Getting started

Well we survived our first 2 days of homeschooling. Not without its bumps along the way. We are definitely learning as we go and I'm sure it'll take several weeks if not months to get into a good groove.

On day one my kids were up at 6:30 asking to get started and they were pleasantly surprised how quickly we were able to finish our work.

 All set up and ready to go!

 Even little E had his own this spot for school

 Ready to go

 First day if 5th, 4th, 3rd, 1st ans K!

 These girls are loving working on their math together

 Working hard and trying to get the hang of this new routine

 Independent reading time wherever they wanted - the highlight of the day!

Looking forward to seeing where this takes us. One kiddo is having a hard time adjusting to being home but I'm praying God will use this time at home to transform their heart.

Schooling with a toddler

Summer is keeping us CRAZY busy. Between 4H, beach days, pool days, meet ups with friends... we are savoring every moment of summer. But we are also anxious to start school in a couple weeks! I always love getting into a good routine.

The thing I'm probably most nervous about this year is keeping my 3 year old busy while we school. So let me share some of the things I've got in my arsenal for him!

 This particular Water wow is letters but I have several others stashed away to pull out all year long!

 Usborne's busy books keep littles entertained for a long time!

 Every page has a track for the vehicle to drive on

 Lots of sensory bag options. Dollar store shampoo and shaving cream, ziplock bags and "treasures" to put inside. He hates to get messy but loves to squish things!

 Sorting bears. Colors patterns etc

 Usborne's dry erase activity cards

 Lacing cards and shoelaces

 I made these letters when my oldest was in preschool. They are cotton with batting in the middle. Fun to practice letter recognition and spelling!

 Lots of coloring book options

 More dry erase letter fun!

This is the preschool Masterbooks phonics curriculum. I actually got this by mistake but after looking through it we may start this later in the year- it's a letter a week so nothing too strenuous! We'll see how ambitious I am.

We're in the final countdown-just 18 days until we start! In the meantime we're soaking in all the summertime memories we can!

School Curriculum Pt. 2

I told you last time I'd highlight our other curriculum in a separate post. Here it is! While we are using mostly MasterBooks, I am using other books for a few things. So here's a quick run down. 

First off - Bible. The older 4 have these books. Theyll do them every morning before we start school. I feel like it's good to get them in the habit of digging in to Gods Word every day.

It's not super lengthy, a few verses each day. This will take them through the Bible in a year. On Sunday there's a page for sermon notes!

Next up is our Morning Basket! This is a hot topic right now in homeschool lingo. Basically its things we'll do together as a family before doing our core subject. This will be mostly read-alouds.

 The Long Story Short - a 10 minute devotional.

 The Ology - this was recommended by a homeschooling friend (who happens to be a pastors wife), it is THE BEST book on explaining those hard to explain doctrines to young hearts!

 Memory verses and catechism

 Shakespeare and Fairy Tales

 Poetry

 Art Treasury - this book is so fun. Each week we'll look at a different artist and a famous work by them and then we'll work to recreate the same piece of art.

 Character First - I mentioned earlier that character is at the top of our priority list when it comes to raising our kiddos. These cards have a short definition of a character quality and then a practical way to show it on the back. We'll attempt to do one a week.

This is our Morning Basket "schedule". Obviously we wont be doing ALL of these things every day. The first few items (devotional, memory work, character cards and our read-aloud book) we will do each day. The rest are on a LOOP schedule. So Monday is The Olpogy, Tuesday is Poetry, Wednesday is Shakespeare, Thursday is fairytales and Friday is Art.

Our morning time will hopefully be a great way to segue right into our core subjects!

We're getting close! One month from today we start! 

*coming up next- keeping a little one  busy while we school and this years' line up for read aloud!

Let's Talk Curriculum

Brace yourselves, its gonna be a long one!

When we tell people we're homeschooling, the first question we get (usually) is "what curriculum are you using?"

So I figured I'd do a detailed unveiling for you all! I stumbled upon this curriculum earlier this spring and after a lot of research and comparison I really feel like it's going to be a great fit for us. We'll be using MasterBooks for our core subjects. MasterBooks isnt really new but I'm finding not many homeschoolers have heard of it. It is a Christian curriculum, heavily focusing on apologetics and has scripture woven through every lesson (even in math).

So let me show you our books! Why they're all sideways is beyond me

Math Lessons for a Living Education levels 1, 1, 3, 4 and 5! Celia and Lenora will ne doing first grade together! These math lessons are gentle but thorough, no drill and kill and no busy work!

 English Lessons for a Loving Education level 2-4 and they'll use the 101 Favorite Stories from the Bible for copy work.

 Elementary Geography and cultures is our social studies course we'll be doing as a family. We will travel around the globe visiting over 30 countries. This is a super fun curriculum - each country has a recipe we're suppose to try!

 Each student has their own passport and it comes with stickers for every country we "visit"!

I didnt want to overwhelm so we arent doing a formal "science", instead we'll be studying an animal from the country we visit each week and spend some time studying their habitats.

There are a few other books we'll be using but I'll cover those next time. For now I wanted to highligh MasterBooks! If you havent heard of them, check them out. Lots and LOTS of great resources!

Until next time!

Are you qualified to teach them?

Let's talk about homeschooling a second. When we first decided to bring our kids home, for the most part we had great support. But there were several people that asked "do you have a teaching degree?" "Are you qualified to teach them?" "How will you know what to teach them?"

I am so thankful for the teachers that my children have had the past several years - they influenced my children in ways I never could. However, as their mom I feel like God has equipped me to be the best teacher for them - so yes I'm "qualified."

