Not only do I gain precious moments teaching my four rambunctious nephews. I also encourage their growth and progress as they learn. Praise their triumphs and get to spend one on one quality time working with whatever their struggling with.
As long as their making progress and grasping what they need. Time is unnecessarily apart of the equation. Every child will learn at their pace. No need to rush it or force it.
Well the 2020-2021 school year is coming to a close. The boys have made great improvements in some areas and still need to work in others. They have made progress and that’s what matters! Today they were given their awards. It’s the end for now, but we’ll will be starting back up for next school year on July 6, 2021
Well I’ve narrowed down my curriculum choices. This coming school year we will be using a combination of School Zone, Carson-Dellosa, Story of the World, and Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool for different subjects.
We tried 180 Days curriculum for math this last go around and it just didn’t work out for the boys. Ended up every two weeks buying unit studies and downloading curriculum from TpT, Moby Max, Pinterest and random homeschooling websites, which I’ll still be using for certain assignments and special projects. I think it’s time to buckle down and try a more traditional route.
Regardless this time around I will have back up material in case something doesn’t work out. Now these are just the workbooks and some books. I’m still in the process of gather more books and additional material. My Amazon cart is already filled for next purchase 🤦🏻♀️☺️ Can’t wait for July!😍
Six more wonderful challenging days to go! Then planning for next school year… We are planning to school from July 2021 to May 2022 for next school year. Got their new curriculum workbooks, planner, waiting for their new desks, my new dry erase board, some additional workbooks and books. I have to add a few things and get more of a few items because my eldest would like to learn Spanish, my next kiddo wants to learn cursive, the second youngest would like to learn more math, and my youngest wants more art projects. It’s going to be interesting to plan how next school year will look like. All that matters is they’re learning, understanding, and reaching for their dreams.
Hidden lessons within creative fun. The boys had to create something out of legos and write about it. All while telling me how many blocks they used for each thing and add them all up. For some like my second oldest, who said he can’t count high or add. Sure did today with no problem 😊
This question is, by far, the toughest one I have gotten since I started homeschooling. There are plenty of different choices out there and sorting through can be somewhat mind-numbing.
I am far from an expert, but the majority of the people I talked to about homeschooling, have piece together their own curriculum (i.e. they use one set of books, sites, or printables for math, a different set from a different source for reading, etc).
My best advice I can give so far is:
1) Keep it simple. Focus on the core subjects and don’t stress yourself if you think things aren’t progressing the way you think it should.
2) Do not attempt to replicate a public school classroom. Tried to my first two months and failed miserably. You don’t have to do that. You get to create this whole thing to fit your family and your children that can be changed at the drop of a hat if needed. Education is all around us. It does NOT have to be a cookie-cutter education, nor should it be.
3) Struggling because the children are behind or you think you’re not doing enough? DON’T! Don’t stress yourself. Seriously, you’ll find a routine that will work for you and your family. The children will progress at their own pace.
As of right now, we have been homeschooling for about 5-6 months. As I reflect back, I have come to the conclusion learning and teaching is messy. If it requires glue, coloring, cutting and so on… The table, floor, and chairs become a colorful warzone. Sadly, I’m beginning to understand that this can be more messy then how the kiddos are normally playing.
💡👩🏻🏫🎨🖌️🖍️✂️ 😂🤣
“Why do people take or keep their children out of school? Mostly for three reasons: they think that raising their children is their business not the government’s; they enjoy being with their children and watching and helping them learn, and don’t want to give that up to others; they want to keep them from being hurt, mentally, physically, and spiritually.”
― John Holt
The last reason and the pandemic is why we started. Now though it’s more of the second reason as to why we are continuing. Though I will eventually give the boys an opportunity to return to public school once we think it’s safe, it will be their decision if they want to return and we’ll go from there. So far all the kiddos want to continue to be homeschooled.
Homeschool Aunt Chaos 