We have definitely found a rhythm to our homeschool life, and I am much more relaxed and lenient about it than I thought it would be. At the beginning of the school year, I had actually composed a daily schedule broken down into half hour increments from when we woke up, to when we did school, what time we ate, etc. It was impossible to keep. And I have found that I enjoy "real life" much more than any rigidly crafted structure.
I do have a loose structure. At the beginning of the year, I organized all of the Abeka worksheets (for William), and I scheduled them all out in a planner, also setting out our days off. That gives me a base, and from there, I just plan one week at a time. Over the weekend at some point, I sit down with all my planning things. I look over the Abeka material, add from any extra relevant material I may have (mostly BOB books and a simple math activity book), and make note of which activities I can involve Joy in. I also have a separate column for Joy where I plan out activities for her letter of the week. It usually takes me less than an hour to transform my skeleton lessons into full plans for the week.
"School" usually happens in the morning. After I've slept in as late as possible, and lingered over my coffee, I gather every one together. We have our circle time, and then work on various worksheets. William has a lot of independent work. Joy mostly works with me, then she just goes off to play while I work with William. Elijah likes to be in the room and usually in the way. Sometimes Omar takes him out, and sometimes he gets an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, but I hate to use the TV too much. I also make little grab bags that I fill with miscellaneous items to entertain him. He loves pulling stuff out. It works so well, I keep one in the diaper bag, too, to use whenever we're stuck waiting somewhere.
I've learned to be very flexible with that hour of formal work. William loves to watch Omar doing his woodwork and projects. When I went looking for William to start school one morning, I found him in the garage watching Omar build something. I decided to leave him there. I spent extra time working with Joy that day, and just caught William up with a few worksheets when he came in that evening. I'm not very good yet at pulling the lessons out of every situation, but I am trying to realize the learning potential in every simple activity. How many lessons of hard work and dedication and even practical skills will William learn in the garage with his dad? Or he can practice simple reading and math skills reading a recipe with me to make dinner. Joy in the same situation would be learning to follow directions and sequential steps. I think this is the beauty of homeschooling: realizing that learning goes far beyond the classroom.
Most of our lessons are pretty tame. We use a lot of worksheets and flash cards. We read tons of books. The kids really enjoy our weekly library trips; we always go on Wednesday mornings for Storytime. I've always got an eye out for educational apps for the iPad that the kids might enjoy. Joy and I use the iPad at least once a week to do google image searches for things that start with our letter of the week. We also have language skills, math, reading, and spelling apps, as well as some interactive story books that the kids love.
Every now and then I come up with a "big idea" to break the monotony. We all really enjoyed learning about the how the mail works. We took a family walk to the mailboxes; William read street names and house numbers, and we learned how addresses work, and we mailed postcards to grandparents. We've started science journals like Sid the Science Kid. So far, we've just observed gravity by dropping balls, and tomorrow we will see if different kinds of balls bounce the same. I think that science experiments will begin to happen more in the new year. We learn about healthy foods during meal times, and we even had a tea party when we talked about manners.
One of the best things about homeschooling is being able to bring the Bible into every subject. Omar will set a theme for the week that goes with our Bible story, and we emphasize it in every area of living. For the month of November, we have been talking about gratitude. We have a thankful tree, and our memory verse this week is Psalms 118:1. I do memory verses and catechism questions with William and Joy during circle time, but the real meat of their religious education comes from Daddy during family Bible time every evening. The theological discussions get pretty deep. It's amazing what these little sponges can soak up, and I am so grateful we have this chance to be so involved in building their characters and love for God.
And that's how it goes. If we decide we need a few things from the grocery store, it becomes a family trip in the morning, and formal lessons don't happen until the afternoon. If family is in town, we'll just skip the lessons completely and make them up later. I think doing school in the cracks of life means realizing that learning is happening all the time, and while worksheets and flash cards can be good and useful, they aren't the goal, so it's ok if they get pushed to the side sometimes. Especially when my kids are this young, they are learning more outside the schoolroom than in it, and my goal is to help them realize that, cherish it, and become lifelong learners.
