I recently tweaked our schedule, so thought I would share it with you.  I have been using one version or another of my schedule for about a year and a half now, so it works well for us.  Your schedule will likely look much different.  I have noticed that among homeschooling moms.  Some would go absolutely crazy at my lack of exact clock times, but for me, I shut down if I have missed the clock time, and then we do not do school at all, so it works better for me to just have time goals, or benchmarks in my day.

6-7am  Somewhere in there, I get up, the earlier the better.  I walk up the hill to see the farmer’s cows and pray for my family while walking.  I come back to read my Bible in what is still hopefully a quiet and sleeping house.

Around 7:30 or so, I start being noisy (laundry, dishes, making breakfast, playing music), so the kids will wake up.

By 8, I hope to see everyone up and moving.  In this hour, I want the children (ages 11, 9, 6, 3 – boy, girl, boy, girl) dressed, eating breakfast, teeth brushed, and morning routines done.  Meanwhile, I work on breakfast, getting the toddler dressed and ready, and my own morning routine.

By 9, I want us in the school room, ready.

1. Personal Journals, Copywork (a verse or quote I have ready on the chalkboard), and Math.   Phonics with the 6yo (sometimes I teach him; sometimes his older siblings teach him). I help them with math one by one, as the others write.
2. Heart of Wisdom unit study (currently Creation). We read from the unit study, from the Bible, a selected book, and sometimes do an activity. 
3. Scripture reading.  We are reading through the Bible together.  After the reading, I select a verse to put on the chalkboard. The children copy a related verse in their Bible Journals, and then draw a picture or write about what we read.
4. Hebrew:  we aim to learn 6 new words per day.
5. Memory Work:  we all say the poetry, Scripture, quote, etc. out loud that we are attempting to memorize.

After all of this, the children sit on stools at the bar in the kitchen and have a laid-out snack while I read a literature selection at an younger level.

Around 11ish, we concentrate on:

            Mondays:  Practical Skills

            Tuesdays:  Art, Music, and Shakespeare

            Wednesdays:  Nature Studies and Poetry

            Thursdays:  Science (and Library Day)

            Fridays:  Independent Research Day (a.k.a. Notebooking from selections picked up at the library on topic of choice)

Just before lunch and while I am making it, the children learn 6 new words of Spanish and review old ones.

Lunch:  always something easy and quick.  During lunch, I read a literature selection from an older level.

Quick pickup of the house, especially the school room.

1pm or so, Quiet Time :  an hour of absolute quiet (this hour is vital to my sanity!).  For the older two, quiet time needs to include reading from an assigned book.  I usually assign 1 chapter or several pages; not too much. 

Quiet time choices (even for me.  NO chores allowed!):

            Nap

            Write

            Art (nothing messy)

            Read

            Notebooking

2pm or so, Quiet Time is over (but may be continued alone) and free play is allowed.  No electronics (t.v. or computer) yet.  Afternoon activity choices:

            Playing with friends

            Free play

            Swimming and fishing

            Science experiments

            Nature walk

            Play with the animals

            Art

            Family business

            Crafting

            Gardening

Ideally, around 4pm, I would like to have a Tea Time for character training and etiquette.  We are usually too wrapped up in our projects to do Tea Time, but I hope to add it.

4:45pm  I get myself into the kitchen to start dinner or we will eat tooooo late again.  I always encourage the children to help in the kitchen. I hope to train myself out of a job.  The children are naturally drawn to the kitchen to watch me make supper, so I also have this time written down as Musical Instrument Practice time. 

And then is dinner, evening routines, and an hour of Family Time (games, projects, movie, or a time to show Daddy what we’ve learned through a play or a mini concert). 

At bedtime, my husband or I read again to the children.  (Yes, I do quite a lot of reading aloud but I love books!)

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Barnes and Noble University has some new online courses starting September 5th.  There are many interesting ones, including one on homeschooling by Linda Dobson.  The courses are for adults, but I signed up for a Backyard Astronomy course that my 11  year old and I (and hopefully Daddy!) will do together.  I've always wanted to be able to name the stars and identify the planets. 

