Ten Commandments of Homeschooling

Back in 2006, I found these "Ten Commandments of Homeschooling" from a homeschooling mother of six. I used these as a basis for a talk for OLG parents that year. It follows the theme of Kathy's last blog about the things we do/don't do during our homeschooling journey.

The majority of us all start off our homeschool journey the same way. You look at the seasoned moms and put them on way too high of a pedal-stool. You want to know all of the things that work for them and how they do everything. Of course, human nature kicks in, and those seasoned moms share all about the great and wonderful things they are doing. All of us are more than willing to share how great our homeschooling is with a new homeschool family. I mean, why would we want to discourage them?

We learn by imitation so.......You go home and try it and it is overwhelming!

Maybe, if we all started by asking them about the troubles and problems they have, we'd be able to keep it all in reality: Homeschooling is challenging for us ALL!

So here are the commandments. I have to try every day to keep these and honestly, I never have complete success.

I am the Lord your God, Thou shall have no other curriculum before Me.
Every homeschooler wants to find the perfect curriculum. The Holy Bible is the best one around. Best of all most of us already own it.

Thou shall not make a graven image of the perfect homeschool family.
There is no perfect homeschool family. We all have sinned a fall short of the glory of God.

Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
Don't be a slave to your duties. Take time to rest and enjoy your children and husband.

Honor your father and mother
Even if your parents are not believers or supportive of homeschooling, honor them. It isn't easy, but the example you set now will pay dividends down the road. If they are deceased talk often of your parents and build bridges from the past to the future.

Thou shall not destroy thy children's spirits
Keep a tender eye toward their heart to make sure that their relationships with the Lord, you, and each other remain strong.

Thou shall not compare yourself one to another
Trust me, you'll always come up short and discontent.

Thou shall not commit "adultery"
Stop cheating your husband of the respect he desires by comparing him to other homeschooling dads, speakers, or authors; and then wishing your husband would be different. Love the man you married not the perfect image in your mind.

Thou shall not boast about your accomplishments.
Scripture says, "Let another praise you and not your own lips." The fruit of your work will be raising a generation of servants for the Lord. And the best reward will be when you stand before His throne and He boasts, "Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter now into the joy of my rest."

Thou shall encourage other families to good deeds not judge one another harshly
We all make mistakes and have things we wished we had done differently. Seek to find ways to build one another up not tear each other down.

Thou shall not steal the joy of your family
The joy of the Lord shall be your strength. As you delight in the Lord your household will become delightful as well.

Enjoy,

Angelle

Comparing Notes (and Everything Else)

My first year in this bizarre group of ours, I was only homeschooling a second grader. One who did very well in school, so I was in the honeymoon stage of it all. Then, when we returned to homeschooling after our year break, I was suddenly homeschooling f-i-v-e, and all of them were in the elementary level. Plus, not all of them were the independent learners my oldest had been. It was hard. I was looking for an escape hatch.

So I started asking questions of you all. What curriculum do you like? How do you teach multiple children? Who does you hair? And I started to copycat what I thought would work for me. Some things really helped me. I think we all need to get help from one another, which is part of why this group exists.  But I'd like to talk about what did not help. It's important. And part of my homeschooling therapy, so please indulge me.

In my haste to become the perfect mother, I looked to some of our veteran moms as seemingly doing all of it right. "If only I could get my act together like she does" was my motto. I took opportunities in conversation to stalk interview them to get ideas. They were very accommodating, but I found that although many ideas worked, not all were the magic fairy dust they seemed to be in someone else's hands.

I had to see that I was raising my sweathogs children, and other families often had a different dynamic from mine. I was an uptight, strung out, Type-A person (I say "was" as if that has changed), and you may have been a relaxed, unfettered, drink-grape-juice-on-the-sofa mom. I had the kids, husband, and life that God gave me. PLUS, after becoming actual friends with you, I saw how you struggled just like I did. I also didn't see that you had personal crosses I never saw, like an aging parent or a child with learning difficulties.

