The Elementary Years

 Hello again. It's been a long time since I posted here, over a year in fact. I am now a retired homeschool mom and thought I'd try my hand at blogging again now that I have more time in my schedule. As a new homeschool mom, I was so hungry to hear and learn about simple, natural homeschooling and the resources were few and far between, especially for the higher grades. I hope to encourage those of you out there who are feeling now the way I did those many years ago, and in the spirit of that hope, I want to share with you a bit about how we homeschooled during the elementary years. If your kids are older, don't worry, in future posts I plan on sharing how we handled middle and highschool  in our home as well.

When my kids were in elementary school, we mostly read a lot of good books! Armed with a good math curriculum (I love Math U See for this age) and a library card, we began this journey of a more natural method of homeschooling. It really was very simple. We didn't have a big homeschool budget at the time so the library was a dear friend and a great help to us.

For history, we read real books like biographies and historical fiction or a book on a particular topic, like the building of the Panama Canal for instance. I found some of the best books to be the older ones. Landmark history books are well liked by homeschoolers and we really enjoyed them. We also just looked through the history section of our library and chose books that looked good to us. 

For science, we simply chose real books from the science section of the library that looked interesting to my kids. I also used good book lists to choose books to read together. I perused homeschool catalogs and web sites to see what books they recommended as well. We did nature study very informally most of the time with a bit of more formal nature study thrown in here and there. Mostly we just paid attention to and appreciated the beauty and wonder of nature all around us. We saw new birds and plants and insects and looked them up in field guides to identify them. We enjoyed visiting nature parks whenever the opportunity presented itself. 

For language arts, we read great literature together. My kids narrated orally when they were very young and slowly transitioned to writing some of their narrations as they grew older. They did copywork at the appropriate age and added in dictation around 3rd grade. Dictation is great for teaching spelling skills! We played around with a bit of informal grammar but mostly saved that for middle school. We also used a bit of spelling curriculum. My son didn't seem to need it as he was a natural speller so we stopped spelling instruction for him. My daughter wasn't as strong in this area so we used a bit more with her but kept it to a minimum. Dictation did work wonderfully for her and her spelling improved dramatically with consistent studied dictation.

We read the Bible and discussed it and prayed together each day. We also enjoyed reading some devotional stories together.

We used Math U See for math in the elementary years. We listened to classical music and appreciated great art with a little bit of formal picture study thrown in throughout the years.

This is what the bulk of our elementary homeschooling years looked like. If you have questions about any of the areas or methods I mentioned, please just ask me to explain more and I would be glad to. You may not be familiar with copywork, dictation, nature study, etc. I would love to share more about each of these things but have chosen to keep it brief in this post so as to give an overview without overwhelming you with information. I plan on continuing this series with separate blog posts overviewing homeschooling the middle and highschool years. After that, I will delve into the different subjects and methods more thoroughly.

Until then, may God bless and keep you as you walk this homeschooling journey. 

Blessings,

Melanie

P.S. Here are some of the books that influenced my educational methods:

The Three R's by Ruth Beechick

A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola

A Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola

Happy reading!

The Practical Charlotte Mason Inspired Homeschool

Hello again! Today I want to share a bit more about my homeschooling philosophy. and how it came about. Like many new homeschoolers, I started out with a "box curriculum", meaning I chose a curriculum provider, ordered a kit that included all subjects and we were set to go, or at least I thought we were. Then all the fun was sucked right out of our days. It was all about getting the workbooks done. There was no excitement, no curiosity, no desire to learn, just move through the workbooks, 3 or so pages per day, 1 for each subject. It just felt wrong. There were often tears of frustration from both mom and son. I knew this couldn't be how God intended learning to take place.

I providentially stumbled across a new book about homeschooling. I scraped up enough pennies to purchase a used copy on ebay and eagerly anticipated its arrival. The title was A Charlotte Mason Companion (by Karen Andreola) and it did not disappoint! This book opened up a whole new world to me. The ideas espoused there in sounded too good to be true! Learn with real, living, interesting books rather than dry textbooks? Study nature for science? Go on nature walks, learn handicrafts, explore your neighborhood, then your city for beginning geography? It all sounded so wonderful! So common sense! So holistic and practical!

