Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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12 Things Homeschoolers Don’t Have to Do

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As I peruse social media, I always see lots of images and articles about school-related issues.

Since I homeschool our 4 kids and feel that school is not necessary at all, I thought about all the things we don’t have to do since the kids don’t attend school!

12 Things Homeschoolers Don’t Have to Do

  1. Get up Early

    I am so, so, so happy we don’t have to get up early to catch a bus or make it to school on time. If my kids went to school, there would be three different drop-offs: elementary, middle school, and high school! I can’t imagine the logistics. We can sleep in and do whatever we want in the mornings rather than inhaling a non-nutritious Pop-Tart and rushing to a school to sit all day and be brainwashed.

  2. Back to School

    I don’t have to worry about back to school lists. I can buy whatever supplies we need whenever we need them. We don’t have to buy uniforms or school clothes. While I do stock up on a few things during those BTS sales, like glue…we are not concerned with the stress of this time period. We school year-round. We can transition our curricula any time of year! We love to enjoy the end of summer and beginning of fall as natural transitions.

  3. School Picture Day

    Ah, the dreaded school pictures. I can remember when they were simple and it was expected that kids wore their Sunday best. But, those laser backgrounds? Maybe not the best choice. And my hair in 7th grade? I shudder. Now, it seems the picture companies are really into profits and the purchase packages are unbelievable. Who needs a pricey 16×24 stretched canvas or body pillow of their kid?

  4. Sit at a Desk all.day.long.

    We don’t sit around all day. I remember how exhausting it was to just sit all day long, under those fluorescent lights. We do what we want, when we want. We rush outside when it’s nice weather. We play games. We go to the library. We go hiking or on nature walks. We watch the birds. We garden. We read, watch Netflix, research. We have dance parties. We snuggle on the sofa for reading. We cook, clean, make arts and crafts. The girls love to knit and crochet and cross-stitch. We shoot a target in the backyard with a BB gun. We rarely sit at desks or tables. We don’t have to relinquish our creativity.

  5. Fundraisers

    How I hated selling cookie dough and wrapping paper. How I hate it when kids come to my house, hawking stuff I don’t want or need. How I hate the contests for kids and classes for pizza parties or a skate night or tickets to the water park. Maybe we should have a better system or allocate money where it’s needed better? If the school fundraiser sold whiskey, then maybe I’d consider buying.

  6. Teacher Appreciation Gifts

    I remember getting a few gifts when I taught school – the coffee mugs, stuffed animals, gift cards. Pinterest is full of creative and horrific teacher gifts. It’s obviously a competition to see who can outdo the other parents with the best or weirdest upcycled gift. Bribery much? Teachers just want more respect and fewer standardized tests. They really have a tough job. It’s a battle on all fronts.

  7. Follow a Schedule

    So much time is wasted at school on transition time. Line up to go to lunch. Line up to go to art, music, PE, library, computer lab. Line up for restroom and water break. We have no schedule, or at the least, a very rough schedule. We get up when we want. We eat when we’re hungry. We use the bathroom when the need arises. We go outside when we want. We play, read, create when we desire. Downtime is thinking time. We follow natural rhythms.

  8. Homework

    Homework is unnecessary. We complete lessons in only a few minutes. We don’t have to beat the dead horse with 40+ math problems unless they think math drills are fun. We don’t have to circle verbs in red and underline adjectives in blue in 20+ sentences ever. School kids attend classes 6+ hours every day and still have several hours of worthless homework? It’s ridiculous. We don’t do worksheets or extra work. We learn to mastery. We don’t even have to follow a curriculum! We can learn how we want!

  9. Grades

    We don’t do grades. We don’t do tests. We don’t encourage that kind of competition. It’s meaningless and creates such discontent. No one has ever asked me as an adult what I made in 11th grade algebra II or senior English or 3rd year Spanish. No one cares about my master’s Faulkner course. Extrinsic motivation doesn’t teach anything or ensure success. We learn for the sheer love of it.

  10. So Much Sickness

    A friend of mine had to send her special needs son to school because it’s German law. She complained that in the first month, he came home with diarrhea, Fifth’s disease, a cold, and more. He’d never been sick before. Schools are little breeding grounds for illness. Ew. I know teachers and students get sick so frequently, especially after summer and winter breaks. It’s not that we never get sick, but we seldom do. The kids play in the dirt, eat well, get plenty of rest, and have healthy immune systems.

  11. Keeping up with Fads

    My kids don’t even know what’s popular except when their public schoolteacher aunt asks if they’re into Rainbow Loom or something that her public-schooled children and students are into. My kids don’t care about popularity, fashion, fads, or anything like that. We’re not exposed to advertisements or competition with other kids.

  12. Rules

    My kids know how to stand in line. If they’re ever in a classroom environment, they know to raise their hand before speaking. They are polite and courteous. They don’t need arbitrary rules to control them, to make them behave or obey. We’ve encountered some strange rules at different organizations we’ve attended for music lessons or field trips. While I understand there is sometimes a need to protect others and property, it’s disheartening to see my homeschooled kids treated like criminals. Automatically guilty. Children are naturally empathetic and desire to please. Too many rules are just a setup rebellion.

    When rules and discipline are not evenly and fairly applied, students will believe that the system is rigged and unfair.

We appreciate the freedoms that homeschooling offers our family!

We homeschool so we can have freedoms that schools stifle.


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Our Curriculum for 2017-2018

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It seems like summer has flown by for us this year!

