November 1

We are still trucking along in homeschool land! Some may not believe this, but I know ZERO people who homeschool, which probably makes me even crazier! As I have mentioned, I have curriculum which follows the basics of what every other public/private school kid is teaching. This curriculum even tells me exactly how to teach it. I don't follow it perfectly though, as my kids already know some of it OR we may have to linger on certain concepts longer. I also add to it.

We have started doing centers after our morning routine. They are Spanish, reading, some kind of physical activity (today it was jumping on the mini-tramp and chasing the dogs since its raining), the Splash Math app, Scratch (coding), and writing (I assign a topic). We have Spanish workbooks but I prefer using Duolingo.com. I teach Math in Focus daily (which is Singapore Math), but I think Splash Math is a great supplement that would benefit every child.

I belong to a Facebook Austin homeschool group and am able to bounce ideas off of moms there. What I have discovered is that there are a million ways to educate a child and every parent does it differently. I didn't realize until last week that some parents are very hands off with the teaching, giving assignments and then letting the children finish them at their leisure during the day. No judgment there, but I classroom teach. We have textbooks, I teach from the board, we watch documentaries together, and take field trips. The hours are flexible. Sometimes we get started early, take a long lunch and get out of the house, and do the core lessons in the afternoon. Sometimes we cram it all into the afternoon. Some days we double up on lessons and some days we take the day off. We are very fortunate to live in a state where we have that freedom (yay for rights and parental freedom!) and I don't have to report to one person about what I am doing.

We spend about an hour and a half doing centers together and an hour and a half doing individual core lessons/math (so for example, I will teach the twins their core lessons and math and then I will teach Harrison his core lessons/math). That may not seem like enough classroom time, but I am able to teach two days of lessons - all subjects - to the twins during this time. I teach between 1-2 lessons to Harrison, as he gets more worn out by the intense focused learning. That may be hard for some people to understand, but imagine that all of the gaps in a school day are removed - the bathroom breaks, the waiting in line, the cafeteria, the transitions, all the times that a teacher has to pause to focus on one or more students who might be struggling - we don't have that. So our time is condensed. I teach subjects back to back. The only pause is getting out a different book.

They are going to a weekly coding class in Westlake and seem to enjoy it. Coding is done daily at home at their own will and they are learning so much from MIT's Scratch program. They love it and don't realize they are learning :-) We are wrapping up soccer and football for the fall season. Henry is going to stick with football in the winter (brrrrr.....) and Henry and Charlie will concentrate on soccer in the Spring.

We have also decided to go to France this May or June. We are going to start in Paris and then take the speed train to Provence. From there we will visit St. Tropez, Cannes, Nice, and Monaco. We are already watching documentaries about France and will soon start learning some basic conversational French that they can use there. Why France? Adam and I went 2 years ago and there are many things there that we want the boys to experience. I am most excited to take them to the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles. They did very well and asked many questions at the Accademia Gallery in Florence and even withheld their giggles at the Statue of David, so I say they are ready! They have gone on trips to 10 different countries and we plan to add on a few each year. They learn so much on each trip and gain perspective and experiences that they didn't have and would be hard to have without travel.

We had a few beautiful days in October and spent them outside. We went hiking on our neighborhood trails one day and went to Sweet Berry Farms on another. Anytime the weather is ideal for hiking, we go outside and skip class and learn in the real world! Its amazing how many times on a hike that I can remind them of something they have learned in science.

I only blog when I feel like I have something meaningful or helpful to say. I am happy to always answer questions for anyone that is interested!