I've never pictured myself a teacher. I have always loved children but when I was a teenager I substituted one Sunday for the preschool teacher. I followed a very noisy passel of 4 and 5 year old's down the steps covered in hideous orange and black carpet to the basement of our church. I can close my eyes and smell the damp concrete like it was yesterday. They shuffled wildly around and finally all found a chair around the half-circle table painted white with brightly colored hand prints and the first verse of Jesus Loves the Little Children in red words.I don't remember what all happened but I can still remember the feeling of being totally out of control the whole time. I wasn't expecting to be interrupted every 30 seconds or so to be told an important piece of news like Johnny got a new dog then of course Susie had to outdo that story with one about her new kitten. I decided then and there to stay as far away from teaching children as possible :).
Fast forward 10 years and I've got a 4 year old just begging to read. Eldon said, "O, just teach her." So I purchased the Learning to Read curriculum from clp.org and jumped in. Watching the light dawn in my daughter's eyes as she began to put words together and hearing her read her first words have been one of my greatest blessings. Somewhere along the lines I've changed to where I can now say that I absolutely love teaching our children and have no intentions of letting anyone else have that joy.
We've tried several different curriculum and what-not but I do believe we are finally getting a feel for what works for us. Although, along with our lifestyle, our teaching style has become much more relaxed and our priorities have shifted so only God knows what the future holds!
One thing that works well for us and our traveling family is schooling year round. That does not mean that we sit down at 8:00 each day and do the 8 subjects most students are required to do. Quite the opposite,actually. We have workbooks, mostly from CLE that we do when there is not something more exciting to do. Playing with cousins, exploring Indian Ruins, hiking to a mountain lake, going to the Ark and Creation Museum,observing and identifying birds, visiting the Grand Canyon, and completing the Junior Ranger Program at National Parks (and some state parks) are all included in our learning process. I'm frequently asking Google questions like:
-How many countries is there in the world?
-How big is the biggest ant?
-Where does a shark's poop come out?
-How many miles away is the moon?
-How much does it cost to go to Mars?
-Who thought of making speed bikes?
Since we've backed off the hours and hours of workbook time, I feel like I actually have time to dive into their interests and help them answer their questions instead of saying, "I don't know, just do your Math." Basically, we are always learning. But we never put the books away. We may take a few weeks off if we are at Grandpa's but for the most part a few lessons are completed each week. If you'll notice the grade level each child is at, this actually put us several years ahead instead of behind. It's simply amazing how much better a child can work when they want to learn instead of having to learn :) .
These pictures were taken this Fall in Colorado where we had The Best Summer Ever. We've changed a few things up since then though.
Since I do so enjoy hearing what other families use I suppose I should share too. Don't be appalled how light our book load is :).
Reading:
I've taught both our children to read using CLE's Learning to Read program. It works well for us. I've started them both around 4.5-5 and take it slow, usually close to a year to complete the 10 books. It's given them an excellent start.
Michael is just ready to start 108 and he moans and groans about it but he does love to read already so I'd say it's working! Writing is not his thing at all so I sometimes fill in his blanks because he IS young and he IS smart as a whip. He usually tells me the answers faster then I can write!
This year I also purchased CLE's third grade Reading for Makayla, mostly for fun. It consists of a reader and 10 light-units. A lot of the questions have to do with reading comprehension and the lessons are short and easy so as long as she enjoys it I'll likely keep getting it.
As for other reading, we don't lack for it all! I keep our books in the camper to a bare minimum but we visit a local library where ever we are once or twice a week. My pet peeve is when they have a limit of 20-25 books! So we have to go back often to keep new material in the house. We listen to a lot of audio books too, via librivox or CD's from the library.
Math:
I have Makayla back in CLE Math and will switch Michael once he is done with first grade Abeka. I do like Abeka in some ways but in my opinion it is not very home school friendly. It requires A LOT of teacher time and moves at a high rate of speed. We tried the video program but that meant hours of the children staring at a screen, lots of $$$$ and then I still had to figure out how they teach concepts unless I watched with them! CLE uses a very gently spiral method and also promotes independent working at a young age so it's perfect for a busy mom. It's also friendly to the wallet AND each subject has 10 light-units so I don't need to lug around a huge book, but only the few we'll need.
And of course there is lots of mental math that happens here.
-"If I washed dishes 2 times and Makayla only 1 then that's not fair because I did it one more time then her!"
-"Moooom, you only gave me 14 chocolate chips and Ethan has 200. He has more!"
Language Arts:
Again, CLE. I love it, the kids love it. They were smart enough to combine it with Spelling and Writing which makes this minimalist mommy happy, happy, happy.
Science:
Nothing official. But we've visited more Zoos, Nature Centers, and Museums in the last year then I did my entire life. We also watch things like Kratt's Creatures, Wild Kratt's, and other cool animal and weather shows and DVD's. And read tons of books. Nope, they are definitely not lacking in this area!
Geography, History, Music, Art, Bible, and Poetry
Again, nothing official. Since this is the "fun stuff" I tend to leave it until last........and it never happens. We do get lots of first hand experiences at National Parks and Museums for Geography and History. But, in order to round it off, we've started something else this year and now I have a post up about Morning Time and how and why we do it!
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