Homeschool Space in Hawaii

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December 3, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

It’s always a challenge to set up homeschooling space in a new house.

Our house on base was open, with few nooks to dedicate to homeschooling.

We used closet space for our homeschooling materials when we moved to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii in 2007.

Tori was 2 and Katie was only a few months old. Liz was only 7.

I had plastic bins of toys in the girls’ closet.

When we began homeschooling in Texas in 2005, we just used the kitchen table for book work during the two years we lived there.

We had this HUGE storage closet and I started out using it as a homeschool room to keep things organized and out of the way. It had built-in big shelves along one wall. I wedged two bookcases and a desk in there.

It worked for a while to keep the toddler and baby out.

But Liz didn’t like being so isolated in a closet.

Who could blame her?

We bought new nicer bookcases and a matching desk.

I moved it into our open living-dining room combo and divided that space into a sofa area and the school office area.

Elizabeth liked doing her book work at the little table (which was mine when I was a child!) or desk while I did planning or blogging at my desk.

Sometimes, Victoria sat at the little table and colored or cut and pasted.

I loved having all my work items in this nice space! We eventually got a printer stand to keep little fingers and paws away.

I love looking back and realizing how little I needed to “do school” then with a baby, toddler, and early elementary.

We’ve gone back to basics, but each child has a desk now!

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Our Curriculum for 2015-2016

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July 15, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We have gotten to a really good place with our curriculum. We know what works and what we like. No fluff! We are streamlined. We prefer a literature and history-based homeschool with lots of books. The kids are at a great age to do their hands-on projects independently.

We’re done with preschool work and it’s so fascinating to me to have the girls reading fluently. Alex is also coming along nicely with reading and writing. He’s a whiz at math!

Our Curriculum Choices for the 2015-2016 School Year

The Boy

Alex is 5.

He is beginning 1st grade Singapore math. He loves Life of Fred and we’re reading Butterflies together.

We’re continuing with All About Reading Level 3. He has a manuscript writing workbook from A Beka that he loves.

He often listens in with our history and science reading, but I don’t make him do any work other than coloring pages. Tapestry of Grace has a new Primer program that is designed for littles.

He likes Bible Treasures and it gives us a good overview and introduction.

Alex does fall soccer and baseball in the spring.

The Girls

Tori is 9 and Kate is 8.

They’re beginning 4th grade Singapore math. The girls are finishing up the elementary series of Life of Fred with Farming. We’re doing Apologia Astronomy and Botany this year.

I let the girls choose their schedule:

Monday: First Start French I, then Level II!

Tuesday: German for Children, then German Demystified

Wednesday: Guitar lesson for Tori and Piano lesson for Kate

Thursday: Song School Spanish…then I don’t know what.

Friday: Prima Latina, then Latina Christiana I

Weekly: Art and Nature Study

Kate does fall soccer. Tori does gymnastics in fall and winter and track in the spring.

The Teen

Liz will be 15 in October.

She is finishing up Videotext Algebra. The goal is to complete that program by Christmas and move on to Videotext Geometry.

We sat down and planned out the next school year and set goals. She’s finishing Second Form Latin by mid-September. She wants to switch to French, so we will do that as a family.

Apologia Biology should be completed by mid-September. Liz begged me to find a 2nd edition Chemistry by Dr. Jay Wile. There’s a new 3rd edition, but we weren’t impressed with the reviews. She will complete Chemistry, then move onto Physics (I’ve already purchased that in case it goes out of print too!).

She is excited to study homeschool Christian psychology this year.

She is ranking up in Civil Air Patrol and is excited about new leadership this year. She has to pass a physical training test every month.

See what our high school homeschool looks like so far.

The Whole Family

We are rotating back to Year 1 cycle in history with Ancient Studies in Tapestry of Grace.

We use the book lists and assignments in Tapestry of Grace Year 1 for Bible, literature, history, geography, writing, and art. We will have a whole Old and New Testament overview this year!

We supplement art studies with Artistic Pursuits.

We anticipate lots of traveling to see ancient sites this year! We’re traveling to Greece this fall and celebrating Christmas in Rome!

We’re working on time management skills with the girls having their own agendas that they check off every day.

When I started easing back into a full-time school routine, I worried we’d be “doing school” all day long. The first day was rather long. The second day, everyone had completed work by lunchtime!

We kinda finished our entire ancient history curriculum in one semester, including trips to Greece and Rome.

We’re spending a few weeks reviewing, notebooking, completing projects, and filling in the gaps of ancient history.