After being at this now for awhile, I finally got my homeschool groove and became better at discerning what to obsess about and what I knew would work itself out over time. So the first time someone came up to me and told me how much they thought I had my act together and wanted my advice, a light bulb went off. I felt like an idiot for putting my friends on those pedestals! I never thought anyone was doing that with me, but I used the opportunity, as I have since, to let them know how we all struggle with our decisions, and that the things we do today in our homes, change as our children do. I also tell them that I screw up as often as I change out the laundry. I am an expert at knowing what not to do!

I still ask for advice and I still offer my opinion, but now I feel confident in my own homeschooling decisions, even if that means chunking something that's not working and starting over. I've begun new curriculum, some pricey, and have tossed it out by October only to start over, because it wasn't working, rather that pursuing a program that didn't meet my needs. It's also helped me not to feel pressure to attend every field trip or activity offered through our school. I have to remember our own family's mission and why I am homeschooling. I am so thankful for this group and am not sure how this would all play out without my having you here to lean on, complain to, cry with.  But, I also have to remember that my homeschool is mine and I am doing this on my own and am accountable to my family alone. Comparing notes can lead you to great resources for your family and support in your own concerns, but getting lost in comparison can steal your joy and take away all the individual successes and failures that God has in store for your homeschool and family.

Encourage one another.  Pray.  Act with confidence.
Then come tell me how you did it!

Making a Homeschool Schedule

You may not care a rat's backside about anything to do with schedules, and may think "uh, this is why I'm homeschooling, so I don't have to follow a schedule".  And if so, please spend this time doing something productive for yourself, like smell a flower, eat a granola bar or watch your kids finger paint your hallway.  For the rest of us, especially the Type A's, like myself.  We need some kind of schedule to get us through the day.  I like to be able to measure my days' work and know when I'll be able to clock out and begin my second shift of the day.  And I hate doing math in July.

But before making any school schedule, I have to remember that school is just a part of why I am home with my kids.  Home life is full of a lot of other things besides school.  We're also doing housework, making dinner, cleaning sheets, diapering babies and checking our emails.  Oh!  And hopefully, we're praying.  In the midst of all that other stuff.

If you'd like to get some perspective on making a "life schedule" as a mother, I think you'd appreciate "A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul" by Holly Pierlot.  She wrote this book after reflecting on how religious orders living in monasteries ordered their day, to get everything necessary accomplished.  After reading this book, I realized in making my schedules, I was leaving out time I needed for areas in life, other than school.  Needs that were important and had to be accomplished too.

Before making a schedule, you have to look at what you're already doing and write it down, then go from there.  If you get up at 7:00 and start school by 9:00, then write it down.  Write the whole day out, start to finish.  You'll use this to make your new schedule and can realistically see if you can make needed changes. 
For instance, you may say, "If I could just get up an hour early, I can get my stuff done and the house ready for school", but you may already be getting up at 5:00, and you may not get in bed until 11:00.  Is this really gonna work?  After looking at your whole day, you may see that you could avoid getting up earlier, if you'd spend a little time the night before getting the house ready for school, maybe even recruit some help. 

One thing that has helped me, is that I get up before the children, and get ready for the day as if I was leaving the house.  This way, if something unexpected comes up, or we have an outing later in the day, I don't interrupt my schedule with getting ready.  I also expect the same from my kids, unless it's just one of those days.  They also need to learn the habit of getting up and getting ready for the day, just like everyone else.  So I have this schedule for them, hung in our bathroom, to give them a nudge.  But what they really need is a jolt!

In looking at your day, make a schedule depending on what is already going on. I like to start school around 8:00 but give myself wiggle room. I made my early morning schedule by working backward from 8:00, so we have morning prayers and have our morning routine done by school time. If I need to add anything else, I have to get up that much earlier. We generally do school until 9:30. The kids need a break by then, plus I had looked at my schedule I had been on, and saw that my husband always calls me at 9:35, on his first coffee break. It made sense to put the first break of the school day, at the same time as my daily phone call with Guy.