We are also going to take Beginning Guitar. 

Whoops, I forgot to mention one small but very important detail:  The courses are FREE!

Here is the link:  Barnes and Noble University

by Lori Seaborg 2006

After thinking about it all week, I decided to create a group where someone who has extra curriculum or extra books could post them just for the sake of the warm and fuzzies she or he will have, knowing she's blessing another.   And a group where someone can go when they are in financial need and anonymously look at the offerings, only emailing the person who offered. 

The group would allow only posts of "OFFER" and "TAKEN" (perhaps an occasional "wanted," provided they don't take over), so that the emails would be minimal.  The person who needed the item would email the person who offered and request the item.  When the item was taken, a "TAKEN" post would be sent out to let the group know.  Shipping and handling could be requested, to encourage everyone to share their item, even if also cash-poor.

Tonight, I created that group.  Only 1 person is a member (that would be me), so I hope you will join me!  I'll be posting some books soon.  I have an entire tote full of them and would love to share them with you if you could use them. 

Please join the list, whether you are in need or could bless someone else.  Even if you think you have nothing, you likely have extra worksheets or a half-used curriculum lying about that you could send someone.

Without further ado, here is my new group, called Free Homeschool.  You can also join via email by sending a blank email to freehomeschool-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .
 

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Just wanted to check in with you all.  I'm currently in Huntsville, Alabama, where we are going to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center today. We've already been to Indiana to see grandparents and a sweet great-grandma (she's 95!) and to St. Louis to see friends and to watch the Air Force's Thunderbirds. 

It's fun taking these trips, knowing that the schools in our area are already in session yet  we get to drive around the country.  More than anything else, I love the freedom of homeschooling.

I'll write later in the week when we are back on the Gulf Coast. 

by Lori Seaborg 2006

Obviously, school is on my mind these days.  I keep sharing websites for curriculum and books!  About a month ago, someone on a Charlotte Mason email list of mine told everyone about a math program from the United Kingdom that is free.  She used it with her children last year and really liked it.   At the time of that email, I was surfing online and had a $200 math program in a virtual shopping cart.   I decided to try the free math first.  :)  

The kids and I have already enjoyed this U.K. Program . The lessons are short and hands on, with household objects and flashcards and posters (you print those items out from the site).  The children only fill out a few problems on a worksheet -- just enough to let you know that they understand (and not enough to bore them).  And the teacher's plans are laid out very easily, so that I'm able to juggle two math levels without a problem. 

The first time I visited the site, I left almost right away.  It isn't the best laid out site in the world.  Here's my tip:  Scroll down to the year level that you'd like to try.  Click on Lessons 1-30 to see the children's worksheets; Click on Copymasters for 1-30 to see the flashcards that you can print out to  use; Click on Lesson Plans for 1-30 to see the teacher's lesson plans.

For a few of the later lessons, you need a password.  If you are not in the United Kingdom, this is easy.  Just email them and say that you are a homeschooler in the United States and would like to use their program, or use your school name if you've given one to your homeschool.  Many of us have received the password successfully (it may take a few days). 

I hope this helps someone out there who likes to - or needs to - save pennies on their homeschooling!

Oh -- about the pounds and pences -- if you use this math program,  your child will be learning the English metric system and their monetary system.  The monetary system is easily interchanged with ours, another hs mom told me.  As far as the metric system, since the rest of the world uses it, I am very glad to have the kids learn it as well.  They can learn inches and miles through every day life (and maybe a few "on purpose" discussions). 

Here's another link to the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching program.

by Lori Seaborg 2006

The longer we homeschool, the less money we spend on it.  This year, we're creating our own curriculum, through using a little of this and a little of that.

This morning, I was delighted to discover a free resource for phonics for my little guy.  Go to Progressive Phonics to download any of their ten phonics books (some books also have flashcards, memory games, and other aids to print out).  I'm a fan of "living books," those books that give a child something to imagine and/or something to learn, but when teaching phonics, you need those little sentences!  The lessons as Progressive Phonics are designed to be short, leaving you time to read aloud the classics to your child, while starting him out by reading little words in little sentences.  Soon enough, he'll be reading the classics to you!

by Lori Seaborg 2006

It’s time for some more great web links!  Here are a few of my current favorites:

The Book Samaritan:  http://booksamaritan.com/  If you are having a hard time financially and need help purchasing homeschool books, contact the Book Samaritan for help.  On the other hand, if you’ve been blessed financially, consider donating to them so they can help others.