So I immediately ditched the workbooks (except for math) and headed to the library. Arms loaded down with books we walked next door to the city park and began to learn together. I was amazed at the difference! We were learning to appreciate nature, reading wonderful books, and enjoying learning together at last! It was like a dream come true for this mama and I never looked back.  True learning was finally taking place and our curiosity was being awakened from it's dull and dreary sleep.

Through the years I read many more books on homeschooling. Soon, all the ideas that resonated with me began to meld into my own style of homeschooling, gleaned from those who had gone before and from personal experience. My methods are Charlotte Mason inspired with a heavy dose of Ruth Beechick thrown in for good measure. Above all, the methods were tweaked and added to and subtracted from until they fit real life for me and for my family. If anything seemed overly complicated, we ditched it. I believe God created us to want to learn and that it will come to children naturally if we cultivate that desire.

It's kind of like planting a garden. We don't have rigid expectations for how each plant will grow and thrive. We study that particular plant. We learn about it's needs and perfect growing conditions and we seek to provide those things so that it can blossom and produce fruit. Likewise, we should become students of children in general, and our children in particular so that we might help them to blossom into all God created them to be.

I am a conservative Christian who enjoys and cultivates a simple life. These parts of me have been a big part of molding my homeschool philosophy into what it is today. My goal has never been to raise geniuses nor for my children to get into elite colleges. I simply wanted to teach them to love God, to love learning about His world, and to be prepared and willing to follow His leading in their lives. If my goals resonate with you, I hope you'll comment below and share your thoughts and questions.

In my next post I'll share a bit more about how this philosophy played out in our day to day life throughout the years.

God bless and take care!

Melanie

Welcome!

Well, hello there! Welcome to my very first blog post. :-)

I'm now finishing up my 18th and final year of homeschooling and I can hardly believe this journey is almost over. I've always heard that the days may crawl by but the years fly by, and that has certainly proved true in my life. It seems like just yesterday, my kids were little and we were learning how to do this thing called homeschool together. I am so very, very thankful that the Lord led me to home educate my children by His grace.

I wouldn't trade these homeschooling years for anything. They have been such a blessing to me. When I think of all the years and months and days and hours and minutes I have been able to spend with my children, teaching them, learning alongside them, laughing with them, watching them learn and grow together, I can only think what if? What if I hadn't followed the Lord's leading in this area. Oh, how much I would have missed! I will never regret this time with my children. It has been said that children need quality time over a quantity of time. I have found that children do need quality time, quantities and quantities of it!

I am now one of those moms encouraging young moms to enjoy those days with littles, to stop and smell the roses, watch the butterflies, feed the birds, make the cookies, smile at your children, bask in the glow of their childish wonder and delight. It is a precious, precious time.

I am now looking back at our homeschool. I'm evaluating what worked and what didn't and how I would do things differently. I'm a keep it simple kind of person and that has applied to my homeschool as well. I'm a firm believer that the home is not a school, that learning should be woven into every day life in a natural and holistic way, that homeschooling doesn't need to feel artificial or complicated. Learning is not always fun but most of it can and should be as enjoyable a process as possible.

I found many helpful books and blogs and resources to help me through the elementary and middle school years that fit and molded my homeschooling philosophy but had a hard time finding resources when it came to homeschooling the high school years in the same manner. I've now homeschooled two children through high school and there is so much that I wish I would have known when I first began homeschooling my first high schooler, 9 years ago. It is my hope that I can be an encouragement to those, like my former self, who are searching for similar way to homeschool high school; a holistic, delight directed and individualized way.

I plan on sharing resources that I've used and even a grade by grade general homeschool plan as examples of my version of a keep it simple homeschool, and not just for high school but for the elementary and middle years as well.

If you're out there and interested please comment. I'd love to hear any questions or feedback you might want to share.