Back to Homeschooling

We started our school year two weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to post about it, but for once I’ve been too busy homeschooling my kids to write about homeschooling!  I now have two children of official school age, so I had to be a bit more organized with my curriculum than in years past. We are also expecting another baby in January, which made me feel some extra pressure to be organized and ahead come the new year.

I spent a good deal of time in July ordering books and writing out monthly goals for my older two children.  I tried very hard to center our curriculum around the 3 R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic).  We will do a large language arts block and a math lesson each day.  I then plan to teach extra subjects like history (2 times per week), religion (2 formal lessons per week but prayer every day), science (1 time per week), and geography (1 time per week), in a block at the end of our school morning.  These subjects are meant to be more “fun,” with lots of read alouds by mom, some crafts and experiments, and very few written assignments for the kids.  So far this schedule has worked very nicely, I’m loving the structure of our days, and overall our home is running smoothly!

In July, after the academic planning was complete, I spent some time at the local learning store purchasing some new and exciting learning toys for our Pre-school and Toddler Circuit.  New books for the big kids and new toys for the younger two made our first few days, and really our first two weeks, go very smoothly.  It is amazing how well kids take to new toys.  For this reason, I think it is so important to prevent toddlers from playing with Circuit toys outside of school time.  My pre-school age child begged me to open up just one of those new toys early.  I am so glad I resisted the temptation, because he is happily and quietly playing with those toys each morning.

Here are some shots of our first day–

These are just a few of our Circuit activities. I also bought some Wikki Stix Letters (great idea!), some new puzzles, a number game, and of course all of our Circuit activities from last year. I’m having a bit of trouble sticking to 15-20 minute blocks of time, as Claire only lasts for 5-10 minutes at each activity (great for her age, she isn’t yet 2), and then Gus wants to switch too. One major goal of the Circuit is to increase discipline and attention span in younger children. I may have to speak with Gus about him having a “special timer” and he is only permitted to switch activities once he hears his timer. He is very capable of spending 15-20 minutes on each activity, but Claire’s desire for a new “toy” makes him insist on having one too.

We have had some bumps in the road, but overall it has been a good first two weeks! Now that I have some kinks in the schedule worked out, I plan to laminate schedule cards with daily assignments for my older two children. I’m glad I didn’t do this prior to the start of our school year (I used a white board instead), because practical considerations have necessitated some small changes in our daily order, and I now know what subjects can be done independently and what subjects cannot! It is amazing how much Gianna is now able to work independently, whereas only a few short months ago I had to continually hover and remind her to stay focused. This change has been a huge blessing, and has helped confirm that our decision to keep homeschooling for this school year was the right one.

I think that’s about all of my back to school ramblings.  Please share any of your back to homeschooling thoughts or tips in the comments.

**For more Circuit ideas, please click on this link for Pre-School and Toddler Circuit**