What I Have Learned From My Children

Heart of the Matter Meme

Being a homeschooling Mom has been a big learning experience for me. I've learned that:

• Children are just like adults. If the book is boring, they don't want to continue reading it or learning from it.

• Children have their own individual interests and those may differ from what I would want their interests to be.
  

• Children have different ways of learning. One child may like to learn with hands-on projects, while another likes reading from a book, another prefers workbooks, and another could watch 4 straight hours of the History channel.
  

• Children learn more from my example than what I say.
  

• Children want their mom to be patient and loving during homeschooling.
  

What Hasn't Worked for Me?

Heart of the Matter

Being relaxed to the point where I don't schedule daily things - doesn't work for me. I try to be flexible due to my husband's work schedule, but we have become too flexible. This year, I've had to set:

• a bedtime
• a pick up clutter time and chore time
  
• a listen to Adventures in Odyssey time
• a Bible and devotional time
  
• a read aloud time
• an individual help with school work time

Things are going much better over here now that my kids know what to expect and when.

Using typical school text books with my kids - doesn't work for me. I'm not trying to bad mouth text books, it's just that I can't keep my kids interested in them. Plus, they don't seem to retain the information from text books. This is what my grade school kids used this year:

• LA and Map Skills: Scholastic Success Workbook 400 pg. (I found these at Costco for $7 each)
• Science: watched Scientific TV Shows, did science experiments found on the Internet, did Real Life Science Activities
• History: historical fiction read alouds and educational TV shows
• Geography: library books and educational TV shows
  
• Bible: Church and Adventures in Odyssey radio show

What I Wish I Had Known My First Year

When I started homeschooling I didn't realize all of the variety available and about the different choices to be made. I thought that I had to find the one perfect way to homeschool and stick with it.

I wish I had known - I didn't have to commit our family to just one way of homeschooling. Now that we've been doing it for 9 years, I pick and choose what works best with our family and each of the kids. Sometimes, during the middle of the year, we even switch to a Unit Study or Unschool for awhile. I've found that the most important thing is to make learning enjoyable for the children.

I wish I had known - my children don't have to read by a certain age. I pushed one of my girls in reading. I should have gone slower at it and made reading more relaxed and less stressful for her. She reads fine now, but she doesn't really enjoy it.

I wish I had known - how enjoyable joining a homeschool group can be. I was reluctant about joining, because I thought that my homeschooling methods would be critiqued. Once we did join, I realized that it was a great opportunity to socialize with other homeschooling families. My kids were able to see that there are many other kids who learn at home. They had kids to relate to.

Before Homeschooling and How We Got Started

Share your personal history…before you were a home educator. What was life like? Think about things you miss and things you and your family have gained.

Before I married my husband, he told me that he wanted to homeschool our future kids. Well, I didn't. In 1990, I thought that homeschoolers were weird and I didn't fit into their category. Having children was the last thing on my mind. I married him anyhow and knew that I would be able to easily change his mind on this homeschooling thing. Shortly after getting married, the baby bug hit me. All I wanted to do was have a baby, and to be a stay-at-home mom.

When my first child was 4, I gave him preschool workbooks and he did educational programs on the computer - including basic reading software. At the time, I didn't consider this homeschooling, because he was only 4. When it was time to register for Kindergarten, I realized that we had in fact been homeschooling. I figured that he already knew the things that were going to be taught in Kindergarten. So, we homeschooled. It worked out so well for our family that we have done it ever since - for 10 years now.

If I had known that I would dedicate this many years (and 12 more) to homeschooling, I don't think that I would have started. I always wanted to do 2 more years of college and then do something for myself. Living on just one income has been a struggle, but we are getting used to it. We have learned how to live frugally and we rely on God's provision. However, now that we're into homeschooling, I wouldn't have it any other way.

The benefits to our family are numerous. I feel very close to my children and they talk openly with me. The children are able to learn at their own pace. We get to travel with my husband when he has business trips. Learning has become a way of life for our whole family. I'm able to take advantage of teachable moments throughout the day. I hope my children realize how important they are to me - important enough to dedicate 22 years of my life to homeschooling.

