Going well, considering.

I thought I would post a small update about how things are going in our home school. Understandably, I have been very busy with a newborn and a toddler, so there has been some slacking here and there. Mostly I just want to note how great of a student W has been. He is getting so much better at not complaining and doing his work and paying attention. He blesses me with this.

While our children are small, since the schooling is mostly on me, we are considering online schooling. We have to a bit more research to do for both of us parents to be comfortable with whatever the choice is. For now, I feel like I'd rather keep doing things the way we are doing them than to pay $2,000 a year for some of these online private schools I have been looking at. And honestly, I think Utah Virtual Academy sounds attractive and worth a try. If we tried it for a year and it was a waste (which I can't imagine it would be a total waste), then it's okay because W is so far ahead academically anyway.

I am trying to work on making time to teach our 2 year old, E, to read and write. I have worked only a little on her. It's just hard with all the other responsibilities.

Homeschooling is a lot of work. I hope to make it work as good as possible and not have too much burden on me with all my other roles in life, (mother, wife, church service, etc.) I refuse to be stressed, I am quite aware of what it does to me.

Improvement already, must knock on wood

Even though I am cautiously excited about this, I have to make a note about W's improvement already since last year. It has only been three days so I'm aware I am jumping the gun on boasting, but someday he will look at this blog and want to see some praise. :)

I must also add that today he had Chinese and he has barely shown any reluctance. A little here and there, but he is being quite cooperative, considering. Our little E has been down for a nap since we started and boy has that been great! 

Here is a picture of part of his spelling assignment for today. At one point he asked for my help and I went over to him and saw this and said, "Woah, look at that handwriting, that is amazing!" He was so pleased with that reaction and started telling me how to write properly and even showed me the imaginary "middle line" where you start the lowercase letters. 

I realize he did make some errors on the picture recognition, but I don't blame him, these pictures in this book can be misleading even for 30-year-old me.

W has been doing very well at Math too. I'm not sure if I find myself more patient, or he just answers more quickly, or he is just paying better attention. I do think he is more mature now and has learned and grown a lot over the summer.

I had his dad give him a priesthood blessing Sunday night for starting school and I am sure that has something to do with it as well.

First day of school 2012

(Disclaimer: These pictures are horrible, taken with my phone because I have my camera in my hospital bag in the car. Ha!)

We had a pretty good first day of school. All in all it went well. I did have an appointment in the morning so the husband started the day off with History and then started Language, until I got home. W was good about doing his work and he got to have a little break between. We went to the library at the end of the day to pick up some books for W to read.

This is how I have it organized this year. It is MUCH more simple than last year. We are still using The Well-Trained Mind as a guide. So far I haven't figured out how to incorporate time4learning.com, but maybe it will need to come up later. 

I decided to use one of these teacher's planner books. In this state, we don't need to technically keep any record of grades until 9th grade, I believe. But I thought it would be nice to get into the habit. This book is clearly for an entire classroom, but I LOVE the planning section of it. It makes it so easy for us to plan our weeks out quite clearly.

The grade and assignment recording section will look very blank with just W on it and all the rest of the rows empty. But if I keep using this idea, then I will at least have our other children on there in the future.

I organized our shelves a lot differently, instead of a bin for each subject (which left for a lot of empty space in each bin), I will be having a bin for each child. Some of the other bins are being used for old or future textbooks or reference books, and art supplies.

Here is W's notebook:

I knew W would still want to check things off as he goes, so I found this sheet at http://thatresourcesite.com/, and had my wonderful mother print and laminate it for me. I like how it is in cursive and that W can read it even though I've never taught him cursive. 

His notebook has dividers that start with his weekly assignments with a separate pocket divider for each subject. I will be copying and/or putting pages in each pocket divider behind "weekly assignments" that he is to do during the week.

When he is done with his assignments, he puts them in this divider pocket, in the back of the binder, titled, "Completed assignments". After I've looked at them I will mark them completed and put them in the back of the binder behind the divider. I still don't know what I am going to do when the binder gets really full. I am considering for certain subjects to get a separate binder for completed assignments to keep until the year is done.

