with him once a day and we will alternate reading pages. 

--And Oak is doing her reading chart and reading Bob books to me everyday.

WRITING:

The kids will do penpal letters. Some to friends across the country and some to Grandma C and some to cousins.

GOSPEL:

We read every night as a family. But in the morning at breakfast we read the scripture readers. Trying to figure out something to do that is just a little bit more with it like have the kids draw pictures of what we read or something like that. 

We will also keep working on memorizing the Articles of Faith and some other important scriptures. 

EXTRA:

Oak is going to do choir. I couldn't get Mac to do it.

We are holding off on Taekwondo for now. 

We will do Young Hearts which is program where the kids will  go and do crafts and games at a senior/assisted living home once a month. We did it last year and loved it. 

As many field trips as possible.

And they will go to the homeschool center (which is the program that provides the curriculum money) once a week for a couple hours to play with other kids, play games and play on the computer. 

That's all I can think of at the moment. 

I am still trying to get organized but it has been a bit of a battle. 

the read-a-loud dream...

So I have to admit that I am not a reader. I have the HARDEST time focusing on reading a book to myself. I can focus a bit better if I read out loud. I married a book reader who came from a family of book readers. And when I say book readers, I mean my husband doesn't put a book down until it is done. He literally can't focus on anything else but reading. 

Even though I am not a book reader, I have loved reading my kids little picture books since they were babies. We would read several during the day and several at night everyday. In fact, when Mac was little and the house would be quiet, it wouldn't be the usual mischief that you would think. If he was quiet, he was looking at books, which he did ALOT. As the kids have gotten older, daddy started reading chapter books to them before bed. They have loved this. And because I have a hard time reading chapter books I have left this job to daddy. And I have continued to just read picture books to the kids.

As a homeschooling mom, I want my kids to be book readers. Since Mac has learned to read, I have been waiting for him to hit the reading bug and for him to always have his nose in a book. That hasn't happened yet. However, he LOVES to be read to. So to boost our homeschool experience, I decided I would start reading a chapter book to the kids during the day. And I have also been making a better effort for him to see me sit down and read a book. Even if I can only get through half a page in one day because of all the interruptions from my little people. 

We started with Pinocchio. Then Peter Pan (which we didn't finish because it was really hard to read), then we didn't do any for a couple of weeks. But a couple of weeks ago, I picked up The Wizard of Oz and my kids were asking me to read it every spare moment we had. We finished the book in a week and a half. Grandma C happened to have the movie so we borrowed it to watch once we finished. 

Then just this last week, we started reading Little House in the Big Woods (The first book in the Little House series). And my kids have done the same with this book. They want me to read it during breakfast, during lunch, and as soon as we have a free moment. I even have read to them before I have gotten out of bed in the morning with them snuggled up next to me. 

But the change in our home life, I feel has dramatically changed. I feel like there are more quiet, thoughtful moments. My kids are getting along better. There is just a better over all feeling in our home. And I have noticed  how amazing Mac is at listening to what is being read to him and retaining it. Oak on the other hand listens and retains most of it, but her talent is interrupting about every sentence or so. Silly girl. 

The moments I am reading to my kids has truly been my most favorite moments by far. 

Why we chose to homeschool...

I realized that I have never written about why we chose to homeschool. There are a lot of reasons why families choose to homeschool. Their kids may be struggling to learn, getting bullied, don't like the school, don't like what they are teaching, just to name a few. Our reason is none of those.

It first came on my radar when Mac was pretty little. Before he was even old enough for preschool. I don't remember exactly why I started thinking about it seriously, but I remember it being on my mind a lot.

I did not grow up being homeschooled. I was an average student who does not really have a love for learning. I did the very minimal just to be average. I loved grade school, hated middle school and tolerated/enjoyed highschool.

 I kept thinking I wanted more for my family. I read a lot of articles and blogs of those who homeschool and just kept thinking I love their family dynamic and I want that for our family. But I couldn't wrap my mind around ME homeschooling Mac or any of our kids. I tried a few times to do some learning things with him, but he hated it and it was frustrating and discouraging. I just kept thinking there is no way I could do this. But I had this feeling that I really needed to homeschool Mac.

When I talked to Hubs about it and told him my thoughts about why we should homeschool he agreed and then I would go into reasons why I couldn't or shouldn't. And Hubs answer was always the same. "It sounds like you have your answer, why are you trying to fight the spirit on this."

So I sent Mac to preschool and spent a lot of time researching homeschooling. And I have to say, for us, the benefits FAR out weighed the cons. And I started getting more confident over time with the idea that I COULD actually homeschool our kids.

I continued to send Mac to preschool for two years. Although I was seriously looking into homeschooling, I had no reservation about sending him to preschool. But as soon as it was time for him to go to Kindergarten. I was torn. We lived next door to his two best friends who would also be going to kindergarten. And to be honest I still didn't feel quite ready to homeschool. But for many reasons, it was so hard to send him. And I worried about him every minute he was there. I worried about his allergy, I worried about his influences, I worried about him not learning enough or getting bored. To appease that worry, I volunteered in his class once a week. And it was a great way to ease my worry, but it still didn't feel right him being there.

One day as we were getting ready for school I had this feeling he shouldn't go. I took him to school anyway and walked out almost in tears because I felt like he shouldn't be there. I texted Hubs about my feelings once I got home. And he said, go back and get him! So I did!