My Favorite Homeschool Moment

My favorite homeschool moment is when I see my children enjoying what they are learning.

For example: My son read the first book in The Series of Unfortunate Events. He enjoyed the writing so much that he continued reading the series over the next 2 months, until he finished all 13 books. That inspired him to do more writing. Some days, he will sit at the computer for 2 - 4 hours writing fictional stories. He also has an interest in computers. Homeschooling allows him the extra time so that he can learn how to use Flash and do game programming. He has found his interests and he is pursuing them. This is so exciting for me to watch. I'm afraid that if he went to a school that his passion for these interests would be stifled. The school would tell him what books to read and what things to write about. School also limits the time of each project. When my son gets inspired to write, he doesn't want to be stopped a 1/2 hour later because it's time to move on to Math. I'm glad that homeschooling allows for us to be flexible so that he can spend more time learning things that he is interested in.

What Doesn't Work for Me

The theme for this week's Works for Me Wednesday Meme is What Doesn't Work for Me.

Being relaxed to the point where I don't schedule daily things - doesn't work for me. I try to be flexible due to my husband's work schedule, but we have become too flexible. This year, I've had to set:

• a bedtime
• a pick up clutter time and chore time
  
• a listen to Adventures in Odyssey time
• a read aloud time
• an individual help with school work time.

Things are going much better over here now that my kids know what to expect and when. I'm still thinking about whether I'm going to schedule a lunch and dinner time.

For homeschooling, using typical school text books with my kids - doesn't work for me. I'm not trying to bad mouth text books, it's just that I can't keep my kids interested in them. Plus, they don't seem to retain the information. This is what my grade school kids used this year:

• LA and Map Skills: Scholastic Success Workbook 400 pg. (I found these at Costco for $7 each)
• Science: watched Scientific TV Shows, did science experiments found on the Internet, did Real Life Science Activities
• History: historical fiction read alouds and educational TV shows
• Geography: educational TV shows and Weekly Geography Lesson
  
• Bible: Church and Adventures in Odyssey radio show

My Other Works for Me Wednesday Ideas:

• Learning Experiences at Church
  
• Kids Make Their Own Birthday Cakes
  
• 10 Steps to Multiplication Memorization
• Save Time When Cooking Hamburger
  

Homeschooler Habits and Learning Through Involvement

Heart of the Matter Meme

Somehow I thought that the meme topic for today was about a Chinese proverb. Since I already wrote about that topic, I am just going to include both in this post.

Happy Habits of a Homeschooler

Even though we have flexible days for the most part, there are a few daily habits that we have developed.

• My kids do much of their work independently and then I tutor each one for 1/2 - 1 hour. It works best if I schedule this time with each one or else they all want to go first.

• At 8 pm we listen to Adventures in Odyssey for our Bible lesson. At 8:30 I read aloud, usually from a historical fiction book. This is what we do right before the kids go to bed.
  

• The kids take 1 hour computer turns. I set the oven buzzer for 55 min. to give them a 5 minute warning, too.

• Before they go outside to play with friends, their workbook lessons have to be done. Also, we have a 5 minute pick up time where everyone cleans up clutter, blankets, toys and straightens shoes. It's amazing how quickly things get put away when they want to go outside.

• If we are curious about something, have unanswered questions, or want to learn how to do something - we look it up on the Internet.
  

• Since we haven't done much science yet this year, I'm doing a thing right now where we all watch 1 hour of a science type show on TV every weekday.

Heart of the Matter Meme

Learning Through Involvement

My thoughts on the Quote:

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.” ~Chinese Proverb

I didn't realize that this was an old Chinese proverb. There is quite a bit of wisdom in this quote. This proverb explains the the way that I learn. When I actually get involved in doing something I learn from it.