We moved from Germany to Ohio and spent lots of time getting settled and dealing with reverse culture shock.

We’re pretty relaxed and spend most mornings reading and completing the lessons so our afternoons are free to play, explore, create, bake, watch videos, or ride bikes.

I’m not worried about schedules or how long it takes to complete a book. Some days, we don’t get to math. We do science only a couple times a week. We read every day.

Our curriculum this year:

We still use Tapestry of Grace as our base. I like their book lists and activities. I print Notebooking Pages every week to coincide with our history and literature studies.

We don’t really label with grade levels, so here’s what my son will be working through so far this year. He’s 7 years old.

He also listens and participates in history and literature read-alouds with his sisters.

  • Christian Liberty Nature Reader
  • Life of Fred
  • Singapore Math 3
  • Spelling Workout A
  • Apologia Who is God?
  • Apologia Land Animals

My middle girls are 10 and 11 years old and here are their core texts.

  • The Story of the World
  • Elementary Greek
  • First Start French
  • Singapore Math 6
  • Spelling Workout G
  • Apologia General Science

My eldest daughter is almost 17 and will be attending a local university part-time for dual enrollment.

She’s looking for a part-time job too! It’s a bit discouraging how few jobs are available for a 16 yo and how potential employers talk to and treat her. She volunteered with the Red Cross for two years, but has no paid experience. And everything is online now, so she can’t charm anyone by walking in. There are no help wanted signs in windows anymore.

She is still finishing up French, year 3 history, and some literature. She has to review algebra and take a math entrance exam to enroll in college algebra spring semester.

The kids really work quite independently.

We do history and literature read alouds in the mornings, after breakfast.

The kids then work on their notebooking, Bible, vocabulary workbooks.

I assist Alex, which really just means I just watch him do his work. Every few days, I read a science chapter to Alex and he works through his science notebooking journal the other days.

I assist with and discuss science with the girls. Dad reviews science in the evenings and weekends and does some of the more extravagant experiments.

Dad does math with the girls in the evenings and weekends. We all like to listen to Life of Fred!

We’re usually finished with the bulk of school work by lunchtime.

Then the kids can read whatever they like, create art or crafts, play outside, rollerblade, scooter, ride bikes, wait for their public school friends to get home on the bus, play table games, iPads, Wii, watch Netflix, hike in the woods, bake something yummy, practice typing, research, nature journaling, or almost anything they want!

We take days off for field trips and other activities. Since we school year-round, we don’t stress. Evenso, we still often complete the year’s workbooks, journals, and other curricula by March!

What are you using this year?
What does your schedule look like?

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Homeschool Space in Ohio

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We moved to Ohio this summer from Germany.

It’s been a huge transition for us.

The kids have a basement again for the TV – that was in storage for 3 whole years.

Also, their desks and bookcases and manipulatives are in the basement for our homeschool time.

My office has its own little room beside the front door.

There are two lovely windows along the left wall.

Along that wall is a mess.

It’s a work in progress since this room is where all the unopened boxes currently are living until I can get organized.

This house has lots of storage and is the nicest we’ve ever lived in!


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We Don’t Do Testing

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Apparently, it’s shocking that we don’t do any testing in our homeschool.

Going against the norm is uncomfortable for lots of people. Homeschool parents seem to feel like they must recreate a school environment at home.

We don’t do testing in our homeschool.

Whoever said there’s no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test. ~Alfie Kohn

Our culture is permeated with performance.

Outcomes, grades, products, success are more important than the process, than learning. When we focus on outcomes, the motivation is extrinsic and meaningless. We cram for the assignment and then purge the information to move on to the next. There’s no learning involved except in the conditioned behavior, like a rat pushing a button for food.

Let’s begin with a few definitions:

What are Assessments?

Assessment focuses on learning, teaching, and outcomes. It provides information for improving learning and teaching. Assessment is an interactive process between student and teacher that informs the teacher how well the student is learning what they are teaching. The information is used to make changes in the learning environment, and is shared with students to assist them in improving their learning and study habits. This information is learner-centered, course based, frequently anonymous, and not graded.

What are Evaluations?

Evaluation focuses on grades and may reflect components other than course content and mastery level. These could include discussion, cooperation, attendance, and verbal ability.

Tests, exams, quizzes, assessments, and evaluations are often used interchangeably among teachers and parents.

In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson. ~Tom Bodett

Some arguments I’ve heard for testing:

How do I  know if the kids are learning?

I have FOUR children. I think I know if they’re learning or not. I don’t have 150 students. Testing is for schools. We’re always learning and the kids are great at self-evaluation. Life is learning. I allow them great freedom to explore their interests.

How do the kids know how to take tests?

Trust me. My kids know what tests are and can complete true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, and essay questions on a variety of subjects. But why would I require such low level evaluation?

How do I report to authorities that require test results?

Sure, it’s probably easier to subject the kids to standardized tests to report to state authorities than complete a portfolio or evaluation form. But is it easiest for the kids or the parent?

Only 8 states require testing with no other option: GA, MN, NC, ND, OR, SC, SD, TN. The standard and penalty are arbitrary, undefined, remediation, “family should remedy,” or enrolling in an umbrella school. AR, MN, NC are the only states which require annual testing without alternatives.

I had my eldest daughter tested in Hawaii in 3rd grade. We weren’t stressed about it. It gave us a baseline, but nothing we didn’t already know. The other states where we’ve lived, TX and UT, didn’t require any reporting.

