Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Homeschool Middle School

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Middle school, or junior high, is a transition time – between elementary and childhood, high school and college prep.

It’s awkward and gawky and uncomfortable, both physically and emotionally. For the kids and for me!

I loved teaching 8th grade, many years ago now. It was so exciting to see the kids change from the first day to the last day. And I love seeing my students all grown up and starting their own families and teaching their own classes!

Homeschooling was a huge switch for me. I went from teaching teens and adults to teaching a 5 year old, then my babies. As they grew, I became more comfortable. I grew with them, learned with them. We all adapted.

Having my kids reach middle school is so much fun for me. I tease them: you’re in my world now. I know this. I got this. We’re gonna do this right.

The kids know I was totally out of my element teaching preschool and elementary. We laugh about it now. I learned to love it, but I absolutely adore teaching middle and high school.

I love having my tweens and teens home with me. I love discussing history and literature and science and art and music, and even math. I love seeing the connections and assimilation going on from all the topics and travels and years I’ve taught them. I love still reading aloud to them.

I love the sudden fierce hugs. I love watching their bodies grow full and strong, giving me a glimpse into the adults they will soon be. I giggle that they’re all becoming taller than I am! I love hearing about their sports events and art and what they found in the woods. I love that they still show me rocks and flowers and worms and cicada shells.

They’re still so much children but they’re becoming so responsible and big. I desperately want to protect them while realizing I must fall back little by little and let them learn their own path.

I was horrified by a conversation I had the other day where a lady described her son’s harsh transition into middle school. He was suddenly completely responsible each day for turning in his work in the correct tray, completed, on time. There were no reminders or anything. I gave multiple reminders to my kids, even my college students! This is just ridiculous and sets kids up for failure. Her son’s As and Bs turned to Ds and Fs. Without an IEP, there was no assistance from the teacher or support from administrators. This is not the real world!

Middle school need not be a scary age to navigate or teach.

It’s important as parents, we understand the changes our kids go through at this age. We must be supportive and patient. We must remember what it was like for us at that age.

Adolescence is a critical time for brain growth. Thinking become less concrete and more abstract. Hormones and body changes are awkward. Critical thinking is more advanced. Short term memory may be compromised as everything tears down and redevelops.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow is What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good First-Grade Education by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

Our Middle School Curriculum

6th Grade

This is a huge transition year for most kids – in schools and with homeschooling. For us, dialectic work begins. There’s lots more writing, questions, critical thinking. My kids expand their interests: dug deeper and explored new things!

7th Grade

This is one of my favorite years. My kids constantly surprised me with their interests, abilities, and minds. Their intelligent, thought-provoking questions encouraged me to be more honest and authentic. We all made lifestyle changes for improvement.

8th Grade

My kids began to earn high school credits. We transition from dialectic level to rhetoric level work.

  • Videotext Algebra
  • Life of Fred Algebra
  • Tapestry of Grace Year 4 – history, geography, literature, government, philosophy
  • Notebooking
  • French or German
  • Latin, Greek, or Hebrew
  • Apologia Biology

These few years between elementary and high school are crucial to having a great relationship with my kids when they’re older teens.

You ought to give him a taste of freedom while he still thinks it’s yours to give. ~Outlander

I give them more space, freedom, privacy. I encourage discussion about academics, religion, sex and culture, current events, their interests, their lives.

I still remember them as rambunctious babies, toddlers, youngsters…and now they’re growing up into these wonderful young adults.

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Our Curriculum for 2019-2020

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I have reached the apex of homeschooling where my kids are pretty much independent learners!

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow are the What Your ?-Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

I don’t have little kids anymore!

More and more, I just stand back in awe and watch them create and perform.

We love learning and exploring together!

My eldest daughter is 18 and beginning her first official year of college! She has a part time job as a bank teller.

My middle girls are doing 8th grade work.

Tori is 13 and doing Greek 2 and Katie is 12 and is continuing German.

We’re looking into private art lessons for Katie. She does fall soccer. She loves to cook and draw and create.

Tori practices weekly aerial arts at a local gym.

My son is doing 5th grade work.

Alex is 9 and does fall and spring baseball and weekly ninja classes. He won 3rd place recently in a ninja competition!

We’re in year 4 of our history cycle.

We still do lots of morning read alouds together for Bible, church history, natural history, Life of Fred, world and American history, and literature.

I can’t believe how time has flown!