My husband and I try to give our children hand's on, get involved learning experiences. We have found them to be the easiest ways for the kids to learn and remember. Here are some learning projects that we have done as a family:

• Raised sheep
• Raised chickens
• Raised sheep dogs
• Did beekeeping
• Planted and grew Christmas trees
• Planted a garden
• Played educational games
  
• Science experiments
• Went to hands on museums
• Built bird houses
  
• Started a backyard nursery and learned how to propagate plants
• Went on field trips
  
• Traveled
  
• Volunteered
• Made websites and blogs
  

Some future projects that I'd like the family to do are:

• Make a solar project
• Go on a mission trip
• Build a play area
• Visit living history museums
  

Join in every Monday for the Homeschool Highlight Meme.
Write a post about a highlight from your past week of home learning. Here are some ideas: an accomplishment, an event or outing, a fun learning experience, a new educational product your family is enjoying, an unexpected teachable moment.
The Homeschool Hi-Lights Meme will be available with a Mr. Linky at 11:00 pm (eastern time) on Sunday night.

Homeschool Burnout

It's that time of year, when many homeschool families start to burn out. Spring fever is in the air and homeschool frustration sets in. Don't give up on homeschooling. You have options.

At the end of the year, some families switch from a structured homeschool method to Unschooling or an Eclectic Method. It is perfectly fine to switch your method or curriculum during the year, if you want to. You can even switch back next Fall.

Hear are some ideas that will hopefully keep you from Homeschool Burnout.

• Go on Vacation - I've written posts about what our family has learned on our trips to New York City and Oregon. You can adapt some of the ideas for your own trip.

• Play Games - You can get games for each basis subject: Math, Language Arts, Science, History, and Geography.

• Get More Involved in Church - Church is a great place to learn. I made a list of Learning Experiences that my kids have had at church.

• Participate in Real Life Learning - Every day there are real life experiences and events that our children can learn from. Here are many Real Life Learning Ideas to get you going.

• Choose Your Own - You can make lists of learning ideas for each of the basic subjects and let your kids choose what they want to do each day. I have made a Choose Your Own Science List. I hope to make lists for the other basic subjects, too.
  

How I Got Started Homeschooling

Heart of the Matter Meme

Before I married my husband, he told me that he wanted to homeschool our future kids. Well, I didn't. In 1990, I thought that homeschoolers were weird and I didn't fit into their category. Having children was the last thing on my mind. I married him anyhow and knew that I would be able to easily change his mind on this homeschooling thing. Shortly after getting married, the baby bug hit me. All I wanted to do was have a baby, and to be a stay-at-home mom.

When my first child was 4, I gave him preschool workbooks and he did educational programs on the computer - including basic reading software. At the time, I didn't consider this homeschooling, because he was only 4. When it was time to register for Kindergarten, I realized that we had in fact been homeschooling. I figured that he already knew the things that were going to be taught in Kindergarten. So, we homeschooled. It worked out so well for our family that we have done it ever since - for 10 years now and with all 5 children.

Looking Forward in Our Homeschooling

Home Education Week at Principled Discovery

What are your goals for home education? What do you hope to instill in your children? Are you planning any changes to how you educate your children?

My Goals for My Children:

• Become self motivated to do schoolwork.
  
• Work independently on studies by high school.
• Consider taking dual enrollment college courses in high school.
• Explore their interests,
  
• Go to college.
• Volunteer or go on a summer mission trip.
  

I Hope to Instill in Them:

• a love for learning
  
• the desire o follow God's will for their lives
• a desire to better themselves
• a confidence to take on challenges
• a desire to serve, help, and make a difference with their future profession
  

My Changes in Homeschooling:

• Do more Unit Studies and fun learning activities.
  
• Help my children learn more about their unique interests.
  
• Be consistent about reading aloud.
• Pray more about homeschooling.
  
• Listen to Adventures in Odyssey with my girls M-F.
• Buy an easy to use curriculum for high school, like Alpha Omega.
  

In Their Own Words - My Children's Likes and Dislikes of Being Homeschooled

Home Education Week at Principled Discovery

Share your children’s home education experience in their own words. What have they said about their education? What are their likes and dislikes? Share some stories, some quotes, or turn your blog over to your children for the day.

I asked each of my children what they like and dislike about being homeschooled. Please keep in mind that all of my children have been homeschooled from the very beginning. They have never been to a real school. Their only idea of what school is really like comes from watching TV shows like Hannah Montana or from what the kids at church say about it.

14-year-old son:
Likes:

• I can go at my own pace and do extra school work to get ahead.
• I don't have to spend 8 hours with a ton of other kids. Since I'm an introvert, I can only handle so much time around other people.
• I get to stay up late to continue working on a project.
• I have more time at home to do my writing and computer projects.