Elizabeth is beginning VideoText Geometry and finishing Apologia Chemistry. She has to complete some philosophy and government readings for history credits. She’s still enjoying Homeschool Christian Psychology. We’re finishing up with I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. We’re having some amazing conversations between that and the psychology book. She’s performing in a local production of the musical Mary Poppins this winter.

Alex is starting All About Reading Level 4! I can’t believe how much he’s learned in so short a time. He’s excited to start Singapore Math 1B.

I’m beginning Apologia Botany with Alex, Tori, and Katie. This will be the first time he’s had a notebooking journal!

I’m reading Changes to Tori and Katie. They’re excited to start Singapore Math 4B and Latina Christiana 1. We’re also adding the Greek Alphabet.

I have spent some time considering what’s most important and removing the fluff from our school time…and our lives.

I’m still purging our home of stuff, cleaning and throwing away and donating. If we haven’t used those items for crafts this year, it’s tossed.

I have all these unit printables in files that the girls loved but Alex doesn’t. They’re gone.

The kids are mostly old enough to do arts and crafts unsupervised. I allow them the freedom to complete projects their own way – even if it’s messy and veers off in a different direction than I’d planned. I bought the girls watercolor calendars.

I hope it’s a fun year!

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We Don’t Do a Homeschool Co-op

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June 15, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 42 Comments

I know many homeschoolers participate in co-ops and love it. I know many parents who utilize co-ops for homeschool courses they don’t feel comfortable teaching – art, upper level math, writing, foreign language.

I’ve seen formal co-ops that are run like private schools. I’ve participated in parent-led co-ops. I know many homeschoolers who do very specific, curriculum-based co-ops. And lately, online co-ops seem popular.

Many families homeschool for different reasons with different methods. We homeschool because I am anti-school. My husband and I are capable of teaching our children all academics and life skills that they need. I am raising critical thinkers, not conformists.

I’m sure co-ops are a wonderful resource for many homeschool families.

Homeschool co-ops are not for us.

Why We Don’t Do Homeschool Co-ops

Cost

Most co-ops charge fees. I get that there are expenses. When I taught school, I spent so much of my own money on my classroom decor and supplies.

Of course, the drop-off co-ops need payments for teachers, materials, teaching space, cleaning fees, whatever.

Even the parent-led co-ops require registration fees, materials fees, cleaning fees…so much money. At the high school level, I could see how sharing a lab cost could maybe be a frugal option. I have four kids and the fees add up so quickly.

I’ve seen that many co-ops require training for the parents. And that’s another cost for a trainer and materials. I was a certified teacher. I have a master’s degree in education. That’s a Nope.

In Ohio, a local Christian school offers a homeschool co-op that requires uniforms, completing forms including which church a family attends, and signing a statement of faith. Tuition is more than $1000 per child per year. There are additional fees for art, sports, drama, and other extracurricular activities.

Socialization?

Of course I want my kids to socialize with other kids.

When we participated in co-ops, it reminded me of the reasons why we homeschool.

Too much of my time after co-op day was spent in deprogramming my kids from the negative behaviors they learned from the other kids and parents at co-op. My eldest daughter was bullied by several girls her age. I felt bullied by several homeschool moms who thought they were way more Christian than we were.

No one ate lunch with our family.

Most of the co-op families attended the same church. And it was not a church I would attend. We were left out.

The negative influences upset our family and it wasn’t worth it.

I found I was getting physically ill the evenings before co-op days and I knew we shouldn’t continue. No one in our family was enjoying it midway through second semester, so why bother signing up next year?

Most co-ops want conformity and that is literally what I don’t want in my family.

Freedom

I like to be free to teach at my own pace. I want my kids to learn at their own paces.

I don’t want them stressing over learning some timeline song or some ridiculously confusing method to write a notes outline each week.

I’m all for schedules and routines and I know many families do grades and tests, but we don’t. I don’t feel it’s necessary when I have four students. I know what they know. I know their strengths and weaknesses. We complete portfolios and learn to mastery.

I don’t want to have curriculum or information or values dictated to our family. This is why we homeschool. I have the freedom to choose our learning styles and topics.

Parents complained when I made a joke they felt was inappropriate. They didn’t like my book selection for February for my story art preschool class. I never realized how strict some people are about things that shouldn’t matter.

I can stay home. Or take a relevant field trip. Or go to a movie. Or take a fun day to play in the snow or sunshine.

Whenever we want.

Schedule

I like to be home for lunch.

When my kids were babies and toddlers, I liked to be home for mealtime and naptime.

We attended a couple very informal co-op events when we first began homeschooling in San Antonio. These were only an hour or two long, more like field trips that were topical – like arts and crafts or looking for tadpoles or just a fun park day. I had two babies at the time, so I went for my eldest daughter so she could play and learn with other kids her age. She loved it, being the social butterfly she is.

I tried to participate in a classical history co-op in Hawaii. I had two toddlers and I spent most of my time corralling them while my eldest daughter was on her own with the other kids and moms. I felt lost and alone.

When we did a more formal co-op in Utah, I had to pack 5 lunches and snacks each Thursday for the day-long co-op. While of course we eat lunch every day, I had to make sure we had food items that didn’t need to be warmed up for co-op since there were no facilities and lunch time was only 20-30 minutes long. Most of the families sat on the cold floor and that drove me nuts. We felt degraded and less-than because we couldn’t even sit at a table for lunch. I tried to make it fun like a picnic but I really hated it.

When we last participated in co-op, Alex was almost 4 and he was completely exhausted by the time we returned home about 2 in the afternoon. And that exhaustion rolled over to the next day, so we lost so much time playing catching up.

I spent lots of time preparing for my turn to teach classes (and I wasn’t too impressed with some of the preps from other parents). Some days, I helped in the nursery and didn’t see my kids at all. Other days, I spent the entire co-op in the preschool room with Alex because he wasn’t completely toilet trained yet. We missed his sisters.

Most of the online co-ops weren’t at a time that worked for us when we lived in Germany. I don’t feel comfortable committing to or scheduling my life around an online class.

Authority

Groups have to have rules and regulations. I get that.

Despite the fact that it is a homeschool co-op, most group kids by ages and not abilities and refuse any exceptions to that school model. That defeats the whole purpose of homeschooling. My kids are all great readers and typically at least one grade level ahead in most subjects, by school standards, but many homeschool parents running co-ops don’t care about any of that.

Some of the co-ops we participated in had bizarre and arbitrary rules and few consequences. My girls were confused about the dress code that seemed to apply to some but others got in trouble, like skinny shoulder straps on tank tops. My girls were only 5, 6, and 11.

Some co-ops require extensive applications and signatures on statements of faith. I don’t often feel comfortable agreeing to these forms. And too often, the outward behavior of the co-op families don’t align with the statements.

Some of the parents who manage co-ops and teach courses don’t have a clue about the curriculum or how to teach children.

This was quite noticeable to my eldest when she took a writing class and could have taught the course at age 11. When I asked the teacher-parent about some of the methods in the course, she couldn’t explain anything to me. She was either ill-prepared or ignorant. I pulled my daughter out of that class. It was a waste of an hour.

I protect our time.

We homeschool, therefore I want us to be home. We’re developing relationships with our family members. We seldom even do field trips with local homeschoolers because they often embarrass us with their behavior or make listening to the guide virtually impossible.

These are hard decisions but almost every time I second-guess myself and enroll the kids in a class, I regret it.

Does your family participate in a homeschool co-op? Why or why not?

You might also like: How We Do Homeschool and Life Series.

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Homeschool High School

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April 22, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

I stressed over the transition from middle school to high school. I worried my daughter would get “behind” in her studies. We struggled with schedules and checklists and planners and keeping up with the lessons.

I did her a disservice the last couple years with review items and I should have listened to my gut and let her be to complete the core four: science, math, history, and literature. She got bogged down and overwhelmed with all I expected her to do. And I cannot live vicariously through her with the education I would have wanted.

What Can Homeschool High School Look Like

I realize she is so much more successful if I just back off.

We still have curriculum: books and a schedule to complete. I discussed how I would like her to cram it all in the next couple months but she’s not interested. If she wants to “waste” her summer, so be it.

The awesome thing?

She’s been learning so much.

I must keep an active, safe conversation flowing.

I listen to her rattle on and on and on about her play rehearsals and what he said at CAP or what she learned about lab science that day.

It can be tiresome but I give her my undivided attention. I must make sure she feels important. Otherwise, she will clam up and there will be no relationship there. I am trying to maintain attachment before she feels that peers are more important than family.

What can homeschool high school look like?

Civil Air Patrol

Liz is currently a C/MSgt.

So proud that Liz received the Air Force Sergeants Association Award for Cadet Leadership!

Several CAP cadets are also members of JROTC and Liz was invited to the JROTC Ball.

Drama

Liz was AMAZING in the play Kindertransport with KMC Onstage. She won an award.

Science

Liz earned first place at our little homeschool science fair.

She worked really, really hard on it and actually did all the research and data and analysis in the medical laboratory.

She learns well this way and applies what she reads in her books.

We had loads of fun at an eclipse party with these fun glasses!

Literature

We love to read and watch the films based on the books we read. We go to the library weekly and use Netflix and Amazon to view movies.

