wanted: a dull moment and your opinion
“there are voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter the world.”
~ralph waldo emerson
unfortunately, around here, one of those faint voices was that of the baby. the baby has been telling me he wants to learn how to read for quite some time now and with all of the organizing, cleaning, birthday parties and things that i’ve had to attend to these past few weeks, it just wasn’t possible. but thanks to a dear, sweet friend who loaned me teaching your child to read in 100 easy lessons, we have begun.
finding a dull moment to take a nap, sit and knit or just listen to my little girl pianist has been on my to do list this week. yes, i have actually scheduled down time. every phone call and email i received, i carefully considered and spaced so that we could enjoy this last stretch of summer days.
an early morning start allowed me say my prayers and meditations, sort and start the laundry. finish Qq, Rr, Ss and Tt on the alphabet quilt. tidy my room. and get on the computer for a bit before any of the kids got up. i still have to mend a button on some shorts, hem a pair of shirt sleeves and finish the rest of the laundry. it is still a cool 78 degrees upstairs and down, which is great because i have an appointment with the exercise bike after i get off here. i’ll do my 7 miles. that seems to be the farthest i can go in 20 minutes. stationary exercising is so boring. i’d much rather go for brisk walks, but i don’t really like to leave the kids home alone. nor do i like to walk by myself. and taking the kids with me usually slows me down. excuses. excuses, i know. it is so much more fun to sit and eat a bowl of icecream or bake a loaf of chocolate zucchini cake (thanks, barb, for that great recipe-the woman is a recipe genius-i swear i gain weight just by looking at bless us o Lord).
i am still gathering my thoughts on this school year. i was too chicken to take the bigger kids out of their charter school as of yet. but i did make the serious decision of keeping the baby out. i declined to sign him up, further stressing my life out with all of the paperwork and documentation that they require after much prompting of the Holy Spirit. so that leads me to my question for you….
i was just curious-out of all my readers who homeschool-how many of you do it independently of a charter/government based school or a home-study program like seton, etc. are there any of you who totally do it on your own? if so, please let me know how this has worked out for you and how long you have been doing it. you can email me privately if you don’t want to share in the comments.
have a blessed wednesday, friends!
andeverythinginitsplace.wordpress.com 
Regan, I had been homeschooling my 3 kiddos independently from K-6th, but I just enrolled my two girls in our parish middle school. So, I can’t speak to 7th and above, but K-6 went well. I will have my baby in 3rd grade this year and again will be working independently. What ages are you thinking about and do you have any specific questions? Let me know and I’ll pass your original question on to a good friend of mine who has 6 little ones, 4 in school from 1-8th. She is excellent at putting her own program together.
Oh, that picture of your baby sleeping is just precious!
7 miles? Great job!!!!
I have never enrolled in a program, although last year and this year, I’ve been following the CHC curriculum for K, 2nd and 4th grades. I really like it. I have in the past done only workbooks and covered every subject, picked and chose what I’ve liked. It works good. Once in 7th grade, I’ll need better records, those are the ones that count more when looking at colleges etc….at least that is what I’ve heard.
Probably not helpful, just what we’ve done.
We’re on our own. Texas requires next to nothing regarding documentation. I test every now and then. And I just backed off from teaching my 5yo to read. After many tries, we’ve decided he’s just not ready. That sleepy photo is awfully precious. I love little boys!
I belong to an “umbrella school” which allows me more freedom than registering as a home schooler (no required tests–I just list what I use for my curricula and send in the dates of my school year and the kids’ grades), but I don’t use a packaged curriculum. I do an ecclectic mix of classical, Montessori and Charlotte Mason, and try to find what works for each child. The program I used to teach Una to read brought Sebastian to tears, so I did something else with him. I am switching to CHC’s spelling for my boys, although Seton is fine for Una.
Your photos are really a journal of your day…
We’ve homeschooled since the beginning. Dash will be in 7th this year. All have used 100 easy lessons, but both Angelina & Zeke wanted to read early and started when they were four. Really depends on the kid – Dash wouldn’t have been ready so young.
I generally follow the Mother of Divine Grace syllabus for science, history/geography, poetry, art, Latin & music. I sub in Math-U-See, Phonetic Zoo and materials from the Institute for Excellence in Writing for grammar/composition/editing. I also add Writing Can Help workbooks … love the ‘old’ Catholic bible verses (thee, thou, thy, etc.).
I haven’t enrolled, so to speak, but have considered it a couple times through out the years. It’s always in the back of my mind. I guess I dont’ think we need the accountability right now, and I keep track of everything already with a computer program (Homeschool Tracker). