Ministry-To-Children.com » Homeschooling

Homeschooling a 2nd Grade with a 2 year old in the house

Felicia Mollohan — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:57:42 +0000

We are officially in our 2nd year of homeschooling now. I have a 2nd grade boy and a 2 year old boy. I think the most challenging part of homeschooling, so far this year, has been trying to homeschool my older son, while my younger son is around.

This is a new problem for us this year. You see, last year, my youngest took morning naps. This year he doesn’t take naps in the morning, which means he is up while we’re homeschooling. Here are some of the thoughts that I’ve had in order to fix this “problem”:

Pray – A Lot! This helps me to remember that God is really in control of our homeschool.
Read blogs of people who have toddlers and homeschool at the same time – This has really helped to realize that I’m not alone.
Change our homeschooling time to the afternoon – This won’t work because my oldest son and I are better focused in the morning time.
Put together “school” items for my younger child to do while I am working with my oldest. **Insert the Busy Basket!**

Busy Basket

I have certain toys and activities that are not always available to my younger son. He has too many toys, anyways, and most of these are items that I want to be able to do with him (parent supervision). As I was looking though some blogs on the internet, I thought of the Busy Basket. I put various activities that he is able to do by himself with little help from me into a basket. This basket is kept on a shelf and is only brought down during “school” time. I called it the Busy Basket, not because I just want my son to be busy (because I would like for him to be learning as well), but because it sounded so nice with the word basket.

He didn’t really like them on the first day, but on the second day he really explored all of the items in the baskets. I’m hoping this will continue to work well. I love him exploring things on his own and coming up with ways to use them. Here’s what I put in this one week’s busy basket:

foam numbers – I put magnets on the backs of these and put them on an old cookie sheet.
foam shapes
different colored poker chips – He really liked the sound these made!
1-9 numbered paper plates – He has really liked plates lately, so I figured this would be a hit.
measuring tape inside of a measuring cup
a bag of pom poms
penne noodles with pipe cleaners – These are sort of like lacing. He “laces” the pipe cleaner through the noodle. We use pipe cleaners because they are stiffer than yarn and easier for his little fingers. This is great for fine motor control.
bead jar – I simply put some large beads in an old (and cleaned out) children’s vitamin jar. He loves to unscrew the top and shake out the beads.
sponge blocks – I bought a package of 10 sponges from the Dollar Tree. I then cut each sponge into 4 pieces. This gave us 40 multi-colored blocks that were safe for our boy who likes to throw everything.

“Reading Around the World” Program Idea

Felicia Mollohan — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:59:46 +0000

I have created this Summer Reading Program so that my son would read more during the summer months. We keep talking about how reading is an adventure so I came up with the Reading Around the World theme. He will be working towards goals which then gets him rewards. Here is a run-down of the program:

He will have a “passport” to “travel” around the world in order to keep track of the books that he reads.
He will visit different countries/continents throughout his journey.
While on the journey, we will be doing various activities that have to do with the country/continent he is working on the goal towards.
Along with the activities, we will be learning about the country: location, continent, surrounding places, animals that live there, weather, etc.

This is a simple plan for any parents or homeschoolers who want to encourage reading over the summer break. Here are the printables that go with this program:

Click here to download this in one ZIP file

Adventure Destinations: This is a list of the reading goals that I have made for him. He is going into the 2nd grade so his books are short…that’s why his ultimate goal is 200 book. We will also be reading some together. For each goal, we will have made it to the next place on his Adventure Around the World.

Book Report Form: We will be filling this form out for each book that he/we read. They are in the shape of a ticket. They will go inside of the Passport Cover.

Passport Cover: This is made 2 to a page. Cut in half around the middle (not up and down) and then folded to that it looks like a little folder for the Book Report Forms to fit inside of.

My Reading Adventure Book Counting Sheets: These are to keep track of the books that he is reading. He is get a stamp/sticker in each box when he finishes filling out a Book Report Form for each book he reads.

Reward Tickets: These are the flags of the country destinations (except for Antarctica, which is the shape of the continent). You can then write the reward on the flag. Our rewards are family movie night, family game night, ice cream, a toy from the local dollar store, etc.

Destination Activities: This is just a simple list of a few activities that we will be doing while we are learning about each country/continent.

What do you think of this summer reading program at home? Simply leave a comment here and let us know.

