As a home schooling mom, these are the most common conversations I have about my life:
“How is home schooling going?”
“I don’t know how you do it!”
“Wow, you home school? That is amazing. I could never do that.”
To answer those questions: “How is it going? Um… aaaaah! How many spring breaks are you allowed to have before summer starts? How do I do it? I am not sure that I am… And I am pretty sure you could do what I do. If you want to. We are not amazing home schoolers. Just normal every day crazy ones.”
I thought I would share a brief glimpse into what home school at my house is really like. There is no way to really capture it, but here are some of the highs and lows of education we have experienced in the past year and a half.
First we have this fireball. She goes to Austrian kindergarten, but I am teaching her how to read at the moment and it has been wonderful. She loves reading lessons (except making the sound for the letter “l”). I am a little worried about teaching her, only because she likes to get her way. All the time. And if she doesn’t? Watch out! Her piano teacher calls her, “Her Majesty” when talking to me because she can be quite the handful. I am excited to teach her because she loves to learn, picks up information so easily, and can’t wait to be part of our school.
The big kids write in journals, so Marion insisted she get one too. She doesn’t know how to write very many words yet, so she has me spell every single word that she wants to write in her journal that day. I am amazed that she has the patience to tell me what she wants to say and write each letter as I spell. She is determined to write what she wants and won’t let me shorten any of the sentences.
Math is usually our most challenging subject. Elora and Oliver understand things pretty well when they decide to focus on their work, but generally speaking their math work looks something like this. Only usually there are more doodles, because we are not always learning about arrays which are super fun to make pictures with. And if this were Oliver’s work book, there would be some kind of awesome Harry Potter dual taking place on a Death Star. Or an intricate train system.
Oliver figured out this real life application of math arrays on his own. I was impressed. Apparently he was actually paying attention that day! (You never can tell with Oliver. He has gotten really good at saying, “Yes, Mom” at the appropriate time even when he has no idea what you are talking about).
I love the flexibility of home school. We can schedule doctor appointments at whatever time is convenient with worrying about missing school, go on field trips or walks, or bring our workbooks with us to enjoy the city.
Marion had a fun day at kindergarten where they learned about grains. She came home with bread she helped make and a fun wheat craft that shows how wheat gets made into food. We attempt to do the big kid school work while the little ones have fun at kindergarten, leaving the afternoons open for outings around the city.
My favorite part of home schooling is that we can choose the projects for the kids. One of the kids’ favorite projects to work on is their “Faith in God” program from church. There are several different goals they can work on and the kids love it. Oliver likes to write plays or prepare lessons for family home evening. We also have been working on a book of our Family History. It is one of the kids favorite projects we have ever done. They have spent time emailing family members, collecting stories and pictures and learning about their family tree. I love that we can spend time working on meaningful projects that we all enjoy doing together.
One week we learned about poetry. We found a really fun book about Haikus at the library. The older kids really enjoyed writing poems, but my favorite work of the day was this Haiku by Marion.
My octopus friend
I like their soft blubbing sounds
They are so pretty.
We have spelling workbooks that the kids love to work in – mostly because they love to change the pictures to make them more amusing. This is often a problem area during school because the kids are so amused with drawing pictures that they forget to actually do their spelling work.
Oliver went through a phase where he wrote some really interesting answers in his Reading Comprehension book. At least I know he was comprehending the story…
Oliver is our resident train expert. He went through another phase where he would answer his math problems and then he would figure out which trams had those numbers and write the corresponding train end stations. I was frustrated that it was taking him so long to finish his math, but when I looked at his work I was blown away that it had even occurred to him to associate a train with the answers to his math.
Oliver really doesn’t like writing in his journal (can you sense who we have struggles with during the school day? I love this kid, but sometimes he is just not interested in traditional learning). One day last year we did a science experiment with celery and water with food coloring in it. He found this experiment so amazing. I loved his hypothesis that he wrote in his journal. This was one of the few journal entries he has ever done with no prompting from me. He still talks about xylem vessels in plants whenever we eat celery.