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Our Curriculum for 2018-2019

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I have homeschooled since 2005.

It’s been a wild journey and I have learned so much about myself as a mom and teacher over the years.

You can see how we began with our first and second years.

Here’s how I plan a homeschool year.

You can scroll through all the curricula we’ve used over the years for various levels.

I also created these pages of homeschooling topics and to help answer questions.

This year, I’m only homeschooling 3 kids!

We’re still finishing up some maths, science, and history…but we should have about a month off from academics. We typically school year round with lots of breaks for holidays, resting, and travel.

My eldest is dual enrolled at a local university, and has all but completed her high school work of French and history.

We continue to use our core curriculum of Tapestry of Grace for history, geography, literature, art, music, and church history.

We use Memoria Press for Latin. My son is finishing up Prima Latina and the girls are doing Latina Christiana. We also learn modern languages.

We’ll take local weekly art classes again since we love the teacher.

My middle girls are 11 and 12 years old. We don’t really do grade levels, but I guess they’re in about 7th.

Katie is trying soccer again.

Tori loves being outdoors and walks, runs, bikes, rollerblades all the time.

This year, they’re studying:

My son is 8 years old. He is in about 4th grade.

Alex loves baseball and will play fall ball and spring league again this year.

He is studying:

Apologia Chemistry and Physics to coincide with his sisters’ physical science.

A winter Astronomy Unit

Some of this curricula is no longer printed or has updated to new editions. I’ve had these books for years and if it ain’t broke…

What are you studying in your homeschool this year?

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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 curricula 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. They’re also enjoying Bible studies from Time-Warp Wife.

  • 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 our schedule look like?

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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, every day – life skills, reading, playing, creating, exploring.

Our Curriculum for 2016-2017

Our homeschool curricula 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.

  • The Case for Christ
  • Writing, Government, and Philosophy through Tapestry of Grace
  • College Psychology
  • Videotext Geometry (already halfway completed!)
  • Apologia Physics (already halfway completed!)
  • SAT prep with Khan Academy
  • Red Cross Volunteer at our local hospital two full days a week
  • Civil Air Patrol weekly meetings
  • French 2

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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Second Semester Curriculum for 2015

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After a week off for the new year, we’re back to homeschool with second semester.

Second Semester

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.

All About Reading Level 4

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.

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Our Curriculum for 2015-2016

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Our Curriculum Choices for the 2015-2016 School Year

Our Curriculum 2015-2016

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!

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 great 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!

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Our Curriculum for 2014-2015

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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!

Our Curriculum

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 Liz 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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Our Curriculum for 2013-2014

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Our Curriculum Choices for 2013-2014…

Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices

Elizabeth – 12.5, in 8th-ish grade

She’s earning high school credits already. wow.

Victoria and Katherine – 7 and 6, respectively, in 2nd-ish grade

Alexander – 3, in preschool

Alex knows all his letters, their sounds, and he’s starting to put them together to make CVC words! He knows his colors and numbers past 100. I’m taking it slow with him because I can. He is loving his “school work” and it’s great review fun. But I can tell he’s getting a little bored.

Looking at it all laid out, it looks like so much!

When I went through all of Liz’s papers to organize, I realized how much we did last year. But they get bored if they’re not challenged. And they like to do schoolish activities 7 days a week! It’s exhausting for me and sometimes I have to tell them to just go play or color. Tori will do Kumon math workbooks for fun and Kate reads voraciously!

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Curriculum Planning with Multiple Kids

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Welcome back to the How to Begin Homeschooling series!

Did you miss anything?

See Part 1: Getting started with homeschool or

Part 2: Determine your teaching method and your kids’ learning styles!

Here’s Part 3: Curriculum planning with multiple kids

Coming up! Part 4: Homeschooling as a lifestyle

how-to-begin-homeschooling.jpg

My kids are 12, 7, 6, and 3.

When it was just Elizabeth for our first and second years of homeschooling, it was fun and new and we could do anything we wanted! I was pregnant with Victoria and then she was a great easy baby so we could take her anywhere anytime.

Having one or two kids is a piece of cake. After three or more kids, then they outnumber you and can plan an ambush. Therefore, you must be proactive and plan your attack or you will lose.

After having Kate, it all fell apart. I couldn’t keep the house spotless anymore {I’ll have to tell you about that phase!}. I struggled with schedules and I was late to everything.

Later, Alex came along, but by then, I had come to terms with our life.