I am currently thrilled to be reading through some of my favorite books that I read and used to teach to my students.

Sometimes, we just read the book and don’t do massive amounts of analysis and work. Sometimes, I have her narrate orally to me what she learned. We like Venn diagrams and notebooking. We’re working up to a couple literary analysis essays in the next couple months.

I don’t force grammar studies or formal writing. We get lots of grammar learning with Latin and foreign language. Liz is a natural writer with all the reading she does and when I work closely with her, I know which areas need improvement.

Much of our literature reading corresponds to our history studies.

We recently visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

History

We’ve been traveling and learning about events and culture to tie in with our history studies.

It’s such a wonderful opportunity to live in Europe and see all the cultural and historical sites.

Liz is on the E in Amsterdam outside the Rijksmuseum.

There we all are!

Art

We love to read about our favorite artists and attempt to recreate something in that style…

but to actually see the originals?

We love the d’Orsay and the van Gogh Museum.

Alex was also thrilled to see his boats from his favorite art game – Art Ditto.

We enjoyed the artistic flower sculpture and displays at Keukenhof.

Math

Liz is slowly completing the algebra program with VideoText.

We plan to log in her activities in a portfolio to make transcripts easier.

It’s been an uphill battle with homeschooling and parenting the last couple years but things are settling down well and I’m seeing the fruits of her labor and I am so proud of her.

I look forward to seeing greatness during high school years. Liz is a social butterfly and unafraid to try new things and I pray for wonderful learning opportunities in her future. Dual credit is a great option for many students. Look into your state and local colleges for more information!

High School Homeschool:

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Our Curriculum for 2009-2010

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January 25, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Our last year in Hawaii was super fun. We finally felt familiar with the island and experienced lots of great field trips.

Our Curriculum for 2009-2010

4th Grade:

Story of the World Book 3
Singapore Math
Apologia Science

Liz got to stay overnight on the USS Missouri. It was the same weekend I gave birth to her brother Alex.

Liz took piano lessons, sang in a choir, did soccer, ran track.

The girls started doing some preschool.

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Our Curriculum for 2008-2009

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January 25, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Living in Hawaii was like a dream, but we had to still live in reality. I had to cook, clean, care for the toddlers, and find exciting ways to homeschool my daughter.

Our Curriculum for 2008-2009

Story of the World Book 3
Singapore Math
Apologia Science – Botany

She attended the base school for one month – October/November. She quit before Thanksgiving.

Her teacher yelled and criticized and left her alone during recess in the trailer as punishment. She developed anxiety and stomach pains. She was threatened by another student during a field trip. They did no science, history, or language that month. It was just random worksheet packets.

We met a Tuskegee Airman.

We visited Pearl Harbor memorials.

There were homeschool opera field trips, dress rehearsals that were free for students.

Liz played soccer, tried tennis lessons, and took piano lessons. We went whale watching. We explored the islands. She won Jump Rope for Heart. She won an art contest and writing contest! She began track.

There were times when Liz had to attend events alone or with her dad. I had to stay home with the two toddlers.

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Our Curriculum for 2007-2008

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January 25, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

We moved to Hawaii after homeschooling for two years in San Antonio, Texas. We continued to homeschool while we lived on Hickam AFB.

It was our third year homeschooling.

We joined a history co-op.

We played in the ocean and explored the islands.

Our Curriculum for 2007-2008

Story of the World Book 2
Singapore Math
Apologia Science – Astronomy

We did a time lapse tide demonstration to show the high and low.

We met the artist Wyland and got an autographed print.

Liz learned to ride her bike.

Liz learned hula, performed in theater, and went to soccer camp.

I tried to provide Liz with lots of variety. Her sisters were babies and came with us almost everywhere. It was an eventful year!

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Homeschool Planner

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January 7, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 12 Comments

The kids are finishing up curriculum and January is typically when we evaluate our successes and whether we need a change.

We tend to follow a calendar year rather than a fiscal or traditional school year.

I realize that my teen needs some direction for time management and must learn to keep a time budget for herself so she can stay on track with her school assignments and not get further behind.

I have some great planning printables on my Pinterest board, but I realize that some of them aren’t exactly what we need.

There are some great calendars and planners for sale all over the Internet but they’re not exactly what we need either and I’ve been so disappointed when I’ve purchased them in the past and they didn’t work well for us.

We made our own student planner.

Here’s what we found and put together for the perfect planner.

A pretty cover.

We love this neato zebra cover page that’s just perfect (she has oodles to choose from).

Goal-setting pages.

Since I’m raising servant leaders, we need goals. I love these free printable goal-planning pages.

