Is homeschooling easy?

I want to spend time with my kids.  I want to show them who they are and what they can be.  I want to help train them in the way that they should go.  I ultimately want them to serve God and hold themselves to high standards.  Is it always easy?  No, no, and no.  There are days that I'm tired and cranky.  I do yell at the kids.  I'm a real person.  I want my kids to know that I'm not perfect, but that I'm trying.  I want them to learn how to deal with difficulties in life with me.  I want them to be around others who are committed to them for years not just a semester or school year.  We can focus on our family relationships.  My kids aren't perfect, in fact, most of the bad habits they have learned they probably learned from me or my husband.  We will all face sin, but I want to face sin with my girls and not find out about it later on.

There are days that I want to give up.  Wouldn't it just be easier to send them to public school?  Sure, but what would we lose?  Raising our children well is holy and something that God wants all of us to do.  He has entrusted these precious gifts to us.  I want to encourage others to do this as well.  We can't let modern educational standards rob us or our children of the ability to hide God's word in our hearts.  There are things that I want them to learn from me in truth, not the way some government official decided it should be taught.

Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6

Why we homeschool and why we chose Classical Conversations

"The answer to our education crisis is for parents to recover their role as parents before the Lord, according to His Word alone.  The biblical answer is to be found in parents assuming the responsibility which God has given to them, and only to them, for the education and upbringing of their children." - Douglas Wilson

I thought that this was an interesting quote and explains one of the reasons we homeschool.  I'm not very good at explaining why we are homeschooling.  It can't be summed up in just a few sentences.  There are so many reasons why we chose this path for our family.  A parent who spends years studying with a child to show themselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) is far more effective than a stranger with a textbook for a semester.  

I wanted to explain a little bit more about the Foundations program and Classical Conversations.  I've been doing some research so that I can explain it a little better.  I'm still learning about it as well and will probably continue to learn more as the years go by.  CC parents believe that the Lord is redeeming the education of 2 generations - the parents and their children.  I can attest to the fact that I learned so much during our first year of CC.  Our educational endeavors are for the kingdom of God and have results that are not yet revealed. 

It is classical because it emphasizes rote memorization of facts in the early learning years.  "Training the brain to retain".  The classical format is a more biblical model because you can't truly teach science without teaching philosophy, math, logic, and history because God created all things for His glory.  Each piece of creation works toward His purposes.  The story of His word, His world, and His people cannot be taught separately if we are to know His whole story.  We need to have a goal of being able to understand anything that God would reveal to us and use that knowledge within our talents.  Foundations is a 3 year memorization program.  The kids (and parents) memorize history timelines and sentences, math and science facts, geography, Latin, and English grammar.  This is a basic framework of facts that all 12 year olds should know so that they are capable of studying advanced topics.  They learn it during the early years to establish the basic knowledge or vocabulary of a subject.  

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. (Proverbs 24:3-4)  To learn something new you must memorize the vocabulary and basic rules and patterns associated with a subject (grammar/knowledge), process the new information so that you understand it (dialectic/understanding), and then do something with it to demonstrate mastery (rhetoric/wisdom).  Young children are designed to memorize huge amounts of new information.  Middle school age children have the ability to ask why and argue, which demonstrates that they are ready to think more abstractly.  Older children are more interested in knowing what they are going to do with all of this knowledge and information that they have acquired.  They also memorize complete sections of the Bible:  Ten Commandments (Cycle 1), Ephesians 6 (Cycle 2), and part of John 1 (Cycle 3).


CC looks back to the one-room schoolhouse approach of early America, by offering one tutor classes and seminars that emphasize teaching the tools of learning and the interrelationship of subjects.  It is attempting to recapture the idea that a teacher who knows how to learn can teach a student the tools with which to learn any subject.  There are 3 reasons that CC is set up this way.  1.  Homeschool parents have to teach more than one subject to more than one age group at a time.  CC shows us that we can study and teach multiple subjects to multiple ages and abilities at one time.  2.  A strength of homeschooling from a biblical worldview is the integration of subjects.  3.  We constantly strive to show students that all subjects are important because they reveal God's glory.  The goal is to prepare leaders who understand the interrelationships between ideas and actions, language patterns and math patterns, and science and theology.  CC offers weekly student programs, books, Parent Practicums and student camps, record keeping, annual standardized testing, and other educational services.



This diagram was used in the Parent Practicums and I thought it was a great illustration.

What is Classical Conversations?

Many people ask me what curriculum I use for homeschooling or whether or not we belong to a co-op.  Then I get asked what is Classical Conversations?  Classical Conversations (CC) is based on the classical model of learning which is divided into 3 stages:  grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.  It uses the framework of a biblical worldview with the goal of knowing God and making Him known.  Proverbs 24:3-4 "By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; 4 And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches."

The grammar stage is mostly memorizing facts.  This is the Foundations program (K4 through 6th grades).  The kids load facts from a variety of subjects (history, geography, english, latin, math, and science).  They also practice public speaking, do a science project, and complete an art or music project each week.  Starting at the age of 4 (or whatever age they start) the kids prepare a weekly presentation to give to their class.  The tutors provide feedback about eye-contact, voice volume, and visual aids.  This is to prepare them for the high school years of rhetorical speech and debate.

