Homeschooling Through High School

I'd like to encourage those of you with younger kids who would like to homeschool through high school that you can do it! I've met a number of homeschoolers who are a little nervous about the high school years. Our kids have always been homeschooled. Our oldest son graduated last year and our second son will graduate next year. If I can do it successfully, anyone can!

I didn't go to college and I didn't even become interested in school until my Junior year of high school! When my husband and were first married, we knew of two families who had homeschooled their kids all the way through high school and thier kids had gone off to college. We were impressed with these well adjusted young adults.

My husband was the one who wanted us to homeschool even before we had kids, but I didn't think I could do it. But when my oldest was ready for preschool a homeschooling family moved in next door and they encouraged me. I loved teaching my children at home! For us, continuing through high school just came naturally.

It's been amazing how God works out opportunities for my kids at the right time in their life. When like when my oldest son Andrew was in 7th grade I found out about a speech and debate club and I told him he had to sign up for one or the other because I knew he'd be good at it. He enjoyed debate that year and went on to compete in speech and debate tournaments, even at the national level, all through high school. At that same time he began going to a small writers group that he still meets with regularly- 6 years later! Writing, pubic speaking, and theater are his passions and he'll be going to college this fall and majoring in communications.

My second son Charles has always enjoyed being outdoors, building and working with his hands. Last year he had the opportunity to work on a farm which he enjoyed very much and starting next month he'll be working with a carpenter building a barn. I have a feeling that my son Isaiah will end up doing something with computers.

You never know what opportunities will arise! A homeschool co-op started in our area last year. They offer some high school classes that have been great for Charles. Also Charles' friend's grandmother is teaching him and his friend Algebra 2 together. This year we also found out about some free online high school courses that our state offers. Charles is taking computer programming and Spanish 1.

I say all this to encourage you not to worry about the high school years. The things that you didn't take or remember from your school years, you can learn right along with your kids or God will provide another way for your teens to learn what they need to.

Homeschooling Update

Here's what Christian and Sophie have been doing....

Sophie (age 4)

I'm not doing anything formal with Sophie right now, but she loves doing "school". She has a cute little desk in the livingroom that holds a number of preschool books. She has two preschool activity wipe-off books that she uses everyday. One is called "My Big Activity Workbook" and the other is "Let's Learn to Write Letters". Another thing that she uses almost every day is a book of reproducible cut-and-paste patterns called " Paper Shapes and Art Projects" from Frank Schaffer Publications. It says it's for grades 1-2, but I think it's awesome for the preschool/K ages. In her desk she also has some "wondercolor" coloring books with the special markers. Sophie also has a computer time each day. She enjoys using "Reader Rabbit's Reading" formerly called" Reader Rabbits Interactive Reading Journey". All my kids have used it, I still think it's the best learn to read computer cd out there! She also enjoys using starfall.com a free online phonics based learn to read site.

Christian (age 9)

When Christian is interested in something he will learn everything he can about the subject. He will get books out from the library, research on the internet and talk to anyone who will listen about what he's learned! He also has an amazing memory, especially for dates. His latest passion/ interest is comics-especially Garfield. He spends hours reading, researching, drawing, and writing his own comic strips and short stories.

He was using the Time4Learning website for Math and Language Arts, but he recently finished the 4th grade Grammar section so I decided to cancel our subscription. This week I started using Total Language Plus with him (two of my other boys used it a couple years ago).  Each workbook is has activities that are based on a novel and covers grammar, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension questions, and enrichment projects. We are using the workbook that's based on The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman. The first two days Christian put up a fuss about the switch, but I think he's starting to enjoy it.

For math right now he is using http://www.mathplayground.com/, Math Blaster computer cd, and Math Turbo-Twist. I hope to have him start using Saxon math by the beginning of February. Isaiah switched to Saxon from Math-U-See this year and I love it. Before this year we always used Math-U-See.

