homeschool

Welcome to
Our Homeschool

Welcome!

With this site, I hope to keep track of not only my yearly overall plan, but also the resources I plan to use with each unit. If you find me and wish to use what I've found, feel free to visit the sites! :)

Over the past few months, I've done some re-evaluating of the way we go about school here at home. We've finished our first year now, a great accomplishment, and I'm going to also start working with the littler two boys on some things like phonics and basic ideas such as opposites and following directions. I needed an actual method, and not just a free-for-all attack as this last year has been. I've learned enough about schooling that I felt confident in picking something. Before, I was nervous about spending money on something I wasn't sure would work. Now that I know what will work, I can better plan my lessons and coordinate between the different levels and learning styles of my kids.

Learning Styles

Methods

    One thing I've changed this summer as far as our homeschooling goes is the general method. I knew before that there were several different ways to approach teaching and learning at home, but I didn't know for certain what would work best for my children, for myself, and for our schedule, so I've waited to really 'pick' one until recently. And in that, I would describe our MAIN method as highly eclectic - a little of this and a little of that.
     Someone linked me to a fantastic web description of almost every method I've heard of personally. This site describes eclectic, and several others, including the 'classical' method which is what I've decided to more closely follow.
     History and Bible will be taught together, in chronological order. I'll also include science with this frequently, and turn it into a UNIT STUDY type of method. In English we'll be concentrating more on the basics and rules with Christian. He'll still be doing some writing, but he'll be doing it in the forms of writing letters, prayer journaling, and maybe blogging. In math we'll be doing drilling by different methods (including computer games). The little boys will work on phonics, letter recognition and formation, number recognition and formation, counting skills, colors, shapes, science as related to God's creation, and basically experiencing life.
     The book The Well Trained Mind has a lot of ideas, and I'll probably refer to it repeatedly over the next few months! To see more about our lesson plans and such, click on the individual subject headings above. These will include our full lesson plans for the week, starting Monday, July 30. Our usual schedule will be Tuesday through Saturday, but that first week, Saturday is mine and Bill's anniversary! (And the following Monday is Brandon's birthday.)

    In re-evaluating our school and knowing that I'll also be working with the smaller two children, I decided to find out what I could about learning styles and determine which of these categories best described my kids. Especially with Drew, who is a very active boy and sometimes hard to get to stop and listen, I want to make sure that I teach in a way that he will actually learn.
     I used several webistes, including one that quizzed me to discover the learning styles of my children. I didn't mark those sites, but I may could find them again if anyone wanted them. What I found was that my three boys each have a totally different learning style!
     The three typical styles are auditory (hear it), visual (see it), or kinesthetic (hands-on) learning. Christian scored as audio-visual; I suspect he's actually a fairly even mix of all three styles, and needs reinforcement from all areas to really grasp a subject. Brandon's results were typical for his age. He's very visual-kinesthetic; more accurately, he's very right-brained. He likes to get up and move and prefers music to get him interested in a subject. Drew is almost totally a kinesthetic learner. This will be my challenge, to figure out how to teach him all subjects in this way (spelling???), and what does NOT work for him.
     We'll first be working on a creation unit study that I think will ease us into working with so many levelled students at once. Check out my pages, and email me to give feedback or make suggestions!