Our homeschool

So we have finished 7 days of homeschooling, and our first complete week, and I have to say that I love it.

(I'm giving up on my blog turning out right at the moment, my words never end up being next to the right picture, it all gets put in weird places when I publish it, so if the words & pictures don't line up right, oh well...)


The first day the boys named their schools. Bourbon is in 7th grade this year and has named his school the Little Middle School of Hard Knocks.




And Roman is in the 5th grade and has named his school Mama's School for Gifted Youngsters (after x-men and Xavier's school of gifted youngsters). :)








Luckily I have tons of supplies since I have been collecting teaching materials for years. I also was lucky enough in student teaching to be given tons of old boxes of teaching supplies that old teachers had left in the storage room at the school. Which included a box of science supplies, so I have a whole science lab basically, which is awesome.




The library and internet are also wonderful resources for us, we have been getting a ton of stuff from them.


























The first couple of days was just organization, rules, what homeschool was going to be all about, and going over what the boys were interested in learning this year.























Then our first whole week started on monday. I had printed up worksheets and put them in thier folders for each day of the week. Each morning the boys were to be at the table by 8am, looking in their agenda and starting on their work for the day. I had printed up language arts & math worksheets, skills they should have already learned last year. Each day they got a new skill in each of these subjects, a review and a way to make sure they have learned the concept so I knew where to start in these areas with them. Then in science they just reviewed some basic science vocaulary and read about the scientific method. In social studies they learned about some of the presidents. And they each had a spelling word list that they did stuff with each day and took a test on them on friday. They each are reading a chapter book for reading, Bourbon finished Tom Sawywer and answered questions about the book. That was all stuff they did pretty much on their own.







I would take Starla to school at 8:45 and then come back home and we would all be sitting at the table together by 9am. From 9-11:30 we would all 3 be working together. During this time we opened in prayer, then we worked on all or a combination of these things each day; bible study, learning scripture, a family devotion book, "Thinking Like A Christian" workbook, character development, family rules, manners, and art. I also started reading them the book "Do Hard Things" which was written by 2 twin brothers who are encouraging young people to live up to their potential and realize they can do so much more than society leads them to believe. It is amazing so far.





This week's character builder was empathy. We had a list of famous people that have been empathetic and they got to choose from this list and go check out books at the library about this person. Roman picked Princess Diana and Bouron picked out Ghandi. They read their books and then we discussed how each of those people showed empathy, and then how the boys can show empathy in life.



Then at 11:30 I would go get Starla and the boys would work on their own until lunch. Sometimes the boys helped make lunch on made it on their own.

After lunch sometimes we went to the park for a bit for recess, sometimes we went to the library, sometimes they just went outside for a bit. Then after whatever activity we did, they would continue to do thier work until they were done with it, and then they would do chores.








Bourbon asked "So um, when are you going to teach us math and science and stuff?" lol. I told him this first week was all reveiw on thier own with the worksheets, so I could find out where they were in their skills and would know what to start with. So instead of "academic" things, we were focusing on character and biblical things.










But the fun part of homeschool, is that we can find what works for us. This week we are going to try focusing on one subject a day. We will also do our other studies, but each day they will learn a core subject as well. They might also have review sheets and other work in different subjects that they can do on their own, but the time we spend together would be learning new skills in one subject a day. We will try this for a week and see if it works, and if not, we will do something else. I love the flexibility of homeschool.

On art day I was able to finally make the family rule board I had been wanting to make. Our rules are: Serve God & Others, Show kindness, Do your best, People matter more than things, encourage your siblings, clean up after yourself, dream big, work hard. Play fair, and be thankful. After I made it each day we talked about what those meant, and how they could specifically do each one of those on that particular day.







This week the boys started all new chores too. They rotate each day, and I now don't have to do dishes or put them away any longer. Which has been really nice! They also sweep & mop the kitchen floor, sweep & vaccum the livingroom & dining room, and dust in addition to the chores they had already been doing for some time. Which means they also got a pay raise in allowance, so they are excited about that.

