Tiany from Less of me~more of Him sponsored this during a blogging home school carnival, and I wanna do it, too~even if it did end a week or so ago! LOL!
A short intro about you, how many blessings? How long have you been Homeschooling etc. Just in case this is someone’s first visit to your blog. We have three boys~9, 7, 4, and a Hazel, 16 mos. We went to our first home schooling convention while I was pregnant with our first, and that really, really blessed us! We were able to figure out our philosophy of education and choose curriculum to fit us (There is no one right way to home school!) using Educating the Whole Hearted Child~I recommend this book to EVERYBODY just starting out and trying to find their way especially.
Your Homeschool Day, what does it look like?It changes from season to season, as we schedule playground time according to the weather and when public school is in session.
What curriculum will you be using? Do you not use a curriculum? Do you homeschool for FREE? Tell us about it!We use Five in a Row, B4 and Vol.’s 1-3 (get all the books that go with it at the library!) up to age six. At age six we switch to Ambleside Online (a FREE online curriculum!). We are trying Ray’s Arithmetic for math. While we don’t home school for free, we probably get more bang for our buck than most other choices. This was not a conscious decision when we chose the curricula that suits our philosophy, however it has come to bless us immensely as the years have passed!
Do you schedule your day to the minute or go with the flow with no real structure?Currently we are using Managers of Their Homes, but with lots of FREE spaces built in so I can fly by the seat of my pants! LOL! Our flow usually goes in this order: Get ready for the day, children do chores while I cook breakfast, breakfast clean-up, family devotions, Preston’s school while Allen and Jamie do copy work, Jamie’s school while Preston does copy work and Allen begins his readings, lunch, NAPTIME! WOOHOOO! LOL! After nap I like to hear Allen’s narrations while preparing dinner, and we finish up whatever needs finishing.I have also just found Keeping the Home and LOVE her household manual! So I’m hoping to get some things together to revamp the “Brain in a Binder” I patterned after Cindy Rushton.
Do you homeschool in a homeschool room, at the kitchen table, at a desk, in the park on the grass?We school mostly in the living room, although when the weather’s nice I LOVE to take it outside!
Do you have any “must share” tips?Be yourself! Copying what works for another admirably successful family WILL NOT, and I repeat, WILL NOT work for YOU! You hafta find yer own niche….
Do you have a question or concern? Throw that in there too!My only concerns are my own sins that can cloud our day. ~sigh~ How do you teach good habits when you don’t possess them yerself?(((((HUGS))))) sandi~not quite understanding why these colors are so weird, but I can’t seem to fix it. AH well! LOL!
Educating the Whole Hearted Child was one of the first books I purchased when we started homeschooling. I picked it up again recently and was reminded of so much wisdom this book holds. It is a great book to read and one worthy of the shelf space in my meager home library.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
amanda
Wow – sounds like a lot of work! We have a fabulous Home Schooling ministry at our church – with Friday lessons at the church, field trip things, science projects and such. Then at the end of the year they hold a big graduation at the church too – it’s very good! I, myself, do not home school my kiddos. I always joke that if I did we would have the dumbest kids in Southern Oregon! HA! Sounds like you do a fantastic job! Lord bless you!
My father in law is out of surgery and doing well – I updated on my blog =) thanks you so very much for your prayers!
Oh my Sandy — I’ve been worrying about the whole “How do you teach good habits when you don’t possess them yerself” a whole lot myself lately!
And thanks for posting that! I started a draft but never did get around to doing it!
The good thing about teaching habits you don’t yet possess is that you can model the repentance, learning, and practicing necessary to form a habit. Since your kids are human, they need to see you being human too!
I LOVE THIS COMMENT! (((((HUGS))))) sandi