So much simpler and easier than before. W seems excited about it; being able to have all of his work in one place, and I think he feels accomplished when he puts things in the completed pocket. :)

I will update in a month or so at the latest to let you know how it's working out. Tomorrow W has Chinese lessons and we will be doing school too, so it should be interesting.

Getting ready for school in 2012

Here I am in my third trimester with my third baby. She will likely be here right at the time school is to start! I am so lucky these two overwhelming things are happening at once. (Can I get a resounding, "Not!"?)

W has become accustomed to summer freedom, even though I have been making him do more chores and a lot of reading. Last year we also cut back a lot on time spent on school and even completely stopped teaching History. As you're aware, we just felt he was too young and clearly overwhelmed for what we were asking of him, especially since should he attend public school he would be going to Kindergarten just THIS year.

I went back and forth on how to manage our homeschool this year. I strongly considered using K12 curriculum through Utah Virtual Academy. We spoke with someone there and it didn't sound like it would hinder W, it actually sounded quite nice. But the husband didn't want to give it as much thought and has basically said no to it. I am fine with that for now. I really didn't like the idea of there being another teacher in charge of W's education and having to check in all the time with him or her. I didn't like the idea of having to be on someone else's schedule and not being able to take a day off if we wanted to go on a family vacation or just take a breather. And I really didn't like that it is basically public curriculum, which meant history wouldn't be taught in the classical style (which I really want him to learn it in that way), and they wouldn't be using Singapore Math (which W has really responded to well and both the husband and I like it a lot). There are other things too. It just didn't feel right. I tried to find and look at other online schools and either it didn't seem like a full curriculum or it costs a lot of money.

I am basically going to organize our homeschool differently this time around. I am going to simplify it more, which I think will help W be more independent in our homeschool. I am still going to go with the classical style again this time around as our "guide". I am going to likely try out a website called time4learning.com so that W can have fun on the computer and get breaks from so much workbook work. You pay month to month, so if I don't like it I don't have to keep doing it.

I am very worried about W starting to get use to doing more work. I guess we will have to see and perhaps we may have to cut back more again, and consider his age and disregard his intellect. I really don't want to overwhelm him and I want to keep him on a strict schedule regarding his academics because I know it is the only way that he will survive this. He does so much better when he knows at a certain time he needs to do something and continue with it until another certain time arrives and then he can play. If we spring it on him he throws a complete fit and it really stresses the whole house out. He needs to expect it.

Please pray our family will do well with all the changes coming about.

It is my opinion that academics come before extra things that parents want to make their children learn. Sometimes parents will double up on learning things that really are not imperative to their academic success in America and I see it as unneeded stress! Moderation is good in all the extra stuff. The basic subjects of a classical education is much more important, and also just as important, they need to be able to have freedom and playtime. I just can't be the mother of one of those families that has their kids doing everything from language lessons, to sports, to gymnastics and piano lessons IN ADDITION to academics! I do NOT have it in me at all. I am a mother first and foremost, not a chauffeur. My children should be home with me most of the time and busy families just aren't very close. And when they are out often enough doing other things, then have to come home to MORE working, I think it would make them hate life, certainly not love life at home. I strongly believe in prioritizing what matters most, and I think you have to have an eternal perspective on that. The only thing we can take with us after this life is knowledge (and our family). The other stuff is not as important.

Give them a good foundation

My husband brought up a good point last night as we were driving to my mothers house in terrible traffic (construction). He said that he doesn't understand why people say they worry about sending their children out into the world (school) at such a young age because they worry about the influence of evil. He said he just wants to tell people, "Uh, you don't have to!"

It kind of summed up an already inborn passion of mine that relates to my desire to home school. It seems like there is more and more pressure from the world as time goes on to essentially "give up our kids" and entrust them to someone else, younger and younger. I'm sorry but 5 years old is too young to just send them out and have someone else teach them basic things that you already know yourself. I think that if you are worried about this (I would be), then keep them home and school them there until they have built a solid foundation of goodness and knowledge of God and the Plan of Salvation. Engross them in things of the gospel, watch their testimony grow and strengthen and witness their character come out and say, "I know Jesus is my savior. I will follow him. I won't do any drugs, I don't think it's cool. I won't swear or talk negatively about someone else. I won't listen to bad music because it makes me feel bad. I won't partake in immoral behavior because I know that making babies is only suppose to be done while married and for a very special and specific reason. I know that serious sinning will make me unhappy and will make it harder to truly partake of the blessings of the atonement. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me. They are my friends and my cheerleaders and I can't disappoint them." Then send them to school.

