Winter Break...our first 6 weeks of HS!

My husband and I agreed to withdraw our children from public school just this past Christmas break (2012).  I had dreamed of homeschooling for the prior 3 1/2 years!  It was a great conviction of mine after watching IBLP.org's "Financial Freedom Seminar."

I've also spent the last 3 1/2 years researching homeschooling laws, methods...everything!  So when we pulled our boys out, I had one version of how our 'school' would look.  Then after two weeks of it not working, I decided to take a winter break over the month of February.  BEST. IDEA. EVERRRR!

The boys have taken up tumbling!

We've done some school time!

We visited our friend's farm to see their new baby piglets!

We've started training Blaire to play quietly on her own!

We've also enjoyed studying Alaska with our homeschool group!

We also have studied magnets with our group!  We have about 20 kids involved with our county group!

We've also done a LOT of playing!

Overall, we have just had fun, gotten used to being with each other, and tried to figure out what it is we like to do!

We've found that neither of the boys like doing actual "school work."  The great thing about homeschooling is that we get to do whatever we want...our school day doesn't have to look like a school day at a public school.  And at ages 7 and just turning 6, I don't think they should have to!  

How will they LEARN?!  Stay tuned!

plan for march

Welcome to our homeschool!

I have lots of things planned for this new blog of mine, but first things first...school planning.

We are new homeschoolers again, after homeschooling preschool, then public school for a year, my boys are back home...and all is right with the world again.  :)

So as I'm typing this, I'm actually planning our month of March.  We are taking a winter break during February, working more on character training, eating habits, and basic routine.  Sounds spiffy, doesn't it?!  Actually, we are just getting used to each other again and learning to enjoy each other.  The boys are learning to get a long with each other and solve problems, and also learning to eat other things besides school pizza and PB&J sandwiches.  Baby Blaire is getting used to sharing mommy!

Where do we start on this journey???

Well, I start with goals for this month.

-daily Bible time-Proverbs during breakfast

-daily James memorization-after lunch

-daily phonics-this will be twice a day for Heith, using "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" and Time4Learning for Clark on the computer

-daily math, using Time4Learning

-independent reading-child led interest

-weekly state study-finishing Alaska, continuing with Washington, Oregon, California, and a review-I will use Confessionsofahomeschooler as our guide for this

-discuss missionaries-our church has weekly missionaries, which are talked about at church, so it's important to us to know about and pray for our missions

We also plan to school year-round with breaks when we need them.  I have our local public school calendar that we keep in mind, but we go at our own pace and keep to the number of days a year, which I think is around 176 for public schools in Illinois  However, homeschoolers are not bound to keep attendance to these days.

What else have the kids been working on this month, without knowing they are learning?

Clark has been making a 'dragon book'.  He has a notebook and creates a page for each dragon with sentences and pictures.  Right here, he is looking up on the ipad how to spell 'bone knapper.'