We’re not interested in comparing our kids to anyone, so testing isn’t important to us.

It’s not difficult to complete portfolio or evaluation requirements. Or just enroll under an umbrella school or homeschool organization if that’s an option.

How are the kids graded?

My kids are not graded.

I repeat: We don’t do grades.

We’re constantly learning. Grades ruin the process. Grades don’t mean anything. They have freedom to learn. They have freedom to take risks, to explore, to fail, to succeed, to be challenged. They are not limited to a rubric. There’s no pressure.

Grades are extrinsic motivation and we prefer intrinsic motivation.

How do the kids know how to study?

I prefer that my kids learn than cram for some test, but they have great skills to help with studying if and when they need it. They’re active readers and writers and remember lots of information and make great connections. I occasionally offer minilessons to teach a skill I think is interesting.

How do I write high school transcripts?

Transcripts are pretty subjective. I list courses completed to mastery. Based on effort, there are a range of A’s and B’s on the transcript.

My eldest audited physics. Civil Air Patrol didn’t issue grades, but she excelled at it.

I’m hoping for colleges to look at a portfolio and not put such an emphasis on grades.

No one has ever asked me for my transcript or GPA or grades since my grad school enrollment.

How do the kids prep for the SAT/ACT?

Strong vocabulary and math skills are key. We read lots and discuss for comprehension, focus on math skills all along, then learn some testing tricks. My teen’s score on the PSAT was great with no prep at all, so we’re hoping to boost that score by a couple hundred points with some practice on Kahn Academy and a vocabulary book.

Thanks to the nation’s testing mania (which I like to call ‘No Child Left Untested’ rather than ‘No Child Left Behind’), children are being barraged with a nonstop volley of standardized tests. From kindergarten to graduate school, students are subjected to an unprecedented number of high-stakes tests. ~Laurie E. Rozakis, I Before E, Except After C: Spelling for the Alphabetically Challenged

How we assess in our homeschool:

My kids are great learners. They don’t need me.

I’m not a teacher. I’m not a tutor.

I’m a guide. I’m a counselor.

Discussion

We constantly discuss what we’re learning and reading and exploring. Narration is a great tool that can be really fun with all ages.

Language is important to express our ideas, preferences, interests.

I love to hear what my kids have to say about art, music, literature, history. I love to see them make connections on their own. I love to see that lightbulb moment.

Notebooking

The kids love to write and draw about their experiences. The open-ended idea of notebooking allows for great creativity and individuality instead of a cookie-cutter worksheet with low level thought processes.

I’m not worried about benchmarks, curricula, What My Child Needs to Know in Nth Grade, grades, tests, or knowledge. We don’t participate in co-ops.

Writing

I don’t discourage essay writing, but I don’t force it. I don’t even really teach it until high school.

I think younger kids need to learn so much more than writing that we don’t focus on it at all. Kids are natural storytellers. We discuss what we read and make connections, synthesizing knowledge…and this paves the way almost effortlessly into the formulaic essays that college professors like.

I’m more concerned that my kids love learning and exploring and grow up to be free thinkers.

Educational success should be measured by how strong your desire is to keep learning. ~ Alfie Kohn

Learning is a lifelong process.

I’ve learned more outside of school, after high school and university, then I ever did inside a classroom.

Kids will learn despite school.

Sources:
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
https://arc.duke.edu/documents/The%20difference%20between%20assessment%20and%20evaluation.pdf
http://a2zhomeschooling.com/main_articles/comparing_testing_requirements/

Linking up: The Modest Mom, Marilyn’s Treats, Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth, Donna Reidland, A Fresh Start, Life of Faith, Inspiration for Moms, Proverbs 31 Wife, Mrs. AOK, Curly Crafty Mom, Practical Mom, This Chaotic Bliss, A Pinch of Joy, Nourishing Joy, Simple Life of a Fire Wife, Teaching What is Good, Blogghetti, Let Me Tell You a Story, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman, Messy Marriage, Christian Blogger Community, Holley Gerth, Oh My Heartsie Girl, Pat and Candy, Katherine’s Corner, A Bountiful Love, Women with Intention, Saving 4Six, Feeding Big, Creative K Kids, Life Beyond the Kitchen, Chronically Content, Life with Lorelai, RCH Reviews, Create with Joy, Life as we Know It, Oh My Heartsie Girl Friday, Being a Wordsmith, Crafty Moms Share, Hip Homeschool Moms,
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Homeschool Preschool

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For preschool, we’ve tried lots of different activities and curricula.

Preschool homeschool doesn’t have to cost really anything. I know some homeschool parents who buy these expensive boxed curriculum sets, but I think these are a waste of money and cause lots of stress for child and parent. The schedules are strict and seem to have a lot of worthless busy work.

Our homeschool days have always been only a couple hours of academic work, even for high schoolers!

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. Good guides to follow are What Your Preschooler Needs to Know: Get Ready for Kindergarten and What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. These are just great jumping off points.

How We Homeschool Preschool:

While I believe that small children should play, play, play as much as possible, my younger kids wanted to “do school” like big sister, so I obliged with workbooks and fun activities and they soaked it up like sponges.

I read aloud to my kids from pre-birth through high school age. We all love books.

Autonomy

I don’t force anything on my kids. I allow them to explore their interests. We don’t worry about handwriting. Reading comes naturally, whenever the child is ready. They love learning about science and history.