I've also over scheduled, or scheduled too tightly.  You know, "From 9:00-9:45 is Math, followed by 9:45-10:30 for English".  We all know that kids don't always respond neatly to a pocket of time.  Now, my schedule is something like this "8:00-9:30:  Religion/Math/English, followed by a thirty minute break, then from 10:00-11:30: Religion/Math/English".  I can work on any of those subjects as needed in our lesson plans.  We then have our lunch schedule, followed by an afternoon block from 12:30-2:30 (with a break) for Science/History/Electives.  I can also take into account, any time I need with one child, perhaps even the baby, and schedule an activity or assignment for the others.  We have a quiet hour at 2:30, I spoke about here.  Depending on afternoon activities, we may spend some time in the evenings on school, if necessary. 
 

This sort of 'rule of life', also allows for a better use of time in other areas, like prayer time and couple time, because it is thought out.  Maybe the children are often outside during dinner preparation, and you and your husband can catch up with each other.  It doesn't have to be followed rigorously.  It is a goal.  It's also your schedule.  You get to make of it whatever you want.  Most days I don't follow it to the letter, and I can change it as needed.
 
The idea is to make a schedule that works for your lifestyle, with all the many layers of family life being nurtured.  I don't really think of it as a schedule, but just how we move through our days. I've also found that my children like knowing what to expect from their day, just as much as I do.  I'm planting seeds so they can one day make their own "rule of life".

TUTORIAL on Using and Commenting on your Blogs!!

At the time of this post, I can only speak of how this works with the current settings we have on our blogs.  We may change the security settings in the future.  Hopefully, this will answer your questions about adding your thoughts here, but please contact either Lisa, Kathy or Angelle if you have any questions.

Remember that even though we have three pages for our different  areas of OLG, they are actually three different blogs.  Therefore, just because you are signed in on one of them, doesn't mean you are signed in on all of them. 

Anyone can see these blogs, but we may change that in the future.  We haven't done so yet, because it would require everyone to get a google account and be invited individually to our pages (every member times three! lots of extra work).  However, to make a comment, you do have to have a google account, which will be covered in a sec.  We are trying to avoid having anonymous users leave comments on our pages, so give us some time to tweak our settings. 

We encourage everyone to make comments so we'd like for you to create a google account.  Many of you already have one, since programs like Flickr and Picassa require a google account.  Remember, if you don't want to make an account, you can still go to these pages and read and follow anything there, you just won't be able to comment and join in the conversation, at least not with the current settings.

Making a google account takes about a minute.  First, click your Google tab above if you have one or go to Google.com and click "create new account" or sign in to your already made account.  You can use your regular email address and a password.  You can even upload a picture to use when communicating.

Once you have an account, you can sign in to any of the OLG pages and it knows who you are, so when you go to make a comment, it should let your comment go through.  If you scroll back up on this page, and look in the upper right corner, you will see the sign in/sign out option.  I will tell you that on my personal blog page, when someone makes a comment and selects to post the comment, it comes back and makes them hit the publish button again.  Just play with it, until you figure it out, or let us know and we'll check out the settings.  There's more about this, keep reading.

To make a comment, go to the very bottom of the post where you want to comment, and look for comments.  It will say the number of comments so far.  If it hasn't had any, it will say 0 comments.  Click on it and then, you should be able to write whatever you want.  Secondly, it will ask for word verification, which are those funny, morphed words, which is a spam protection we have.  Third, you choose your identity.  For google, select "google account".  It may not do this if you're already signed in.  If it lets you select something else, we ask that you put your name in the body of your comment, so we'll know who left the comment.  Finally, hit "post comment".  As I said, the page may reload and you may have to do the word verification on the second trial and then select "publish post".  I'm still trying to figure this stuff out along with you!

Another option, once you've made a google account, is to "follow" us or "subscribe" to us.  This will let you get emails or prompts through your google account when a new post has been made or a new comment.  Look in the sidebar on this page for these preferences.  If you upload a picture, you'll see yourself along with other members under the "Follow" icon.  Remember, we have three different blogs, so you'll have to sign in on every one of the three pages, but that may not be the case if you are "following" them.

