Here's a post for anyone interested in hearing how it's going with the kids' education. I spend a massive amount of brain power thinking about and planning the course of my childrens' education and daily lives, but rarely share that with others. Of course, we had always planned to home school, but the pandemic, along with Everett turning 6 in 2020 (i.e. it was time to notify with the state of Ohio), it started to get a little more real. I had been kind of "unschooling," which was fine for the kids, but it kind of felt like I was reinventing the wheel and working really hard, when so many amazing resources are out there. A friend mentioned she was using Blossom and Root, which is a secular, nature based curriculum, and so we decided to give it a try. The subjects it covers are science, language arts, math in art, and nature study. For math, we ended up going with a program called Wild Math. I LOVED the science curriculum, which introduces each new week as a "wonder," which I think is so true, because most of what we end up learning about really is wondrous. I was really unimpressed with the language arts program for 1st grade (though they've since updated it and I'm excited to try it out). Math was....a struggle for us. I really, really wanted to love Wild Math, but it wasn't really a curriculum, so much as a list of activities that could be done to strengthen skills as dictated by core curriculum standards. It was a lot of work for me to cobble together hands on lessons that Everett HATED (Because, I think, he hates being put on the spot when he's unsure.) Our first year of official homeschooling was....a learning experience. I bought a binding machine (totally wish I would have bought a much upgraded model), a laminating machine, 3 and 1 hole punches, a cutting machine, and somewhere between 40-50 supplemental books. I also bought an American History (the early years) curriculum through Blossom and Root called a River of Voices, which I am still tentatively really excited about, but was a little advanced for the kids at the time (4 and 6), and a little labor intensive for me to carry out (not an open and go curriculum)
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| The space: it's not usually this neat, but we try our best! |
As the first year went on, I learned a lot, and by year two, I'm really starting to hit my groove and figure out what the hell I'm doing. The biggest game changer of all was buying an Eco Tank printer, which lasts long and has inexpensive ink refills. Because the Blossom and Root second grade language arts curriculum had great titles like the Hobbit, The Wizard of Oz, The Wind in the Willows, American Tall Tales, and Trickster Tales from Around the World, I decided to give Blossom and Root another try, even though we weren't super impressed with the first grade language arts curriculum (which has since been updated). For science this year we are learning about plants and fungi. Also, because Laurel is starting to get a little older, I decided to get her the kindergarten curriculum, which includes a nature study, space study, language arts, and art/history of me. I knew she would appreciate having something that is truly her own, instead of tagging along with what her older brother was learning, and I was right, BUT, two complete curricula for two kids is a LOT to keep up with. And I love all the aspects of the curriculum, so skipping out on any one part causes me pain, but it has to be done! For Laurel, we are focusing on the space, language arts, art/history, and then doing the kindergarten art program together (and NOT doing the second grade art program). Last year, we had separate books for each subject, one for the parent guide and one for the student....we probably had 10 notebooks total, and that doesn't include all the supplemental books. It was a LOT and I was always losing the books, and there was no way I would be able to keep up with all those books for TWO kids, so instead of binding, I put everything into color coded binders, orange for Laurel (LO) and yellow for Everett (YE)
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| 1 binder for each grade, one parent guide each, and one student book each, plus seasonal activities! |
It's all been going pretty well, but I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that we didn't have a history curriculum. So, in October, I started hunting. Of course, first and foremost, it had to be secular and I wanted to find something that respected and amplified various voices from around the globe, and that stayed away from a white washed, colonialist perspective, and I found that that pretty quickly narrows down your home school options (absolutely abhorrently, there are actually home school history curricula that hint at the idea that African colonization was for their best interests). Fortunately, I already have the River of Voices for when we get to the history of North America/the United States, which I am really excited to get to someday, along with projects like Howard Zinn's History of the United States for Kids. It was a tough choice between a couple different curricula, but we ended up going with History Quest, which focuses pretty heavily on the storytelling aspect of history. And the kids LOVE a good story, so I thought that would be a great fit for introducing them to history and stoking a love of it. Right now, we are 100% downplaying the dates of things, the order, etc. just to focus on all the cool stuff that's happened. We're only 3 weeks in, but we've all learned so much. Australopithecus! Sumer! Cuneiform!
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| Keeping it all organized is no easy task, but we've improved by leaps and bounds! |
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| The small metal bookshelf on the right holds all our curriculum specific books |
So just now when I'd started thinking that I'd gotten all the aspects of our education up and running, I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that math just really wasn't going great for Everett. Everett groaned every time we "did math," and I really felt like we weren't channeling our inner wonder and curiosity. I picked up a 2nd grade Enchanted Forest workbook though, and Everett really enjoyed working on it, so I knew we just needed to change up our approach. I ended up choosing Beast Academy, which looks challenging for him, but also....it has monster characters, so you know it's a win! We're working through the Enchanted Forest workbook right now, but we just got the Beast Academy workbooks, so we're looking forward to starting those in the next few weeks.In addition to our regular curricula, I've also found there's this whole world of homeschooling themed educational tools made mostly by parents who are also homeschooling their kids, and are artists, math educators, etc. I have bought several nature themed bundles, forest schooling bundles, etc., so when I'm not sure what to do with Laurel, I'll just find the arithmetic or coloring section, for example, for one of the bundles I procured, and print out a page for her to do, which she loves. My favorite of these that I have found so far is the Simple Living Collective (https://www.simplelivingcollective.com/) which is not really a curriculum, but it's more like a guide of recipes/crafts/activities for each season. So far, I've bought the spring and autumn editions, and I'm eagerly awaiting the winter one!
