Homeschool Open House 2007: How Our Homeschool Jouney Evolved

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I am a Christian Homeschool Mom of 7 wonderful blessings. We are going into my 6th homeschooling year. I am currently homeschooling my four oldest children, although my 4yo has eagerly jumping into Hooked on Phonics Level 1.

I started homeschooling my oldest daughter a month before she turned six. My oldest son (4yo at the time) didn't take much of an interest in school, so I just focused on her. I must admit, I didn't do much research before I began, but it was what the Lord guided me to do, homeschool! At the time I didn't know there was such a variety of homeschool styles and curriculum , so I did what I was familiar with, traditional textbook-style. With only homeschooling one child, it wasn't so bad, we did a little bit of everything, math, language arts, science, social studies and art. Near the end of the year, my son perked up and suddenly wanted to do whatever his big sister was doing and so I googled "homeschool curriculum" to see what would pop up.

I knew now that I was getting ready to homeschool two and take care of three little ones, I couldn't just wing it like I did the first year, so I looked into a great, but slightly pricey curriculum, Calvert. The reason I was so hooked on Calvert was because,
A) it was the first in line to show up in my google search
B) it was a highly rated- standard wise (which I thought was the most important thing at the time)
C) everything was laid out for you in their teacher manuals.

So after giving them both the online placement test, I purchased the 1st grade curriculum for my son, and 2nd grade for my daughter, academically they both a year ahead.

At the beginning of the year it went slow, but smooth. I kinda started getting the hang of it are was able to juggle our schedule pretty well, but then something awful happened...so I thought. I was teaching my daughter something in science, (I can't remember what) and my son overheard us. He once again took an interest in what she was doing and wanted to partake in it. Now you may think this is terrible of me, but I tossed the idea of him learning what she was learning away!

"How could they both learn the same thing when he is a year younger?" I argued with myself. So, R did her lessons and J did his. And so it was written and so it was done!

Year 3: Two more additions to our homeschooling year! OY! What am I going to do??? How in the world am I going to manage to homeschool 4 children and take care of a baby, plus do all the other chores and tasks that needed to be done?! Without really researching homeschool curriculum over the summer, I researched the best schoolbooks used in the highly rated public schools since I knew there was no way I could afford to do Calvert again. I did however recycle some of what we had, like the reading, history and science books. I then purchased the best selling phonic workbooks, the best math books, the best science books, you name it, I got it. The main problem still remained, HOW WAS I GOING TO HOMESCHOOL 4 CHILDREN THIS WAY???

I figured out the solution, I'll buy a how to book...for classroom teachers-LOL! Who was I kidding? But I did it anyway, I bought about 3 or 4 "How to Manage Your Classroom" books. Wow, there was some good stuff in there, one problem, a lot of the suggestions were based on HOMEWORK! So I took some notes on the suggestions I could actually do and tossed the others aside.

Not even a month later I was STRESSED O-U-T OUT! On top of that, I was pregnant again. So we took a break from school--a LOOOONG break. I wasn't going to do any school until after baby #6 was born.

After V was born I decided to start back up after the New Year (V was born a couple of days before Christmas.) Things still weren't like I planned, we hit a few bumps here and there. Finally summer came! They did not complete a full year, but I wasn't too worried, because they were a year ahead. By Florida law they had to be evaluated yearly and they passed, so I was happy, but not satisfied.

During th summer, I did a LOT of praying and asked the Lord to guide me what to do. I finally decided to google everything and anything homeschool. That's when I came across the term "Unit Study!" I felt like I had breathed a breath of fresh air.

I finally found a method that incorporated all my children PLUS, it integrated different subjects! WOW, just what I needed! I came across many different unit study programs. The 3 main ones I looked into was: Weaver, Konos, and Heart of Wisdom.

All of them were great, but I had to decide which one I was going to use. I knew I wanted something Bible-based, all of them were, so that made the decision even harder. I have to say, Weaver was my top choice in the beginning, but at the time I couldn't afford it due to a family situation that had unfortunately happened. A family member had gotten into a car accident. Praise the Lord everything turned out OK, but she needed attention and the fact that she was now living with us meant we needed to cutback in certain areas.

I then turned to Konos, another great curriculum! (If you use or are going to use Konos, you can find the Konos Queen HERE!)I asked a friend about it and she gave me one of the Konos Volumes. The only problem was the book was an older version and it had been used...I mean used! Notes were written in it, pages were torn out and the book list was outdated. I later found out that the book was not originally hers. I tell you, it did come in handy though, I finally got to see what this whole unit study thing was all about. (We do use some Konos units.)