Here is another one: We read “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and then the kids wrote stories with the same format. For those unfamiliar with the story, the mouse gets a cookie and then realizes he wants milk to go with it and so on… until he gets back to asking for a cookie again. Oliver really ran with this idea and wrote a great story called “If You Give a Bat Some Bacon.”
I was impressed the he immediately picked up on the idea of what to do, but also that he so fully developed his story with no prompting from me. Once you find something that Oliver is interested in, he is SO FUN to teach. Trying to get him to use consistent neat handwriting? That is another story. We are working on it.
We learned about prehistoric cave paintings in our history book. I found some real paintings to show the kids and then we projected them on the wall so the kids could make their own cave paintings. I love history and science projects. The kids love them too. Anything hands on and interactive makes an amazing school day at our house!
Last year Dirty Teddy came to school sometimes. Here is Dirty Teddy studying while Elora works in her workbook.
Another great thing about home school is that sometimes we have it at the Juice Bar down the street. Oliver loves that place and always asks to have school there. We only go out to a cafe on a minimal school day where I can bring along their spelling, math, and reading comprehension books and leave projects for another day.
Last summer we had the most amazing experience. I love to garden. This was probably the hardest part about moving to a city for me – I find great peace and joy in my big garden back home, and here I can’t have a big garden. I got as many pots as we can fit on our balcony and we grow a few vegetables and flowers.
Last year we had a really bad aphid infestation. I showed the kids how to wipe off the aphids and then we went to the park and captured lady bugs to bring home. A couple of them stayed for a few days eating the aphids, and one laid eggs on our plants! They were tiny yellow eggs. We got to watch them hatch. As it turns out, baby lady bugs look like creepy crawly alligator shaped bugs. They get bigger and bigger, made a small cocoon-like shell for a few days and then, Presto! Ladybugs. We watched the whole life cycle of lady bugs on our balcony plants and it was the highlight of our summer. The kids loved seeing every step of the process. I could never have planned a better life cycle lesson! I love how small simple things turn into amazing learning experiences for the kids.
I got Marion a pumpkin plant last summer. She was so excited. She took really good care of it and it took over our balcony with its long vines. She even got one small pumpkin. She was super excited and decided to make it into pumpkin cake. Our garden is another favorite part of school.
We sprouted lentils as part of a small science experiment where we were learning what seeds need to grow. The best part about it was that every single kid tried sprouted lentils, and most of them really loved them. I never in a million years could have gotten them to try sprouts if I bought them at the store, but because we sprouted our own they were an amazing snack food to try!
Home school is crazy, overwhelming, hit and miss, and yet fulfilling, fun, exciting, and joyful. It depends on the day, the attitudes, and perspective. It is frustrating when the kids bring their toys to school and adorable when their toys study or help them skip count. Flash cards time is usually grumpy time, but playing math games with uno or crazy 8 cards is super fun. I love math toys so I have quite a few, and all the kids love it when I get out the “math blocks”.
The kids are often silly when doing their work. They love to entertain themselves by making silly words out of the phonics in their spelling books, drawing doodles on every corner of their work pages, and making weird faces at each other when I am teaching a math lesson. These experiences are often frustrating when I think of what I wish they knew, what a day at a “real” school is like, and when I want to be the one in charge of all the learning decisions. Sometimes we get on each other’s nerves, hurt each other’s feelings, and struggle to get through a day of school work. Sometimes the house is a mess because we have to choose between school and chores.
When I take a step back, I see something different. I see kids who love to learn, and for the most part, love each other. I see kids who teach each other and help each other learn. I see kids who have so many neat experiences in an amazing city. I see kids who have the time to find their interests and develop them at their own pace. I see how children learn things I didn’t even teach them, through methods I would not have thought to try. We probably won’t home school forever, but I am grateful for all that we have learned these last few years, and I hope we will have many, many more learning experiences together, no matter what our future looks like.