Finally, for you veteran bloggers, you know that you can subscribe to the full feed of these blogs and even have them posted on your facebook pages.  We ask that you do not have them imported to places like Facebook, because it will advertise the blogs to people who are not in OLG.  We realize with the current settings that anyone can stumble across our blogs, but no one should really be interested enough to come back.  I have found that some people will make ugly comments, anonymously, just to give you grief, so we are trying to avoid problems.

We hope you'll enjoy this new resource for OLG members and will use it responsibly so we can use it as intended, as a means of support for our members.  It can't be repeated enough that our official secured school website is where we do all of our school communications and you can still pose the same questions about anything you did before at our school site.  Nothing has changed with that.  Anyone who'd like to post a story or something here, can certainly do so, by getting in touch with one of us, so we can get your words up here.  This is your site!  Just remember, this is not a soapbox, but a support box.  Encouraging words please!
Happy blogging!

Getting a Good Lesson Plan

In teaching our children, we have the freedom to teach courses of our choosing (for now) and make realistic goals, while still having the flexibility to make changes over the year.  The state does not care so much about the specifics of your lesson plans, just that you have made them.  So make them work for you.

Keep in mind:

1.  Just because you bought a course that comes with lesson plans, doesn't mean you have to follow it.

We have to keep lesson plans for each child's set of courses (if I have children taking the same course I write one plan and put all of their names on it).  I keep these lesson plans with my folders of samples and attendance, and other pertinent information, for each child, to provide my proof of homeschooling, should it ever be questioned.  My first year of homeschooling I bought a curriculum package that came with lesson plans for each course.  I made myself a binder for that child and labeled the binder with the different courses she was taking, then put the subsequent plans under each heading.  Once an assignment was completed, it was highlighted.  I had my attendance form in the front along with a school calendar that I made (and continue to make each year).  This was a great way to have a guide for keeping me on track, and making sure I finished school in nine months rather than twelve.  I learned early on that I could skip assignments that didn't seem necessary or  she already had mastered. 

2.  If you make your own lesson plans, keep them general.

It didn't take me long to see that weekly lesson plans were the way to go.  Things happen and life gets interrupted.  In the past, I have usually written lesson plans in the summer, on my own, mostly because I am too cheap to buy them.  I like to buy them when I can though, to save time.  In writing a lesson plan, I just go through the table of contents and divide it up, not always by quarter of the textbook, but by difficulty.  The first quarter is often repeated material, so I may get through more than a quarter of the material in the first quarter so I can spend more time in the winter working on a new concept, like long division.  BUT, when I write this up, I usually write page numbers rather than long sentences.  For one week I may write, "Ch. 4, lessons 2-4" or I can be more specific, depending on the subject.  Science, for instance, may have something like, "finish workbook pages for ch. 3, review and take chapter test, choose experiment for ch. 4 and begin work in experiment notebook".  This is much more simplified than "complete workbook pages 26-30, review and take ch. 3 test, gather items for making a biosphere, and, using the scientific method, being writing a hypothesis for the upcoming experiment".

Another thing about weekly lesson plans, is that you can leave Friday as a make up day.  There's nothing written specifically for Friday, just for the week in general.  Some homeschoolers don't do assignments on Fridays.  They use the day for outings or projects or library time.  Knowing that we can plan to finish by Thursday, but have Friday to get in unfinished work, leaves wiggle room. 

Another important factor in writing lesson plans is to look at the whole of all of their assignments.  I like to write my heavy materials first, like math and science.  Then, when I'm writing plans for something like religion or english, if I see that they have a heavy week of work in math or a particularly difficult project in science, I can go lighter on other subjects.  For many OLG'ers, Faith and Life are used for religion, but we also add the Baltimore Cathechism or St. Joseph's First Communion book, for instance.  On weeks when we are perhaps, memorizing the Ten Commandments for First Communion, I may lay off the regular religion book and do memory games for learning.  Taking all the courses into account, helps keep the workload manageable.

3.  Keep all of your lesson plans in one book.

This will help both of you see what their day looks like without having to pull out every subject's notebook.  You could even have them printed so you have only a certain time period on each page, like a four week period.  Also, even though I like mine typed, I leave plenty of space to scratch through and make changes or write extras, like a field trip or a related library book.

