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When School is Going Well…

By on January 18, 2010 in One Room Schoolhouse

I love it when a day goes well.

I don’t know if you remember me blogging about My Homeschool Binder in a previous post?

Yes, I do still plan to add some pictures. I did take the pictures… now I just need to remember to download them from the camera and upload them to the website. Now, where is the camera?

Anyways… my homeschool binder is working well. Okay, we are all loving it and the organization and simplicity that it brings to our homeschooling adventure. We are taking a short break from workboxes and will add them in again soon. For now, school is going well. I feel much more connected to my kids and I am really enjoying the one on one time with them.

I have finally figured some things out.  I work with each child individually for about 1 to 2 hours (depending on the day and the work to be done by the children). We do our Math and Language Arts one on one. This is working out very well. I rotate through the kids and we work around meals, the twins naps, housework, and life. We also do our Bible reading at breakfast, our History and Science readings at Lunch, and our Read Alouds at bedtime. This system is working really well for us.

Today was a smooth day. Everyone worked really hard and we got a ton of work done. We have a very busy week this week (with many appointments outside of the home), so we need to be really diligent in getting our work done when we can. I am trying to push the children a bit harder to stretch them and grow them into doing more advanced or in some cases, just more work. I hope every day this week is as productive as today was.

I would love it if you would take a moment to share about something that is going well in your homeschool.

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Learners TV

By on January 13, 2010 in One Room Schoolhouse

I come across many things in my searches around the Internet.

Sometimes I save interesting things to put together into longer posts or put up on my Homeschool4Free pages.

I haven’t quite figured out where this one will go yet, but it is a really awesome resource that I thought some of you would definitely be interested in. I wanted to put it somewhere (how about a simple blog post?) so it didn’t get misplaced.

Learners TV is a collection of on-line lectures (whole courses in fact) on a variety of different topics (including – Physics, Chemistry, Nursing, History, etc). They have many more resources than just the videos (like lecture notes, sample exams, and animations). Out of interest I watched a couple of the lectures and enjoyed the glimpse into the university classroom. I invite you to check out the resources on this website.

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My Homeschool Binder

By on January 8, 2010 in One Room Schoolhouse

I got tired of so many teacher’s manuals and I spent some time (a day or two or three – it’s all a blur now) a couple of weeks ago and I merged everything into one binder.

I made a simple, blank, ten week chart  (to get us to the end of the term). I used a fresh chart for each subject and filled in weekly goals. My homeschool binder tabs (which have yet to be labeled) are blank paper, Bible (group work), Language Arts (all three kids behind one tab), Math (all three kids behind one tab), Social Studies (group work), Science (group work), Art (group work), and Read Alouds (group work).

We read our Bible and related texts (Sonlight K and 1) during breakfast time. Then we start in on the Language Arts and Math sections and work on them throughout the day. I am still toying with the idea of rotating days – Language Arts one day/Math the next.  Most of the day is spent alternating between teaching kids, nursing babes, and doing life. At lunch time we do our Social Studies and Science readings. In the afternoons we continue alternating between kids and their Language Arts and Math. At dinner or shortly after, we conclude our day by reading our Read Alouds.

I put everything needed for the week in that one binder (right behind the subject schedules) and then I have two baskets. The first basket has everything that we use when we are doing group work. In the second basket I put all of the items needed for individual work. This system is working out really well so far. When the boys come to work with me, they grab the basket and my binder and off we go. My oldest has even taken out the binder and his books and started working on his own (I love this) ticking off work as he goes.

Having a set of specific goals to work through for each week in each subject allows us to be flexible in our everyday (which is exactly what we needed). We just work around life and fit in school because most of life is school anyways… Like the other day when I made pancakes from scratch, Moses and Malachi helped and learned that oil and water don’t mix. They also learned that oil helps to brown the pancakes.

I have to say that after 4 years of homeschooling, I finally found something that makes sense for our family. I discovered that I have really missed sitting with the boys while they do their lessons. I am more clearly able to know what areas need to be worked on and what areas they are surprisingly strong in.  The boys work better without freaking out when I am sitting beside them interacting with them (independence will come eventually).

Where do workboxes fit? I have been asking myself that question. I know they do fit. I plan on weaving them back in sometime soon. I will post about that bridge when we choose to cross it.

I don’t know if that all was clear as mud (hopefully clearer). If you have any questions, I will try and clarify. I will try and post pictures too if anyone is interested.

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