Real Life Learning

We see education as discipleship, whether it's done well or done poorly. Our first objective as Christian parents is to point our kids to the gospel of Christ at every opportunity.  Beyond that, our focus is primarily on developing their character, teaching them foundational academic skills, and showing them how to learn, since a diligent, self-motivated person can teach himself almost anything.  Our primary goal isn't to get our kids into a good college or teach them how to be successful in the rat race, but to raise young men who serve the Lord diligently.  We trust Him to write our children's futures, and it's our job to make sure they are as prepared as possible to serve Him as adults, spiritually, academically, and relationally.

(I attached a cool infographic about homeschooling at the bottom of this page.  Check it out - it's very informative!)

This year in our homeschool...

Drake, age 11

Drake is in 5th grade.

Throughout the year, he is involved in AWANA, 4-H shooting sports (air rifle, archery, and .22 rifle), art class, swim lessons, and Little League baseball, in addition to his schoolwork at home.










These are the subjects he currently studies at home:

Bible

     Who Is God? (Apologia worldview course)
     AWANA T&T, yr. 3

Language Arts

     Grammar/Writing - Rod & Staff Building Christian English 5
     Reading Comp. - McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons A & B
     Spelling - All About Spelling 4 and Spelling by Sound & Structure 4
     Handwriting - Pentime Cursive 5

Math

     Singapore Primary Mathematics 5A & 5B

History

     Mystery of History, Vol. I: Creation to Christ (ancient history year)
     Stories of the Great Composers (music history)

Science

     Mr. Q. Elementary Life Science (biology year)

Other

     Spanish - Classical Academic Press Spanish for Children A 
     Music - Piano Adventures
     Critical Thinking - Building Thinking Skills 2
     Health - Rod & Staff Health for the Glory of God
     Typing - BBC Dance Mat Typing

And of course, our favorite...the Life Skills category! This includes things like processing wild game, hanging a door, visiting the library, going on field trips with friends, and volunteering. Stuff that doesn't fall into a neat and tidy "school" category, but is useful for our kids to learn!

Levi, age 6 1/2

Levi is in 1st grade.

Outside of his academic lessons at home, he is involved in AWANA, art class, swim lessons, and Little League baseball.






Here's what he studies at home:

Bible

     Who Is God? (Apologia worldview course)
     AWANA Sparks, yr. 2

Language Arts

     Reading - Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading
     Writing - Writing With Ease 1
     Grammar - First Language Lessons 1
     Spelling - All About Spelling 1
     Phonics - MCP Phonics A and CLP Adventures in Phonics B

Math

     Singapore Primary Mathematics 1A & 1B

History

     Mystery of History, Vol. I: Creation to Christ (ancient history year)
     Stories of the Great Composers (music history)     

Science (biology year)

     Zoology - drawing and narration, Kingfisher 1st Animal Encyc.
     Anatomy - drawing and narration, Kingfish. 1st Human Body Encyc.
     Botany - Green Thumbs (gardening activities)

And of course, those awesome Life Skills activities, which are one of the huge benefits of homeschooling - there's more time for real life learning!

Our Schedule

Adam has a really weird work schedule.  And since we've chosen to work our homeschool around his schedule, you'll often find us hitting the books on a Saturday and then out on the town all day the next Tuesday, for example. That's just how it goes.  As far as following a daily schedule for academics, we only do that when Adam is posted out, so we get a block of three or four school days in a row.  On those days, we work hard and complete all our subjects, and we're still usually done by mid-afternoon.

Outside of those "full school days," we have a lot of time for life skills, just being together as a family, and doing things with friends.  We do a few academic subjects when Adam is home, but rarely everything in one day.

We always manage to finish our curriculum by summer, even with far less than 180 full school days.  I think it's that we do more in a day than most people when we have those "academic" blocks of days, and on the days we don't have a full day, we often still do some seat work.  In our state, we count hours, not days, and we always have plenty of hours.  So it works out well for us.  We're flexible like that!


Source: TopMastersInEducation.com