Free Homeschool Materials: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeHomeschoolTools  is a very large email group of homeschoolers who offer 100% free homeschool books and supplies.  If you have extra curriculum to give away (even if many of the lessons are missing), there is someone who would love to take it off your hands (I mean, bookshelf!).  The person receiving the free item will pay for the shipping.

What’s That Bug? http://www.whatsthatbug.com/  Is a fascinating site, all about bugs.  If you have a mysterious bug in your house (well, hopefully not in it), you can probably identify it by browsing What’s That Bug?   If you can’t find it in their database, drop them a line and they’ll post your photo and the bug’s identification for all to see.  Thanks to this site, we were able to identify the Nephila Clavipes (Golden Silk Spider) on our front porch.

Be sure to check this one out:  Enature:  http://www.enature.com  On the home page, insert your zip code (you can leave the email address area blank).  What you will get as a result of inputting your zip is a field guide to this specific area.  We use this site often to identify birds and bugs that we see in our yard. You can also use the site to identify trees and wildflowers.

You all know it is Red White and Blues Week at Pensacola Beach, Florida this week, right?  The Navy’s Blue Angels are flying on Thursday, July 14, 2006, Friday, and Saturday.  This is by far their best air show, since it is a home show and they can perform extra maneuvers since they are over water.  Look here for more information:  http://www.visitpensacolabeach.com/news/redwhiteblues2006.htm  We’ll be there on Friday!  

Lori Seaborg

by Lori Seaborg 2006

My internet connection is only letting me online in snippets lately.   Since your internet connection is obviously working well, check this out: 

We've enjoyed children's author/illustrator Jan Brett's online drawing videos.  11yo son, 8yo daughter, 6yo son and 3yo daughter and I all drew bunnies with Ms. Brett's instructions and also with the aid of our 6yo's darling bunny, Little Buzzy (Our 6yo son gives funny names to his animals.  His chicken is named "Burpy"). 

Later, during our daily "quiet time," after lunch, our 8yo and 6yo drew beautiful and startingly accurate horses from Jan Brett's "How to Draw a Horse" video.

The online videos are absolutely free -- no catches at all -- and I highly recommend them!  Click here to view the list.  Our next project is "How to Draw a Chick," also with the aid of our live models.

by Lori Seaborg 2006

You all will love Cindy Rushton's latest project called Mom to Mom Radio Shows.  For free, you can listen in on many radio shows and interviews with other homeschooling moms.  I've listened to several of the broadcasts over the past week and have been so encouraged!

Cindy has been such an inspiration to me since I met her just over a year ago.  She  introduced me to Charlotte Mason methods and Notebooking and Lapbooking and through all of that, I found not only the homeschool method of my dreams, but I also found my sanity!

Even if you school in another fashion (we are all so different!), you'll still find a radio show that is helpful to you.  I particularly enjoyed "Fun and Easy Ideas for Making Quiet Times Great!"  In this broadcast, Cindy shares practical tips for making the most of the time that you spend with God each day, through Bible reading and prayer. 

On an email list that I am on, a mother asked for suggestions on keeping a toddler busy while schooling the older ones.  Here is my reply:

I’m right there with you, girl!  Things have gotten much easier since I was introduced to the assumption that 95% of what we teach is remembered.  With that in mind, I make it a point each day to have our 9yo and 7yo teach our 4yo and 2yo so I can have time with the opposite one.  The Teacher of the Preschooler pulls out a drawer full of all sorts of preschool “teaching” objects like an abacus, flashcards (picture, number, and alphabet), blocks, and much more.   I often purchase items for this drawer, to keep it interesting.  There is also lots of writing utensils (markers, crayons, watercolor paints) and papers and child-safe scissors and glue available.  The older children concentrate on “teaching school” to only the 4yo since our 2yo is at the copycat stage and will just do what they do (or she’ll hang out with me).   

