What I Love Most Today is Homeschooling....

I do love to homeschool.  I think I knew I wanted to homeschool when our first son, Kalen was a baby but when he got to be "school age," I didn't have the courage to do it.  So instead we put him in a private school called Almaden Country School.  I loved the school but I started to get uncomfortable when my six year old son was leaving at 7:15am in the morning and returning home around 4:00pm after carpool.  I just kept thinking, "this is it?"  I felt like I never saw my son and I knew I couldn't go on with this kind of dynamic.  

We pulled Kalen out of the Country School during Christmas break of his first grade year.  We have been learning at home ever since.  I have people ask me "how do you do it?" "Why did you start to homeschool." "What do they do for math?" "Do they get enough socialization?"  This is an attempt to answer these questions.  And to show some specific people who have asked about "my routine" because they are new at homeschooling.  I remember being in this position, really wanting my hand held through the beginning and it's a great way to learn.  

When I finally decided to homeschool, the final motivator came from some close friends of ours, the Hales.  They are a homeschooling family and they are incredible people.  People that you want to strive to be like.  Adrienne Hales, one of my dearest, best friends held my hand through the beginning of my first couple of years and I'm so thankful for her.  They are incredible people.  Kirk and I will never forget one evening we were staying with them (they've moved to Auburn, Cal. since we met) they told us that "they would be happy if they were half the parents their parents were to them."  Kirk and I were fascinated by this comment and it was all we could talk about on our way home.  I'm so thankful for people that inspire us in our lives to help us on our path, who love and care about us.  They have done so much for us through their actions, words and generosity.  I include them in this post because I can't talk about my homeschool experience without including them.  Since they are forever part of it.  

 How do I home school?  As you can imagine this post could go on and on.  I could compare and contrast my ways of teaching at home with others and on and on.  To keep it simpler I will first say that I did struggle in the beginning with this question.  "Did I want to bring a typical school setting into my home, after all I was taking him out of school?"  Or, "did I want to be more creative and go away from a "public school model."  

Well, it turns out that I did not take the "more creative" route.  A lot of people refer to this as "unschooling."  I know what I want my children to learn and I know how I want them to learn it.  So it's pretty regimented like you might find at school.  

They begin in the morning, around 9:30am with their studies.   They do Math everyday.  They do an online Math program everyday.  Language Arts/English is M,W,F.  History is Tuesday and Thursday and Science is on Friday.  Two of them do Cursive on Tuesdays and Thursday and Piano is to be practiced everyday.   

I don't sit with them and do all their work with them.  Just as public school kids don't have someone sitting with them all the time.  They work independently for Math, Language and sometimes Kalen can do History alone.   Otherwise we do history and science together.  And of course they need help with various math concepts during the day which I am there to help with. 

Why did I start homeschooling?  There are so many reasons, one of which I already shared.  I want to be with my children more than a school day outside of home would afford me.  I can't go into all the reasons or this might turn into a social commentary.  But, I like to be able to teach them certain things and in a certain way.


For instance, we are doing something really neat right now.  Kalen is time lining early American History.  Underneath he is going to time line the history of the Restoration of our Church.  For those of you who don't know, we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I think it will be great for the kids to be able to visualize certain happenings compared to one another, especially with respect to their own church history.


 The younger children are studying Ancient History and I am doing something similar with them.  They are time lining standard Ancient History with the Book of Mormon History, since it too takes place in the Ancient times.  This is what I love about homeschooling.  I love being able to teach them things that I know are of real value to them.

This is the IXL math program I spoke about above.  They do two math curriculums.  This program and math out of a work book called Abeka Math.  Long story short, they do IXL because it is geared toward the Star Test which is California's test.  They have to take this test because we home school through a charter school and so we receive state funding per child.  If they are going to have to take the test we want them to do well.  And it doesn't hurt to do some extra math.

This is Reece and I reading.  I read with him everyday because he is learning to read.  He is almost a fluent reader.  I sit with him whenever I can.  The moment everyone is settled doing their studies I bring him to sit and read with me.

Dear to my heart is the inevitable service that is rendered in a home school environment between siblings.  Do they fight and argue? Of course!!!  But, they are so involved with one another on a daily basis that they really do take care of one another.  Shane is potty training, I've barely had to do anything.  This is what I hear all day...."Shaney, do you need to go potties, if you do brother can get you a gum."  Here is Kalen helping Shane go potty.

Many people ask, "what do your other children do when you are helping the school age kids?"  Well, they play together.  This is where I would say the chaos lies.  I have to let them play and make messes.  That's just the nature of it.  And when I say chaos, I don't mean that's it's bad, it's just what happens while I am helping others.


Our day has two phases of" mess times."  In the morning and later afternoon if I have to sit and teach history or science.   You can see below the mess phases.  Here are Georgia and Shane doing their own form of "Home school."

I get asked about how the children are socialized a lot.  I'm surprised by this.  Because before I was a home schooler it never entered my mind that a child might be weird for being taught at home.  I figure if a home schooled child goes to stores with their parents, plays at parks, sees friends and has brothers and sisters then there is no need to worry.  I know there are stories about weird home schooled kids and I'm sure they're out there but no weird kids here.


I would prefer the socialization my children are getting at home and through other activities, like church, and sports.   This is another reason I choose home school.

This is Gwyneth she is eating lunch and doing Sudoku puzzles.   The kids enjoy doing these in their spare time.  I tried to get the globe in the picture because we recently got it and Gwyneth is fascinated by it so it seems wherever she goes the globe goes.  She loves finding "things" on it.

Alright this is usually what the house looks like as the morning is coming to an end and I've been helping big kids, while little ones make messes.

I guess it's not terrible.

And this is after lunch and starting in to late afternoon.  The children are finished with their studies for the day.  But, I still have to sit with Gwyneth and Reece to do History.  But, it's clean again!

Ready for mess phase #2.

I love when my kitchen is clean.  And it's like this for about ten minutes, so I captured this quickly.

The globe and two library books on Ancient Mesopotamia will be used in this history lesson.  We also use "A Story of the World, Ancient Times," by Susan Wise Bauer as the main history book.  These two library books are in addition to their history book.

This is Gwyneth and Reece's time lines.  She decided to do the drawing of the "Wall of Jericho."  

This is my Early American History section on our book shelf.  That King George the 3rd book I just got at the Library Book Sale for 25 cents!!

This is a writing curriculum I am going to start with each of them soon, in addition to what they do.

And here they are ready to go blow off some steam.  They recently started Taekwondo.  They also belong to Los Gatos Tennis Academy.


I'm not the type to think everyone should home school and believe me I've met people that do think like this.  I have my reasons for doing things and I realize that they are not the only way to do things.  But, I have chosen this because it's the best for us right now and I'm really enjoying it.


I know plenty of people who are having wonderful positive experiences in traditional school and I think that's great too.  What I think we can all appreciate is that if we feel passionate about something we have the freedom and liberty to pursue it.  And this is why, What I Love Most Today is teaching my children at home.