Yesterday we began our homeschool adventure. Well, that's not
completely true. For the past few years I've been slowly teaching the
girls as a way to pass the time. However, this will be our first year
with an actual curriculum. For those interested, I am using Sonlight.
Our day looked something like this:
6:30 am - I woke up and did my morning routine
6:45 am - Went downstairs, drank coffee and read my devotions and prayed fervently that we would have a good day.
7:00 am - All three girls were up and Anne was dressed, ready and excited for the day to begin.
7:15 am - Ate breakfast
7:45
am - Finished getting the other girls dressed, hair brushed, teeth
brushed. Anne made the bed and Abbey and Maggie picked up the toys off
their floor.
8:15 am - The girls watched a movie while I checked email, facebook and got a few last minute things ready for our day.
9:00 am - School started. We started with days of the week/calendar/letter of the week/handwriting.
9:15 am - Bible (read two pages from the Bible, asked them relevant questions, and went over their memory verse for the week).
Read-alouds - Today it was Chapter one of The Boxcar Children, and asked
questions. Also a poem about opposites. The kids each came up with
several opposites of their own.
9:30 am - History/geography - Read
about dinosaurs and asked questions (the girls had very little interest
in dinosaurs - I imagine if you had boys you would be spending much
more time on this than I did)
9:45 am - Recess (riding bikes, running, etc)
10:00 am - Math - Counting to 10, left and right, practice with writing #1.
10:15 am - Science - Earth rotating on it's axis, Earth revolving around the sun, seasons, etc.
We
were finished around 10:30. The kids went outside until lunch. I sat
and read a novel while they played outside until around 11:15.
11:15 - ate lunch
12:00 - went back outside and let the kids run around
1:00
- headed inside and got Maggie ready for nap. Anne read her a book as
an extension of her learning (reading with expression, etc.)
1:15 -
Maggie was in bed and I gave Anne and Abbey "homework" to do - practice
writing the letter of the week, narrating a letter to our Compassion
child and coloring pictures for our Compassion child. Anne was to find
Ghana (where our Compassion child lives) on the globe and Abbey worked
on reading words that end in "-at".
2:15 - Anne and Abbey went upstairs and I read to them from "Emily of New Moon" by L.M. Montgomery.
2:45
- Abbey was supposed to nap. I laid with her hoping she would quickly
fall asleep. Since she did not I told her to rest quietly while I did
what I needed to do. (Anne was reading silently during this time).
3:30 - I spent a few minutes painting and working on sign orders for Mama Hess Painting.
4:00
- Abbey and Anne came downstairs after not sleeping. They colored,
read, and played quietly while I worked on dinner. I made two pans of
poppyseed chicken (one for dinner and one for the freezer for when
December baby comes).
4:30 - I realized Maggie was still sleeping
and went to wake her up. Unfortunately she wet the bed so I had to
change her and her sheets.
4:45 - Everyone was back outside while I folded laundry, and did other small household chores.
5:25 - Kids came back in and set the table for dinner while I made rice and creamy spinach to go with our chicken.
5:40 - Trent got home from work and entertained the kids while I finished up dinner.
5:50 - Ate dinner.
6:25 - Finished dinner and sent the girls outside with Trent while I cleaned up, folded laundry and checked Facebook and email.
7:00
- The kids were exhausted, cranky, and dirty. They came in and Anne
showered while Maggie and Abbey got a bath. They brushed hair, and teeth
and laid in bed while Trent read to them from "James and the Giant
Peach."
7:45 - The kids had to be put in separate bedrooms because Maggie couldn't stop talking and they were all exhausted.
8:00
pm - All was quiet. I took a nice long shower and then read a novel for
awhile. Trent and I sat together while he looked at cars and facebook
and email and all those good things.
10:15 pm - Lights out for us too!!
Unfortunately
day #2 has not gone quite as well as Day #1, but I know it is a process
and things will continue to come together. I'm sure we'll have good
days and bad days, but that's just the way it is.
Hope you all have enjoyed learning about our adventure!!
What made you choose to homeschool and is it expensive or did Sonlight give you the items needed to teach?
ReplyDeleteHey Rebecca! We chose to homeschool for several reasons. 1. Anne already reads at a 5th grade level and I wanted to be sure that she would be challenged throughout the year. 2. We felt that Anne is especially easily influenced by her peers, and since she is advanced I saw that as an easy opportunity for her to get into trouble (speaking from my own personal experience). 3. We wanted them to have a Christ-centered education *which we could not afford to send them to a Christian school*. With homeschooling we have an amazing opportunity to teach them a Christian worldview within every subject, as well as specific Bible lessons.
DeleteSonlight provides everything that we need (with the exception of a few things like markers, crayons, and some paper). Sonlight also uses high-quality books that make learning very fun and interesting. They also include ALL teaching lessons which was a huge bonus for me, since I did not want to spend my time writing lesson plans! Sonlight tries very hard to use as few disposable resources as possible, making it easy to reuse year after year. I paid $750 for the full 5-day Kindergarten program.
Oops! I realized I spelled your name wrong. Doesn't that drive you crazy?? I can't stand when I do that!! Rebecka - not Rebecca. :)
DeleteSounds like a great adventure! I know Isabelle will be ready for school before we know it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stu! And yes, she will be. :)
DeleteThanks for sharing this, Emily! I'm interested in continuing to hear how this goes for you and what you think about it (pros and cons).
ReplyDeleteAs for sending your kids to a Christian school - it certainly isn't cheap. But if you all ever want to check out LMS, they do offer financial aid so maybe that could be an option down the road. But I don't think anyone can match $750 (and I assume you can use those materials for each child, so that makes homeschooling even more affordable than private school).
Hey Paul! I will definitely share more throughout the year. I just ordered Math books and a handwriting book for Abbey since it seems like she'll actually be doing Kindergarten this year with Anne. It was an additional $45 for those three books (two math, one handwriting). Pretty much everything else is reusable year after year - of course, I will need to purchase a new curriculum with each grade, but it is definitely much cheaper than Christian school.
DeleteNot bad at all! It sounds like you'll do a great job with them. I'm not sure how you get everything done with that schedule though! I'm sure things will get a little easier as they get older if you decide to continue homeschooling.
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