We’ve done this for a full year now, and it’s amazing how much the older children have taught our little guy.  They’ve pretty much given him a full K4 education!  The older ones have benefited not only in their own learning but also in good habits such as patience, perseverance and helping others.    

When they do not need my help, the older children do their schoolwork independently (such as reading and copywork). This frees me up to do housework with my toddler following after. Our K4 child is well old enough to know how to respect the work of others, so I expect him to be quiet and read or write or else he needs to go play in his room while they work.

by Lori Seaborg 2006

I've been fascinated with Charlotte Mason's writings on Habits.  I'm reading through her book series with an online group, and we need to move onto the next section, but all I want to do is keep studying Ms. Mason's section on habits until I have it memorized!  It all makes such sense to me that if I train myself and my children in good habits, so many things will come easily to us!  For example, if we train ourselves to go to bed in a timely manner, to shut the door after us as we go out, to wipe the sink when we've used it, all of these little things will just come naturally to us and we won't have to think of doing them as "chores."  I guess I was already practicing this in housekeeping, but I called my housekeeping habits "routines." 

Habits can help us in bigger ways.  The habit of attention will help our children (and us, if we also learn it!) to focus on a task until its completion.  Charlotte Mason suggests that a child's task be broken up into smaller parts, perhaps into 10 minute chunks of time.  For those 10 minutes, the child is expected to give the task his full attention, thus forming the habit of attention. 

In Charlotte Mason's section entitled VII.--The Forming Of A Habit--'Shut The Door After You', she quotes this excerpt from Marlowe:

Here is a link to the section on habits written by Charlotte Mason  Please don't give up just because the reading is hard at the beginning.  If you need to, scroll down to the section mentioned above, called VII. -- The Forming of a Habit -- 'Shut the Door After You'.  After reading this section, you may feel more prepared to go back and read the previous.

Here is a link to more on Charlotte's Views on forming habits.  Don't skip reading these!  These writings are fascinating to me, as they deal with the Habits of the Mind, including the Habit of Attention, which I am sorely needing to teach to one of my children. 

Lori Seaborg 2006

"To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labours, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. 

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? 

How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? 

No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute."

~ G. K. Chesterton in What's Wrong with the World (a collection of essays first published in 1910)

by Lori Seaborg 2006

My guinea pigs have done private schooling, public schooling, blended school (a mix of public and home), and homeschooling. Finally, after years of wishy-washy, I've figured out what I want to do, and what I really should do: homeschooling. Even so, we take it a semester at a time. There was a time that I was VERY against homeschooling them. I was hsed one year on furlough  (I was a missionary kid) and hated it and didn't learn a thing. But now that I look back, it just wasn't a good year anyway, away from my missionary friends without warning (it was an emergency furlough for my brother's health reasons). It's not the homeschooling's fault for my being miserable.

Curriculum:

You definitely don't have to know how to teach them. And you can spend as much or as little time as you like teaching them. There is a curriculum to suit every fancy, from sticking the kid in front of a computer to traditional textbook schoolwork, to "unschooling." I am now using a free online curriculum that is literature-based with a fine art and fine music emphasis. It encourages nature studies and practical skills. It suits my personality and my passions perfectly (Ambleside Online). I'm not saying it is the one and only curriculum; certainly not. I'm saying that it is the one that best suits me and helps me best handle three grade levels and a toddler. I think if my husband was the one teaching, he'd use something more traditional, like A Beka (he has an engineering degree and was a middle school teacher for a couple years, so it would suit him). Find something that best suits you - your personality, your budget, your kids' needs and your time allowance. Don't worry about finding the Perfect Curriculum. I think they all pretty much even out in the end and, besides, you can always adjust. How much have you retained from high school and below? For me, almost all of my education has been self-taught as an adult.

Which brings me to a new point.....