Enjoying Homeschooling Again

Ever since my oldest son, who is now graduated, was in second grade I've always had my kids spend 30 to 45 minutes a day playing with/teaching the younger kids. This has been invaluable to me as a homeschooling mom. It frees me up to spend one on one time teaching or reading aloud to the older kids. Well, this year has been different. From September until Christmas vacation I've been homeschooling without that luxury. I thought that the older kids were too busy now, and I thought Sophie was old enough to play quietly while we're schooling. But it was not going well, because she was constantly interrupting and she just needed attention. Over Christmas vacation I had a talk with the boys, and I asked if they would each spend 30 minutes a day with her. They were more than willing, and it's been wonderful! I've been enjoying homeschooling again!

My Schedule

This schedule seems to be working well so far. When Isaiah gets his science book, I'll be helping him with that sometime in the afternoon.

My Schedule:

6:00-7:30-wake up,shower, clean bathroom, coffee, pray, use computer

7:30-wake boys & make breakfast

8:30-I help Sophie and Christian with their morning routine while older boys do household jobs

9:00-I help Sophie & Christian with Bible and AWANA books. Older boys start school.

9:40-I help Isaiah with math as needed, Sophie does workboxes that she can do alone. Christian does Time4Learning.com (math & Language Arts) during this time. Andrew has been sitting next to him in case he needs help.

10:00-Phonics and math with Sophie

10:30-outside and snack break

11:00- unit studies with Sophie and Christian.

12:00-Lunch & Break

1:00-Bring Charles to classes & tutoring 3 days a week (hopefully, he'll be driving himself soon :)

Afternoons-nature walks, reading, visiting with friends, drawing, computer, errands, clean-up, finish school, playing outside, ect.

Back to Homeschool Party

Today we went to the Back to Homeschool party that our homeschool group puts on every year. It was a pool party at the family's house that my boys have been working for this week. There was also horseback riding-they have 14 horses!

2nd Day of School

We aren't "officially" starting until next week, but yesterday and today I did a short KONOS lesson with Christian and Sophie. (We will start Time 4 learning next week.) The character trait we are starting with is attentiveness. So far, we talked about what attentiveness is, and we made a list of reasons why we should pay attention. I also had them come up with a list of things that might distract them while studying. This was good because Christian immediately said, "oh, like when I start thinking about something else like Planet Heroes?" Christian gets distracted very easily. When he is "into" something, he will talk about it all the time and I constantly have to remind him to focus on what we are studying. So, this was good to talk about as we are starting the new school year.

Some other things we did were:

Bible-read the story of Mary and Martha and talked about what each one was attentive to

Science/art-the kids drew a picture of the ear and label the parts

Science-did a short experiment about sound waves using water

Science-read the book The Sense of Hearing by Mari Schuh

Language-had Christian look up the word Cochlea in the dictionary

fun-played electronic games like Simon Says where they had to repeat a pattern of sounds given

I have to say that Christian is not very excited about KONOS...yet. He has an extremely hard time with change. Even if I know he will love something, he will fight me on it just because it's new and he thinks he won't like it-then he usually ends up liking it. This happened when we started Time 4 Learning last year. I knew it would be perfect for him, but it took about 3 weeks before he admitted he liked it. This year, Time 4 learning is all he wants to do for school!

Sophie, on the other hand, loves KONOS so far. She is answering most of the questions! I knew this would be the case. Last year, she would often listen in while I was teaching Christian. Sometimes I didn't even know she was listening. I would ask Christian a question and she would pipe up with the answer!

Fall Scheduling & We Need a New Car

In June I had made summer schedule, but we never seem to keep summer schedules. We just relax and have fun! I do have story time with the younger kids, and Bible and prayer time on most days with my older kids. Then the boys and I do jobs around the house. Other than that we basically do what we want to. This week has been busy, though. Mostly bringing kids to friend's houses, pool parties, play practices, and band and skit practice with the youth group. I also took the dog to get her shots, went grocery shopping, to the library, post office, ect.

Yesterday and today I've been staying home all day. Actually, we don't have a car right now (I borrowed my mom's Jeep last week) and we don't have the money to buy one. We only had one old car and our mechanic told us that it's needs so much work it's not worth putting the money into.

This is what our fall schedule looks like at this point.

6:30-7:30

Sophie and I wake up get ready for the day, clean the bathroom, get the laundry going, and start breakfast.

7:30-9:00

Boys wake up, do morning routine, then cleaning in their assigned zones.