Reflections on Our First Year of Homeschool

Felicia Mollohan — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:25:29 +0000

I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately of our homeschool. I am always thinking about it. Am I doing enough? Am I doing it the right way? What could I improve? Is he learning what he needs to learn? Am I doing what God wants me to do? I think that it’s a good thing to reflect on what you’re doing, but then there is the point when you just need to accept it and move on.

Here’s what I’m talking about. I am the type of person who will over-think things to the point of being paralyzed to be able to do anything. I mean, I can get to the point where I am so obsessed about what I’ve done and what I think I should do next, that I won’t be able to do anything at all. That’s not a good thing. The problem that I have is that I don’t “do” homeschool like anyone else that I know. I am not a traditional teacher; never have been.

Even when I was teaching in the public schools, I didn’t use our textbooks all that much. We aren’t unschoolers because we don’t just do what he’s interested in even though I do create unit studies around things he likes and include the objectives he needs to learn. I’m not a workbook-teacher manual type of teacher. I am an activity driven, hands-on teacher who has an activity-driven, hands-on type of learner. Thank goodness we match! We have a routine, but a flexible schedule (if that makes any sense). We take advantage of teachable moments throughout each and every day. In the eyes of others, it looks like we aren’t “doing school”.

I am fighting a battle that I can never win. But, I don’t have to! I have come to the conclusion that we are doing what’s right for us and that’s great! I think too many homeschooling parents “do” homeschool the way their neighbor does it, and then wonder why it’s not working. Our homeschool is working and I need to stop obsessing about it!

As I look back throughout our first year of homeschooling, I have mixed feelings. I am proud of what we have accomplished and what my son has learned. We have grown closer as a family and that, to me, is priceless! We have done so many things and have learned a ton. Things weren’t as “organized” and “structured” as I would have liked, but it’s a work in progress. We were trying to figure out how we want to homeschool and what works for us. Juggling a little tot along with trying to “do school” was a challenge as well. I have learned that I need to “structure” some “unstructured” play for my little tot. What I mean by that is that I need to have some options for him. I also need to involve both boys in learning at the same time, as much as possible.

Summer is getting closer and I have been getting the question, “When are you ending for the year?” That took me off guard because I honestly I hadn’t even thought about it. I have come to the conclusion that we are going to continue through the summer, just with some breaks and flexibility built in. If an opportunity comes up to be able to “play” with our friends, we are absolutely going to take it. But, I know my boys and they also need some structure throughout the summer. So we will play and do school throughout the summer.

So what have I learned through this first year of homeschooling? Here’s a short list that I have come up with:

Pray for God’s guidance in our homeschool. He knows what’s best.
I am so glad that we homeschool because I get to have so much time with my family!
I need to stop obsessing about what others are doing.
We need to do what’s best for us.
Relax and enjoy!

Homeschooling is Not for the Faint of Heart!

Brandi Riddle — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:48:32 +0000

What a true statement that I am learning first hand! We have almost completed a year of homeschooling, and I have to be honest: It Has Been Challenging!

Homeschooling is definitely not something to be taken lightly. We had prayed for guidance regarding this decision, and I still believe this is where God had us for this school year. However, we are now re-evaluating and praying about what we will do for the next school year.

Homeschooling has had its great advantages for us. We have had a flexible schedule which has allowed us to travel to see our family more easily. I have also enjoyed having my son at home and not in a classroom all day long. It has been wonderful to see first hand the progress he is making when it comes to learning, especially with reading.

But, on the flip side, we have had many challenges! One of the greatest challenges has simply been the idea of me being the teacher. For some kids, it is “cool” or at least okay for their parent to be their teacher. This has not proved to be the case for my son. Don’t get me wrong, we do have our good days, but we have probably just as many bad ones. He has never done well with me as his teacher, even when I’ve been his teacher at church. Homeschooling hasn’t been any different. He really doesn’t see me as his teacher. He sees Mrs. B (at our supplemental school) as his teacher. Maybe this has worked to our disadvantage, although I don’t believe so. He excels on Tuesdays and Thursdays at our supplemental program. It’s almost always a fight on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to do school. Spankings, time-outs, giving or taking privileges – you name it and we’ve tried it this year when it comes to getting him interested and enjoying homeschooling. Nothing has seemed to work.