Toys

Lots of plastic electronic toys are a waste of money. My kids prefer building materials and toys and recyclable items for craft creations. Pretend play is important. I shop after Halloween sales and thrift shops for fun dressup clothes. Less really is more.

Technology

Screens in moderation. Sometimes kids just need and want the downtime. When it’s bad weather outside or we’re not feeling well, it’s fine to curl up together or alone with the cats and watch a show or play an app. Why should we make kids feel guilty when adults do it all the time? My kids learn how to self-regulate their screen time by not having strict rules about it, other than all devices away at bedtime.

Outdoors

We spend lots of time outside. We play balancing and running games and run free and wild. We learn about and experience nature. I seldom structure this time unless we go on a hike at a nature center. Kids need lots of free play time outdoors.

Practical Life

They use real tools in the kitchen, helping cook real food meals.

We explore textures and colors and drawing with real art supplies.

We go to the library at least weekly – for storytime and checking out lots of fun books.

Lots of fun field trips – farms, museums, science centers, historic locations, beaches, parks, nature centers. We prefer realistic locales over entertainment places like amusement parks. We love to travel!

My middle and youngest children wanted to “do school” almost from birth. They followed their sister around and wanted to do everything she did. I provided activities based on interests and needs so they felt useful and occupied.

Letter of the Week

We loved using the programs from Confessions of a Homeschooler and 1+1+1=1. It was lots of paper and printing, but the girls really loved it. Alex liked it ok.

My girls completed 2 levels of All About Reading and my son used their entire program. They all loved it! It was a fun and easy way to learn to read and they begged to do a lesson every single day.

Here are some of our random letter blog posts. I didn’t record all of our letter learning efforts.

Unit Studies

Preschool Pinterest Board

Montessori Pinterest Board

I try to limit toys to encourage imaginative play.

Recommendations:

Book Recommendations:

Preschool does mean Before Schooling. Kids before age six really need to play, play, play.

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How We Learn

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I’m often asked which curricula we use by other homeschool moms. I’m asked about our schedule. I’m asked about high school and transcripts. I’m asked about my kids’ behavior and attitudes.

Lately, I’ve tried to steer clear of conversations like these because we just seem to do things so differently.

Most people just aren’t willing or ready to hear our truth. They don’t really want to make any changes. They want an easy fix.

They want some miracle for their kids to be perfectly obedient, great readers, math whizzes, to ace their SAT/ACT.

They don’t want a relationship with their kids.

They don’t want to work and learn alongside their kids.

I’ve had parents flat out tell me that they quit Latin because they certainly don’t want to learn it with their kids and it was impossible for the kids to do alone.

It seems that so many parents want to recreate school at home. To me, that’s not homeschooling. It’s a waste of time and resources. It creates stress.

What Does School Really Teach Children?

  1. Truth comes from Authority.
  2. Intelligence is the ability to remember and repeat.
  3. Accurate memory and repetition are rewarded.
  4. Noncompliance is punished.
  5. Conform: Intellectually and socially.

We love our freedom to learn anything whenever we want.

I love seeing the uninhibited joy my kids exhibit as they hum a Gloria Estefan song during science notebooking or apply fraction math during cooking and baking.

We all snuggle up on the sofa to read history and literature together.

I love the natural rhythms of our lives as the kids and I learn together. See our schedule here.

We don’t separate our lives into contrived courses like home economics or anything. We just work together to do everything that needs to be done. The kids love to be in the kitchen, learning and working together. We all understand the less desirable chores must be done for a smoothly working household.

How we learn:

  1. We threw out the printables.

    They were a waste of time, took up loads of printer ink, and we ran out of storage room for their “portfolios.” We’d rather not do busy work anymore.

  2. We streamlined curricula.

    The most important curricula? Love and understanding. I want my children to have passion for learning, not held down to a scripted textbook or program. And I absolutely loathe computer curricula. It’s lazy. I do have a very few standards for my kids, but overall, we are very relaxed. I want them to complete Latin, and for the most part, they enjoy it. I learn alongside them. We have all these science textbooks and living books and they really are quite lovely, so we’re working through them. Bible workbooks are fun and offer a basis for great conversation. I want my kids to be Bible literate and comprehensive of apologetics. Math workbooks keep them on track and eliminate any gaps, and they go at their own pace. So what if my 6 year old is completing a 2nd grade workbook? High school credits have to be earned and tracked. We work towards mastery and my eldest is 16 and already graduating in a couple months.

  3. We canceled organized sports and outside lessons.

    The lessons became a waste of time and money. There was little progress in piano or guitar. Kids sports are just expensive controlled play time.

  4. Books outweigh screentime.

    We have an extensive book collection. I keep our coffee table covered with stacks of books pertaining to our time period in history that we learn each month. Each of us is always reading a book for fun. While we do have iPad minis, and spend time watching Netflix and playing games, the book time outweighs the screentime.

  5. No rewards.

    We don’t use incentive programs to motivate our kids. They’re worthless and train the authority more than the child. I never could remember the stupid stickers. Rewards confuse my kids. They ask why they get something for doing what they should do anyway. Kids under reward systems become adults with no self-control or intrinsic motivation.

  6. No punishments.

    If we don’t do rewards, we shouldn’t do punishments either. Natural consequences teach way more than external punishments. Time outs, spanking, restrictions, and taking away gifts or privileges are controlling and cruel. These actions only teach children that they are unloved, isolated, worthless, disrespected, captive. I prefer to be proactive and discuss situations with our kids.

