Our first week of joint homeschooling
Part of the reason we decided to homeschool right now was because we would be able to do it with my sisters & their kids, so we would have a good support system & social network. Between the three of us, we have 8 kids total. 3 girls & 5 boys. Age wise, we have a newborn, 2 year old, two 4-1/2 year olds, a 6-1/2 year old, almost-7 year old, 8-1/2 year old, and almost 10 year old. So you can imagine it is challenging dealing with that many age groups. We are looking at pre-k, 1st grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade.
We rang the New Year in with a cousins' sleepover on New Year's Eve. We made 9:00 pm our official "midnight" as we didn't want to keep the kids up crazy late & that is midnight in the part of Brazil that Enzo (our exchange student from 2015) is from. We decided that since we were all together anyway, we would begin joint homeschooling on New Year's Day. Previously to that, my boys & two of their cousins have been homeschooling independently. We started homeschooling on Thanksgiving break, but my younger sister didn't pull her kids out of school until Christmas break.
Needless to say, day 1 of joint homeschooling was a lot of trial and error. We quickly realized that it was going to be difficult finding joint things to do with all the kids at once. I personally am doing a structured version of unschooling with my boys. They are older (3rd & 4th grade), love learning, and are great at doing independent research. However, my nieces & nephews are younger & need more guidance at this point, so what I've been doing with my kids doesn't necessarily work for them yet.
It was really cold, so we bundled the kids up & sent them outside to check out the ice on the pond. They were supposed to observe what they saw, then come back in & describe it. They made a little drawing to go along with it. Then we pulled out the globe & demonstrated why we have seasons & why the poles are cold & the equator is warm. That also led into a discussion of the Earth's time zones & the International Date Line. We found a few short videos on YouTube explaining these as well. The older kids were interested, but it was over the little kid's heads.
After that, we had the older kids read a social story book about interrupting (My Mouth is a Volcano) to the younger kids. We figured this was good practice for them to read out loud & make reading fun. Connor, especially, loved it & he treated the reading like a dramatic play, reading in a very villainous voice. For those unfamiliar with social stories, Wikipedia explains them this way - "Social Stories are a concept devised by Carol Gray in 1991 to improve the social skills of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). ... Social stories model appropriate social interaction by describing a situation with relevant social cues, other's perspectives, and a suggested appropriate response." Even though it was specifically designed with autism in mind, I've found they are great for young kids in general, and I own quite a few of these books. We want to read one a week with our curriculum.
It felt like the whole time of day 1, one person was basically cleaning up/cooking, one person was trying to manage the learning, and one person was holding baby Kate. Organized chaos is what comes to mind when I think of day 1. But it was still fun to get the kids together & figure out what we need to do differently. It'll definitely be a work in progress.
We are planning on doing 3 group homeschool days a week - one in Apison, one in Soddy, and one as a field trip day. That is, of course, open to tweaking as needed, but it sounds good in theory. The other two days a week we will do the school work on our own at home (or wherever).
This week, Kara had to work our 2nd homeschool day, but me & Kristen still got our kids together for a bit. It was mostly playing, though, and we did our school stuff independently. My boys did a STEM project using marshmallows, toothpicks, and spaghetti (who could build the tallest/strongest tower), and did lots of research on marine life (Casey) and space (Connor). We also started a new math program. They did Adapted Mind math for a couple weeks until it started getting glitchy in the higher levels, so we decided to try Elephant Learning math. It costs quite a bit more, but I actually love that it gives your child a "math age" based on what they've done, so you can see how ahead/behind they are.
Today was day 3. We decided to focus this month on winter things since it's cold. We learned about snowflakes (thanks, YouTube!), cut our own snowflakes, did a science experiment on dissolving candy canes, learned about blizzards, and grew our own geode crystals. We also had the kids make "goal boards" of what they wanted to learn about, places they wanted to visit, and educational things they wanted to do this year. Casey's included visiting several aquariums & zoos. Connor's included learning more about space, working on his YouTube channel, visiting Myrtle Beach & Williamsburg, and creating his own planet (on a website). After that, we pulled the kids aside by ages & let them do some age-appropriate activities as well. My boys went back to their independent research, and Connor did some computer coding.
The cool thing about homeschooling is you only need 4 hours a day of "schooling" to count as a school day. If you think about it, it makes sense. In a traditional school there is a lot of down time or transition time. And it takes longer to work with 20 kids than just a few. The thing is, when learning is actually fun, they don't want to stop at *just* 4 hours. So often they will research, read, do math, coding, etc. all day. I do feel like I will have it easier than my sisters for homeschooling since my boys are older & independent learners. I guide them, point them in the right direction, and help as needed. But the younger kids definitely need a lot more guidance and teaching. I have a feeling my boys are going to be researching quite often while their younger cousins are learning the basics.
I'm thankful for YouTube which has a huge wealth of educational materials available for free. The content ranges from short, child-friendly video clips explaining different topics to longer, in-depth documentaries on a wide range of subjects. My boys are experts at navigating YouTube and it is definitely a big part of our curriculum. They actually love documentaries on the topics that they are studying, so it's perfect! I've found that when they are interested in the subjects they retain the information much better because it's interesting & relevant to them. That's part of why I let them choose what they want to research.
