When I think back to my days of homeschooling, I remember Bob Jones and A Beka curriculum. I also remember my mom thinking outside of the box and incorporating daily life into our weekly schooling plan.
Sure, there was the book work, worksheets and lots of pencil sharpening. But there was also quite a bit of real life learning, training and education.
We spent time on the scene of a demolition of a building. I spent several days with a State Senator for Nebraska, shadowing and learning. We planted a huge garden and raised poultry (and learned quite a bit from those two simple things).
Some of the other things we did for our home learning ::
~ we did our own cooking and laundry at home (starting at a young age)
~ assisted our mom in cleaning our church building, and all had our own jobs
~ took art classes, piano/drum lessons, ballet, played sports, etc.
~ we all started our first jobs early in our teen years (and my sister started her own business at the age of 12!!)
~ NO television for many years (ah, the horrors!) so alot of creative play time, exploring, creating and even building a treehouse.
~ the awesome ability to have my grandpa teach us all how to drive ... in the back parking lots of Dodge Park at a VERY early age (I won't tell how young!)
~ loads of camping, learning how to build fires, how to pitch tents, how to fish
~ lots of animal raising (cats, dogs, fish, ducks, geese, chickens, rabbits)
~ Mom made syrup, butter, graham crackers from scratch and we learned as well along the way
~ exploring the background details of how a dairy farm worked and what steps are taken to get from little ole' bee to honey on our toast.
Fast forward to present day. Homeschooling for families now looks completely different than it did back then. There are more curriculums available, there are larger support networks, there are even more opportunities afforded kids to join in with "standard school settings" for a portion of their schooling, etc.
What I find interesting though, is that given the choice, I'd choose to homeschool JUST like my mom did.
What I find interesting though, is that given the choice, I'd choose to homeschool JUST like my mom did.
When I realized that textbooks would only get us so far in our "away" schooling jaunt, I pulled from the way I was raised ... and we set out to investigating the city we would be living in for several weeks and I set out to explore the internet.
What I found was beyond helpful and I'm impressed with the following resources (beyond impressed, actually) ::
Kumon ::
These workbooks are not for everyone. They require repetition, repetition and more repetition. They also offer your child the awesome opportunity to DO THE WORK ON THEIR OWN. Most kiddos don't need a teacher standing over their shoulder 8 hours out of their day. They need a bit of guidance, and a bit of support, and then they need the freedom to work on their own. There is a great sense of satisfaction when they reach the end of a worksheet and can say 'I DID it!"
We used 5 books each for the two littles .... that covered topics as broad as "Tracing" for Mia and as specific as "Geometry" for Tony.
I'll be honest though -- I found the repetition a bit much for my two littles, and a lot much for me. I could only handle so much of the "not again" comments from the kids, so we hit, skipped and missed quite a few of the repetitious pages.
BrainQuest ::
Gone are the days when BrainQuest simply means the little flip cards with fun questions. I found two workbooks put out by BrainQuest and they were amazingly wonderful to use during our time of away schooling. Fun, colorful and covering a wide gamut of subjects, they held the littles' attention WELL! Mia actually asks every morning if it's time yet to do her BrainQuest workbook. Big thumbs up on these!
Our favorite Internet Resources for learning ::
Science :: Foss Web, Catie
Reading :: Raz Kids (requires a paid membership or a login from your teacher/school)
Math :: Math Playground and EveryDay Math
All subjects :: Have Fun Teaching
In addition to workbooks, internet and assigned school work from home, we are also taking advantage of some extra time together as a family unit and going on field trips, utilizing the local library and including everyone during things like science experiments and art projects.
Homeschooling still isn't for our family long term ... and I will gladly send these kiddos back to their amazing teachers ... but we're making the best of our time together!
