Our World

Our World

Thursday, September 5, 2013

My Family's Homeschooling Journey

When fine tuning our homeschooling for this school year, I wanted to change the role media plays within my home.  I wanted the children to have a more active role if and when media is being used.  Of course, we enjoy a movie together as a family and so forth, but for the most part I wanted them engaged physically or mentally in some way.  I am so proud of myself for finding what really works great for us and then making new changes.

 I now let my children watch the show Word World a few days a week.  This show really gets my children thinking and Caleb likes to make it a fun learning opportunity.  He has paper to write down the spelling words that he learns as he is watching this show.  I love that he is so excited to show me what words he has just learned to spell and we just discuss some of the similarities, differences, and sound out the words together.  A lot of fun!  During this time I am getting a head start on lunch.  They are enjoying their Language Tree French DVD as well.  It is something that my son has wanted to learn since we are part French and have family who speak fluently, including my grandmother who lives near us.  It is amazing to be able to do this together and it is a great refresher course for me as well. 

Some days we have an audiobook or church/uplifting music (which is played everyday) playing while our family completes family chores.  It just puts my children including myself in the mood and can make it a better experience.  When I do not have one of these options during family chores we actually just talk about what is on their mind.  I really enjoy being able to discuss things with my children and I believe that they are starting to enjoy as well.  Also when it is quiet you can really think out loud and not be disrupted during your thought process.  It has become something that I am really trying to create more of  in our home because the twins are really needing it with always wanting to overpower one another.

The computer for me is something that I want my children learning when using and I am glad that my son enjoys his Brain Pop Jr. subscription, Reading Eggs subscription, Star Fall and a few other websites that are used with having an active participation.  This is another thing that is allowed for them a few days a week for a certain period of time.

Reading, reading and more reading is a lot of what we do, besides working hard and then playing together as a family.  We read classics from every subject you can think of.  I have learned that a great education can be pretty simple when you think about it.  It consists of reading about a topic, writing about that topic, discussing what you have just learned from your reading and what you wrote and then doing projects pertaining to the topic.  Then you do these things over and over again.  It is working well and even more so since we read many classics.

Our journey will always change according to my children changing, but at least for this year I know this is working for us.

One thing that will not change is that we are always working on and building upon our Core Phase.  Focusing on important values of right and wrong, true and false, good and bad, family values including religious, relationships, responsibilities, the value of hard work, and accountability.  These things right here are truly priceless.





                                           








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