So, You're Thinking About Homeschooling....

My story, curricula suggestions, resources and more...

This post will be very informative for beginners, yet may be interesting or inspiring to seasoned homeschoolers as well...

I remember when our first child was born I assumed I would homeschool. Once he turned 5, I did place him in a private school for kindergarten- mainly for socialization. After he attended for a couple of months, the excitement withered and he was dreading each day. I had a small internal struggle about whether to keep him in school or pull him out. It was almost as though I had lost my way as a mother there for a little while; I had let down my guard over my convictions and goals as a parent.

I will never forget picking him up from school on beautiful late summer and fall days and having him report to me that they didn't get recess that day, for some trivial reason or another. "It was raining during scheduled recess time, so we stayed in"... "It was too hot out today"... "Some of the kids were misbehaving so we all had to stay in"... Finally, one pristine autumn day I thought I would surprise my son by stopping by school early and picking him up to take him to the park. We would "play hooky" for an afternoon.

I entered the classroom to find the students, a large class of at least 25, corralled in one corner, with all of the lights turned out and the curtains drawn, staring mindlessly at the one lit item in the room, the dry erase board. There the teacher was pounding away vocabulary words and grammar that these children were far too young to be learning. That was it, I decided. "He's never coming back here"... How depressing that young children, by the millions, are wasting their young years stuck inside a brick box while outside a world of wonder awaits their curious minds and busy hands.

That day we attended a homeschool playgroup at the park and I remembered my core beliefs again. It felt great to tell the school that we wouldn't be coming back.

Looking back, I realize I didn't have much guidance, and researching online was daunting. There are hundreds, if not thousands of various curricula, book series, and websites about homeschooling. Materials and books cost money, and I was nervous about dropping hundreds of dollars on something that wouldn't work for us.

I had read the book, "Dumbing Us Down", by John Taylor Gatto years before when my firstborn was a baby. I was somewhat familiar with Waldorf, and I knew that I didn't want to 'go too heavy' on academics at such.a young age. Traditionally, academics are introduced gently at around age 7, but learning is life long and ongoing from birth. Think about it- Our children must learn everything from the moment they enter this world- how to take their first breath, hold their head up, sleep through the night, sit up, crawl, walk, talk, chew food... In early childhood, they develop a larger vocabulary, the ability to express their thoughts, observations and feelings, identify their environment, learn family members and relationships, colors, numbers, animals, riding bikes, seasonal rotation/ the wheel of the year, swimming, singing and memorizing songs, climbing, balancing, cooking, etc. Learning never stops when a child is nurtured and engaged in their environment; academics are just one aspect of learning and it is detrimental to introduce them too early. In the early years, children learn best through play, and simply living a wholesome life.

I was happy to find out that in my state, the legal requirements for homeschooling are few to none. As my child had not previously attended any public school, I am not required to submit anything in writing. You can easily look up the state laws with this map by the HSLDA.

If you are a Facebook user, I highly recommend joining local homeschool groups. There will be a wealth of tangible resources for you there- everything from local theatre projects, dance or music classes, foreign language, field trips, playgroups, and more. As much as I loathe Facebook for various reasons, I have to say that the groups are a blessing.

I started out using Spectrum and DK workbooks for spelling, math, and even science with my son during 1st and 2nd grade. For reading I used the book called, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". Looking back, I don't think that was the best method for us. I will now be using All About Reading with my younger sons. I have fallen in love with the All About Spelling series and I am confident that the reading program will be just as great.

Have you ever heard of Unschooling? One thing that I wish I would have done better in the early years is to establish a routine. Even if it was just one small thing that we did at the same time each day when it came to schooling, such as story time, or doing workbook pages, etc. I was all over the place in the early years because  I thought we were going to be "unschoolers". There have been plenty of books written on the concept of unschooling. One I read was called "Homegrown" by Ben Hewitt. It's a great book and the author tells some of his very interesting and inspiring life story, but ultimately "unschooling" wasn't for us. I am at the point in my life now where I very much value a more traditional education. Having multiple children also doesn't fit with what I thought we would accomplish with "unschooling". At the end of the day, my child may have never learned to read because he would always, 100% of the time, prefer to go outside and play vs. sit with school work. I have to enforce schooling and a routine now. During 3rd and 4th grade, we had some rough days far more often than we would have had I established a rhythm and routine and clear boundaries and expectations in the younger grades. Needless to say, we are not "unschoolers" anymore, but we do keep some flexibility with what we do and I have found that we are really starting to get to a point where everyone is contented! Win!

Have you ever heard of Charlotte Mason or literature-based education? In 3rd grade I started to feel the need to get a little more serious with academics. My son had a foundation for reading and could read simple beginner readers, but it was still very much a chore for him. I was turned on to the Charlotte Mason method, which is a literature based education. I love Charlotte Mason. However, we modify it to fit our family, as we are of the native European spirituality and do not follow the Christian faith. Essentially, the teaching method infuses time honored classical lessons in memorization, dictation, oration and copywork, through stories and poetry. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder in the one room school house. One thing I love about this type of teaching is that you can teach multiple grades simultaneously. You can fuse language arts, history, literature, and grammar all into one- through stories! And what child doesn't love a story?

I found that the lesson plans and book lists from Build Your Library were great. While the creator of the curricula may have some flaws, and I certainly felt free to omit any books with a political agenda, overall I find it to a be a great resource. I like the maps, the reading suggestions and most importantly- the timeline figures that BYL offers. I don't think I will purchase the curriculum again, but the site itself is a great free resource.

When beginning homeschooling, you'll come across terms and phrases such as "consumable", "open and go" etc. Consumable means curriculum that is written on directly, cut out, or otherwise "used up" by the end of the year and tossed in the recycle bin. I use a little bit of both consumable and reusable, but mostly we just use books, great books.

