Homeschooling 2020-2021

Feb 28

LIKE SO MANY OF US NOW, WE ARE NAVIGATING THE UNCHARTED WORLD OF HOMESCHOOLING.

We have good days, we have bad days.. but I’ll go ahead and tell you that my overall opinion of homeschooling is…. I love it.

When we initially found out that we were going to be teaching at home, I was both overwhelmed and totally excited. I have always toyed around with the idea of being a teacher one day (like my Mama) and I had little hesitation about planning daily courses. That being said, I had some MAJOR FEAR about my kiddos getting behind. I’m NOT a teacher. I DO NOT know how curriculum works. I also have no idea what we’re supposed to be aiming for.. like what are the end of the year math & literacy goals for a first grader?!?!

Fortunately, between Hiram’s amazing teacher, my Mother, and about 100 blogs online… I came up with a reasonable game plan.

Here were my criteria for what I though “successful” homeschooling would look like:

Daily activities that were grade level in Math, Writing, Reading, Science and Art.
Plenty of outside & play time to break up the work.
A regular bed time / wake up routine.
Creation of an organized binder for worksheets & a grading system.
Incentive for as few meltdowns as possible. AKA… the ticket system.
HAVE ALL OF MY DREAMS FOR HOMESCHOOLING COME TRUE?

Short answer, mostly.

I have absolutely amazing kiddos, and my chronic OCD with paperwork has led us to a relatively successful plan for school each day. Things I would change would be firstly, allowing myself more flexibility in the days to change up what / when we’re doing things. This is like the golden ticket of homeschool… you get one-on-one time with your child to learn in a way that works for them! Utilizing flexibility is not something that comes naturally to me at all. I like structure. KIDS, however, like a blend of structure and freedom, and they honestly benefit more from that than anything else.

Secondly, I think that I would like to integrate some kind of assessment or testing methods. We’re currently doing apps that have some “testing” options, but I need to implement paper testing as well. Mostly because paper is harder than an iPad for my kiddos. It takes real concentration which is a skill they both need to develop.

HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE APPS & RESOURCES:

• iPad apps I love: Freckle (reading), Khan Academy (reading, writing, math), Zoom, Google Meets, Scholastic (reading), GoNoodle (Exercise), Brainzy, Homer (reading)

• Education.com IS MY TRUE LOVE. I signed up for the lifetime membership, so I have access to ALL of the worksheets on their site. Are their gaps in some of the material… yes. But overall it’s amazing! I was able to print out an awesome workbook style set of alphabet sheets for M (4 yo.) to work on. She is now writing her name by herself (which she hadn’t learned in preschool) and writing numbers, etc. Amazing. Love it.

• YOUR TEACHERS. Our amazing teacher for H has made a wonderful Google Classroom that’s packed with activities and work. I usually try to start with this unless it’s something that I feel like we already have mastered pretty well, or aren’t up for that day. Again, the tailoring aspect of homeschooling has been amazing for my kids learning. Mrs. I also included these really fun virtual field trips to different places like Disney World and famous locations. SO FUN.

• Ticket system. I made this little paper that has ticket rewards and then ordered tickets from Amazon, and it’s changed my house forever. They get rewarded MORE for doing things without being asked, and that’s definitely improved the self-motivation around here.

I’ll probably edit this as I have time to sit down and do so, but this is an overview of how we’re handling this curveball. Remember that family time is a blessing, and your kids will be molded by how you handle difficult circumstances. This does not mean “be a perfect parent” it just means to be gracious with yourself, and with them.