9:00-9:30

Bible and prayer with the older boys, Sophie and Christian play with toys or draw/color, snack

9:30-12:00

I teach KONOS unit studies to Sophie (K4) and Christian (4th) downstairs, while Isaiah (8th) and Charles (11th) work independently upstairs. Isaiah- Language Arts, History/geography, and silent reading. Charles-Algebra 2, and Language Arts, Bible and History.

12:00-1:30

Lunch and outside break

1:30-3:30

I help Isaiah with math and science. Christian does Math and Grammar online with Time 4 Learning. Sophie plays independently with playdough, math blocks, educational toys, ect. After I help Isaiah, I teach Sophie phonics/reading and Math. Charles studies Chemistry and Spanish. Two days a week Charles goes to a friends house to do Chemistry experiments and to get some Algebra tutoring. On Thursdays he takes a 2 hr. American lit class.

3:30-5:00

Free time for everyone

5:00-6:30

Dinner and clean-up

Evenings

Wednesday AWANA club for Sophie and Christian

Not sure what extra activities/sports the older boys will be doing yet

Charles- computer programing C++

The Solar System/Planet Heroes

Yesterday morning I overheard Christian teaching Sophie about the Solar System. I saw that he had gotten out some playdough and had made the sun and the planets. He was telling Sophie facts about each planet. I was surprised that he had remembered so much since it's been a year since we covered the Solar System. It turns out that he learned a ton from the Planet Heroes site (his new interest).

Christian's 4th grade curriculum

Today I organized our books, and this is what I came up with for Christian's 4th grade curriculum. I brought this bookcase into the living room. The top shelf is mostly history, geography and science books that I can use with Christian and Sophie this year.

Interest Based Learning

Over the last 2 days I've been observing how much my 9 yo learns on his own initiative.

Writing-Christian has spent a lot of time over the last few days writing a story called "Billy the Brave Cat and Friends". He also wrote 2 quizzes for us (he's been watching his brother make quizzes on facebook).

Drawing-He did a great job illustrating his story.

Spelling-Tonight he played spelling Turbo-Twist- a hand held spelling game.

Reading-After Sophie watched a Frog and Toad video, Christian got the book and read all the stories aloud.

Math-Today Christian did multiplication practice on his own using Math Turbo-Twist by Leap Frog. Christian is always doing mental math. His brothers are always blown away by how good he is.

History-Last night, before bed, Christian read a few pages in his DK Ultimate Lego book. He has read this book many times and it has a lot more in it than just info about Legos. There are short history blurbs throughout the book. He read me a small section on the Great Depression and proceeded to tell me that he knew all about the great depression, he had learned about it from a Charlie Brown American history video he had watched.

Geography-Tonight Christian played The Scrambled States of America board game with his brothers and I. Also, when Christian hears of a new country or place in the world, he gets out our World Geography Encyclopedia and finds it. Yesterday, he was looking up a country in South America.

Science-After watching the movie Kung Fu Panda recently, Christian developed an interest in learning about the praying mantis ( Mantis is a character from the story). Daddy helped him look up praying mantises on the Internet and they watched some Youtube videos. He asked me if they have exoskeletons or not-he and Sophie recently watched a video on insects. He wants to get a book about praying mantises the next time we go to the library.

At night in bed he's been reading a book about inventors. As I type this, Christian is telling his sister about Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. He just ran and got The Picture History of Great Inventors to read to Sophie.

As I look over what I've just written, I think it's amazing! Sometimes when I'm trying to teach him something that he has no interest in at the time, I wonder how much he is understanding and retaining. He has a hard time paying attention and will keep bringing up something else. But when he is interested in something, he finds books, videos, articles, or any other way he can learn about it, and tells everyone about it!

Looking Back Over 12 Years of Homeschooling (part 4)

Fifth and Sixth Grade-

During Andrew's fifth grade year I made friends with a woman who was a former 5th grade teacher who was homeschooling her only son. That year they came over once a week to do school with us. It was enjoyable for everyone! In the early morning everyone gathered around the kitchen table to work on their individual lessons, then my friend would teach using fun games and hands-on learning projects. She also encouraged Andrew with his writing. In fifth grade, Andrew completed his first novel.