I must also speak to the fact that I am a very organized and detailed person. I am very time oriented, always sticking to a schedule and keeping things as organized as possible. Even with my Type A personality, homeschooling has been challenging. I say this as a warning to those who are considering homeschooling. IT IS HARD WORK – no matter what others may say. Don’t think that you can just get up every morning, sit with your child for a few hours, and school is complete. It takes planning, organization, and perseverance. It takes putting everything else on the backburner for those hours that school is in session. I don’t say these things to scare anyone away from homeschooling, only to point out the challenges. I think lots of people view homeschooling as “the easy way out,” that it’s for lazy parents and kids who don’t want to conform to the public education system. This is totally wrong. When done correctly, homeschooling is time consuming, takes much work and planning, yet is very rewarding.

If you are considering homeschooling, I suggest you talk with someone who has been homeschooling and get some feedback. Make sure you are ready to take on this huge responsibility of educating your child, because homeschooling is Not for the faint of heart!

Homeschooling Schedules, Routines and Lists (Oh My!)

Felicia Mollohan — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:18:58 +0000

I am very much a list & schedule person. I put things on a list just so that I can check them off (I know, I’m weird). My oldest is a schedule person too, so much so that he will check the schedule, then check the clock and tell me what we should be doing exactly at that time. I have had to learn to be more flexible with time and schedules since I’ve had children. They don’t sleep for exactly 2 hours, eat for 30 minutes or want to read for 45 minutes. Even as I am typing this, my youngest (22 months) is on my lap reaching for cords, papers and anything else he can get his hands on. As he is grabbing at things, he keeps pushing the Caps Lock key on the keyboard, and so as I am writing I have to keep erasing it so that it doesn’t seem like I’m yelling at you :).

Homeschooling has thrown a whole other loop into MY schedule. School takes a different amount of time each day. We don’t always start exactly at 9:00 and end at 12:00. We start after my husband leaves for work and we get our morning chores done. We end when we’re done with our activities or one of us is mentally turned off. I don’t believe in killing the point with multiple “busy work” type activities and I don’t believe in continuing with the lesson plan if he isn’t “getting” anything because his brain has shut off. I don’t want to waste time on something that he already understands and sometimes I need to rethink how to teach him something that he is having trouble with.

Anyways, I have said all of that to say that I have had to adjust how I think of a schedule. I have had many talks with my husband and my parents about what to do about this “problem” that I’ve been having. It comes down to having a routine, not a schedule. A schedule to me is a time-based list of what needs to occur throughout the day. A routine is more of a list of what needs to occur throughout the day – just without the time list. I find that when I follow a schedule, I stress over the time. If something takes more time, I feel like I am behind (which I hate!). But, with a routine, everything gets done, just in their own time.

My mom told me that we probably already follow a routine throughout the day, I just didn’t have anything written down. She was right. We do the same things (mostly) in the same order (mostly) most everyday. My problem is that I was trying to make a minute-to-minute schedule that I couldn’t live up to. I continuously felt bad about myself and what I wasn’t getting done instead of feeling accomplished for what I did do.

As I am a list person, I have tried to write many a schedules and routines. These will continuously change as my boys keep growing and their needs change. I am putting the lists and routines that I currently use or have recently used. I hope this helps someone!

Routine: This is our daily routine. I have kept it general because if I don’t, I’ll have it too specific and not realistic. I keep it in a plastic protector sheet (with magnets on the back) up on the refrigerator.

Chore List: This is my oldest son’s (6) list of things that he is expected to do daily, without (much) reminding. He does other things, as I ask, but this is a daily list for him to go to. I keep it in a plastic protector sheet (with magnets on the back) up on the refrigerator.

Attitude Chart: We were having a really hard time with our oldest son’s behavior. It was getting so bad that I wanted to ban him from doing anything fun, ever. I came up with this chart so that he could “earn” video game time. He loves playing video games and I don’t want him playing all day, so this is a win-win. He earned a certain amount of time for each part of the day. We added up the times and that is how much he could play on the next day. This really helped us to work on his behavior in smaller amounts of time, instead of the entire day. We aren’t using this currently because his behavior has been great lately. He figured out what I wanted from him (behavior-wise) and he gets to play when I tell him.

I’d love to hear back from other homeschoolers out there. What routines, schedules, and checklists have you found helpful? Where do you find good schedule templates for homeschooling? Just click here to leave a comment below.

8 Tips for Choosing a Homeschooling Curriculum

Brandi Riddle — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:22:53 +0000

If you have taken the plunge and decided that homeschooling is for you and your family, the next step may be finding which curriculum to use. Finding the right home school materials can be overwhelming for new homeschooelrs. Here are a 8 tips that helped me along the way to decide what to use.