I think our number one job as home educators is to encourage a kids' curiosity and teach him how to learn. If you give him those two things, he can soar above any obstacle. If he decides to be a civil engineer, but you weren't good at math, so you only taught him algebra and trig, he can still make it in his field because he will have: 1.) curiosity in the form of loving his chosen field enough to want to learn, and 2.) he will know how to find the answers he needs, whether that be from reading, knowing how to ask questions, library science, or the 'Net. In other words, he will be able to teach himself the things that you might have left out (I also think it's important to let him follow his trails, so if you choose a traditional curriculum, consider dropping the textbook sometimes, if it is telling you that you MUST teach about the French Revolution this week, but your kid wants to discuss how modern elections are decided.). This curiosity and love of learning will also help him in regular life, should he find himself in a financial jam someday, needing legal help, or on the mission field in the bush, needing to build a house from nothing but the jungle. It will foster a great deal of self confidence if he knows that he can figure out anything in the world, given the time.

Mission Statement:

A very good friend of mine quit homeschooling one year. It shook my foundation and made me wonder if I should quit, too. I was consumed with this, and even researched putting them back into regular school. One morning, I decided to write down "Why I Homeschool." It was simpoly a list of reasons that I, not my friend, not someone else, but I homeschool (my husband leaves this decision pretty much up to me, knowing its my burden to teach them while he's at work). I've kept that list for probably 4 years now, and still look at it when I get discouraged. I encourage you to make a mission statement or a list of reasons why you homeschool. Someday you may need to look at it, too.

Activities:

Look for a homeschool group in your area. They will know what activities are offered for hsers. The list of activities being offered is so vast that I would be busy all day long, from 8-5 if I did them all. No kidding! In our area, here are only a few of the many offerings: Marine Biology at the University of West Florida for grades 6-12; history classes for grades 1-5 with other hsers; youth orchestra with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra; acting jobs with local theatres; Zoology for grades K-12 at The Zoo in Gulf Breeze; a class in the sciences (DNA last month) at the Exploreum Science Center; and many many more. Many local public schools will let your child play sports with them (you are a tax payer, after all), and many will allow your child to attend classes (the public schools get their funding PER child, so they usually welcome your child's attendance). Private schools often have open arms to hsers.

Real Life:

To me, I don't think that sitting in a classroom of peers with one teacher doing the talking is very real life. Real life is all ages and multi cultures having discussions with one another. So I try to immerse my kids in a potpourri of cultures and ages. One way of accomplishing this is to participate in quite a few field trips. The kids get to learn from the facility (a fire station or a musuem, etc.) while interacting with people from baby age to adults. Just this month, we went to the USS Alabama Battleship in Mobile, Alabama, and saw a bunch of uniformed Army guys on the ship. Our 10yo was curious about that, so I struck up a conversation with one fellow. Turns out that he was on the ship to waste some time until the plane arrived to take him and the others to the war in Iraq. It is his first time to go, and he looked rightfully scared behind his toughness. Moments like that are why we homeschool. I don't want my kids to just read about the guys in Iraq, I don't want them to just see it on t.v., I want them to meet the guys, to look them in the eye, to see their emotion, to hear Mama say, "Hey, thanks for fighting for us."

by Lori Seaborg 2006

From 19th Century author Charlotte Mason:

"Let the mother go out to play! If she would only have courage to let
everything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a
day, out in the fields, or with a favourite book, or in a picture gallery
looking long and well at just two or three pictures, or in bed, without the
children, life would go on far more happily for both children and parents."  Charlotte Mason Series Vol. 3 p. 33-34

Honestly, playing is a little too easy for me, but I love having permission to do it! I agree with Charlotte Mason that a playing mother makes a happier mother.  I also agree that it takes courage to "let everything go when life becomes too tense."  Don't you find that difficult to do?

by Lori Seaborg

(p.s.  Did you see my baby goat?  Go to this blog's homepage and scroll down through the recent posts.  He is sooo cute!)

 

http://www.funbrain.com :  Your kids will love this site.  Be sure to check out the Math Arcade.  We use it instead of textbook math class sometimes.  I appreciate the Teacher Guides on this website.  I can select games for my Kindergartener without him getting frustrated by the higher level games. 

