Homeschooled Mom

When my oldest son was four, he was quite bored with the preschool workbooks we were doing, so I decided it was time to start kindergarten work. I decided to design my own curriculum with the help of the book “Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School” by Rebecca Rupp to help me know a common scope and sequence for kindergarten. The only thing I purchased was a pack of kindergarten lined paper (the type with the red line on the top, blue line on the bottom, and dotted line in the middle). I called my curriculum “Letter a Week”. Here’s how I did it.

Reading

Monday of every week, I read to my son the corresponding letter book in the “Sound box books” series by Jane Belk Moncure (I don’t own these, I borrowed them from the library). This was a great introduction to the letter sound. We also read throughout the week, books on a minimum of two other topics (usually involving an animal and a sport because these were of interest to my son) for the corresponding letter of the week, such as apples, archery, alligators, and army for “A” week. We often read multiple books on each topic. As he progressed in his phonics skills, I started introducing simple phonics books such as “The Bob Books” series by Bobby Lynn Maslen and “Easy Words to Read” series by Phil Roxbee.

Writing

Every week, I made three handwriting worksheets for my son. I tried both printing them from the computer and making them by hand with kindergarten lined paper and a highlighter. I preferred making them by hand. Each worksheet contained practice for my son’s name (this progressed from just his first name initially to his full name after a few weeks), the lowercase letter of the week (a few to trace and a few to write on his own), the capital letter of the week (again a few to trace and a few to write on his own), either a few simple words that started with the letter of the week or a sight word or review (depending on which day of the week it was), the number of the week (which eventually progressed into writing things like his phone number and address).

Math

I read the corresponding number book of the week in the “My Numbers Books” series by Jane Belk Moncure (also called “My First Steps to Math” series). This was a great way to solidify the concept of each individual number. Of course we did lots of practical application practice as well, like “How many socks are in the laundry basket today?” or “Lets see how high we can count while we wait in the line at the grocery store.” Eventually this progressed into a math concepts such as time, addition, or counting by 2s.

Science

We also related anatomy to our weekly letter. I taught my son every body part I could think of that started with that week’s corresponding letter. For “A” week, I taught him: arm, arm pit, arch (of his foot), abdomen, Adam’s apple, and ankle. Obviously some weeks I just couldn’t come up with anything. I also had a list of science concepts such as the Five Senses, and How a Plant Grows, that I wanted my son to learn throughout the year. I tried to match these up to the letter or in some case, like the Five Senses, to the number of the week. They didn’t all match up perfectly, so I just fit different concepts in on different weeks where I didn’t have a match.

Religion

We also read about a person or more from the Bible that corresponded to the letter of the week. Some weeks like “J” week there were lots of people like Jesus, and John, and Jesse, and so on, other weeks like “F” week, there really weren’t many. I used a good Bible concordance on these weeks.

Multi-sensory learning

My children love pancakes and I make them every week, so each week I made the corresponding letter shaped pancakes and often with a corresponding fruit such as apple “A” shaped pancakes for “A” week. This became their favorite part of the week! I also tried to incorporate into each week an activity or field trip such as making apple pie during “A” week or playing baseball during “B” week. Some weeks we included things like a genre of music that started with the letter of the week, such as Jazz during “J” week. Of course most children love art, so I included weekly art projects (I got ideas from books at the library). Most of these did not line up with the letter of the week, but not everything had to. Each week when we went to the grocery store for our regular grocery trip, I would point out foods that begin with the corresponding letter of the week, such as bananas, beets, and Brussels sprouts for “B” week. I would make sure to have some of these foods on the meal plan during that week. It was an easy way for us to have more variety in our diets and for the kids to get excited about trying new foods. We also did ethnic nights about once a month that corresponded with the letter of the week to teach about other cultures. My favorite was “J” week when we did Japanese night. Our whole family sat at a low table (kids table) on cushions in the living room and I prepared some Japanese cuisine complete with tea and chopsticks. My kids still talk about that night years later.

I repeated this curriculum with my second son when he was three, but did it with less intensity and used it as a preschool curriculum. With my oldest son, I taught the letters out-of-order so they would correspond to holidays or themes I wanted like “T” week during Thanksgiving and “L” week when the leaves were falling and we could do leaf projects. With my second son, I did the letters in order, because it took less planning, though sometimes it was less fun. Both ways worked great and they both learned all their letters and sounds with ease. I had a lot of fun with the curriculum and can’t wait till my younger children are old enough to do it again with them.

