homeschool

I now have three weeks of official homeschooling under my belt, 

so I felt it was time to blog a bit about how that looks for us.

How we came to the decision to homeschool:

Many people have asked us why are choosing to homeschool.  I can't pinpoint one particular reason, but instead have a conglomerate of reasons that lead us to believe it was the best choice for Logan, Jack, and even Wyatt.

The main reason is that you just can't beat a two to one ratio for students vs. teacher.  Even here in Marshall, where class size is notoriously small (Josh has sixteen this year) we felt the boys would get the most attention at home with me.  Also, I chose to stay home two and a half years ago because I wanted to spend more time with my kids.  Working 30 hours a week (which is all I ever worked) was too much.  So when the time came to decide whether or not to send them to school, where we, again, would be apart for 30 hours a week, my heart just couldn't do it.  The last influencing factor, aside from time & attention, was our littlest Cunningham.  When I met with the pediatrician this summer, discussing Wyatt's advanced status, I asked her where to go from there.  It was she who suggested that I let little brother tag along with school activities. She said to do school when he's awake (we had previously done school during nap time) and to let him participate in whatever interested him.  The idea that I would be teaching three kids at once was exciting to me.

What we're learning:

 We picked out curriculum this summer while we were home in Washington, which was easier for me than shopping online. I enjoyed thumbing through the books, matching my goals for the year with lessons in each book.  I decided to focus on reading, math and handwriting during our specific school time.  We start school strictly at 9:00am. I pretend it's my job (which, I guess, it is :) and that I can't be late. School can take anywhere from an hour and a half to over two hours.  It depends on how focused the boys are, and how challenging our reading lesson for the day is.

Our school day looks like the following:

• CALENDAR TIME: We start with Calendar time on the rug, where we do the month, date, days of the week and months of the year.  
• READ ALOUD:  We end Calendar time with a non-fiction story or two.  The boys really enjoy this, as they are fact-hungry right now. What do frogs eat? What lives in a cave? How big is a whale?  It's fun to encourage their curiosity.
• DAILY JOURNAL: Then we move to the kitchen table where the twins do their Daily Journal.  Their Daily Journal is something I picked up at The Learning Palace. It's half blank page, half lined for writing.  They are allowed to color or draw something of their own choosing, and then I help them write a word that represents the picture. (Example: Rainbow, Berry picking, Bad guys)
• READING: For reading we are using 100 Lessons To Teach Your Child To Read.  This is very time consuming, especially because I have twins. So I have to do each lesson twice. The great thing about this is that the other twin is hearing all the sounds and words a second time, which I feel is great reinforcement.  We are only on Lesson 13 and already the boys are reading words.
• HANDWRITING: While I work with one boy on our 100 Lessons book, the other does handwriting with a whiteboard marker on laminated handwriting sheets. They practice numbers, upper & lower case alphabets, and their entire names.  They have very good handwriting.
• MATH: We started out finishing up a number workbook we had from summer that went from ten to twenty.  Next week, now that they've had a refresher on their teens, we will start our actual math curriculum.  It starts with some math basics (alike/different, more/less) and moves on to actual addition and subtraction by the end. I am really excited about doing math with Jack, who seems to have an aptitude for it.
• REVIEW: We wrap up our morning choosing a couple pages from their Scholastic Success with Kindergarten book, which is a mix of colors, shapes, letters & sounds to reinforce what we learned in preschool last year.  

Behavior:

The boys start school time with 10 Kindness beads each morning.  If they make a bad choice, don't work hard or disrupt me during {sacred} Reading Time with their brother, they lose one bead. I would say most days, they end school with all ten beads. Occasionally they will lose a few, but they are generally very well behaved and focused.

During the reading lessons, Wyatt watches Dora on the Tablet (see photo above) in the playroom so the twins can be completely focused.  He, too, is generally really well behaved and let's us do what we need to get our reading done.

Extended Learning:

I am equal parts anticipating and dreading the arrival or winter here in Marshall.  The forecast currently calls for snow on Tuesday.  I can't tell if this is exciting or devastating.  I do, however, know that more time inside (we are currently outside for 2+ hours every afternoon) will allow for some of the extension activities I have put together to help cement lessons learned during kindergarten.

Extended learning is what I had in mind when I reorganized all our crafts, puzzles, & quiet time activities when we arrived.

Stations:

Eventually, as the weather turns, I'd like to do stations (blocks, cars, trains) to teach Jack how to play independently and give the boys a chance to play with something entirely by themselves, without having to share.

Teachable Moments:

While school time and extended activities are the meat & potatoes of our learning, using teachable moments is key for me to be comfortable with the idea that all their education rests squarely on my shoulders.  Using teachable moments requires a change in my thinking about our everyday moments.

