I can’t believe it has already been two months since we started this homeschool journey. To be honest, I had no clue what to expect or even what the heck I was doing. But, here we are and it’s going great!
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Homeschool Chose Us
If you remember last month I shared our first month in our homeschool journey. You can read that here.
But as a quick recap, we pulled our second, third, and preschooler from public school after I had felt a strong pull that wouldn’t let go. After a series of events, it was time to pull them and we have done nothing but progress since then.
Month Two
The last five weeks we have really dug into “school” and have been using The Good and the Beautiful math and language arts curriculum.
If you want to check them out they have free downloads of the entire curriculum levels K-8 for language arts, and levels K-6 for math on their website.
We are really enjoying this curriculum especially the fact that it’s open and go. As a mother of six who is still navigating the homeschooling waters, having a curriculum that guides me in teaching my children has been so helpful! I really love that although we are doing math and language arts, we are exploring different countries and cultures every lesson.
Other than our daily lessons we have also incorporated a few different bible studies, we’re still learning what format we like to learn in so still exploring options.
We have also been going to our local library and I think this is big hit with all my children. They really look forward to going and picking out books for their daily reading.
My older boys are really into the Dog Man series – for my fellow millennials reading, it’s a new day version of Captain Underpants. I’m not a fan, but it’s holding my boys interests and they want to read so I’ll let it slide.
And of course with the weather breaking we have explored some parks and have a few trips planned around the county to get out of the house and explore.
Improvement
Even in the short time we have been homeschooling, I have seen lots of improvement from my older boys, even my preschooler!
Both of my older boys were struggling with reading and language arts due to the last few years of being in and out of school starting in 2020.
They both had amazing tutors within the public school but they just weren’t where I was hoping they would be – Looking at it now I know they are right where they’re meant to be, but that public school mentality has a hold on me.
Even so, I have seen amazing improvement now that they are reading every single day for a minimum of 20 minutes with a book of their choice, as well as the individual attention that I am able to give them in their lessons.
Another improvement is the fact that my kids are actually asking me questions and wanting to get involved with what I am doing. Whether it be cooking, canning, baking, gardening they want be involved and I find that so incredible!
My biggest surprise, may be yours as well, but my children are actually enjoying being around each other now! Don’t get me wrong, they are still siblings act as such. However, I have been able to witness a miracle when it comes to their sibling bond.
Helpful Tips
Just today we had our “year end” assessment. In the state of Ohio we can choose to do testing and submit a score, or we can do an assessment which includes going over course work, activities, etc. that we have completed over the year. This is still a requirement even though we have only been at this for two months, thankfully I had a lot of great tips passed on to me during this assessment!
I found out that an hour or two for each child per day sitting doing lessons was a too much for their age. For a 7 and 9 year old they do best learning through play. So while I can do the lessons with the curriculum everyday, we should be focusing on learning through play.
Another tip: Get the idea of “grade levels” out of your head. Again, I have the public school hold on me and still feel it necessary to assign my children grades. However, I don’t want to conform them in a box, one of the very reasons we decided to homeschool in the first place. So I’ll be working on meeting my children right where they are in their lessons and levels.
A third tip: Everything can be homeschool! Laundry, dishes, board games, video games, gardening, it can all be homeschool! If your kids are learning then it’s school!
Books and Accounts
Last but not least, I have to share some books and some great homeschool accounts I have interacted with over the last few months.
First, the book Homeschool Bravely was recommended to me many times and after reading it I can understand why! This book is a great encouragement when it comes to your homeschooling journey. I think this is great for new and experienced homeschool mamas!
Now for some accounts I highly recommend following would be Jess at Silo and Sage. She is a kindergarten teacher turned homeschool mama to her five boys. Jess is so sweet and so full of knowledge! You can check out her Instagram here.
Kali from Working to Homeschool is a another great homeschool account! She is a expecting working and homeschool mama and I have learned so much from her! You can find her Instagram account here.
If you are new to the idea of homeschooling, the best piece of advice I can give you is to just do it! It seems crazy at first and you probably feel like you need to have everything planned and in place. But the truth is, when you jump, everything falls into place. And when it falls into place, you’ll wonder why you didn’t jump sooner!
Happy homeschooling,
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