 

http://www.classicsforkids.com   A different composer is highlighted weekly.  There is an activity sheet for the week to print out, and your children can listen to a radio show on the composer's work.  I just discovered this site last night, but think I'm going to use it weekly in our fine arts appreciation classes (a fancy way to say that I want the kids to recognize good classical music).  And for those with a piano (::sniff, not me::), here is a link to sheet music on famous composers, at the beginner level:  http://www.easybyte.org/

 

http://www.mathfactcafe.com/ :  Create and print your own flashcards and math worksheets (you can also do this at Donna Young's site, below)

 

http://www.donnayoung.org  This site has printables of every type needed for your household and homeschool, from planners to calendars to science project sheets.   There are even quite a few full lessons on the site.  I love using these printables.  Give yourself quite a bit of time to dig around the site. 

 

http://www.learn-to-draw.com  A full lesson on how to draw, right from the beginning.  I printed out the Drawing Basics lesson to use with our kids. No naked pictures that I've seen, and that's always a good thing at a drawing site!

 

http://www3.calvarychapel.com/children/site/curriculum.htm A Bible curriculum, complete with activity pages to print out.  Covers the entire Bible, from Gen to Revelations, in 325 lessons (whew!)

 

http://www.amblesideonline.com :  A free curriculum, based on the Charlotte Mason style.  This is a literature-based curriculum, a lot like Sonlight, I think, but without the high costs.  It is all online and completely free.  Most of the required texts are also online, for free.

 

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/paperarts Free lessons on papermaking and bookmaking, offered twice a month by a homeschooling mom.  The lessons are top-quality. We are very blessed to have them offered at no cost to us. 

 

Two bonus links: 

 

http://www.iditarod.com/  Since the Iditarod is in only five days (on March 4th), I thought I'd throw in this extra link.  There are teacher links within this site, if you want to teach your kids about this great race (or about Alaska). 

 

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/  The National Geographic has done a beautiful job of covering Lewis and Clark at this site.  If your child retains information a little better online than from a book, or to suplement the book, you may like this site.  You could do the Interactive Journey Log in about 22 lessons.

 

p.s.  You all know about http://www.homeschoolblogger.com , right?  It's great, too!

Hurricane Katrina has already made a bit of an entrance into our lives this afternoon.  We had a sunny, blue-skied morning, but around 11am I noticed obvious bands of white clouds in a large swirl.  Those are the outer bands of Hurricane Katrina.  Now, it is overcast and already breezy. 

We should have tropical storm force winds later tonight and more tomorrow.  Tomorrow, we may have hurricane-force winds, also, depending upon where landfall occurs.

I've already let the 19 chickens loose.  They are happily roaming around.  They've gone through 2 hurricanes and 2 tropical storms just in this year, so I know they will be fine.  We've made other preparations, such as catching up on laundry, clearing the yard, moving the van next to the house, filling up water containers, etc. 

If you'd like to study hurricanes with your children, I found some sites while gathering more information on Katrina:

Hurricane Hunters:  These are the military men and women who fly into the hurricane every three hours to give us updates.  We cling to their knowledge while waiting for a storm!  This site seems written for children to learn, so it's a good one for you to look at with your kids. On the site is a neat feature:  Cyberflight into the Eye

(note: The Hurricane Hunters live on and fly out of a base in Mississippi.  They are themselves affected by this hurricane, Katrina.  They've moved their airplanes to Houston, so this time, they are flying from there to track the storm)

National Coast Guard Storm Center

National Hurricane Center : Includes information on past hurricanes and statistics about hurricanes.  We use this site often when a storm comes.  This site is the first to post updates from the Hurricane Hunters as they land. 

Hurricane Ivan from the Pensacola News Journal :  This Category 3 (it was just a mile or two per hour below a Category 4) storm hit my hometown of Pensacola, Florida on September 15, 2005.  The site has many awesome photos, which show how devestating Ivan was to all of us.  We are still fixing things that Ivan broke! 

Hurricane Katrina:  local information on tomorrow's storm, Katrina

I'll let you know how we do!  We always lose our power, though (I can't for the life of me figure out why they don't just put underground power cables all along the Gulf Coast!), so you may not hear from me for a little while. 

by Lori Seaborg