I plan to take some time after our holiday to discuss goals with my kids. She can have these planning pages to refer to throughout the year and make sure she stays on track. I think this would be a great motivational tool so she will complete her work.

Calendar pages.

I love the colors for these monthly calendar pages!

And I printed some pretty weekly planning pages to help Liz keep track of her school and extracurricular schedule. I saved them ages ago and have no idea where I got them.

Assignments pages.

I designed some weekly assignment planning pages of our own. There are some really beautiful pages out there, but I need simple, lots of room to write in assignments, checklists, and no bells or whistles to distract. Download our simple student pages below.

As we complete her planner and get all the pages printed for the rest of the year, I will comb bind it and help her fill it out and coach her to keep track every day.

What I’m not including:

cutesy journal pages
artsy freestyle pages
Bible study journals

I saw oodles of these pretty pages to print, but I just know it would end in disaster if I included these in this planner. They would distract the girls and take the focus off time management. They would waste lots of time playing with filling in the blanks and doodling rather than completing and checking off appointments and assignments.

I have an art journal and a great Bible study for teen girls as part of regular homeschool work.

I pray that this pretty new planner will help Liz with time management this year!

I also like this blog planner for me.

Subscribe to the blog and download our student planning pages:

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Homeschool Space in Germany

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August 11, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

We went from having a whole finished basement in Utah for school space to a little office in our new townhouse in Germany.

We’re about to get real.

This is not some Pottery Barn catalog. We don’t have the luxury of having the nicest furniture to last years and years and stay in one place forever. We don’t get to do fun DIY projects on Pinterest with reclaimed barn wood or pallets because all that would get destroyed in our many moves around the world.

We prefer to invest in travel and experiences than things.

But I need, love, want BOOKS.

One wall houses our bookcases.

Tori and Kate have their desks along another wall and on the opposite wall is Alex’s desk.

Alex loves his All About Reading board and the calendar.

One of the closets we are provided holds our sensory bins and some other school items in bins.

Our open shelf has other manipulatives.

The sensory table is in front. Yes, totally blocking the closet. That’s the plan to keep little fingers out.

In the upstairs landing, I put the art table and supplies. It’s a round dining table I got at a yard sale and it fits perfectly. I also recently scored a lovely Lane chest for $50 to store paper! You can see the round table in last year’s learning spaces post. I still want to paint the top.

Liz typically does her school work on the sofa…

Tori and Kate have a bookcase in their room with chapter books and historical fiction.

Alex has a bookcase in his room with picture books and early readers.

Liz has a bookcase in her room with sci-fi, historical fiction, and her Civil Air Patrol items.

Update: Still working for us after a year!

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Our Curriculum for 2014-2015

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August 4, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

It’s that time again. Back to school. And since we pretty much “do school” year-round, it’s rather anticlimactic around here.

We’re still finishing up some history and math before we’re able to move on to a new year’s curriculum. Liz has quite a lot of catching up to do with history, science, and Latin before moving on.

But when we complete “last year’s” work, here’s what we’re beginning!

Tapestry of Grace Year 4 is our core curriculum. Year 4 is contemporary history…and we’ve never really done this year in the history cycle since I couldn’t bring myself to teach WWII when my eldest was little. Since we live in Germany, I can’t pass up this chance to really teach it like few children chance to learn.

Tapestry of Grace encompasses history, geography, arts and crafts, and literature. There are writing assignments and lots of notebooking. It’s a great Charlotte Mason/classical curriculum and we all love the reading lists of living books – most of which I’ve never heard of before on the lower three levels. There are four learning levels – lower grammar, upper grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. Tori and Kate are doing some of both grammar levels and Liz is solid dialectic, but she’s beginning to read some of the rhetoric literature.

Tori and Kate are doing Singapore math 3. Liz is still doing Videotext Algebra. We all love Life of Fred math as read alouds.

Alex just completed All About Reading Level 1 and is beginning Level 2. He is doing some living math and random workbooks.

Tori and Kate are still working through Logic of English. We all love it! It’s slow going – often, 1 lesson takes 2 weeks – but they’re really learning all the nuances of English, spelling, reading, grammar, and writing.

Tori and Kate are going to start work in Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology – and Alex will listen and observe – and participate when he likes. Liz is moving into Exploring Creation with Biology!

The girls are all learning German, French, and Latin. Alex picks up some and loves language!

For Bible, we are continuing with the Apologia What We Believe series and other random readings I come across that I like. We’re also working on thankful journals.

This mama needs to prioritize and pick back up that prayer journal and get up earlier to do Bible study and devotional to prepare for the day. I need an empty lap and empty hands to nurture little hearts.

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