And let's face it, a five year old may "know that the church his true", that he "loves his family and friends", that, "he is thankful for a prophet", that they "want to be baptized", etc. etc. But is it a true conversion? A conviction? A public, and even private, school is full of random other children who are aware of random and countless things and talk about them. It is understandable that you wouldn't, by nature, want your children exposed to that. Don't let the "socialization myth" scare you. It's easy to get your kids socialized in the way YOU want them socialized when they are really young. They aren't picky about friends and playmates at a young age.

What age do they cease to be "young"? Well, that is up to your child, and your discretion. It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children, is it not? So if your decision is to send them to school even though you waiver in the decision, then you have to understand the consequences. You will probably have to work harder to make sure they understand the value of a good, true, and faithful heart.

The most important thing to me as a parent is to provide my children with a "sure foundation" in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is THE most important thing to me. Academics come second, and at this age, there is not much that is complicated about teaching them. There are too many resources it is overwhelming, you can't miss a beat.

Just know, this is not easy.

Homeschool has tested my relationship with my son. I will be honest and say that for the most part I don't like the mother I become when homeschool starts. I know that public school is NOT where my children should be right now. I just know it. If I even think about it, I can't even picture it. I can't picture walking my son to school or seeing him in a public school setting, I can't see myself meeting with another person so they can tell me how my son is progressing in his education. It just feels so foreign to me.

However, I really feel like I am not cut out for all these "methods" that I have been researching. They sound so wonderful and perfect for my son. Especially the Thomas Jefferson Education method. I just don't see how I have the resources and/or "gusto" for it. The Classical Style of Education has proven to be challenging for me, the TJ-Ed method takes so much more commitment. Like I told my husband, I can't be a "mentor" in the way this book suggests I should be. I was public schooled for crying out loud! I was never a big reader of the classics and when they tried to discuss them in school I was completely lost most of the time. I don't believe I was an ignoramus or an idiot, I think the style in which I was "educated" just did NOT work for me.

So yeah, I could read all the classics now, and as the book suggests, read them again whenever one of my children are reading them. But... ARE YOU SERIOUS? I'm a mother, like I have time for that? Getting in daily gospel study and reading books I'm truly interested in is hard enough.

I just want to be mother. That's all. I want to teach my children to be good people, I want to teach them who they are and where they came from and how to get back to our Heavenly Father. I want to play with them and do fun projects with them and go on adventures. I want to be able to give my little ones a good foundation and teach the the pre-school basics, teach them how to read. I plan to have more children. I can't do the TJ-Ed with all of them in the way it is described in the book. I just can't, it is not possible. (The book also talks about getting an outside mentor like George Wythe was for Thomas Jefferson. But uhm... we aren't rich and where would we find someone like that THESE days. Let's get real.)

However, the book has some GREAT concepts that I wish to incorporate, and I've decided that this is what makes homeschooling so grand. I can take parts of whatever methods I like and make them work for us.

For right now, we are still doing the basics. I will be looking into more online options. It is overwhelming to consider how bright W is and how I really don't want his brilliance to go to waste. I pray that we can make the right decisions for him.

A little update

It has been quite a time since I last posted on this blog.

We have been doing school on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. On Saturdays W goes to Grandma's to have a Science lesson.

It has been working well this way and W seems a happier boy. Some days we will skip a subject (like Grammar or Reading) if W has been taking a long time to do the other subjects. We still do four hours at least on those days we do school, but sometimes it stretches out until the afternoon because W just looses focus so easily. He is barely five and I decided that is normal and I have been expecting too much of him. He is still on course and doing really well. Our boy is so smart and so far ahead that I decided we should just take it easy and relax for now until W gets use to the work.

We are still looking into the Thomas Jefferson style of Education. It seems like we might make a change in our style.