We also became involved in a large homeschool co-op where the kids took Spanish class, science class, writing class, and geography club. The group also celebrated holidays, did arts and crafts, met at a playground once a week and occasionally took field trips together. It was a very busy, but fun, couple of years.

Andrew had been wanting to do his schoolwork on the computer, so we were delighted to find Alpha Omega Switched on Schoolhouse. It has proved to be a lifesaver for a busy homeschooling mom because the child can do his schoolwork independently and it corrects almost everything for you. I only have my kids do three or four SOS subjects each year though, because I don't want them on the computer all day long. It's not for everyone either. Charles didn't use SOS until high school.

Around this time I also found Sonlight which is a Literature rich, history based curriculum. I used Core 3 for early American history, science, bible and reading. I taught Andrew and Charles together and we all loved it! I learned so much that year! I love American history anyway, but the read-alouds really brought history to life. The following year we used Sonlight Core 5-world cultures.

Another thing that helped me tremendously was I finally realized that my kids could help me around the house. I had 4 kids, including a three year old with special needs, who kept me on my toes at all times. I took the time to teach my older boys to clean the bathroom, vacuum, help with dishes, fold laundry, and sweep. That time was well spent because through the years my kids have continued to help around the house on a daily basis, pretty much without complaint. It's just a part of life. Before that year, I thought it would be quicker and easier for me to just do everything myself. I'm so glad I didn't continue that way!

Looking Back Over 12 Years of Homeschooling (part 3)

Fourth grade-

At the beginning of this year I learned about the Charlotte Mason method through reading my all-time favorite homeschooling book The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola. I started incorporating some of these ideas in our homeschool. I found out though that this method worked really well with Charles and Isaiah, but Andrew did better using traditional workbooks. Although, he really wanted to do school on the computer, and I'm glad we found Alpha Omega's Switched on Schoolhouse the following year.

Andrew spent lots of time writing stories, reading, drawing, and playing outdoors with his brothers and the neighborhood kids. At nine years old Andrew had an interest in politics. He went on a field trip to the state capital and even met the governor!  That was the year that Al Gore and George W. Bush were running for President. I remember Andrew staying up with us till the wee hours of the morning waiting to find out the outcome of that crazy election!

Andrew has always been gifted in Language Arts but he has had some trouble with math throughout the years. There were many days that year that he would end up in tears when he was learning long division and other mathematical concepts. Sometimes I just needed to give him a break from it for a number of weeks, then he did just fine with it when we picked it up again.

Even though I loved homeschooling, I had some days that year that I seriously wondered if we should send Andrew to school. Once again, my husband was there to encourage me to keep going, and I'm so glad we did! We are a very close family and I know homeschooling has had a lot to do with it.

to be continued....

Looking Back Over 12 Years of Homeschooling (part 2)

The Elementary years

Second grade-

We found a homeschooling group that went bowling with every other week, and another homeschooling group that took field trips together. That year we went on many memorable field trips like: the airport, the natural history museum, the science museum, a yogurt factory, and an old Native American site.

We continued using ABeka for Grammar and Math-U-See for Math, but the most exciting part of this year (at least for me) was finding Konos unit studies. I found that I could teach Charles and Andrew everything (except math and grammar) together! With Konos unit studies we read great books we got from the library, and did lots of hands on activities- which is great for young boys. We learned about the body, the senses, music, frontiersman, Indians and birds.

We homeschooled in the mornings, then the boys played together all afternoon. My 3rd son, Isaiah, was a toddler at the time. This was the year that I started having my boys play with their younger sibling for about a 1/2 hour each morning so I could have some one on one teaching time. This turned out to be wonderful for everyone, and we continued to do this every year as we had more children.

Another thing that I started that year was having Andrew keep a journal. He continued journaling for many years. He has notebooks full of childhood memories to keep. Oh, I almost forgot about the YMCA where he took swimming lessons and basketball and soccer classes.

Third grade-

Andrew took gymnastics that year and during the classes we met another homeschooling family that we became good friends with. They had three boys that were the same ages as my boys and lived close by. We met together once a week to play and for science class. We used TOPS magnetism that year. TOPS is an inexpensive, hands-on science curriculum that uses everyday household items.