There was one final unit study to look into which happened to be the one I chose, Heart of Wisdom. The reasons I chose HOW:

1. It was Bible-based
2. It was in an e-book format (I had enough homeschool books lying around the house)
3. It fit within our homeschool budget
4. I could buy the units one at a time
   
5. PLUS, I really liked the HOW teaching approach! (I even bought the Book)

We began our 4th year in October. Our schooling was a little more relaxed, but I still stumbled along the way. I needed help, this was new to me and I needed some advice, but I was too nervous to ask, so I joined the HOW forums. They helped a little, but I still needed something more.

One of the ladies from the forum blogged at Homeschoolblogger. At the time, the word blog was foreign to me. Anyway, I poked around HSB, didn't have a clue what I was doing...then left.

I still struggled slightly with the unit study concept, so in late November 2005 I decided to give Homeschoolblogger another go. This time I read comments and started going to different blogs and found mothers who were in the same boat as me. I couldn't believe I wasn't the only one struggling! I guess sometimes we imagine that no one else could possibly be going through what we are going through, but there are. I even emailed some people asking for help--emailing was another new thing for me at the time. EVERYONE was extremely helpful!

I began to go everywhere and read everything and anything that I could, I even saw that people were mix and matching their curriculum--WHAT?! I thought that was unheard of, taking a little bit of this from one program and mixing it with that. Not only that, some would buy one Math program for one child and another math program for another child--How SHOCKING! OK, so I was a little naive, sue me.

This made me really look at each one of my children and see how they comprehended learning the best. I knew I needed a little something more, but I couldn't go out buying everything. That's when I came across another mom's blog who was also using Heart of Wisdom. She introduced me to Ambleside Online, a FREE online curriculum using the Charlotte Mason method (Robin -the HOW founder- intertwines this method of learning with hers.)

Ambleside Online was a true blessing! They have a wonderful selection of literature books available online for FREE!!! BUT, before I was going to just jump into another homeschool curriculum, I wanted to test it out. So, for one week we did the AO schedule. The children LOVED it! It was relaxing, it fit into our schedule and best of all, we were all learning! This was the first time in 4 years that I actually felt like I was a true homeschool mom! I know that may sound weird to some of you, but to others parents, I think you know exactly how I felt.

Fast forward to our 5th homeschool year (now). We started this school year off with a field trip/vacation to NC- where I currently live. To make a long story short, while we were there (here) we planned to move by early next year. I also discovered I was pregnant with baby #7!

When we got home (in FL) the packing began. We had to do more than just packing though, we had a little farm, with sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, ducks, rabbits, dogs, cats, a donkey and a horse. Sadly we had to find a new home for our pets. Thankfully we found a home for them where they would not be butchered. My aunt and uncle are taking care of the horse and donkey until we can move them up here....Anyway, my point is, we did a lot of unschooling.

Since we were not going to be with the animals much longer, our schooling focused a lot on them.


Now that we're moved, we are a tad behind, but we've been doing school throughout the summer. Since I just had a baby, our homeschool this coming year is going to have to be flexible, semi-structured, but definitely flexible. Plus, there are upcoming events happening that are going to make some of our homeschooling days even more challenging. (I plan to blog about those events soon, until then please stay tuned.)

I have listed the curriculum we are using on my sidebar with links, so your welcome to have a look see. Plus in our everyday life we are learning lessons. One thing that we do that isn't listed is, I have them do dinners on the weekend which we classify as school. They also really enjoy making dinner when guest come too, which is a HUGE help for me, while they tend to the kitchen, I can tidy up the house.

As far as where we homeschool, right now we just do it around the house, and outside, but in FL we had an empty shed that my loving DH converted into a schoolroom for us. This is one thing we definitely miss in our homeschool day, Plus, it's kinda sad that all the hard work he put into just to make our homeschool day easier was left behind. He's always thinking of other, oh I LOVE that man!!!



As far as any advise I to give, I'd have to say first PRAY!!! Then if you can do some research, and don't be afraid to ask questions. If you don't have a local support group ask us here in Bloggy Land, there are many of us out there willing to help you the best we can.

Homeschool Resource books I recommend would be:

• Homeschooling Methods
• Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach
• The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas- I love this book!
  
• 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum- this may be overwhelming for some.
  
• Real Learning- I have just begun to read this, but so far the little I've read is great!

When choosing a curriculum, try not get overwhelmed and don't worry about picking the highest rated, most expensive curriculum out there, they are all good, believe me, I tried them all...just kidding. Just choose the best one for your family, of course there will be some trial and error, but the Lord will guide you to which one is right, and when you find it, you'll love the feeling.

The last bit of advise I have to give, but definitely a key point, DON'T STRESS!!!! Enjoy your Homeschool adventure and most important, ENJOY YOUR FAMILY!!! Make your homeschool years loving and memorable!