My plan was to use the year to prepare to homeschool him starting in first grade. But about two months after he started Kindergarten we found out we would be moving. And we decided it was the perfect opportunity to just jump right in when we moved.

Thankfully everyone has been very supportive of us homeschooling. And we know that for now it is the right choice for our family.

Ostrich Farm!

The homeschoolers here take turns putting together field trips. This last week it was a trip to the ostrich farm. It was so cool. The kids loved it!

These ostriches were about 3 months old.

The big yolke is from an ostrich egg and the other two yolks are from a chicken and a duck.

She said that this was her biggest egg at 5 lbs. She said they are usually 3 lbs. She told us how she incubates them.

Grown or breeder ostriches. 

Mac loved these little baby ostriches. He spent most of his time naming them (Thank you Mr. Poppers Penguins!)

The kids got to feed them. We noticed they loved the spinach more than the feed. 

And they even got to hold a baby. The kids loved this!!

So cute, right?!

Our first week!

Our first week went great. Although it was so exhausting. By the afternoon, after we were all done with school, I couldn't keep my eyes open I would turn something on for the kids so I could sleep on the couch. I tried to find creative ways for us to incorporate into our lessons. Everyday was great except thursday. I have everything set up so I don't have a ton of prep work every night. 

The kids thought that doing our Explode the Code lesson on the window was a blast. I did too!

As one of our writing practices we wrote to our new penpals in Virginia. The kids LOVED this!

I told Mac to write to him about what he like or likes to do. I loved his first sentence!

Oak did some copy work and a drawing for her letter. 

And to our surprise it only took 2 days to go 2800 miles. I also loved that my friend took a picture of her kids just like I had taken of my kids. 

This is now what our homeschool wall looks like. I actually love it and it has been fun and functional.

During quiet time I watched some speakers at an online Homeschool summit. Learned some great things!

The kids picked this up at the library and we had an impromptu lesson about what it was and why and how it was used. The kids were really intrigued. 

Friday we ended up going to a homeschool park date. It was our first time going and we loved it. The kids loved playing with the kids and ended up getting along great with the older kids. Mac ended up playing with a kid whose last name was "Mac" (actually his real name, not nickname) and a kid whose middle name was also the same. I thought that was hilarious since I have never met another person named that.

These older boys were so nice to Mac and they played so great together. 

We will for sure go again.

Our official first day!

Well I have to say that our first day was a success! It did not go at all like I thought it would, but it turned out great. I tried to be prepared and to not to have high expectations. I think the number one key to our great day was that Mac showed absolutely no resistance to any of it and never grew tired of anything we did. Thankfully I know that won't be the case everyday. 

I was hoping to get up and get school going a bit before we had to take Oak to preschool. The kids kindof dragged doing their morning routine, which they do every morning. After taking pics and making our traditional "first day of school pancakes" and looking for Mac's birth certificate, it was already time to take Oak to school. 

We also got a little dancing to The Piano Guys in. This happened to be Cello Wars which is their favorite!

Mac with his "teacher".

Oak with her teacher Ms. Nicole.

She loved it and her teacher said she did great and was so much fun!

While Oak was gone to school I took Mac over to the local Homeschool Center and registered him. (Thats why I needed his birth certificate). The Center offers times the kids can come in and have fun. They just have to come in at least once a week. They also will pay for up to $1500 worth of approved (non religious) curriculum. He got to visit the classroom for a few minutes and he loved it and I will take him tomorrow morning to stay for a couple of hours. 

After we got home from picking up Oak, we made and ate lunch. While the kids were eating I decided to start reading a book we had gotten from the library about Dinosaurs (which is the unit study Mac has chosen for now). As soon as I started reading, on their own, they decided they wanted to draw and write about dinosaurs while they were listening. As I was reading I wrote a few interesting words down for them to copy (snuck in our copy work). 

Then Mac chose Math to do next. Oak is even doing it with us. 

We were going to do Explode The Code but Mac asked to play this game and so I went with it. He love this Sight Word Popcorn Game I got for like $2 at Walmart in the school supply section. 

This is how Oak played the game. Silly girl!

Next Mac finished Go, Dog Go! from his reading chart. He read the best I have ever heard him. Although he was struggling with words that started with "wh" and "th" which I have never seen him do before. 

Next we did our devotional/scripture. Hubs has been reading The Book of Mormon to Mac at night and he has been marking the chapters off on a chart so he can finish the whole book before he turns eight. So I decided to keep this simpler than I had originally planned. We are just going to continue to read from the scripture readers, which my kids LOVE. Read something or do an activity from the Friend magazine and practice one of the songs they are learning for the primary program. I printed out the music for all the songs and put them in page protectors and they can choose which one we will work on that day. 

We also read our FIAR book which was The Story of Ping. We own that book and the kids have always loved it. We just talked a little bit about China and the culture and that was all we did for that because I was TIRED because I did not sleep most of the night.

An added bonus: Mac saw this page in the book I was reading to them and so he on his own gathered all he needed to officially be a paleontologist and got back to work on his excavation.  It was adorable. 

We started school at about 1pm and ended at about 3:30.

After all of this I turned on Netflix for the kids to watch so that I could sleep a bit. I could not keep my eyes open. They did that until dad got home. So not a perfect day but I am happy about it and so are the kids.