Another family joined us every Friday after science for character trait lessons. I forget the name of the curriculum we used, but it had songs, stories and a different animal to represent each character trait. The other two mom's and I took turns teaching the lessons; we had 13 kids between us!

We continued going to the library every week. Andrew was one of those kids that I could leave out a book on just about any subject and he would read it. Reading has always been one of his passions, but I learned that I could turn him off from a book if I told him that he had to read it for "school". I almost turned him off to Redwall by Brian Jacques by doing that. But about a year later he picked up a Redwall book on his own and it became one of his (and Charles') favorite book series.

to be continued...

Looking Back Over 12 Years of Homeschooling (part 1)

I guess I'm feeling sentimental because my son just graduated, but here is a look back over 12 years of homeschooling him. 

The Elementary years

Kindergarten-This was my first year officially homeschooling and I was so excited! I purchased the complete Christian Liberty Press Kindergarten curriculum but about halfway though that year we put the workbooks away because my son already knew just about everything in the books! Andrew was reading at age four (he learned by using Reader Rabbit software and following along during storytime) and he had also been doing workbooks and flashcards that I had bought at wal-mart since he was two.

 I purchased some great homeschooling supplies through the Timberdoodle homeschooling catalog that we've continued to use every year with all my kids. Things like the Pathways Readers,  math-in-a-bag, The Wonders of God's Creation videos, Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntyre and Games Tools for Learning -a book with instructions for making homemade learning games.  I enjoyed  reading the entire Little House on the Prairie series aloud to Andrew and my second son, Charles, who was 3.  We took lots of field trips and nature walks.  One thing I remember about Kindergarten is how I hated to have stop my kids from playing so nicely together to do school. My oldest 2 sons are 22 months apart and have always been close. 

First grade-

Over the summer I went with a friend to a hotel to meet an ABeka Book  representative and to see the curriculum.  I was so impressed with all those colorful workbooks that I purchased the entire first grade curriculum. Well, Andrew read all the readers for the year in the first week! 

That was the year that I set up a schoolroom in our home.  There's nothing wrong with having a schoolroom, but I thought my first grader would enjoy sitting at his desk all morning doing his workbooks.  I even thought we would say the pledge to the flag everday before starting school! By the end of that first week I told my husband that we had made a mistake and maybe we should send our son to school!  He encouraged me that we had made the right decision and that it would work out.  My husband has been my biggest supporter all these years. He wanted us to homeschool even before we had kids.  

I ended up taking a more relaxed approach to homeschooling and we had a great year!  We did some of those workbooks, but we skipped some because so much of it was busy work intended for large classrooms. We ended up taking a month to study astronomy because that was one of Andrew's biggest interests at the time. We found a great homeschool group where we made friends and took field trips together.   During that year my sister-in-law would come over once a week to do arts & crafts with the kids. I continued reading aloud great books to the kids and we took nature walks almost daily when the weather was good. 

To be continued....

Our first homeschool graduate!

My oldest son Andrew, who has been homeschooled all his life, graduated from high school today! This year he took one class at a local Christian school and since the school has done our homeschool evaluations every year, he was able to get a diploma through the school. It's really hitting me tonight what an accomplishment this is for him, and for us as parents. He has worked so hard this year! Not only did he have a full load of 12th grade schoolwork, but he also taught a speech class, competed at a number of speech tournaments, and was Grandpa Jo in the play Willy Wonka Jr! He also wrote, directed and performed in a musical, played basketball, and worked very hard on his Senior project. I'm so proud of my son!

A few pics from a homeschooling day..

Here I am reading The Memory Bible to the younger ones.  I've been reading The Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Myers to the older boys.  What an awesome book about our thought life!

Christian goes through phases where he will be totally "into" a subject.  He will talk about his new interest for days, weeks, sometimes months!  He will learn all he can about a subject and talk about it to anyone who will listen.  Right now he is learning about Legos.  We have this great book called The Ultimate DK Lego Book.  He read a few pages to me today.
Charles is studying biology this year.  He gets together once a week to do experiments with 2  of his friends.  Today he started a 3 day experiment on osmosis at home.
Here Sophie drawing a picture while I'm teaching Christian.
We have the keyboard set up in the livingroom and throughout the day all my kids take turns playing it.
Andrew is graduating in one month!  He has figured out how many pages in each subject he needs to do to finish up school.  In this pic he's reading his Physics textbook.

