Why we homeschool

During my last seven years of homeschooling I have been fortunate enough not to encounter any major discouragement from non-homeschoolers. Most people are interested when they find out, and many ask questions out of genuine curiosity. I always enjoy talking about homeschooling, and it doesn't at all offend me when people want to know why or how we do it.

Ninjaschool homeschool

Preparing for another school year

We're all geared up to begin our 7th year of homeschool next week! I know it's early by most public school standards, but we like to start early in order to have more flexibility to take time off throughout the school year without falling behind in our schedule. It's important to me that we completely finish our grade level by the time we take a summer break.

So I've finished my planning and organizing in preparation for school on Monday. We will again employ a 6 week on/ 1 week off schedule this year after having great success with it last year. So, the first thing I did before I even started my subject planning was print out a 2015-2016 school calendar and figure out, roughly, when we would take our breaks over the course of the next 10 months.

Homeschool planning

In my five years of homeschooling, I'm still constantly modifying my methods. That's one of the things I love about homeschool: you stick with what works for you, and if something doesn't work, you can change it! I love not having to be married to one specific method of teaching or planning or organizing.

That being said, I thought I'd share my current planning method. It's a conglomeration of several years' worth of different ideas, keeping what worked and ditching what didn't or what was too time-consuming. I'm quite happy with where I've ended up.  

It's almost time!

We're starting school on Monday. After a long trip to Bermuda, several visits to Busch Gardens, many playdates, and a week of sports camp, it's time to get started on 3rd grade.

I can't wait.

Getting ready for 3rd grade

It is truly hard to believe my "baby" will be starting third grade this fall.

And it's also kinda hard to believe I've been homeschooling formally for three years, not including preschool. I am in no way an expert, but I have to admit that the planning part of things gets a little easier each year.

As I've mentioned before, we're following a classical style of education. In a nutshell, that just means we're studying history chronologically in four-year cycles, and our subjects align with the history we're learning that year. I use an incredible book called The Well-Trained Mind as my guide, and then I choose my own curricula based on how my child learns.

After this year's homeschool convention, I read the following statement in a pamphlet:

Man, was I convicted.

First week of 2nd grade is in the books

We started school a little bit early this year. Last year we made an international move in early September, so we didn't begin 1st grade until well after Labor Day. Throughout the year we squeezed in a couple trips to Bermuda and Disney World, so by the end I was a little stressed about finishing on time.

Not this year. This year we started an entire month early to enable us to take more holidays throughout the school year for vacations, sick days, and those days we just need a break. Basically, I wanted enough cushion for flexibility.

We were both ready to get back into the swing of things the first week of August. I missed the routine of the school day, and even though he would probably say otherwise, I think Asher did, too.

So on Monday, August 5, we started 2nd grade.

Walking (for real this time), lamps and superhero stories

I've spent most of the weekend in our school room. We're on track to finishing up Asher's 1st grade year this week, which means it's time to get serious about organizing things for 2nd grade. I've already ordered most of the text books we'll be using, with only a couple things that haven't arrived yet.

It's amazing to me that I am already excited for 2nd grade when, let's be honest, I can't wait to finish 1st grade. We've been at it since September, including an international move, and I'm done.

Starting preschool

Viewing last year as a sort of test-run, I'm starting homeschool again in full-force now that Asher has had his 4th birthday. We're in preschool now! That means a few changes. Last year was extremely casual. We had no set schedule (other than simply getting everything done) and read when Asher wanted to.

This year, however, we've got a schedule. I decided to use Sonlight's preschool program, so I have a set, organized curriculum. I love it. I ordered most of the books used from Amazon to save money, and I added in some things myself. For instance, Asher is interested in letters and sounds, so we're doing phonics this year even though Sonlight does not include it in their set curriculum. I also am incorporating some great activity books to get ideas for things we can do (crafts, rhymes, songs, etc.) that go along with things we are reading about.

I also try to plan field trips according to what we're reading about each week. For example, this week we are reading about fish and oceans, so I've made that our specific theme this week. We will visit the Aquarium and the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. Also in social studies we read about fishermen, so we visited some friends of mine who are fishermen. They showed us the fish and lobsters they had caught.

I will go into more detail about what we're doing and how we're doing it as we go along. I'm still learning myself! In the meantime, here are a few pictures.




We don't have any extra space in our little 2-bedroom apartment, so I've had to be creative. We have a homeschool hallway as a result :) It's literally a hallway (and the only space we have that's not being used!) that I've put 2 bookshelves in to hold all the homeschool books and supplies. My husband has also kindly put up some magnetic dry-erase boards for us.


This is the view of the hallway facing the living room.








And here's the view going in the other direction, toward the back of the apartment.









Here's one shelf. On top of the shelf I keep my binder with the weekly curriculum guide on top. Notice my American flag because, just as if we were in regular American public school, we say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.

I keep a folder beside the current week's planner. Inside I keep all the papers and worksheets we're doing that week. Once a paper is complete, I three-hole punch it and file it behind that week's schedule.


Here are the magnetic dry-erase boards. I keep the Bible verses we're learning up there as well as cards showing the letters we're focusing on. Asher also enjoys putting some of his worksheets and coloring pages on display there after he completes them. I also have letter and number magnets that Asher can play with. He can also practice writing his letters on here, but I keep the marker put away so that he never uses it unsupervised (I could imagine the effect that might have on our white walls!)




This is a trick I learned. I use a square of discarded carpet (thanks to my friend Kristina for donating it!) as a fun learning board. Velcro sticks to it beautifully! So I found a set of alphabet flashcards in the $1 bins at Target and bought two of them. On one set I put velcro (the peel-and-stick kind available at craft stores) on the letter side, and on the other set I put velcro on the picture side. Now we are able to play games. I put several pictures and letters up and then allow Asher to match them correctly. He enjoys that they stick up there like magic!









This is what we call our ABC Jar. I borrowed this idea (and others you'll find in my homeschool activities) from Counting Coconuts (a local Bermuda blog done by a homeschooling mom who is totally brilliant). I found lots of small toys and placed them in a jar. I tell Asher a letter, and he is to find a toy that begins with that letter (he might bring me a zebra toy if I tell him "Z", etc.). Or we'll dump all the toys out, and as he places them back in one-by-one, he must tell me the letter that each toy begins with. He loves this game!




This is the "creative area" of Asher's room. We've got the Lego table in the middle, flanked by a box of play food and a bin of dress-up clothes. He has alone-time almost every day in which he must play by himself in his room for a set amount of time.








Here is one of the windchimes we made from seashells we have collected around Bermuda. We strung them together with fishing line and a napkin ring at the top. We used this as a special activity to go along with the week we read about fish and oceans.
Here's the other windchime. They sound so pretty and islandy!