This is the next post in a series where I’ve been sharing the curricula I’ve used to home educate my three kids. I can’t believe this will be our 9th year homeschooling!
*pause for nostalgic reminiscing*
OK… I think I’m ready to continue.
If you don’t homeschool, have you ever wondered what it is those crazy homeschooling people do all day?
And, if you already home educate, isn’t it fun to get a glimpse into another homeschool to see other ways of doing things?
That’s why I like to do “Day in the Life” posts from time to time. You can check out other days in our life here and here. But for now, here’s a look into our homeschool on…
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
In this series of posts, I’ve been sharing what curricula I plan on using to homeschool my three kids in the school year ahead. To see what we’ve used for other ages and grades, check out the first post which has links to all the posts in the series.
When we first started homeschooling, I set out to find the perfect curriculum for each subject.
You know, that magical product that would be a great fit for all of my kids, no matter what their personality. The one that I could reuse over the years to maximize my investment. The one that’s customizable but also requires zero teacher prep. Is that too much to ask?
Well, it’s been almost a decade since I started my search. I can now say there’s only one subject where I found a magic bullet that achieved all those goals.
That subject is… spelling.
I’m not sure why this simple, homemade game has been such a hit with all of my kids. Maybe it’s the shaking. Maybe it’s the dumping. Whatever the reason, they’ve all loved it!
I wish I could recall where I heard about this game first. I’ve seen variations of it floating around, but I’m not sure who came up with the original idea for Phonogram Sound Shake. Whoever you are, thank you!
2020.
What. A. Year.
And we’re not even three-quarters of the way through it yet!
Even though I can’t seem to keep track of what day it is right now, I’m at least aware that it’s August. And August in our homeschool means it’s time to finalize and share our curriculum plans for the year ahead.
Early in my homeschool mom career, language arts caused a lot of confusion for me. There are so many subcategories within the subject – I just didn’t know where to begin.
Handwriting, reading (including phonics and sight words), spelling, grammar, composition, poetry, literature, public speaking…. What do I teach when? And how? Ahhh!
Over the years, I’ve been able to make better sense of it all. My curriculum shelves, however, still reveal the winding journey of trial and error I’ve gone through in the search for language arts resources for my kids.
Asking what a homeschool room should look like is like asking what someone’s backyard should look like. That is, there’s no one right answer. It totally depends on the needs, desires, resources and situation of each unique family.
So far, in this Tour of Our Homeschool series, I’ve shared about the desks and tables we use for homeschooling all over our house. Now I’d like to focus in on the corner of our lower level that we call our “school room”.
One of the things that helped me the most in my transition from “What is homeschooling?” to “Let’s homeschool!” was reading about what homeschoolers actually do all day. Reading “a day in the life” blog posts about actual, real-life, home educating families doing actual, real-life homeschool-y things opened my eyes to the limitless variety of ways learning can (and does) happen.
I’ve been wanting to write my own “Day in the Life…” post for a long time and here it finally is!
I can’t believe it’s August again!
That means it’s time to share our homeschool plans for the year ahead. (If you’re curious about what we’ve used in the past, check out this post which has links to all the previous years.)
Year 6 Snapshot
We’re really in the thick of it now. I’ll be homeschooling my fifth and second grade boys and their three year old sister (whose unreliable, dwindling naps should make for a crazy-making an interesting year).