We follow a classical school method.

It keeps me sane. We veered off a bit the last couple years, but we’re back to classical and it feels good.

So, where to begin with so many curriculum and scheduling options?

When Elizabeth was 4-going-on-15, I discovered The Well-Trained Mind. I read that book cover to cover and adored it. I thank God I found something so comprehensive right away and could latch onto that and run with it.

I realize it might not work for everyone, but it’s a great launch point. It has recommended schedules so you can judge if you’re doing too much or too little for each age.

Obviously, after you’ve determined your favorite teaching methods and your children’s learning styles, you can search for resources that fit those.

I love reading lists. Since our homeschool is based on history and literature, I acquire lots and lots of books and request a gazillion at a time from our library.

And there will be loss and prayer and tears and searching until you find what exactly works for everyone. Just pray it through. It’s a journey. It’ll be ok.

My husband worried about all the tries and fails of our curriculum over the years. But if it doesn’t work, I won’t force the issue. Why should I when there are so many wonderful options out there? We’re at a time in such freedom of homeschooling and the wonders of technology that we literally have the world at our fingertips and we can and should utilize everything we can to educate our children to the best of our ability.

We’ve finally gotten to a point of comfort and confidence in our homeschool. I pray that you do too! {I fear Alex may throw a monkey wrench in the whole mess! His personality is very different from the girls’.}

How do we function with multiple age children?

Do you ever wonder about the little red school house idea? Remember the school in Little House on the Prairie? How did they do it?

Do school together as much as possible!

Bible, art, history, and science work well for this. And schedule, schedule, plan, and schedule! {But be flexible!}

What about subjects that aren’t so easy to do as a family? Schedule those in so you can work with a child while others are doing assignments on their own.

Here are some of our fails and successes. Of course, what doesn’t work for our family may be perfect for yours!

Bible

We really enjoy Studying God’s Word during her grammar years. They offer workbooks from pre-school to high school.

We loved Grapevine Studies and We Choose Virtues when the kids were young.

The girls liked the comic-book style activity pages in Bible Study Guide.

We’ve read through Hero Tales and The Dig for Kids. Copywork is great for these!
What is your favorite Bible study for your family or homeschool?>

History

See our detailed post about our history studies.

We love Story of the World for elementary ages. We’re now using Tapestry of Grace since we complete so much of the whole cycle the first time ’round.

I love the chronological study of history that our social studies and language arts centers around. It’s great. It takes lots of pressure off and the read alouds are perfect for the whole family. Even my husband loves it after dinner.

We’re flexible and don’t always keep to the weekly schedule {gasp!} Sometimes, we’ll take more or less time depending on interest. Especially since we cycle through several times, so it’s easy to move on if we’re not completely finished with the unit.

Liz really can’t stand to do the projects and the girls love those. They’re finally getting old enough that I can just advise and monitor and they can complete them on their own.

We use notebooking from Notebooking Pages or we make our own with Notebooking Publisher. Sometimes, I use the pages Tapestry of Grace provides.

Science

We especially love Apologia Science – and have never really used anything else since it suits all our needs perfectly. The elementary series is great for the whole family – and the junior high and high school books are comprehensive and fun too!

Math

See our detailed post about how we study math.

We do utilize math journals and notebooking. We focus on a math concept together periodically. We love Life of Fred and the whole family loves the stories. It’s sneaky math. Khan Academy is a good supplement. We’ve used and loved Singapore Math for elementary, but are currently facing a dilemma for upper level math.

Language Arts

See how I don’t teach English.

Following a classical method for English language study begins with First Language Lessons. There are multiple volumes that include all language arts you need!

All About Learning has great reading and spelling programs.

Logic of English is a great comprehensive ELA program. We reviewed IEW. I’m not a huge fan of workbooks, but there are some options that kids just love.

There are many great notebooking tools for grammar and writing. We just read LOTS and narrate it – orally, artistically, or in writing. Older kids reading to the younger ones cheers my heart.

Foreign Language

We focus on Latin ‘round here.

We also have ASL, Spanish, French, and German each week. The kids love it! It’s fun to learn language together. I am amazed by how they soak it up like sponges.

All Those Extras

How in the world do we fit in the extra things?

Music, art, nature study, exercise…

Liz took formal piano lessons from a wonderful teacher who lives down the street. Tori takes guitar and Katie takes piano. I’m sure Alex will eventually take some music lessons.