On one of our independent days this week I took my boys & one of their friends to the Creative Discovery Museum where they spent two hours building, learning about dinosaurs & electricity, etc. We also did a STEM project using plastic cups to build different structures. They enjoyed running thru the cups & knocking them down. Who says schooling can't be fun? ;)
Next week, Kara works all week so I'm not sure what we'll do for our joint schooling, but we'll figure it out! Maybe just Kristen & I will get together. Who knows! But we'll definitely continue our independent learning regardless!
We rang the New Year in with a cousins' sleepover on New Year's Eve. We made 9:00 pm our official "midnight" as we didn't want to keep the kids up crazy late & that is midnight in the part of Brazil that Enzo (our exchange student from 2015) is from. We decided that since we were all together anyway, we would begin joint homeschooling on New Year's Day. Previously to that, my boys & two of their cousins have been homeschooling independently. We started homeschooling on Thanksgiving break, but my younger sister didn't pull her kids out of school until Christmas break.
Needless to say, day 1 of joint homeschooling was a lot of trial and error. We quickly realized that it was going to be difficult finding joint things to do with all the kids at once. I personally am doing a structured version of unschooling with my boys. They are older (3rd & 4th grade), love learning, and are great at doing independent research. However, my nieces & nephews are younger & need more guidance at this point, so what I've been doing with my kids doesn't necessarily work for them yet.
It was really cold, so we bundled the kids up & sent them outside to check out the ice on the pond. They were supposed to observe what they saw, then come back in & describe it. They made a little drawing to go along with it. Then we pulled out the globe & demonstrated why we have seasons & why the poles are cold & the equator is warm. That also led into a discussion of the Earth's time zones & the International Date Line. We found a few short videos on YouTube explaining these as well. The older kids were interested, but it was over the little kid's heads.
After that, we had the older kids read a social story book about interrupting (My Mouth is a Volcano) to the younger kids. We figured this was good practice for them to read out loud & make reading fun. Connor, especially, loved it & he treated the reading like a dramatic play, reading in a very villainous voice. For those unfamiliar with social stories, Wikipedia explains them this way - "Social Stories are a concept devised by Carol Gray in 1991 to improve the social skills of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). ... Social stories model appropriate social interaction by describing a situation with relevant social cues, other's perspectives, and a suggested appropriate response." Even though it was specifically designed with autism in mind, I've found they are great for young kids in general, and I own quite a few of these books. We want to read one a week with our curriculum.
It felt like the whole time of day 1, one person was basically cleaning up/cooking, one person was trying to manage the learning, and one person was holding baby Kate. Organized chaos is what comes to mind when I think of day 1. But it was still fun to get the kids together & figure out what we need to do differently. It'll definitely be a work in progress.
We are planning on doing 3 group homeschool days a week - one in Apison, one in Soddy, and one as a field trip day. That is, of course, open to tweaking as needed, but it sounds good in theory. The other two days a week we will do the school work on our own at home (or wherever).
This week, Kara had to work our 2nd homeschool day, but me & Kristen still got our kids together for a bit. It was mostly playing, though, and we did our school stuff independently. My boys did a STEM project using marshmallows, toothpicks, and spaghetti (who could build the tallest/strongest tower), and did lots of research on marine life (Casey) and space (Connor). We also started a new math program. They did Adapted Mind math for a couple weeks until it started getting glitchy in the higher levels, so we decided to try Elephant Learning math. It costs quite a bit more, but I actually love that it gives your child a "math age" based on what they've done, so you can see how ahead/behind they are.
Today was day 3. We decided to focus this month on winter things since it's cold. We learned about snowflakes (thanks, YouTube!), cut our own snowflakes, did a science experiment on dissolving candy canes, learned about blizzards, and grew our own geode crystals. We also had the kids make "goal boards" of what they wanted to learn about, places they wanted to visit, and educational things they wanted to do this year. Casey's included visiting several aquariums & zoos. Connor's included learning more about space, working on his YouTube channel, visiting Myrtle Beach & Williamsburg, and creating his own planet (on a website). After that, we pulled the kids aside by ages & let them do some age-appropriate activities as well. My boys went back to their independent research, and Connor did some computer coding.
The cool thing about homeschooling is you only need 4 hours a day of "schooling" to count as a school day. If you think about it, it makes sense. In a traditional school there is a lot of down time or transition time. And it takes longer to work with 20 kids than just a few. The thing is, when learning is actually fun, they don't want to stop at *just* 4 hours. So often they will research, read, do math, coding, etc. all day. I do feel like I will have it easier than my sisters for homeschooling since my boys are older & independent learners. I guide them, point them in the right direction, and help as needed. But the younger kids definitely need a lot more guidance and teaching. I have a feeling my boys are going to be researching quite often while their younger cousins are learning the basics.
I'm thankful for YouTube which has a huge wealth of educational materials available for free. The content ranges from short, child-friendly video clips explaining different topics to longer, in-depth documentaries on a wide range of subjects. My boys are experts at navigating YouTube and it is definitely a big part of our curriculum. They actually love documentaries on the topics that they are studying, so it's perfect! I've found that when they are interested in the subjects they retain the information much better because it's interesting & relevant to them. That's part of why I let them choose what they want to research.
On one of our independent days this week I took my boys & one of their friends to the Creative Discovery Museum where they spent two hours building, learning about dinosaurs & electricity, etc. We also did a STEM project using plastic cups to build different structures. They enjoyed running thru the cups & knocking them down. Who says schooling can't be fun? ;)
Next week, Kara works all week so I'm not sure what we'll do for our joint schooling, but we'll figure it out! Maybe just Kristen & I will get together. Who knows! But we'll definitely continue our independent learning regardless!
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