  7. Few schedule controls.

    Children know when they’re hungry or tired. They can regulate their body’s needs.
    I provide a hot breakfast in the mornings, help prepare lunches when they say they’re hungry, and cook dinners in the evenings. Usually, everyone eats meals together, but sometimes, someone isn’t ready or doesn’t like a food, so they’re welcome to make a sandwich or wait until later. I don’t schedule snacks, but we always have fruit, nuts, yogurt, leftovers, and more available.
    We don’t have set bedtimes, but we recommend that the middle girls go to bed by 10 so they get enough sleep.
    Our son usually falls asleep during bedtime reading.
    Our teen stays up as late as she wants and sleeps later in the mornings. She has learned that she should go to bed earlier on the evenings before a work day.

  8. Lots of free play time.

    The kids get to choose when they complete their workbooks and they prefer to get those completed quickly so they have plenty of free play time. They use their free time to read, play on their iPads, create games with their toys, building and creating. I encourage lots of outside time, except when it is bitterly cold out.

  9. The best supplies.

    I try to provide the best supplies for my kids to create and build. They love learning about electricity, magnets, light, and pulleys and we buy science kits with their birthday and Christmas money. They love doing art with coloring pencils and paints. I don’t bother with cheap generic brands. They should be trusted with professional products and they don’t cost too much more.

  10. Travel.

    We make it a priority to travel to places we learn about in history and literature. It’s super important to us to experience travel and we make sacrifices in order to afford these trips. The kids remember these trips way more than a video or book.

Resources:

  • Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children by Angela J. Hanscom
  • The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups by Leonard Sax
  • A Disease Called Childhood: Why ADHD Became an American Epidemic by Marilyn Wedge
  • Teach Your Own: The Indispensable Guide to Living and Learning with Children at Home by John Holt
  • Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn
  • Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life by Peter Gray
  • Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
  • Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne with Lisa M. Ross
  • Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy
  • Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head by Carla Hannaford
  • 8 Great Smarts: Discover and Nurture Your Child’s Intelligences by Kathy Koch

What is your learning style?

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Our Curriculum for 2016-2017

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I almost forget that it’s back to school time for many families.

Since we homeschool year round, we typically transition into our next levels around March or so.

This year, I actually held back the workbooks and we had some free time over the summer.

But the kids are chomping at the bit to get back into math, spelling, and Bible in addition to science and history!

We’ve pared down our homeschool materials, threw out all the printables, cleared away many manipulatives, and generally streamlined our approach to learning.

Our focused academic time is only a couple hours each day – for each child.

We learn all day, everyday – life skills, reading, playing, creating, exploring.

Our homeschool curriculum for the 2016-2017 school year:

Tapestry of Grace encompasses our literature, history, geography, arts, and worldview studies.

We’re already finished with Year 2 Unit 2 in Tapestry of Grace. We have two more units to complete in Year 2, then it’s Year 3!

We read Bible scripture every morning individually and every evening as a family with the Pray Now app and Book of Concord.

I’m focusing on penmanship through copywork, memorization, and organizing with my younger three this year.

We learn about artists and musicians along with our history schedule.

We use Notebooking Pages for the majority of our academic work and evaluations, especially with history and science.

2nd grade

Alex is only 6 but he begs to keep going, going, going with his studies – and he’s reading and writing so well and doing great in math! He can almost learn everything along with his middle sisters! I make sure he has plenty of play and exploring time. Honestly, I’m so glad we’re out of the preschool stage and I don’t feel any need to “keep him busy.” He’s quite a fluent reader and does well with writing. He doesn’t enjoy play time with his male peers, most of whom are too rough and tumble for him. I’m perfectly happy with my gentle boy.

5th grade

Tori (10) and Katie (9) amaze me every day with their knowledge and interests. They’re pretty much doing dialectic work already, with help and a slower reading schedule. I’m working with Tori (per her request) to improve her reading and spelling with All About Spelling. This is a tough transition age. Academic work increases greatly in upper elementary and middle school and sometimes, we take longer on lessons, but we still maintain our play and exploring time each day.

11th grade

Elizabeth turns 16 in October! She will finish up almost all her academics this year, completing some history and literature reading and writing her senior year along with more volunteering and possible dual enrollment or community college courses. She knows she wants to pursue a career in the medical field.

We’re taking a break from organized sports and music lessons since they’ve been a less than stellar experience for us. It also saves money so we can travel!

We get plenty of outside play time and nature study – almost every day.

We have more traveling planned this year to coincide with our studies and for fun. We’ll move back to the States next spring!

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I Threw Out All the Printables

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I had thousands of conputer files of printables and several plastic bins of folders containing laminated cardstock manipulatives, just saved for whenever my son might need or want them.

Then I realized my son had somehow jumped from preK work to solid elementary – with fluent reading and writing and advanced math…and all those printables were just taking up space.

I threw out all the printables and changed the way we learn.

I Threw Out All the Printables

I spent tons of money on paper, ink, and laminating when my middle girls were very little.

Printables worked for us then.

I felt trapped by needing performative homeschooling and showing records of products, but I no longer feel that need. I can see their learning in the critical thinking skills and assimilating questions they ask on our evening walks and around the dinner table.

Now that my kids are growing up, the printables are boring and are met with eye rolls or just simply ignored.