The dialectic stage is discovering how the facts relate.  This is the Essentials program (4th through 6th grades).  They meet in the afternoons after Foundations is finished.  The kids develop the mental skills to sort and classify facts and learn the tools necessary to become effective writers.  Next comes Challenge A & B (7th and 8th grades).  The kids become more independent and begin to learn logic and debate.

The rhetoric stage is applying the facts.  This is the Challenge I, II, III, & IV programs (9th through 12th grades).  The kids draw upon all of the grammar and dialectic skills that they have learned as they discuss and lead discussions.  In these classes they can fully express themselves in creative, meaningful, and practical applications of subjects.  They will also participate in mock trials to help develop their debate skills.

This is just a short description of CC.  I'll be posting more about it in the future.

Interest Led Learning

I've always liked the idea of unschooling or interest led learning, but I'm terrified of not having the structure.  We love Classical Conversations and as posted earlier have ideas for using math and reading in our daily schedule.  When it comes to the other stuff I try to utilize the unschooling approach.  When we first decided to homeschool I read lots of articles on the different ways to homeschool.  There are lots of terms thrown out at you.  I thought this article was helpful in deciphering some of them:  http://www.parents.com/kids/education/home-schooling/homeschooling-methods/

So, how do I use interest led learning?  My girls are both very curious about how things work.  Whenever they hear us talking about things they usually want to know about it too.  They love being outside (except when its really hot).  We love to garden and include them in the process.  They help pick out our plants, plant the seeds, water the garden, and pick the vegetables/fruit.  They have learned about butterflies and chickens just from playing in our back yard.

We have a butterfly garden in our back yard.  This has been an amazing learning experience for our girls.  They love watching the butterflies.  They have a book to help them identify the different types.  We have picked specific plants to attract certain butterflies.  We have milkweed to attract monarch butterflies.  The girls have watched videos and read books about them and they are definitely their favorite.  Little Einsteins and Wild Kratts both have episodes about monarchs, Disney Nature has a movie called Wings of Life that is available on Netflix.  SM received a butterfly habitat from Insect Lore.  We ordered the Painted Lady caterpillars and watched the transformation.  We have used the habitat 3 times since March.  The last time we did things a little different - we watched a monarch butterfly lay an egg on a milkweed plant that happened to be growing in a pot.  We put the whole pot in the habitat and watched the process from the egg hatching to the monarch butterfly.  Its a great learning experience and they don't even realize they are learning.

We also have chickens.  We have 4 hens that are laying and we have 3 pullets that should be laying within the month.  We bought all of them as chicks.  The girls learned to care for them and help collect eggs.  The girls go out and play with them daily.

Bible

At the beginning of the year we read the Bible stories that correlate with the Classical Conversations timeline.  This lasts slightly into the 2nd quarter.  CC also has Bible memory work for the year.  I have SM write a verse a week in her CC notebook.  That helps her memorize the verse and incorporates writing into her school day.

I have also found a website that offered a free daily Bible lesson and journaling activity:  http://peregrina1.wordpress.com/daily-bible-studies/ages-6/ .  It covers the whole Bible in a year.  There are other age ranges available on her site as well.  We've been doing it every school day - so it will take longer than a year (especially since I'll stop during the first quarter of CC).

I also try to review the memory verse that the girls learn at church on Sunday or Wednesday.

Math

Last year we went to a School Aids and purchased a 1st grade math workbook for SM.  I chose 3 that I liked and then let her pick the one that she wanted (I was thinking she might cooperate more if she was the one that picked it).  It turned out that SM absolutely loves math and was done with it by Christmas.  We tried to complete about 30 minutes of math a day - some days that equaled 5 pages others just 1.  I also found lapbooks on time and also money when we came to those areas in the work book.  I decided to go with a 1st grade book because she already knew most of the concepts covered in the Kindergarten books minus time and money (which weren't covered in the books that I looked at).

When we started back after the Christmas break I wasn't sure what to do.  I had read an article about Khan Academy in a Costco magazine and had seen it mentioned by Ron Paul's homeschool website ( https://www.khanacademy.org/about ).  It's a free online program and it tracks progress and sends me weekly reports.  There are badges that SM can earn.  This covers math from basic through college.  We love it.  There are videos and practice problems.  SM has already mastered 36% of the early math mission (which goes through 2nd grade).  There are also other subjects available.  We actually watch some of the other videos on YouTube when they are available for subjects that we are covering in Classical Conversations (CC).

In the fall we will do another math workbook and work on Khan Academy on the side.

What is SM Reading Now?

We followed the recommendations at the end of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  There is a series of books by Margaret Hillert.  SM loves the Dear Dragon series.  The repetitive nature of the book helps build her confidence and she enjoys each of them.  There are other book series available:  Easy Stories, Fairy Tales and Folklore, and Let's Play.  Most of the books are about 28 pages.  At the end there is a reading reinforcement section that covers phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and a word list.  I highly recommend finding these books at the library.  SM now likes to read a book at bedtime as well as during the day.  I had an awesome Mommy moment the other night:  she told me "Mommy, you were right, reading is fun!"  Isn't that what this is all about?