Homeschooling Schedule

This week's blog cruise asks: Do you follow a traditional school day/time/schedule/year?

No, No, No, Mostly Yes

Well, that's the short answer, anyway.

We've been homeschooling for three years now.  My two youngest are homeschooled; my two oldest opted not to be.  My daughter was a senior, so that made sense.  My son was a sophomore when we started.  I wish we had pulled him out of public school, but we didn't.  He's graduating in two weeks - decided to graduate early and take college classes.

That being said, when we started, I had more of a public school mindset.  As we have progressed, I've realized that flexibility is one of the blessings of schooling from home.

Do we follow a traditional day?  If that means having a set time for each subject and following it, the answer is no.  We take as long as it takes to complete our objective in each subject for that day.  Sometimes it's longer than a traditional class and sometimes it's shorter.

Do we follow traditional time?  Not really.  We start at 8:30.  If they were in public school, they would both start at 9:00.  However, again, we go however long it takes to meet our objectives.  That means we get done between 1:30 and 3:30'ish depending upon the day.  Every now and then we go longer, but not too often.

Do we follow a traditional schedule?  I guess this could be interpreted many ways.  Do I make sure the boys are learning exactly what they would be learning in public school?  No.  I mean, sure, they are learning all they should be learning, but I don't limit them to that.  In most cases, we are ahead of where they would be.  Ben takes high school classes even though he's not in ninth grade yet, and Noah has been taking middle school level classes in several subjects since fourth grade.  In some cases, we are right on par, but I don't see a reason to limit them.  We move at their pace.  If something needs more emphasis, we do it.  If they understand a concept, we don't belabor it.  The nice thing about small class size (2) - I can cater to their abilities. 

Do we follow a traditional year?  Here I would have to say, mostly yes.  Since my oldest son, up till now, has been in public school, we have taken vacation time when he has it as well.  We don't take off for teacher workdays - they just put us behind.  We do, however, bank those days we don't take giving us wiggle room to take a longer Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even spring break.  We break for summer when the public schools do.  We start back with one or two subjects a couple of weeks ahead of them, but we don't get into full swing until they do as well.  It's what the boys were used to and what my son's schedule was like, so we did it.  I'm not sure if it'll stay that way now that he's in college as well.  We'll just play it by ear.  We usually exceed the 181 day expectation of the state.

The flexibility is one of the most wonderful aspects of schooling my boys at home.  Some days I'll tell them they need to hurry up, and they'll say, "Mom, we don't have a time we have to finish.  Relax."  Other times, they are telling me they want to hurry and get done. 

Monday Memoir Sneak Peek - Week 15

Our first week back to school went pretty smoothly all things considered. I envisioned it being a lot harder to get back into the groove than it actually was. Yay!

Here are the Monday Memoir questions – pop by, check them out, and link back up on Monday…

1. Did you go to college? If so, how did you decide where to go? If not, why did you decide to go a different route?


2.  How important was education in your home growing up?

Let's Do Lunch Winner

And the Winner is…

Congratulations to Michelle for winning my first giveaway – Let’s Do Lunch.

Michelle – please post a comment with your address so that I can send you the book. I won’t publish the comment.

Have a wonderful Friday All!

April

Clever Girls Collective and Heart of Haiti

January 12 is the anniversary of the Haitian earthquake. The Haitian government reported that an estimated 230,000 people died, 300,000 were injured and 1,000,000 were left homeless. Today, many still struggle to provide their families with the basic necessities of life.

Macy’s has partnered with Willa Shalit’s for-profit company Fair Winds Trading to bring the works of Haitian artisans to the public. Each purchase returns 22% of the profit to the artisan. In addition to offering these artists the opportunity to sell their products to a wider market, they are given the opportunity to interact with U.S. designers creating a global effort.

Visit the Macy’s Heart of Haiti site to see the beautiful collection of affordable prints, plates, bowls, sculptures, candle holders and frames. The unique design and flavor of Haiti makes each piece a beautiful addition to your home. While there, view the brief bios of the artists. Seeing their faces and the pride they have in their craft is uplifting.

The holidays have just passed. It’s easy to forget the suffering that went on just one year ago in Haiti. People are still suffering. This is one way you or I can help make a difference in these people’s lives.

I was selected for this very special “CleverHaiti” opportunity by Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity. All opinions are my own.

Timberdoodle Review - The Critical Thinking Company

Building Thinking Skills Level 3 & Editor in Chief
The Critical Thinking Company

Age: 12+ & 14+

Price: $29.99 & 18.99
    

I was thrilled when Timberdoodle asked me to review critical thinking books for them. Critical thinking is one of the areas I have always felt is lacking in today’s college aged students. My experience in the college classroom is that students are not used to being asked to think for themselves. Perhaps this is due to the prevalence of multiple-choice tests?