I really don’t have the storage space for all those bins with files of 3-part cards, file folder games, and cutesy literacy and math activities. We move frequently with the military, and being minimalist is a necessity.

It’s very freeing to throw out things I don’t want or need anymore – trash, recycling, donations.

Printables can be a good introduction or substitute for learning about places, events, or people when you can’t travel to experience those things.

Also, I’m not into household printables either. I know they work for some people, but after years of trying and wasting so much paper, I am no longer in denial. I have come to terms with my preference to leave no paper trail.

The cute meal planners, household notebooks, artsy colorful day planners, adult coloring books, colorful prayer journals are just not for me.

I prefer my Excel spreadsheet for our budget and keep the synced family calendar on a phone app. I plan meals based on what I can find that looks good and on sale at the commissary and local grocery. I typically do the heavy shopping twice a month, around pay days.

I have a simple notebook for prayers, scripture writing, and journaling.

We also request companies to email us statements rather than send us paper bills in the snail mail.

Reducing our paper output is better for the environment and helps me maintain my goal of having a simpler life.

Paper items we still love to use:

Notebooking

We primarily use notebooking for assignments and assessment.

The kids have informal journals for art, travel, and writing. We also keep journals for dictation when the kids are young and learning grammar.

I print relevant notebooking pages for history and other subjects. These are more free-form than worksheets, allowing my kids to write about what they find interesting. We often complete these after traveling to summarize what we experienced and learned.

Free Homeschool Resources (Notebooking Pages & More!)

The girls still use their planners where I write their weekly reading assignments and reminds.

We still complete workbooks for spelling and Bible, because they’re easy and work for us. We still do Singapore math workbooks for elementary. We all love Life of Fred math with math journals. My girls are completing VideoText math for middle/high school and my son will too. We all use Apologia science textbooks as guides into real science learning, with lots of experiments and living books as supplements.

But almost everything else we do is experiential learning.

How we learn without printables:

Books

We read a lot. Like, a whole lot.

Our entire curriculum is based on books – literature and history and living books.

Books are super important to me and I want books to be important to my kids.

I don’t want anything dumbed down – we read the real book, not some condensed version in modernized language. We have real dictionaries and encyclopedias and bookshelves in every bedroom and the school room is full of great reading material. We max out our library cards weekly.

See our book lists.

Video

We like to watch videos on Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube that coincide with our studies.

We often compare/contrast the movie to the book.

Video is very important to studying history. It’s the only way we can see it other than in photos or by traveling to view the monuments, museums, and landscape. We also like how many videos bring history to life.

My teen and I watched Saving Private Ryan before our Normandy trip.

Experiential Learning

We like to travel to experience what we’re learning about.

We love to visit museums and natural wonders for art and nature study. I often center our travels around art museums.

We visit churches and castles and military monuments (every chance we get!) to study architecture and church history.

We loved living in Europe for three years to travel to places in history we’ve only read about!

We went to Greece and Rome and Ireland for ancient studies.

We’ve been to Paris and Prague. We went to London, Venice, Florence, and Bruges for medieval and Renaissance studies. We also visited Trim Castle while in in Ireland.

We went back to Paris for early modern studies. We toured an antebellum house and Stone Mountain when we studied the Civil War. We lived in Hawaii for three years and learned the effects of missionaries and plantations on island culture. We went to Flanders to see the WWI monuments.

We traveled to important places for modern studies. We went to Dachau and saw an American cemetery in Luxembourg where Patton is buried. We recently took a trip to Normandy and toured the D-Day museums and monuments.

We visit botanical gardens, aquariums, museums, and zoos for science. We also love nature hikes.

We complete art projects to learn about culture.

We created lovely vases by glass blowing in the Black Forest.

We painted Papier–mâché pots when we studied ancient Greece.

We made henna handprints when learning about India.

We created illuminated historiated initials when learning about medieval Europe.

Throwing out all our printables makes me feel so liberated!

Learning by experience helps my kids remember more than just playing with paper.

I love the direction our homeschool is taking!

I challenge you to make a positive change in your home or homeschool. De-clutter, try a new curriculum, do a family read-aloud, or choose a new technique. Tell me about it!

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How I Plan Our Homeschool Year

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It gets easier each year.

Planning our homeschool year is so much less stressful than when I had to submit annual lesson plans as a public school teacher.

I plan our homeschool year every spring and we school year-round.

First, I pray for discernment and guidance. I keep a prayer journal where I record which goals and milestones I hope to achieve personally and with each of my four kids. I also write about heart issues and pray through tough times. It’s such a blessing to be able to go back through and write the date when a prayer is answered!

How I Plan Our Homeschool Year

Our main curriculum is Tapestry of Grace which encompasses the bulk of our studies: social studies (including history, geography, and government), literature, and religion (including Biblical worldview, church history, and philosophy).

We’ve completed the history cycle twice now with my eldest, Elizabeth. Going through the cycle a third time, it’s finally feeling like it runs smoothly. It doesn’t require a lot of planning on my part, with weekly lessons mapping out the threads. It’s a great color-coded visual. I love the book lists and I love reading and learning along with my children.

We also use The Story of the World as a spine text with our younger three kids. It’s easy enough for them to read on their own. It offers a narrative view of chronological history.

Planning History and Literature

What I do first:

I gather our main books from our shelves for each unit, check the library to reserve supplemental books each week, and gather other materials as needed. I keep articles saved on Pinterest so I can refer to these ideas each year and match them to my kids’ abilities and interests.