We made their own savings registry (almost like a check registry) this week, since their allowance goes directly into their savings account each week, and I get tired of them asking how much money they have all the time, they now get to keep track of it on their own.













I think it's takent he boys a few days to adjust to this different paced type of school environment. I don't think they have ever had to answer so many questions and be a part of such long discussions about things. It was like pulling teeth the first couple of days to get them to engage in conversations, and to discuss topics. But now they are chatterbugs and are getting better at answering questions that might not have a "right" answer.







They have actually started to get along more too, maybe it's because they have to spend so mouch of the day together, or maybe it's because they don't have friends to socially interact with on a daily basis at school anymore, and now they have to rely on one another. Whatever the case, their agruements and squabbling has died down considerable, and their playing together has increased. Bourbon, who has been "too cool" to engage in much imaginative play these days, now straps on a backpack witht he other two, full of stuffed animals and they play pokemon. They are all trainers with backpacks full of pokemon and they battle them and have a good ol' time. TV and Video games have been very limited during the week, and they have been playing alot more. It's been really nice.





Starting in September they will all get new activities; Roman & Starla are going to join a theater class, Bourbon will begin volunteering at the Oklahoma Science Museum, and I have a friend who is a licensed music & art teacher who will give all 3 of them piano lessons once a week. She might do some art classes with them here and there as well.

I have sooo many ideas of different projects that I want us to do, that my problem is knowing where to start!! And breaking it all down into manageable projects.

So this week I know where to start with them both individually in Math and we will be using the Kahn Academy online, which has video lessons. In social studies we are going to take this week to finish learning the order of the presidents and some of the most important ones and what they accomplished. Next week we will start a 2 week unit on learning the states and capitals before we move on and start learning about the history of the U.S. including colonial life. My friend Lori who graduated with me, but isn't teaching yet either, has offered to prepare some lessons and teach the boys during the school year. She is going to work on the colonial stuff, because she did some of that in her student teaching and she has a colonial outfit and everything to do it in. :) Although they both have certain themes they must learn this year in their grade level according to the Oklahoma standards, I plan on pretty much doing it together for them all year, and they will both learn it. Like this year as a 5th grader, Roman is required to learn about the colonial period and the industry revolution and such, but it won't hurt Bourbon to review that as well. And as a 7th grader Bourbon is required to learn about Greek & Roman history (which Roman has always been fascinated with) as well as some other world history. So we will just do it together. Same with science.

In Science this week we are going to start an ongoing Bird unit. We are going to build bird houses and bird feeders, and we have a field guide for oklahoma birds, and we are going to start taking pictures of all the birds we see and create our own field guide. This is where Martin Nature Park will come in handy. :) We will also be starting a 2 week rock unit this week, learning about the different kinds of rocks.

In Language arts they will each get new skill sheets to work on, and then we will also be learning together how to do a research report, which we will do in conjunction with other subjects, like the presidents or the rocks.

In Reading they each have a grade level list of books they can choose to read from, and when they are done with a book they have to pick one activity from a list of activities to complete; answering questions, giving an oral book report, doing a character review, putting on a part of the book being a character, making a poster, making a newsletter based on the book, etc. They have to read for 30 mins each day, but can choose to read more. For every 5 books they get done, I told them I would take them to Barnes & Noble and let them buy a new book.

They will have grade level spelling and vocabulary words to do each week.

And an art project. And they both want to learn how to cook and sew. They want to make their own little plush pokemon characters. :)

And on top of that Bourbon wants to learn more about computer engineering, he hopes to one day learn how to makie video games. So I have some resources for him on that, and my brother is in college for that right now, so hopefully I can get him to teach a lesson or two as well.

So you can see we have lots to do! And we are having a lot of fun with this adventure so far.