Dislikes:

• I am not being able to be in band and learn how to play an instrument.
• I don't have daily access to a school library.

13-year-old daughter:
Likes:

• I don't have to waste time riding the bus.
• I can get my school work done quickly so I can get outside to play.
• I get to work at my own pace so I will be able to get done early with high school.
• I don't have to deal with bullies.

Dislikes:

• I don't get lots of new clothes like the school kids do.
• I don't have any school friends.
• I don't get to join in on conversations about school when my church friends talk about school.
• I don't get to do school sports.
• I don't have school friends that I can go hang out with at the mall.
  

11-year-old daughter:
Dislikes:

• I hate everything about being homeschooled and I'm not going to force my kids to be homeschooled.
  

8-year-old daughter:
Likes:

• I get to be with my family all day.
• I get to do lots of art projects at home with paper and glue.
  
• I don't have to do science class with chemicals and little bubbles.
• I don't have to deal with bullies bossing me around and beating me up.
• I don't have to be around the mean teachers who give hard tests.
• I don't have to be around the mean kids at school.

Dislikes:

• I don't get to meet new friends - talk and hang out with them all day.
• I don't get to eat in a school cafeteria.

6-year-old daughter:
Likes:

• I don't have to be around the mean kids at school.
• I get to eat and play whenever I want to.

Show and Tell - Computer Skills

Home Education Week at Principled Discovery

Show off those talents. Share a story, a special moment, a piece of artwork. Any accomplishment, great or small, is fair game.

Because he is homeschooled, my 14-year-old son, has the opportunity to spend more time learning about his interest in computers.

He has learned about:

• basic HTML
• Adobe Flash game development
• making an interactive Flash map of a shopping mall
• computer graphics using Adobe Flash, Adobe Fireworks, MS Paint, and Swift 3D
• helping me with my blogging and website problems
• teaching his younger sisters how to use the computer

In the future, he will probably do a highschool computer internship or computer related part-time job. I'd like to help him find ways that he can use his computer skills in Christian ministry projects. All of his hands-on training will prepare him if he studies Computer Engineering in college.

Recipe for Success - Relax the Schedule

Home Education Week at Principled Discovery

It is also National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day! So share a recipe…figuratively, as in two parts love, one part creativity, or literally, as in a super quick, nutritious meal your kids scarf up. Think about what you do in the day, what helps keep it organized and you sane (or how you got past that need for organization and saneness!), and curriculum materials you find effective.

My first few years of homeschooling were very structured and scheduled out. When everything on my schedule didn't get done I got very frustrated. There were days that we just couldn't homeschool, yet I had that day planned into the schedule. Over the years, I have relaxed in our daily scheduling. It has been the best thing for me and the kids appreciate a more pleasant mother.

This is my recipe for success: Make a Relaxed Schedule

We have a general daily schedule, but it doesn't include exact page numbers. There are occasional days that we can not get to everything on the list. I also have planned that there will be unexpected days that we won't be doing our typical learning at all.

Here is a sample of a typical day's relaxed schedule for my 10-year-old:

Do 4 pages in Language Arts workbook.
Do 1 page in Math workbook.
Practice Spelling words.
Listen to Mom read from the historical fiction book.
Choose your own science activity.
Read to Mom for 20 minutes.
Listen to Adventures in Odyssey

I also encourage the children to learn on their own - delight driven learning or unschooling. They play educational games, do art projects, cook, watch educational TV or DVDs, go on field trips, learn through church activities, learn things on the Internet, participate in volunteering, travel, read magazines, write in a journal, and explore.

April Fool's - My Most Foolish and Challenging Times

Home Education Week at Principled Discovery

And we have likely all felt the fool in one way or another. Share your greatest challenge. Or one of those terrible, horrible no good, very bad days where the only thing there is to do seems to involve moving to Australia.


One of the foolish things I have done, during our homeschooling, is when I forced a daughter to learn from textbooks. Even though she was reading the words out loud to me, it was evident that she wasn't comprehending any of it. The textbooks bored her to death. I continued using them, because I had paid for them. Since then, I've tried to find learning materials that really interest my children. I'm trying to make education enjoyable for them.