Each year, I loosely plan out four main units around the topics listed in our curriculum.

Each unit is nine weeks to follow a 36-week “school year.” Sometimes I spend more or less time on certain time periods, socio-economic issues, or events I want to focus on. Some lessons we skip entirely until the next cycle.

I print relevant notebooking pages for the people, places, and events we’re studying.

I try to coincide our art lessons, nature study, field trips, and even science topics to our studies when possible.

How do I coincide science and history?

  • Astronomy fits in well with Ancient Studies.
  • We love studying Botany when we learn about the Middle Ages.
  • Zoology is a good choice during the Renaissance period.
  • Physics and Chemistry work well during the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and Modern Times.

We love reading biographies about scientists and mathematicians. We always include living books when we learn about science and history. It makes it more real.

I add in the ancient and modern foreign languages we learn each year.

Math just flows on its own, usually a lesson per day with Singapore math workbooks. We also love reading Life of Fred. We use Videotext for high school. As the kids get into more advanced math, my husband, Aaron, takes over teaching the kids in the evenings a few days per week. Whew! We also do lots of practical math with cooking and everyday activities.

We take breaks from academics as needed, traveling frequently and relaxing around various holidays.

We love to explore places we learn about. Sometimes, these are spur of the moment field trips and other times, they are longer – day trips, weekend getaways, or weeklong vacations, well-thought-out and planned.

We visited the Bodyworlds exhibit after studying human anatomy.

We’ve been to Greece, Rome, and Ireland for ancient studies this last year.

We recently traveled to Florence, Italy, for Renaissance studies.

We’d love to go to Wittenberg, Germany, to learn about Martin Luther during our Reformation unit.

Exciting trips to London, Paris, and Venice are planned for fall 2016! The kids loved learning about Shakespeare.

Last spring, we took a road trip to Normandy, France, to tour the D-Day sites, see the Bayeux Tapestry, and Joan of Arc monuments and museum.

We often take a SUN day, putting aside the books and rushing outside to enjoy the sunshine since it’s so rainy and cloudy here. We don’t keep to a traditional school year schedule: September to May. We often begin a “new” school “year” in March as we complete the last “year’s” curricula. We take plenty of time off to relax in summer, staying up late and playing outside when the sun stays out until 10. We still read lots. We complete the bare minimum of school work, often rushing through lessons during the heat of the day when it’s too hot to do much else.

The girls are learning to budget their time with student planners I created for them.

Planning Our Homeschool Year

I fill out the planner for my teen with her reading assignments each week so she has no excuses to fall behind and it helps me keep track and prepare.

She volunteers in the hospital maternity ward on twice a week, so those days are blank. She usually does physics and geometry with her dad in the mornings those days. We actually fill in the lessons completed after she does them so I can keep a record.

High School Planner

I make sure the kids have plenty of free time to play, create, and ponder.

All my kids love to read and our trips to the library are almost a chore due to the amount of books (for school lessons and fun reading) that we return and check out! I think I need a trolley or something to haul them all to/from the minivan.

I encourage my children to create freely and keep plenty of supplies around for their art and handiwork projects. My teen loves to crochet and the middle girls are learning embroidery and cross-stitch. The three younger kids are loving weaving yarn with this loom.

Almost every day (even in “bad” weather), they go outside for at least 30 minutes. It is very important to stay connected to nature, set their body clocks, get fresh air and vitamin D. They need the exercise. They ride bikes or go to the village playground. They know they can hike the circular forest trail around our village. It’s ok for them to get bored. They watch clouds, airplanes, the wind in the trees. They learn to be imaginative, making up worlds and vivid characters in games. They explore and discover and bring home treasures they find – flower and leaves, eggshells, rocks, even “rubbish” they find interesting. I don’t want my kids to have nature-deficit disorder. I often join them on more specific nature hikes further into our forest.

We don’t participate in a co-op because they just don’t work for us. I’m flexible with our schedule since we school year-round. We’ve even homeschooled during a PCS.

We wind down in the evenings and limit screen-time before bed. We read and pray together as a family. The kids are off to bed most nights by 9-10 PM. This is a good routine. They’re often tired, but perhaps not incredibly sleepy. I remember lying in bed awake, as a girl (it seemed like hours) and I still do it most nights – pondering about books I’ve read, thinking about the future, replaying conversations and events in my head. We need this quiet time to assimilate information we learn.

I stay flexible and observe my children’s interests, abilities, and progress closely. We review material and take breaks as necessary to make our homeschool a healthy and happy one.

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Why We Chose Classical Education

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What is classical education?

This method appealed to me even before I ever thought to homeschool.

Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments. In the high school years, they learn to express themselves. ~The Well-Trained Mind

Why We Chose Classical Education

I am all about these 3 classical concepts: multum non multa (not many things, but much), scholé (from the Greek, then Latin for restful learning), and festina lente (make haste slowly).

It’s not natural to analyze problems logically. Parents get frustrated and kids get exasperated when the expectations are too high for their developmental stage.

I teach my kids to think by Socratic Method. I constantly ask my kids questions to help them see, hear, taste, understand the world around them, what they’re reading, what they’re experiencing.

I can customize our homeschool for which stage my children are in and what their abilities are – times four (we have four kids).

These are the classical learning stages:

They are flexible and fluid and each child transitions into the next stage at a different time. Sometimes, it seems like a step forward and two steps backwards.

Grammar Stage

Memorization is super easy at this time.