There are a number of ways to do lesson plans.  Connie, for instance, uses an online program, where once you have written the lesson plan, you can save it from year to year and use it with subsequent children.  You can also print out weekly plans for each child to mark off, and you can do extras like grading, field trips and attendance.  I used this a few years ago.  It was not expensive for the work it did for you. 

Remember, you are required to have lesson plans and attendance for each student.  Work samples are also a good idea.  At the end of each semester, I gather samples from each quarter for each subject and put them in this cumulative folder I make for the year.  With the political climate hosting a number of homeschool enemies, we have to be diligent about our record keeping.  Who's to say when someone will ask for this, and when they do, they might want to see your records for the last "so many" years.  You don't have to follow them strictly, but you have to be able to show that you are educating your children, and not just playing hookie!

A Curriculum Review: Story of the World Series (History)

Like several of you, I have a number of children who are close in school grades.  At this point, I have a sixth grader, and I'm trying to get her ready for high school.  The triplets are in third grade and I have a second grader just behind them, but I find that with each of their strengths and weaknesses, my four elementary kids are generally at the same level.  Having several at the "one-on-one" teaching level, I have struggled with providing them with the benefits of individualized teaching, while at the same time, having time to provide dozens of individualized lessons for all of their respective subjects. 

A couple of years ago, a few of our moms turned me onto the series by Susan Wise Bauer, "Story of the World" for history.  They had been using it and found it provided straightforward, general history lessons, with tons of resources for diving deeper into each lesson.  Rather than spending a few weeks on one era of human history in each year of school, it comprehensively covers a block of history each year, over a four year period.  In doing so, it takes four school years to cover the whole series, BUT being that it spends so much time on the subject matter, the goal is that children will retain more of it. 
In purchasing the books, you can buy a kit, such as pictured, which includes the main instruction book to read the lessons and storyline, a student kit with questions, discussions, maps of the time, and workbook pages, a test/answer book, plus a second student workbook, in case you don't want to write in your book, but make copies.  Please save yourself some pain, and order the additional books for around $15 each.  The set sells for around $70 from peacehillpress.com.

The series is divided by eras.
Year One (Volume One):  Ancient Times
Year Two:  The Middle Ages
Year Three:  Early Modern Times
Year Four:  The Modern Age

Since the activities on the student pages vary in difficulty, to cover all age levels, the idea is that you'd cover four years from first grade through fourth, using the coloring pages, maps, and more hands on learning, like the "make it yourself" quill pen, that the Monks used to write early books.  Then, when the material is repeated from fifth to eighth grade, the student is already familiar with the subject and can do the more sophisticated work, like reading a book on the early Church or a related novel like The Odyssey.  Books can be obtained from the library, some of them are even available on a cd to listen to in the car.  And if you really want to get high tech, the main instructor book with the lessons and stories can be purchased for an mp3 player, so they can listen to it independently, at least as a review, perhaps as something productive to do while you are working with another child!

Obviously the big selling point for me was that I can provide all my children's history work in ONE class, not five!  We do the initial lesson together, then we all do the discussion and review questions.  While the younger ones are doing the coloring or map activity, Elizabeth and I have a more sophisticated discussion or project or if the younger ones need me,  she works on some literature that fit into the time period. 

The author suggests another four year period could follow in high school.  That may be true and may meet the state requirements, but I will likely use other programs in high school, primarily to expose my children to different styles of curriculum and to meet specific state requirements. 

If you do give these books a try, you may want to purchase some supplemental materials.  The author has references to these supplemental books in each lesson, so you don't have to fish for resources. 

The Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History has Internet links so you can get online and actually take a virtual field trip to the Great Wall of China or look at the tombs of ancient Pharaohs.

The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia has great pictures of ancient artifacts and depictions of ancient life with descriptions of the timeline. 

The Well Trained Mind is a guide to classical education by Susan Wise Bauer and has a list of suggested literature for children of every age and subject matter. Know that Bauer is a christian and makes it known in this book, but not so much in her history series.  I have seen no anti-Catholic references so far, but if I did, I'd use it as a chance to educate them further about our faith, as we all do in the many areas of our lives.