In addition to being a homeschool mom, I am a stay-at-home mom and I love it. I feel very blessed that my husband and I have agreed to sacrifice so that I can stay at home and raise our children. 

Life gets busy sometimes and it’s easy for me to get so busy that some weeks I find myself going somewhere every day and not actually staying at home even though I’m a stay-at-home mom. Of course it’s okay to go places and do things. I like going and doing.  Many of the things I go and do are necessary like grocery shopping, or doctor appointments. Other times it’s educational, volunteering, or just plain fun. It’s all good stuff. 

However, when I do all these wonderful things outside of my home, it’s just that, outside of my home. It doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to stay at home and be a wife,mother and teacher which, after God, are my next priorities. The more I am away from home, the more I get stressed since obviously things like the laundry and the kids’ schoolwork aren’t getting done to my usual standard. The more I get stressed and crabby, the harder it is to be a good Christian, wife, and mother.

It is tough for me to balance how much to go and how much to stay. Lately I have been challenged to evaluate my goals/priorities as a Christian, wife, and mother and to really think about how much I want to stay at home as a stay-at-home mom and then try to find ways to meet those goals. Sometimes I have to just say “no” or “not now”. 

I have to remind myself often that “self” comes last. I struggle when I hear the common phrase “You have to take care of yourself first, so you can be a better wife/mother/(fill in the blank)”. This logic sounds appealing to me because it offers me an excuse to be selfish. Things like eating three meals a day, sleeping eight hours a night, and getting a shower qualify for taking care of myself. Going out for a day of shopping with my friends doesn’t usually qualify as taking care of myself. It qualifies for having fun for myself which usually falls into the selfish category. God tells us to be servants to others, to think of them first, not to be selfish and think of ourselves first. If God, husband, and children are cared for first, then I think it’s okay sometimes to do something for myself. It’s important that I get my priorities straight.

I know that the more I stay at home, the more my children’s quality of education improves, the less stressed I am, and the happier my husband, children, and I am. I think it’s worth the trade off of a little more fun outside the home now and than. 

When my oldest son was one year old, he would follow me around the house as I did laundry and other chores. He would “help” me with the laundry. First he helped me collect the laundry. Then, he helped me sort the laundry. I did two simple piles-whites and colors. At first, he obviously needed help and he didn’t do it perfectly. Quite often my husband’s tan socks among other things were in our load of whites. I choose to temporarily tolerate this, because I wanted to encourage my son’s willingness to help and not focus on his failures. I decided that a helpful son was more important to me than perfect laundry. As he got older however, I did occasionally teach him such things as a particular shirt was tan instead of white and that I wanted it sorted in with the colors pile. This worked well, and by the time he was two, he was gathering and sorting the laundry, pretty well, all by himself.

Color identification and sorting are basic math skills. I think by simply helping me sort laundry, it set my son up for easy success in those areas of math. However, those were not the only things I have taught my children through laundry. In addition to the obvious life skill of knowing how to do laundry, I’ve also used laundry to aid in teaching my children the following math skills:

Counting-As we sorted laundry together sometimes we would count how many items we put into the basket.

More than/Less than-After we counted the clothes that we had sorted into each basket, I would ask my son which basket had more pieces of clothes (or articles of clothing) and which had less.

Paring/Matching-Obviously my children learned pairing and matching when I had them match up and fold the pairs of socks.

Shapes-I’ve pointed out the difference between a square and a rectangle using a washcloth and a hand towel. One day while my second son was folding towels, he excitedly pointed out that if you turn a square washcloth 45°, it becomes a diamond! He was happy to fold the diamonds that day (a task he usually complains about)!

Directions-I would give verbal instructions on how to fold a particular item such as “fold the shirt in half by placing your left hand in the middle of the shirt while you use your right hand to lift the right sleeve over to the left sleeve.”

Fractions-I’ve told my children to fold the washcloths in quarters and the hand towels in eighths. Then I’ve shown them how to count the layers after the items are folded to make sure they have folded them according to the correct fraction.

Skip counting-My oldest son really struggled with skip counting by twos, until I had him pair up our socks and lay the pairs all in a row on the floor. Then I had him count the socks. We did this a few times, and then he started getting how to count by twos.

