After a lot of thinking, talking, reading, researching, and praying... We have decided to homeschool. We are drawn to it for so many reasons, but one huge reason is that it allows us to maintain a family life. Enrolling our kids in school would mean Jason would only see the kids one day a week. Running a tattoo shop requires crazy hours, flexibility, and teamwork when balancing a business, home, and two kids. We have learned to make the most with what we have. Some of our most fun family moments are when Jason has a sudden cancellation and we make a quick trip to the playground, to get ice cream, or just hang out at home together. So in an effort to keep our family unit strong, we decided to make the leap.
I am so excited that the world will be our classroom. I'm looking forward to taking the kids to experience what we are learning. I feel so blessed that I will get to see them first hand as they grow and learn.
This decision was definitely made easier having friends from my MOPS group who homeschool. They seem to enjoy it so much and are always doing fun and creative things with their kids. I saw them participating in so many group activities and communities. Like most of them, we are joining a group called CHEF (Christian Home Educators Fellowship) that has organized activities like P.E., field trips, camping trips, and more. Blaine is enrolled in Classical Conversations (CC) for this year, which will be the largest part of our curriculum. Quite a few people have been asking me what is involved with CC, so here's an outside blog post I came across a while back briefly explaining it. In addition to CC, we will be doing additional handwriting, phonics, and math.
Also, Vivienne will be sitting in with what Blaine is working on at home. And Blaine will be sitting in on some of Vivienne's work (mostly Bible study) from Hands On Homeschool, a 2 year old program, which he has already done.
At home:
A while back, I turned our short hallway into a mini school area for Hands On Homeschooling for Blaine. As a confined space, I find it an easy place to hold the attention of our two wild toddlers. And I literally mean a confined space... I lock the doors and block them from escaping by sitting on the edge of our learning space or sometimes putting a gate up. There's no temptations of TV, snacks on the counter, or the dog as a distraction. We do our writing activities at the table, but anything that just requires some conversation, visual aids, iPad, or reading a book is usually handled here on pillow piles and a bean bag chair. I have framed posters of the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, separate frames with all of our immediate family members, and a cork board for me to stay organized. This also give us a place to display everything the kids create without disrupting the rest of our home. I've recently cleared off a lot of their artwork from all over the doors and walls. Although, I'm sure it will soon be covered again. I don't think this little hallway will always be able to hold everything we are working on or always be necessary, but up until now, it has been perfect for what we are doing. We will figure this out more when CC begins NEXT WEEK!
The posters are large and really nothing fancy. Shapes and colors one is 20x30. Alphabet and numbers one is 16x12. Here are the images if you are interested in printing something similar. You don't have to print that big, just shrink to fit 8.5x11.
We are looking forward to this exciting journey and I hope to update often on what Blaine and Vivienne are learning!
Have you ever thought about homeschooling? If you do homeschool, what do you love most about it? And is there a space in your house that you designate for lessons?
No comments:
Post a Comment