Another recommendation in doing this series is to make a living timeline in your home of the era you are studying (a long hallway would work or maybe put it in a notebook in sequential pages), so when you are studying these significant people and events you can also use the same timeline in all of their subjects.  When did Mozart compose his great works (music)?  When did Ely Witney make the cotton gin (science)?  When did Pope Leo become Pope (religion)?  Personally, I have not made it to this yet, but I love the idea.

This series may not work for you or your circumstances, but for me, it has helped me teach history to all of my children and is low-mommy-intensive on my scale of "how much work is this gonna be for me?".  I don't know about you, but I already have plenty of things to keep straight in my school days, so if I can find a way to simplify, just like a box of Little Debbie's, I'm all over it!  If you have any opinions, or want to share anything, feel free to add to the discussion below!

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool

Every so often I get into a friendly debate with a friend who is a non-homeschooling-non-stay-at-home mom, and we compare our struggles.  It ends up like a series of tic-tac-toe games. There's never a winner. Parenting is hard. And dynamic.  And challenging. And about a thousand other adjectives. What it isn't, is clearly defined.

As someone who's had her kids in regular, Catholic school, both before and after I've experienced homeschooling, I've lived this flip sided lifestyle, working part time while my kids attended traditional school. At the end of the year, I still had most of my hair, but it wasn't pretty. When a friend says to me, "I could never homeschool my kids, I really admire you for being so committed". I think, "Oh, I'm committed alright, or at least I should be!" But I also tell them how I could never do what they do, mostly because I am selfish.  And, that I am not called by God in the same way they might be.  Let me explain.

There were a number of personal reasons that led to our decision to homeschool, but "the daily grind" was the nail in the coffin for traditional school.  I never could really make it work, peacefully.  Typically, I'd get up, and do everything you already do but much earlier (and on the clock), you know, dress, feed the kids. But you also have to find all their uniforms and book bags, make and gather lunches, and collect assignments from the night before.  And by the time I was pulling away from the school and my kids, I'd often have a pit in my stomach, as if we'd had a "drive by" morning.  Aside from our regular prayers on the way to school, I rarely had any time to check in on each of them to see how their day was starting out.

Then they're gone, all day, doing school "stuff". The thing is though, when I'd pick them up, there would be a whole batch of assignments waiting for me them in their book bags. This was one of my major hiccups ...homework.
Homework in kindergarten. Homework from books you didn't have at home to reference (this was before my epiphany of buying teacher manuals).   Homework that often didn't make sense to me that they had to do.  It was a thief of my time with my children and I hated it.

Evenings were spent rushing through dinner, math problems & spelling words, and baths and then by their bedtime, it was time to launder the uniforms, get the book bags and lunch boxes ready again, and probably finish off with some Excedrin! Our family time was non-existent. I was unhappy. I felt like all I was doing was going through the motions of motherhood.

Now (here's my disclaimer), I have never thought that homeschooling is for everyone, because it's not!  God calls us each to a place He wills for us. Guy and I felt we were called to homeschool from the beginning of our marriage. Even before children, even though we knew no one who lived this weird lifestyle, we felt led in this direction.  There would always be something about homeschooling that would pop up.  We'd change the channel and someone would be discussing it.  I'd be at the doctor's office and open a magazine and see an article about it.  This strangely rebellious, academic lifestyle seemed to be God's plan for our family.  So it was no surprise, that when we pulled away from our natural inclination to do so, and put them in school, it was difficult for us. It presented problems we couldn't solve and situations which, we could not accept.  Just as it is, anytime we pull away from what God has planned for us. But, if we stay on the path God has provided us, we are encouraged to continue.

Making any decision, like deciding to homeschool, put your children in traditional school, or even to stop homeschooling, can be a little scary or confusing.  But knowing that God already has His plans for you, should make it clear that praying about it first, then weighing your options and consequences, will bring you peace in doing what is right for your family in doing His will.   As for me, when I'm asked how long I'll homeschool, I always say, "For as long as it works for my family".  After what I've seen God do in our lives, I feel like homeschooling is part of who we are, and I can't imagine doing this any other way.

Peace,