1. Pray about a curriculum that God would have you use.

2. Consider your child (children). For example, if your child is a “hands-on” learner, then search for curriculum that will cater to his/her learning style.

3. Google “homeschool curriculum” – be warned that LOTS of info will come up! While I found this to be helpful, it CAN and DOES quickly become overwhelming because there is so much info.

4. Ask friends/family/church members which curriculum they used and why they did or didn’t like it. I think this is probably your most helpful tool!

5. Look for used curriculum sales/stores that carry curriculum at cheaper prices. You can also talk with people at these stores/sales to see which curriculums are most popular.

6. Try to get your hands on curriculum before you purchase it. If this is not an option, there are websites that have sample pages on them.

7. Realize that you will have to spend some money! I was under the impression that I could do it all on my own, and that homeschooling curriculum was cheap. I think both are misconceptions. Get a curriculum suited for you and your child and remember you get what you pay for! This is an investment into your child’s future!

8. And once you’ve decided on a particular curriculum, understand that you might have to “step back and punt!” Monitor and adjust if needed. You may have to change curriculums altogether or alter it to the specific needs of your child.

If you’ve recently gone through this process please leave a comment below. We’d love to hear what homeschool curriculum you chose and why.

Hands-On Approach to Homeschool Teaching

Felicia Mollohan — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:38:59 +0000

I am a big proponent of using things around the house in order to teach my son his homeschooling objectives. Even when I was teaching in the public schools, I loved to adapt my curriculum to teach with a hands-on approach, rather than a worksheet approach. I took the objectives given to me and then looked around my classroom to teach them. Sometimes it was a simple game or sometimes I used visuals to explain the point.

I do the same thing while homeschooling my children. I try to think outside of the box in order to use objects they can touch and move in order to help them understand a concept. For example, in order to help my son with his addition facts, I made up a game called “Star Wars War With A Twist”. He loves Star Wars and we had just gotten him some playing cards that had Star Wars characters on them. We also love to play the card game, War (great for greater than/less than practice). Instead of each person putting one card down and seeing who had the largest number, we each put two cards down and had to add them together. This helped him practice his addition skills, as well as his greater than/less than skills.

For Reading, we read books we have as well as library books, instead of reading stories out of a reader. For writing practice, he writes in a journal (homemade) each day. We use a real clock to learn time (especially because the minute hand turns correctly with the hour hand), real money to practice money counting, foam letters and clothespins with letters written on them to practice spelling words, large homemade dice (made out of cube shaped boxes) to practice addition/subtractions, and we use a lot of construction paper to create different things. These are just a few of the things that we use that are simple (and inexpensive) to help our children learn.

One of my older son’s objectives was to learn about pictographs and bar graphs. Since I wanted him to graph real information, we got out all of his leveled books. He sorted his books into their levels and then we made a pictograph on the floor. We discussed all of the parts of the graph: labels, x and y axis, as well as what the books stood for in the graph. Then we took that information and made a bar graph on the white board. He was able to see the same information on two different graphs that way.

What He Learned:

Graph – a way to show information in a “picture” form

Graph Parts:

“Y” and “X” axis
Each axis needs a label
The entire graph needs a label

Graphing Steps:

Organize your information (data) – we separated his leveled books into piles
Lay out your data – he laid the books in rows making sure to line them up neatly
Examine your data – we talked about which one had the most, least and added some of them together

Types of Graphs:

Pictograph – a graph using pictures
Bar Graph – a graph using bars

What Can Kids Learn from Backyard Exploration?

Felicia Mollohan — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:05:46 +0000

Kids love to explore God's world...

I have a hard time getting my son to be outside. I remembered what my mom always said, “If they find it by themselves, they will like it even more.” So, while he was in the playroom, I went outside, laid down a blanket on the grass and brought out a magazine to look at. It didn’t take long for him to find me outside and wonder what I was doing.

Ah ha! A spark of interest! I capitalized on it and it turned into a lazy hour of exploring, looking through his magnifying glass (his idea) and taking pictures (my idea). He kept saying, “What an amazing discovery!” He also told me that we should have discovery time every day. We were able to talk about a lot of things as we were exploring our backyard.

What My Child Learned in His Own Backyard

Science

There are living things all around us.
Using a magnifying glass helps us to see things up close…it makes them look bigger.
He took a flower (weed) out of the ground so we could explore it closer. We talked about the different parts and noticed that the stem was hollow. I asked him if he had an hypothesis about it and he thinks that it is used so the flower can eat. We are doing an experiment right now to check his hypothesis (videos coming later).
Bugs look different and move differently.
If you look close enough, you can see multiple colors in one little space.
The sun is used to heat the earth and give us light.