In the afternoon, I cut the dog's hair and the kids gave her a bath.  My husband took the older boys fishing-something they've been doing a lot lately.

Today's Workboxes

We are doing something new in our homeschool. I've recently found Sue Patrick's Workbox system and I'm loving it! The kids love it, too. Check out my first workbox System post here.

Isaiah (age 12)
Box 1 Bible & Journal
Box 2 Math-U-See Pg. 13 D
Box 3 cursive writing
30 min. Free Time
Box 4 Sequential Spelling
Box 5 Easy Grammar Plus Pg. Pg.93
Box 6 History-The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz (Mom read-aloud)
30 min. Free Time
Box 7 Usborne Science Encyclopedia & websites
Box 8 Caluladders-multiplication speed drills
Box 9 Reading (25 min.)
Finished School & computer time

Christian (age 8)
Box 1 Bible (with mom)
Box 2 Silent Reading More New Friends (Pathway)
Box 3 Math-U-See Pg. 35 C
30 min. Free Time (outside)
Box 4 Grammar Pg. 193-alphabetical order
Box 5 cursive writing
Box 6 Science-The Life Cycle of a Lion (with CD)
30 min. free time (computer)
Box 7 History-Getting to Know the U.S. Presenents -James Madison by Mike Venezia (mom read-aloud)
Box 8 Spelling Pg. 321 homophones
Box 9 Muzzy Spanish Video
Finished School & computer time

workboxes and pics

Sophie and Christian coloring Easter eggs
Chrsitian bought Sophie a Webkinz horse just because he wanted to bless her.
Andrew getting ready for the Homeschool Prom. This is his second year going and he had a blast!
Our Workbox System area that I talked about in my last post. I've included Sophie now.

The Workbox System

A few days ago I read a post about The Workbox System by Sue Patrick on Mrs. Cuddles blog. It looked so cool that I purchased the the EBook, read it, and got started right away!

I am using the workboxes with 2 of my students, my 8yo and 12 yo, and I'm going to set up one for my preschooler soon. I put a metal shelving unit (that I already had) in the kitchen where much of our schooling happens. For Christian I set up boxes with out lids and for Isaiah I have boxes with drawers. The boxes are numbered and each child has a list of what to do each day. They take down the first box do what's in that box then put it away. They go through the boxes (with some breaks in between) until they are finished with school. I haven't implemented everything from Sue Patrick's book (I haven't even finished reading the book :) but it's amazing how well it works.

Isaiah LOVES this new system! In the past he has had some difficulty staying on task with his studies and very often needs me to sit with him and help him. With this system he knows exactly what to do and he puts his books away after every subject (something I always had to remind him to do before). Christian also likes this new way of homeschooling. I'll post a picture soon. Here is what my kids did on the first day:

Christian (age 8)
Box 1 cursive writing book
Box 2 More New Friends (Pathway reader)
Box 3 Helping verbs worksheet
30 min. snack and break
Box 4 Bible (with mom)
Box 5 Math-U-See
Box 6 spelling game (with mom)
30 min. play outside
Box 7 money game
Box 8 Bible (with mom)
Box 9 History Stories (with mom)
30 min. computer time

Isaiah (age 12)
Box 1 Bible and Journal
Box 2 Grammar worksheet
Box 3 Math-U-See
30 min. snack and break
Box 4 Research and Notebooking
30 min Free Time
Box 5 Cursive writing (still needs practice with this)
Box 6 Spelling 
Box 7 Book for 1/2 hr. silent reading
30 min. computer time

Senior Project

My oldest son is a senior this year and he has always been homeschooled. This year he took one class and is doing the senior project at a local Christian school. We've always done evaluations through this school and he will be getting his H.S. diploma through the school in June. He has put many hours into this project (60 are required) and he gives his project presentation next week. His essential question is: What are the essential elements of an effective radio drama? I helped him put this tri-fold together last night. He is passing out surveys at the school this morning, then he will finish it.