My dh always told me we would homeschool and I would laugh, but……. 

We started homeschooling (if you can call it that, it’s pretty much life) when A was 3 1/2.  He had a fascination with the alphabet and the sounds of the letters.  So we started focusing on one letter a week.  If I’m going to do something, I have to be organized about it, at least in my head–the house is another matter completely. 

Pregnancy, extreme morning sickness, and a premature baby threw us off a bit, so 52 weeks later, we had finished the 26 letters of the alphabet!  I was thrilled to find letteroftheweek.com. Though I couldn’t follow the down to the minute schedule suggested, we learned a lot about everything and really cemented the alphabet and beginning phonics for A.

The next year I continued reading every book on homeschooling I could get my hands on. With multiple children I really liked the idea of unit studies and having everyone study the same subject at the same time. I found Five in a Row which we’ve absolutely loved, although I find it hard to switch gears every week and start new topics. The boys don’t seem to mind though. This year we’re finishing up Volume 2 and having a great time.

We read the selected book each day for 5 days (hence the title) and then focus on one of five subject areas for the day–Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, Art, and Applied Math.  At least that’s the way it’s intended to work.  It rarely works out that way, we always get a lot of geography and science done.  Last year’s books seemed to have more doable art ideas than this year, but I’m trying to do more with it.  Art is definitely my weakest subject.  In fact I’ve never actually had an art class before.  I was always taking music instead.  Now I really wish I could draw more than stick people.

We’re trying to do a lapbook for each unit we’ve covered this year.  About 4 are completely done.  The rest are in a pile waiting for me to add one more thing to.  Actually most of them need the photos which are stuck on my new digital camera added to them.  With about 50 black cords behind the computer desk, dh asks if I know where the camera cord is.  Apparently it’s missing, so we’re debating alternate ways of downloading photos to the computer.  Then I can share them here! 

Last spring I read The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home which I love.  I really do like unit studies still, but I’m concerned about gaps in our learning (who isn’t?) and of course I like to be organized.  As dh was a history major at BYU and I’m a huge history buff, the history emphasis of WTM really appealed to us and the 4 year rotation through world history just makes sense.  It also ties in literature and writing with the history subjects so it’s a bit unit study-ish and all the boys can be on the same subjects at the same time, just on their own levels.  The science recommendations are very orderly as well.  I need all the help I can get teaching science.  I bought Story of the World and was really excited to start it this year with A, but decided to continue with FIAR and start the WTM suggestions next year when C will get more out of our history discussions.

A just finished The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading and reads about on a 4th-grade level.  We’re going through Cynthia Rylant’s Lighthouse Family series right now and just reading for fun for awhile.  He does handwriting and memory work on the Articles of Faith and other scriptures.  We tried Saxon math, but both of us hated the slow incremental approach.  We’re doing much better with Developmental Math.  A likes to focus on one kind of problem at a time, rather than the variety that Saxon gives on every page. 

All the boys go to Kindermusik classes every week.  A is learning the glockenspiel right now along with basic music notation and rhythm.  For our gospel studies, we’re reading Gospel Principles, a chapter a week along with correlating Friend magazine activities and Primary songs.

C focuses on a letter each week.  We’re up to W, though we haven’t done nearly the amount of stuff Andrew did going through the alphabet.  He sits in on all of our discussions and reading though and picks up a lot each week.  They’re all like little sponges for new information.  D even likes to say the letters of the alphabet and their sounds.

That’s our school in a nutshell. (a large nutshell!)