Reading lots and hands-on learning are key.

Goals: Facts and Memorizing

Logic Stage

Also known as the Dialectic Stage.

Brain melts down and reconstructs with hormonal and developmental changes. How you assist in the rebuild is super important for how kids will process information the rest of his or her life.

Making Connections about learning concepts is key.

The art of argument can be introduced at this time.

Goals: Debate and Logic

Rhetoric Stage

Move on from the art of argument to the more delicate art of persuasion. We learn about marketing and psychology at this time.

Analysis and synthesis are key.

HOTS: Higher Order Thinking Skills – It’s important to encourage older kids, teens, and adults to dig deeper with their learning, to ask the harder questions, to get to the heart of the matter, and to suck the marrow out of life.

Goals: Essay Writing, Research, and Discussion

How we homeschool:

  • Integrative Learning – We like using unit studies, little microcosm lessons, to really learn about a concept.
  • Whole Family – we do almost everything together and we like it like that.
  • Cyclical Education – chronological over 4 general time periods of history: ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern. We go through the cycle about 3 times over a “homeschool lifespan.”
  • Travel – we love learning about our world and seeing the places we’re learning about. We’re so thankful we get to explore our marvelous world!
  • Notebooking – more free writing instead of boring fill-in-the-blank “busy work” worksheets.

What can my kids handle and when they can handle it?

Children grow at different rates. My eldest is 15 and just entering the rhetoric stage. My son is 5, just beginning school, and is in the grammar stage. My middle girls go back and forth in the grammar and logic stages.

Just because my daughters are in the dialectic or rhetoric stage doesn’t mean we don’t encourage memorization. We still do lots of hands-on work. It’s important to add on the more difficult concepts without leaving out the basics.

There’s a lot of cha-cha when kids transition into new learning stages.

The concepts that define our classical homeschool:

Multum non Multa

We’ve sometimes gone overboard, trying to do too much, stretching too thin – and not succeeding. We prefer to go deep rather than wide. My kids are more than mere vessels to pour facts into. They have a say in what they learn, where their interests lie. I consider their desires.

I see too many curricula offering just a taste of information before moving onto the next thing too quickly. My kids are often unready, hungering for more, desiring to dig deeper to understand what we’re learning. We often spend lots more time than allotted in the teacher guide because we enjoy learning.

Why would I hold them back or push them further when they are so intent on learning right now?

Scholé

Learning is supposed to be leisurely.

The original design of school in ancient times was “apart from physical work.” While we certainly do chores in our home, we prefer to learn in a restful manner. I don’t crack a whip from dawn till dusk. I have a very general agenda and we usually learn at our leisure.

Can you imagine? My public school experience was anything but leisurely. I can and do provide a restful learning environment for my children.

Their hearts are more important than academics.

I don’t want to work my kids to death with busyness. We often don’t complete all our curricula or do it as directed. Are you shocked? We sometimes skip reviews, quizzes, and tests if my kids grasp the concepts quickly and easily or if I feel they’re pointless. I don’t do grades.

If I don’t know how my four children are doing in their studies, then I’m not a good homeschool mom. I don’t have to measure them up against anyone. I used to teach 120+ students and I kept grade records because I had to and because I couldn’t have told you what each child earned on the essay assigned last Tuesday.

We don’t bother with co-ops since they defeat our purpose. I don’t want checklists and schedules and random parents teaching my kids something they don’t even understand themselves. I won’t join any classical cults either.

We limit our extracurricular activities so we don’t feel stressed and rushed.

I make sure the kids get enough sleep. In the spring and summer months, we go to bed later since the sun is still out at 10 PM. We wake up in the morning whenever we naturally rise if we don’t have anywhere to go. It works for us. It’s normally between 6:30 and 8, so don’t think we sleep until noon!

I protect our time so we can be free to learn how and when we want.

Our brains must rest in order to make the connections and assimilate new information. We all need quiet time to just be, to think, to ponder.

When professors, doctors, other professionals take a break from their work to rest, study, and learn, it’s called a sabbatical.

We all need a Sabbath.

Festina Lente

I think activities should have a proper balance of urgency and diligence.

If tasks are rushed, mistakes are made and the desired results are not achieved. Work is best done flowingly, being fully engaged in the task when there is no sense of time passing.

I love seeing my kids absorbed in their learning. I strew books and materials around the house and we love to explore together. We may take a break from our regular lessons to study our backyard pond with its tadpoles and cattails.

We travel often to learn about new cultures, foods, art, language. I don’t make my kids do travel journals every time (honestly, they beg to!). We like to coincide travel with our homeschool studies, but we also learn about new places before, during, and after our trips too.

We live the journey and remember.

I try not to interrupt my children when they are learning and working hard on a project. We don’t have bells, timers, or cute electronic traffic lights to signal when math time is over or to begin history reading.

We prefer a natural flow to our learning.

Some days, we will do science all.day.long. and I’m ok with that. We snuggle up with books or Netflix some days when the weather is cold and blustery. We make time for that and it’s important.

Other days, we may play outside in the warm sunshine and worship God in His creation and develop our family relationships. We bask in the sunshine and watch the iridescent bubbles float through the air or admire new blooms peeking out of the sodden soil. We listen to birds and watch clouds.

Learning doesn’t have to look like copywork, memorizing dates, math manipulatives, or anything dealing with paper and books and pencils at all.

Children learn just fine when we get out of their way.

Learning is living.

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