Do i have a teaching degree? No. I do have a college degree, but I dont think that matters either. God has called us to this task and he will give us what we need to make it through even the toughest of days (with or without a degree)!

Which brings me to everyone's favorite question... What will you teach them? Or What curriculum are you using?

This makes me laugh, I get this question multiple times a week, from both homeschooling friends and non homeschooling friends!

I'm working on a post to talk about all our curriculum and will post that later. But even more important for us is what we'll be learning that isn't in books.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.

When my kids are at school 8 hours a day, how can I impart Gods truth to them? How can they learn to be strong in character when they spend more time on the bus than talking to their parents. The time we have with them is so very brief.  So while I plan to use curriculum that covers math, language, science and history, those are less important to me than the character I'm hoping they build.

You know what I mean, as parents we all hope our kids grow up to be good citizens, but it's so much more than that. I want them to love their siblings and others, I want them to have a life filled with empathy, compassion, patience, self-control, humility, trustworthyness, integrity... I could go on and on. In short, as parents we want to train them to be more Christ-like every day.

So back to my original question. Am I qualified? No, not even a little. But by the grace of God. Because, you see, all those character qualities I want my kids to have? I want them to see them in me, and since I'm a sinner just like them, it will be Christ teaching me as I teach them.

My prayers have changed as we lead up to this school year, change my heart oh God, so they may see you more clearly in me. May my words and actions reflect you, may they be drawn to you more each day. Give me the wisdom I need to point them to truth.

Summer Reading

If your kids are at all like mine, reading is the last thing they want to do during the summer (I actually have one child who would read all day every day but that's not normal). The good ol summer slide as they call it is a real thing - losing ground in their reading ability. So as parents we have to come up with creative ways to motivate them to read. 

Maybe you're struggling to get your kids to read this summer. Or maybe you need some motivation yourself - turn off Facebook and Netflix and pick up a book!  Here's some fun ideas...

Library Summer reading program! 

Go to your local library and ask if they have a summer program! Our library has fun prizes for different levels of hours read. Coupons to Culvers, Bigby, Pizza Hut, Papa Murphy's, Dutch Village, Baseball Games etc. Plus letting kids pick what books they want to read helps them WANT to read. There's prizes for adults too! We go once a week and come home with a big basket of books to choose from!

County Fair

Look on your local fair's webpage and see what they offer. Our county offers free rides at the fair for a certain amount of hours read. 

Local Book Stores

This one is new to me this year. We discovered (thanks to my sister) that both Schuler and Baker Books offer a summer reading program. This one is my kids' favorite because they offer gift cards to the store for hours read. So at the end of summer each kid could earn up to $25 in gift cards - and spend it on whatever they want! Adults can participate too!

One thing I love about the adult reading programs is that it makes me expand my reading preferences. Otherwise I tend to stick to one genre. Need some suggestions? heres a couple of my top picks from this summer so far

As far as non-fiction goes, these two books are fabulous! I wish I had read Parenting years ago- it's not your average parenting book! Flourish was written in response to a book called Girl Wash Your Face. Give it a read, you wont be disappointed.

Fiction books can be harder to choose. I love mysteries but cannot handle gore or scary situations. Patchwork Mysteries have been a fun series. There's about 20 books in the series that I've read last summer and this summer. Clean, light reading, perfect for summer but still gives me that "who done it" thrill!

What are you reading this summer?!

Day Trips

I almost want to keep this to myself. But at the same time I feel like this is a hidden gem in our city and maybe, like me, you have kids that need outings and you get tired of the same old thing.  

I've lived in this city for 20+ years and have only ever been to our public museum once (probably 20 years ago). I dont remember tons about it but I do remember that I wasnt overly impressed. So when friends recommend it to me I was a little skeptical. For our family of 8 to go on outings, it can get pricey so I put it off for a long time. In all honesty I only purchased a membership for the sole purpose of getting into a different local attraction for free. Let me break it down for you:

*A year membership at our GR Public Museum is $65. It would cost more than that for us all to go once.

*The membership gets you into the museum, planetarium, and unlimited carousel rides (my head is still spinning). 

*Reciprocal memberships are amazing! The Airzoo, Impression Five, museums in Chicago and tons of others FOR FREE!!!

Here's a glimpse into our time at the GRPM. My kids have all said its way better than the childrens museum and we are already planning our next visit!

The doll room was a favorite spot. Huge doll house to play with. Dolls from every era - my girls thought this was really neat!

The main area had large games for kids to play. We could've spent the whole day here and the kids wouldve had a blast!

 Ephram's favorite were these little ride on airplanes!

 My favorite was the old streets of GR! There is a working printing press and an old soda fountain. The employees are dressed in era appropriate attire and gave us tons of fun facts about how life was in that time period!

 Amelia trying an old school bike

 The planetarium/space part was cool. Next time we'll stay for the planetaroum show!

 The TOY exhibit was amazing! Toys from ever era and the kids were encouraged to play with them. It was fun to show the kids what I grew up playing with. And since grandma came along she showed the kids the toys she had when she was little!

 Abram loved the hall of soldiers z my history buff was amazed by all the different uniforms.

 There's an entire section dedicated to the animals that are common in our state. The kids all took turns measuring themselves against this giant sturgeon.

 A wigwam from early settlers.

 All smiles! No one wanted to to leave. We will definitely be going back. And we'll be using our reciprocal membership this weekend for another local attraction (stay tuned)!

Maybe I've been living under a rock and I'm just preaching to the choir. If that's the case then I'm jealous of all of you! I wish I had known about this amazing spot sooner. But better late than never!  If you need a fun outing, grab your kids and head to the public museum. Buy the year membership! It's totally worth it!