28 August 2013

Hooray for Homeschooling!

Maybe it's just me, but time is out of control this year!  The monsters are already on Week 4 of school & I can honestly say we are LOVING the home school life.  It's amazing the differences I've been able to pick up from the kids on how they approached assignments during the first week (extreme fears of being wrong, going to slow, or being too creative!) & then this week where they're more comfortable & confident in their choices!


I've had several questions regarding what our routine is like, which curriculum we use, etc the past few weeks as well.

Our routine is pretty basic.  Under Georgia state law we're required to do at least 4½ hours a day of schooling 180 days a year in the subjects of reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science.

For us that means...
  • Daily journals & 2 hours of morning work, a lunch/free time break, & then 2 hours of afternoon work. 
  • We also include weekly spelling words & there is a different activity every day for the monsters to complete with their word lists.  
  • Music & Art are covered through the different materials we read.  Currently the book of choice is "A Mouse Called Wolf" & as Wolf discovers new songs/composers, we'll look up the tracks online & so do the monsters.  So far we've compared composers, made up our own lyrics to popular songs (as Wolf frequently does!) & made our own little musical mice puppets to go along with the story!
  • PE?  No problem!  We have a little pool & trampoline set up out back to help run off a little energy.  There is also soccer at least twice a week, dogs to be walked, biking, skating, & plenty of trails around here to explore!
  • & my personal favorite.......picking your own school year schedule!  We started -officially- home schooling on 05.August.13 & will continue through  26.June.14.  We only do 4 day school weeks (Fridays off - yay!) & plan on a 2 week vacation for the Winter Holidays at the end of December/early January.
As far as cirriculum is concerned, we're still sticking with Time4Learning.  As I posted previously in my Time4Learning Review, the program is great as it covers tons of grade level materials, offers up activity schedules, grade books, & allows you to change a student's grade level by subject depending on if the work is too easy/hard for him or her.  Did I mention that it actually keeps my kids ENGAGED in their assignments for the day?  x1 & x2 can't wait to get on in the morning & start their work, which is a healthy balance of educational instruction as well as games, songs, rhymes, & stories.  I still supplement my own spelling activities/sheets as well as use grade level BrainQuest workbooks on a daily basis to help expand the lessons of the day.

Now for the opinions that REALLY matter.  How do the monsters like homeschooling?  & what do the students using T4L think about the curriculum?

x1 (7.5yrs/2nd Grade) says "Home schooling is more fun than public school.  I don't get bored as much & there is always something new to do. I think Time4Learning is awesome.  It lets you learn a lot of lessons & subjects we didn't learn before in school & you get to go on the playground when your done!"
While x2's (6y/1st Grade) opinions on the matter are "I like to be home schooled because I can read more & learn more & not have to wait for everyone else to finish before starting the next assignment.  Time4Learning also helps me learn & I can go back & redo anything I don't understand instead of being hurried up or my questions not being answered about my work.  It makes me happier."

All in all I can honestly say I'm a SUPER PROUD momma.  My monsters are having the best start to the school year I think they even had & can't wait to learn & discover what tomorrow's lessons will teach them!

2 comments:

Marshmallow Circus said...

It sounds like things are going great. I love your kids comments too. Happy homeschooling!

maddie said...

Thank you!
Hope you all have a great schooling year as well! :)