We've been talking a lot lately about weather.  What would've been just a casual discussion of "You have to wear your hat becauseIsaidso," has now transformed into a lesson about the thermometer, how to read it, and about seasonal change.  It's become a lesson about plants (trees losing their leaves, flowers dying) and about animals (soon we won't have to worry about bear sightings because they will hibernate).

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During quiet time just yesterday Jack was reading a non-fiction Volcano book, asking questions as he flipped the pages. Not even thinking about it really, I just answered his questions and went back to washing the dishes.  Later in the afternoon, he pulled the book out, laid on the floor with Logan, shoulder to shoulder, and began to recite every.single.fact I had told him about volcanos.  Page after page of information being shared brother to brother because I had answered his questions and piqued his interest.  It was amazing.

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With all the cooking I do around here, I count helping in the kitchen as science.  The boys have both helped me with baking bread, watching as the yeast feeds on sugar in a mug on the stove.  They have helped me read recipes, check the pantry for ingredients and have been privy to the execution of following directions, step by step, to insure success.  On Saturday mornings when I watch Pioneer Woman on Food Network, they will flank me, one on each side, watching, eyes wide, and ask me, "Mom? Do you have those ingredients? Can we make that? It sure looks good!"

Read Aloud:

During non-school hours, I am very much focused on reading to the boys as many times as possible. Right now we are reading two books during rug-time after calendar; I am reading the twins chapter books during Wyatt's nap time; and we are reading three fiction books every night before bed.  We also have quiet reading time for the twins (where we separate them and expect them to "read"books --look at pictures--) while I lay Wyatt down for his nap.

Books are a very big thing in the house right now, and this novel-loving mama is tickled pink!  My main goal for the year is reading. Both to teach them to read, and to read to them.  I would love if they were being read at least ten books a day. We are currently hitting six, plus whatever books they read to themselves during nap time.  It's a work in progress.

I heard somewhere that whether you go to college or not depends on how many books are in your house. That's it. How many books. How easy is that? For us parents to make sure our kid are exposed to reading and read to.  My boys also see me reading (ravenously) all the time, which I hope lends itself to their learning that books can be fun and exciting a great way to escape or "experience" something that they otherwise wouldn't get to do.

Socialization: 

It's true that we don't have a lot of socialization opportunities.  

No t-ball, no boy scouts, no soccer.

What we do have is the park and playdates and Saturday Social.  

Saturday Social is a chance for the students at Marshall School to earn a fun morning at the school.  There is open gym time, popcorn & slushies, a giant TV with video games & a whole slew of laptops available for the kids to play PBS games on.

Our boys look forward to it all week.  I look forward to them going because it's a great time for the boys to run like crazy, see their old friends and make new ones.  

Physical Activity:

Playing Out:
Our preferred method of physical activity is playing out. Going for walks, enjoying a bike ride, climbing rock mountains, & visiting the park are all preferable to keeping these three rambunctious boys inside.

In the house:
But at some point, the weather will reach a point (around ten below) where going outside to play just isn't feasible or fun.  And when that weather comes, and it will, we will get our energies out (as the boys say) by doing our Move N Groove Kids videos, trying our new Kids Yoga video & having Dance Parties, of course.

Inspiration:

And even though it surely sounds as if I have it all together, I assure you, I do not. There are days I don't want to teach. There are days the boys don't want to learn... or at least don't want to learn sitting still at the kitchen table.  There are days the lessons are long and my patience is short.  And on those days, I turn to other homeschool mamas for inspiration.  This little gem is my most recent favorite.

"Some math is better than none.

Some read-aloud is better than none.

Concentrate on what you are doing,

instead of what you're not."

-Melissa Craig

www.brightideaspress.com

Mom vs. Teacher:

It is hard to balance mom with teacher.  If my patience before school was short, it's challenging to find that reserve I need to get through our lessons.

But the flip side of that is that I'm a teacher, who is also their mom. So watching them learn is amazing.  Watching them learn to read is especially rewarding.  Last week they didn't know how to read any words.  This week they have read nine new words!  I talked with my sister-in-law, who also homeschooled & is the one who recommended this book, and she said that teaching her sons to read was magical. I agree. That word encapsulates my emotions exactly. It is through hard work, yes, but as I'm watching their eyes zoom in on the fat, lowercase letters, something sparkles in their eyes and BAM! they read the word. Magic!

That said, the good moments are hard earned, and I didn't choose to homeschool because it's easy.  I look at all the mama's in my Facebook feed happily sending their children off to school, and I can taste the envy, thick on my tongue.  But for now, this is the road I've chosen, and I'm sure we'll flourish here.  I know my boys are lucky because I know when to push them, and when to help them. I know when to demand perfection and when to accept their best efforts.  Because of my intimate knowledge of their abilities, I am the best teacher they could have.  And after six years working in an elementary school, I can honestly say they are the best students I've ever had.

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