Bible

“Be still and know that I am God.” We talked about this and how sometimes we miss things because we are too busy. Sometimes we need to just be still, and not to move, in order to see things.
God must have an amazing imagination in order to create the little, tiny bugs that we saw, as well as create us.

Math

Size differences – We look huge to the little bugs (he decided that’s why they are afraid of us because we could hurt them) and the sky look huge to us.

Art

Perspective – We laid on the blanket and talked about how our perspective changes as we look at things differently.

Technology

He came up with a question that I didn’t know the answer to. “Why is the sky blue?” We talked about how we could find the answer to that. We talked about the computer and the internet and that would be a great start to finding an answer. We will be looking there later to answer our question.

I love when exploring brings about interest and further learning is wanted!

SUCCESS!!!

Editor’s Note: Other homeschoolers have photo blogged their backyard exploration. See here and here. You may also enjoy an article from Scholastic.com titled Ten Teachable Moments in Your Backyard. Our friend Lin Pearson also has a free Big Bug Hunt game on PowerPoint you can download.

Homeschooling Bible Study: Learning As We Go

Felicia Mollohan — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:41:59 +0000

While my oldest son was in kindergarten last year, we decided to homeschool him once we moved. Though we have our struggles, I really think this is the best decision we could have made!

We, of course, want to have Bible lessons as one of the “subjects” my son is learning, but it’s not as easy as it seemed at first. My son has had to remind me to do our Bible lesson because, “it’s the most important thing in the world, Mom!” He’s right! I’m new to homeschooling so I am still trying to get the hang of everything. There have been those days where I have skipped the Bible lesson or have rushed through it to get on with the “real” studies of the day. Oh, how wrong I have been! It took my 6 year old son to set me straight!

Our daily Bible lesson is the most important lesson of the day! It’s not something to rush through or skip over.

Since I am a schedule and routine-type of person, I have a list of the things that I will be doing with my son during our Bible lessons.

We read a story out of his Bible and then we act it out (my son loves this).
For his handwriting practice each day, he copies part of his Bible verse that he is memorizing for the week. We are working through the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20 and hopefully at the end he will be able to recite the entire Exodus 20:1-17.
I am also going to be having him memorize the books of the Bible with flash cards (made from index cards) that he can put in order each day (I’ll be adding a few each week to the stack).

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep adding things to our list of Bible activities each week and I want to find an inexpensive history book that correlates the events in the Bible to the events that happened elsewhere in the world. I’ll let you know if I find anything!

Editors Note: Many readers have found free Bible lessons helpful to use as homeschool Bible curriculum. You may also enjoy our recommended “easy” memory verses to use with younger kids.

Homeschooling – What We’re Learning after 3 Months

Brandi Riddle — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:35:15 +0000

We have just finished our third month of homeschooling and are moving into the fourth. The time has flown by! We have our good days and bad, but overall, I would say that homeschooling has been a success for us.

One of the biggest challenges we have faced when it comes to homeschooling might just be the teacher! I’ve found that it is often hard to keep to the schedule we have set for ourselves when it comes to school. A phone call from a friend inviting us to the park is all too tempting, or an unwilling student can make this teacher not want to even bother will schooling for that day. It is all too easy to say, “well, since we are homeschooling, we can do it later in the day or tomorrow” or whatever other excuse I can think of. Thankfully, we have not had many of those days because I know if I give in once, it will soon turn into twice, thrice, and so on. Homeschooling has definitely been a blessing for us, but it has not given us the strict schedule I thought it would.

We have also been fortunate enough to be apart of New Song Christian Academy, which is a supplemental school for homeschooling families. I have taken on the responsibility to teach 1^st grade there, and my son attends K5 there. We go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and spend the day learning mostly Spanish, science, and history. We also include some art activities, as well as reviewing math and language arts skills already being taught at home. This has served us well as we get some time away from each other, and my son gets some classroom experience as well.

As for now, we are not sure about the future. Will we choose to homeschool again next year? I’m not sure I can answer that question just yet. But what I can tell you is that it is a delight to hear my son read a sentence or sound out a new word and know that I am the one who has guided him through this learning process. I am seeing the fruit!

Need More Ideas? Many homeschoolers have enjoyed our Bible coloring pages. You can also read some tips for effective teaching.