In any case, I want my kids to think critically. I hope you do too.

The first product I am reviewing is Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural by the Critical Thinking Company.

As noted on the Timberdoodle web site, the “activities are sequenced developmentally. Each skill (for example, classifying) is presented first in the semi-concrete figural-spatial form and then in the abstract verbal form. Children learn to analyze relationships between objects, between words, and between objects and words as they:

Observe, recognize, and describe characteristics.
Distinguish similarities and differences.
Identify and complete sequences, classifications, and analogies.

My boys really enjoy this book. They actually look forward to the time of day where we pull out our critical thinking to do exercises. Typically, we do between five and ten pages per day depending on how extensive the exercises are. You can view sample exercise pages here.

What I like is that they are being asked to be aware of what they are viewing and then look deeper to complete the exercise. At first, my younger son will tell me, “Mom, this is hard.” Then, shortly thereafter, a light bulb will come on and he’ll get busy working through the problem. The more he sees that he can take on the challenge and use his brain to discern the answer, the more excited he gets.

I would encourage all homeschool families to incorporate critical thinking skills into their schedule.
 

The second book I was asked to evaluate is Editor in Chief also by the Critical Thinking Company. I loved the concept of this book when I saw it. I teach English online and grade numerous papers every semester. There are common errors that students typically make. One way instructors try to help students develop editing skills it through peer feedback: students providing feedback on one another’s papers. This concept helps students see errors they make by finding them in other’s work. Sometimes it’s easier to find the errors when the content isn’t yours.

Editor in Chief is the same concept. Students are asked to edit papers with numerous errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and formatting details. The student is told how many errors there are and then must go through the piece to find them. I find this to be excellent. The boys enjoy the hunt and end up helping one another if there are errors they just can’t seem to spot. In addition, the book provides great detail on where the errors are, what they are and how they should be corrected.

I believe this will help them not only improve their own editing skills, but to help them become better writers. They will be asked to peer edit when they get to college. Providing strong feedback is an asset to their peer, for their own benefit, and demonstrates to their instructors their ability to recognize strong writing.

I plan to continue to incorporate these exercises into our home school and to have the boys use those skills to peer edit each other’s work.

As you can see, I was very impressed with both texts. I’m grateful for being able to review the books and look forward to using other products by the Critical Thinking Company.

*** As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of these books in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Monday Memoir - Week 14

I think we're finally on the mend from our holiday bug.  Just in time for school adn work to kick back in.  I do feel it's a blessing we all go sick when we had the luxury to deal with it rather than having to try get things done while feeling yuck.

Here are the Monday Memoir questions – pop by, check them out, and link back up on …

1. How did your family spend New Years Day?  How do you spend it now?


2.  Do you make New Year's Resolutions?  Which ones were you able to keep?  Which ones do you find you make, but don't follow through on?

1. How did your family spend New Year’s Day? How do you spend it now?

I don’t remember my family doing anything special for New Year’s Day. We always stayed up until midnight to watch the ball drop, and then went to bed. The next day, however, I don’t remember anything special.

New Year’s Eve we got a bunch of chips and drinks. We’d play games and then make noise to ring in the New Year. I remember buying my mom new aluminum bowls for Christmas one year. We took them outside to bang on with spatulas. Then came back in all dented up. Doh!

Our family does pretty much the same thing now except for the making noise part. I'm excited to see Dick Clark still ringing in the year, even if it's clearly hard for him.  Bless him.

2. Do you make New Year's Resolutions? Which ones were you able to keep? Which ones do you find you make, but don't follow through on?

A couple of years I’ve made the resolution to lose weight. Fortunately, OCD works very well for me here. When I get my mind set on something (like only eating so many calories), I’m good at sticking to it. That is until I reach a plateau. OCD people need results. When the results stop, so does the motivation.

This year – I resolve to have no resolutions. I’ll take the year as it comes and figure out what needs doing when it hits. At least, that’s the plan for now. :-)

Monday Memoir Sneak Peek - Week 14

Christmas was wonderful!  I hope yours was as well.  We've managed, however, to have five of the six of us sick ever since.  Urgh!  Hoping we're getting it all out of our system for the New Year.
Here are the Monday Memoir questions – pop by, check them out, and link back up on Monday…

1. How did your family spend New Years Day?  How do you spend it now?


2.  Do you make New Year's Resolutions?  Which ones were you able to keep?  Which ones do you find you make, but don't follow through on?