"Open and go" is what I found that I needed in order to succeed at homeschooling. As a blessed, busy mother of three, a small farm and homestead to co-operate, meals to cook from scratch, dishes to wash by hand, cloth diapers to dry on a clothesline, and more- I simply found myself in tears late at night trying to lesson plan and create everything for school- from scratch. I highly recommend if you can relate to my position, that you seek out open and go curricula whenever possible. I know that I need to be able to simply sit down with my children, open the book, and go! Of course there is still "some" pre-planning in any homeschool, but open and go reduces that amount.

For instance, one year I bought Miquon Math. It is really amazing and includes a lot of hands-on learning. It is creative and different. But it is so different than the way I learned in school, that I found myself up late at night studying before I could even teach a third grade math lesson the next day! So, perhaps if you have a plenty of spare time, or a relative to help, or maybe just one child, this would not be a problem for you. But for me, it was not good. I switched to Saxon math, and found it to be a true blessing. It is "open and go" and the lessons are thorough. Once your child is a fluent reader, he/she can actually do quite a bit of it on their own.

The Good and the Beautiful...  It is Christian but there are some units that I love. I found it fairly easy to edit out what we needed to in order for it to fit our family. I like their typing lessons, the Musical Multiplication (how fun is that!?), and I was satisfied with the 4th grade Language Arts (with a few necessary omissions). I will absolutely continue to use their Science units, again, edit out the Christian parts if you need to.

I mentioned the All About series above and it is worth mentioning again. Another "open and go" style program that has done wonders for helping my son with spelling. I needed concrete rules to teach and the lessons are short and simple, fun, yet thorough.

For history, we have used Story of the World in the past. History is a tricky one for many of us, those of us who are not inclined to swallow the mainstream or dominant narrative about complex historical situations that we were not present for. As we know, history is politicized and the story is ever changing as we experience power struggles and as new facts and information are uncovered. In our family we teach that it is important to keep an open mind and remember that history is just that- a story- someone's story that was written down. We were not there to experience it ourselves and every story should always be looked at from different angles and taken with a grain of salt. The Story of the World consists of books which contain chapters of about 5 pages each. It begins with the ancient world and progresses into modern times. There are activity books and tests available to accompany it. My favorite part about SoTW is the stories themselves and challenging myself to read them to my children in an exciting and engaging way. It is not difficult to do, because they are well written with the purpose of engaging the child. SoTW is not explicitly religious and not too heavy on politicization. I think it is a good foundation that parents can expand on to fit their own family's needs and interests.

I was once chastised by radical anti-whites for saying that I used Arthur Kemp's book, "March of the Titans" for teaching history. I find the books to be very interesting and they are written in textbook style with bite sized pieces of history throughout the ages. The books often offer an alternative to the mainstream, dominant narrative of the history that is taught in public schools and I believe that is important. Truthfully, I haven't actually "used" them as textbooks for my homeschool, but what I do do, is cross reference in an effort to form a well rounded view of historical events for myself.

I highly recommend owning a book from this series for each grade level- "What Your Child Needs to Know". There is one for each grade and it simply covers whatever is taught per grade in a typical American public school. I like owning these books for peace of mind and often will reference them at the end of our school year to gain an assessment or catch up on anything we might have missed that year.

I have been lucky to score a few bits and pieces of Oak Meadow Waldorf early childhood education books that were for sale as gently used items. These are treasures. I have some of the stories, folk tales, and one that includes poems, songs and craft ideas. Oak Meadow is a fantastic curriculum and I would use it for all my children if I could afford it. But each grade level is around $700 to $800 and that is just not in our budget.

I would say I typically spend around $300 per year on books, curricula and school supplies. I buy a lot of books though. I feel it is especially important to own books with Euro-centric folktales, old dictionaries, and Americana classics. In the current year, even Laura Ingalls Wilder is being cancelled. The long standing L.I.W literary award was cancelled, and I am sure books like Little Women, Little Men, and many others will be in time, too. You might find that at your local library, the juvenile section's shelves are increasingly being stocked with books hand picked by social justice warrior librarians, while books about "old white men" are being put in the giveaway boxes or donation-based bookstore. If your local library has a bookstore, you might find some gems in there!

We do not do any online schooling. Why would I want my child staring at a screen all day?

The best advice for homeschooling that I can give is to just read books! Is there anything more wonderful that sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee, snuggling with your kiddos and immersing yourselves in a great book? Reading aloud to your children is a simple and precious gift that every parent is capable of giving. Your children will always remember those days- and that alone can be your saving grace on bad days. You will have them, everyone does. Your child might throw a tantrum and cry at their math lesson or simply refuse to pick up a pencil. It can be infuriating and a huge challenge to be the parent and the teacher sometimes. But if you can sit on the couch and read to them your school will be a success. You will turn a bad day into a great one, and you will eventually get back to the math lesson. After all, if we wanted to re-create public school in our homes we wouldn't bother homeschooling, would we? We would just send them to school. I don't want my kid stuck with book work for hours on end every day in early childhood. 

I think I will stop here for now. I hope this can be of some use to you if you are looking for ideas of what materials to use this year. I will link a few websites below that might be helpful. 

This will be the first in a series of homeschool posts. 

Much love,
~~Vasalisa~~~

Hail the folk!

https://wildwoodcurriculum.org

https://www.amazon.com/Dumbing-Down-Curriculum-Compulsory-Anniversary/dp/0865714487

Used and new discount curriculum! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Homeschool.Curriulum.Marketplace/


For your Saxon Math, All About series, and so much more (when you can't find used or free in your buy sell trade groups):

https://www.rainbowresource.com