My greatest challenge was in teaching reading. Some of my kids learned easily and for others it was a struggle. I pushed one of my daughters to read, when I shouldn't have. Another daughter was really frustrated with reading, so we took it slower. What works well with her is - she reads one sentence and I read another. I've had to tell myself that the children don't have to read by a certain age. My 5 children have read between the ages of 4 and 9. It matters more to me that they don't hate reading due to frustration.

Profiling Home Educators

Home Education Week at Principled Discovery

Here is the question:
What is it like to be home educated in your family? What is “normal” for you?

Here is my answer:
Normal seems to change each year. So, I'll write about normal according to this year. I've tried over and over to label our way of homeschooling. I use whatever seems to work best with each child. I don't really know what you call it - maybe Eclectic.

My oldest, 14 and a high school freshman, loves to learn. He is self motivated, teaches himself, and he can spend hours a day on his latest topic of interest. I let him do a lot of delight-driven learning and unschooling. However, he is following a schedule for Math, because he knows that he will need to be well prepared in Math for his college major choice. For Language Arts, he wanted to learn Creative Writing. So, I got him the Idiot's Guide to Creative Writing. Sometimes, he spends hours a day writing fiction at his computer. He also choose his own electives, this year - cooking, Bible and Christian growth, logic and thinking skills, and computer science.

Two of my daughters, 13 and 11, do not have a natural desire to learn academically. They are both very active and could spend the whole day playing. So, I have homeschooling much more structured for them. They have daily workbook pages in Language Arts subjects and Math. For History, I usually read historical fiction books aloud to the family. For science we are unschooling, this year, and making the most of science activities, field trips, books, TV shows, etc. I also require that they read five days a week, alone or to me.

My youngest two daughters are 8 and 6. They each have Language Arts and Math workbooks and they read aloud to me. I don't assign work to them, because they are so anxious to do it on their own. They learn a lot through unschooling experiences and from their older siblings.

During the summer, we learn through unschooling. We have decided that learning is a way of life for us. It doesn't stop on the weekends, during the summer, or at a certain age.

My Thoughts on Sheltering

Heart of the Matter Meme

My thoughts on the quote:
"Clearly there is an appropriate kind of sheltering. When those who are opposed to homeschooling accuse me of sheltering my children, my reply is always, 'What are you going to accuse me of next, feeding and clothing them?" ~R.C. Sproul Jr

I choose to expose my children to the real world. When we are in a store, I encourage them to talk to adults. At church, I encourage them to ask the pastors questions. My kids even start conversations with adults when we are on vacations. I remember when we were walking around a civil war battlefield in Gettysburg, my kids met an artist. He was sketching the battlefield and told the kids so much history about the battle that took place there.

My kids are exposed to real people at church. They have relationships with adults and children of all ages. They are also exposed to real people when we go to homeschooling events. We visit with real families when they invite us to their homes. We interact with our real neighbors. We listen to the radio, watch some TV shows, and go to some sites on the Internet. I tell my children about the sad realities of the world. There are many times when I explain the unfortunate situations that some people live in and tell my kids how we can help them or pray for them. When my kids are old enough, I'll expose them to a real job and a real college.

I choose to shelter my kids from things that I don't consider part of the real world. I went to school as a child and I volunteered in a grade school a few years ago. The school setting is one of the things that I don't want to expose my children to. School children are forced to sit for long amounts of time. They are forced to learn and relearn facts that they cannot relate to. The children are forced to remain quiet and inactive. All children are expected to learn at the same pace or they will be forced to repeat the school year. I chose to shelter my kids from the adult educators that want to daily influence my children. I'm the mom; I want to influence my children with things that I feel are important.

I also choose to shelter my children from the kids who are not a good influence. A lot of emotional damage can be done by another child who is being raised incorrectly. When my children are older, they will have learned the skills to be able to deal with people who are mean and hurtful. For now, I am going to protect my child emotionally through sheltering.

Sheltering is a necessary part of parenting. I believe that we can raise our children in the real world and honor God by sheltering them appropriately.