I don’t have much time to reflect this morning, but I did want to share a snapshot of our science and culture week (happens once a month.) We’ll be learning about Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands as well as Severe Weather. Lots of discussions on Charles Darwin, the theory of evolution, meteorology, emergency preparedness, and time outside.
I love these weeks!
Before we started homeschooling, day to day was a bit of a mystery. Just like every family that chooses this educational path, we’ve had to feel things out, do a little research, and seek advice from trusted sources. Our first year there were growing pains, and many times I wondered if homeschooling was for us.
In year two, I feel like we’ve done a couple things right. One was creating a mission and vision for our homeschool that centers around the values we (me and my partner) want to instill in our kids: resilience, good problem solving, a strong sense of self, and strong relationships with others. We used the planning process laid out in The Joy of Slow by Leslie Martino who I heard on the Brave Writer podcast.
Once we knew our mission, it was easy enough to make sure all our activities for this year align with and serve in teaching these values. This helps us manage the second thing we’ve done right – leaving plenty of space in our routines for spontaneous learning and rest.
Our routine:
6:30ish – 9ish Our kid wakes up naturally (unless Mom’s alarm wakes him up accidentally – he’s right next to me sketching a very tall vehicle.) We eat breakfast as a family, get dressed, play, draw, maybe do an activity if I set one out the night before.
9ish – 11ish Most weeks of the month we’re doing a minimum 20 minutes of evidence-based reading and math instruction respectively (all designed by educators for homeschooling) plus whatever handwriting copywork I come up with. Sometimes it’s from a workbook, sometimes I find or write a passage for him to copy. Sometimes this takes 45 minutes, sometimes it takes 2 hours.
Every four weeks, during this time, we play catch-up with any reading or math lessons leftover from previous weeks. We do some sort of cultural study using library books, videos, and local experiences based on a curriculum called Torchlight K. We complete a unit of Mystery Science with various science videos and hands on experiments.
My son also goes to an outdoor homeschool pod two days a week for about 4 hours. There he’ll do nature study, social studies, ethics, and then whatever else the instructors want – often a lot of play and exploration of the students’ interests. On these days, I don’t do any homeschool myself and usually try to focus on being present with my youngest.
12ish-5ish Whatever we want or need to do! Rather than squeeze extracurriculars into the margins of our day, we get to do them well before dinner time. We may go explore a new park, swim, ride bikes, go to a museum, meet friends, make a fancy tea with read-alouds, attend a lego club at the library, attend a running club practice, watch videos on how to draw vehicles, pretend play, do laundry, or even just run errands.
On weekends, we also have Scouting America meetings or campouts plus all the other stuff public schooling families do. It’s a pretty sweet life!
Light On Homeschool 