We love love love ARTistic Pursuits ! We love composer and artist studies and try to do something weekly. And we currently use art and music units from Harmony Fine Arts.

We are very interested in this new music appreciation study: SQUILT.

As for nature study, we love Handbook of Nature Study. The End.

My kids love living books for nature and animals and biographies about musicians and artists.

nature-study

Exercise or PE? Tori, Kate, and Alex take gymnastics classes each week. Tori is quite the little track star, running 2 5K’s with Dad this spring. Kate loves soccer in the fall. Liz is in Civil Air Patrol and must keep up with PT scores each month.

And get ’em outside to play! Schedule this into your day. Sunshine and fresh air are important! Go to parks. Go on hikes. Go to pools. Play ball. Organize a weekly homeschool play group with some of your friends. Our kids also join Dad in the gardening and yard work. It counts!

What About the Littles?

Babies are easy and older children are often very forgiving. But when they become toddlers and preschoolers, you have to get proactive and occupy those little monsters. And keep the older sibs’ history projects and science experiments well out of reach. {Who knew they could reach that far?!}

Check out my beginning homeschool post!

I’ve known families with littles who didn’t schedule or plan and just allowed for free play until school age, and that may work for you, but I think everyone misses out on so much in that environment. My kids are often bored or destructive if they don’t have some direction. Weekends are crazy for that very reason.

With so many wonderful Montessori and Tot School resources floating around on blogs and websites, you’re doing a disservice to your family if you leave that baby or toddler to him or herself. And you’ll have so many more messes to clean up. Also, schedule for older siblings to spend “baby time” as part of school time. Train your older children to be a “mama’s helper” and this will benefit all.

More on that in our next post!

Organizing

  • Circle Time

We do “circle time” together most mornings. All of us together…we do our Bible lesson and read alouds, focusing on memorization, recitation, narration. The littles learn so much during this time. We also work on calendar notebooks, sing our morning songs, and love on each other. Sometimes we do yoga together. We learn facts together with occasional calendar themes. We discuss science, literature, and history we’re studying. This often just transitions into regular assigned work so smoothly. Liz has gotten to where she doesn’t participate as much with circle time. After Bible, she uses the time to get ’er done since they’re all occupied.

We have used several different workbox systems over the years. It’s great for planning, visualizing what needs to be accomplished, and what has been completed.

Sue set up the workboxes for her autistic son to visualize his work. Her system calls for 12 plastic shoeboxes on a wire rack, but why not beautify it? No space? I’ve seen work folders that follow the same concept. I’ve seen some gorgeous examples of shelving and bins that could work with any budget. Google “workboxes” because I can’t list them all here. Also, you can find great free cards for labeling if you so choose. We don’t really label anymore.

Right now, we have 9-cube units from Target that work as our “boxes.” I put baskets, trays, activities, or books into the cubes and that’s what the kids work on for each week. They choose the order they do their assignments. I monitor to make sure they do what they need to do. Otherwise, Kate would do all the science and Latin and Tori would do all that math and they wouldn’t ever get to history or writing.

This is what Tori’s and Kate’s cubes look like this week. They do the same work, so I just double up in the cubes. They’re the perfect size.

Top row: We have fractions. Then Spanish and Latin.

Middle row: I have some money cards and money math pages. Then I have a Montessori letter tray and activities. We’re finishing up Land Animals science.

Bottom row: Then our Harmony Fine Arts notebooks and art journals. We have Draw Write Now. Last, we have life cycles and Charlotte’s Web unit (review soon!).

girls cubes

The girls place any completed pages in the trays on top. The frames on the wall are to keep me on track with weekly themes. Their notebooks are propped on the floor beside the unit. We got through and place their pages in the notebooks when the trays are full.

Alex has a unit too with preschool activities. Toys are in the plastic bins and he lays out his Montessori rugs for his activities to stay contained.

I have a bigger red pocket chart now that we put up all our week’s work.

preschool room

Liz has a 6-cube unit laid horizontally so she has a big shelf on top for her desk supplies. She has one cubby for every subject (science, math, history, language arts, Bible, Latin) and a big lovely thrifted basket beside it for art. Her notebooks are propped up beside her unit and she organizes her own now when her tray gets full. I give her a printable checklist each week.

tween cubes

See how we homeschool high school?

The girls have homeschool planners to learn time managment.

See how I plan a homeschool year.

How do you stay organized or schedule many children?

Stay tuned for part 4.

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