Addition-I have had my oldest son fold our clothes and put them in separate piles for each family member. Then I had him count how many articles of clothing were on each pile and tell me the total number of articles of clothing (I did this with a small load the first time).

Multiplication-I’ve had my son lay out and count the pairs of socks in a load and then tell me how many socks total. This is a very basic intro to multiplication by 2’s.

As my children get older, I’m sure I’ll come up with even more ways of teaching them math while we do laundry together. When we are working on something new in math, I don’t usually bother to get out a special manipulative, I often just use what’s closest to hand at the time. With six people in our home, laundry is usually near by. My children seem to enjoy it when I teach them math through laundry.

What other ways have you used common household chores to teach your children math?

My goal as a parent is to raise God-loving responsible adults. I believe children should be fully capable of being responsible for themselves before they are eighteen years of age. History has clearly demonstrated that men and women are fully capable of this at ages much younger than 18.

My children are young now. I am trying to teach them basic life skills. I intend to teach them most of the life skills I want them to learn, before they become teenagers. Then when they become teenagers, they will have the opportunity to practice these skills under my guidance and supervision, before they are out on their own.

I have a list of life skills that I feel my children will need to know in life as adults. My list has one column for each child. I can check off each skill for each child when I feel that child has learned that specific skill. Such as when my oldest son knows how to sew on a button, I can check it off for him, but not for my other children. That way when my third son is 10, I can look at my chart and know that I haven’t taught him how to sew on a button yet-A skill I don’t practice every day, but feel is important for him to know as an adult. I try to include minor things on my list that I don’t think about often, such as changing the furnace filter. I continue to add things to my list as I think of them.

My list is the same for both my sons and daughters. I believe they both need to know the same life skills. I may teach them the skills differently though. I may teach my son’s how to check and change the oil in their vehicles, where as I may teach my daughter how to check the oil, and how to know when to get it changed at a service station.

I believe it’s not only important to teach life skills to our children, but also to teach them the logic behind the skills. I feel it’s easier to do things, when we know why we are doing them. I also think my children will be more likely to remember the skills I teach them if they know the why behind the skills. And if they do forget something, they will hopefully be able to reason it out.

What’s your view on teaching your children life skills?

When an electronic item breaks in our house, I sometimes let the kids take it apart to learn from it before I throw it away or salvage it. They love to take things apart, see what’s inside and find out how things works. I must admit, I am blessed, my children love to learn.

The case on my son’s dynamo flashlight broke beyond repair and the crank no longer worked. So, I loosened the screws holding it together to get them started and then gave them a screwdriver and told them they could take it apart. They were quite happy about this and got right to work.

As usual, I walked away to let them learn and discover on their own and then came back to check on them in about five minutes. I noticed one of them coming back to the table with a hammer. I was a bit surprised (mostly that they had gotten it so quietly by themselves). As any mother would do, I asked what they were planning on doing with the hammer. Their plan was to smash the flashlight with the hammer to see what would happen. My first thought was “No, that’s not how you learn!” Instead of saying what I was initially thinking, I realized that they haven’t really ever had the opportunity to smash something with a hammer before. They are boys and should be allowed to smash things once in a while just for fun since it is a part of the way God created them.

So as painful as it was for me to allow them to make such a mess, I told them “Yes” they may smash it, though first they must move it to a box on the front porch (to contain the debris and prevent damage to my table). I helped them move the flashlight, went over a few use and safety guidelines of hammers with them, and then let them commence with their plan.

They took turns jubilantly smashing the flashlight with the hammer for a while. After the case of the flashlight was smashed to bits, they played with the circuit board inside. Moments later, they excitedly came running to me to show me that they had figured out how to crank the flashlight and it was now working! Seeing as it wouldn’t crank before, this was quite the accomplishment! I took a few minutes to point out some of the different parts of the now working flashlight circuit board before they went back to play with it some more feeling quite proud of their accomplishment.

It amazes me sometimes how much children can learn from what seems like a silly experiment. My children were going to smash a flashlight with a hammer-not much of a science experiment. Yet, they learned so much because I was willing to let them try their own experiment their way. Learning may not always take the form that I expect. I will try to remember this in the future and consider objectively when they come to me with an unusual plan.

Please share an example of how your children have learned in an unusual way.