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| Learning happens everywhere! |
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| Laurel loves numbers and she loves having her OWN activities to do! |
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| Air dry clay leaf models. We're going to paint and add labels to the parts of the leaf! |
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| Everett working on the Enchanted Forest math workbook, using an abacus he made himself! |
We don't just look to these core curricula for our inspiration, though I do have an entire shelf dedicated just to our "curriculum books" (Smithsonian Find Out! books, novels for the year, history encyclopedias, Astro Cat's Space Adventures, etc). We also rely heavily on a PBS subscription (namely Nature and Nova, but also many others), Globe Trekker subscription, and I just got a subscription to DinoLingo, a language learning resource for kids (cheesy and not perfect but a great scaffold for me to jump off of, again, without reinventing the entire wheel myself.) And we can't forget about great podcasts like Wow in the World and the storytelling themed Circle Round. There are also invaluable resources on social media, like the Secular, Eclectic, Academic parenting group, from which I have gotten only about a million ideas (https://seahomeschoolers.com/ Our backyard garden, as well as the metro parks are wonderful places for learning to happen naturally and effortlessly. We don't have spend ANY TIME inside looking at text books on days we head out to the metropark trails, because the world is there for them to learn about right at their finger tips. My two year old is into yelling out "PHOTOSYNTHESIS!!!!!" these days (pretty sure he doesn't know what it means), but he CAN point out a bryophyte when he sees one, and I couldn't even do that until I was 39 years old (AKA now!)
As we start to get more towards being fully protected by vaccines, I'm beginning to look at the option of a weekly homeschool co-op, so I can cross things like "art teacher" off my to do list, and we can begin to make friends who are on the same path as we are. The isolation and lack of friends is really hard for me some days, and the kids too, I think from time to time, but we do have each other, and most days that really is enough, no, not enough, it's EVERYTHING. On my darkest days, I wonder why I've chained myself to this rigorous, insane plan, and wonder how many butts I will wipe before I see another adult human being. But on my brightest days, I derive so much pleasure in relearning the truest wonders of the Earth, while holding the hands of my curious and inquisitive children. Our two main reasons for homeschooling are: cultivating a love of learning and spending time with the people we love most. Above and beyond that, it's really important to me to create responsible stewards of our environment, and to break free of teaching history from the perspective of the colonizer. I want my children to grow up being critical thinkers and analyzers, while also being humble citizens of the world, who appreciate the diversity and tapestry of the amazing community of humans of which they are but a small part.
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| Our vast array of art supplies so that we can delve into ANY project at ANY moment's notice! |
Being completely responsible for my kids' educations, especially with a toddler is REALLY, REALLY HARD. I spent a LOT of brainpower planning activities and lessons, making sure we have all the resources we need, and checking what's working and what's not. But at the same time, it's really great. If one of the kids is having an off day (or me!), we don't HAVE to do anything. Or, maybe all we do is snuggle up on the sofa together and read books. Or maybe the kids spend the better part of an afternoon digging a hole in the backyard, and ruining my life (annoying now, but I see how happy they are and I KNOW they will remember these times as adults). Plus, when I'm digging up my gardens, nothing brings me greater satisfaction than unearthing a huge rock, so I enjoy seeing the kids deriving pleasure from the same thing. A lot of times, a week long unit takes us 2 weeks, and guess what, nothing happened when we skipped the last 4 weeks of last year's language arts stuff that no one wanted to do. |
| Chad and the kids built a rocket ship for Laurel's space curriculum! |
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| We made the basement into an art space where the kids could work on messier projects |
I spent a LOT of time thinking about my kids' education, and it occurred to me that if I never spoke it aloud, no one would know. I don't have any illusions that MOST people would probably not care about the day to day of my home education adventures, but for anyone who has ever wondered or wanted to know more about what the kids and Chad and I are up to, here you go!
Curricula We're Using
- Blossom and Root Kindergarten (Laurel)
- Arts and the History of Me (art study, we are combining for both kids)
- Language Arts: A Gentle Beginning
- Science: My Great Space Adventure
- Nature Study: My Outdoor Classroom
- Blossom and Root 2nd Grade (Everett)
- Science: Wonders of the Plant and Fungus Kingdoms
- Language Arts: Fantastic Journeys and Perilous Quests
- History Quest (Ancient History)
- Beast Academy workbook (Math) - haven't technically started yet
- Wild Math - we were using this but it took A LOT of prep and Ev hated it
- Dino Lingo - Japanese (not sure how I feel about this program, but the kids like it and it's HARD to find a good language learning program)
Other Resources:
- Globe Trekker travel shows
- PBS (especially NOVA and Nature)
- Simple Living Collective (seasonal collection of arts/crafts/recipes/stories)
- Podcasts
- Wow in the World
- Circle Round
- Public Library - we wouldn't survive without this invaluable resource!!!!
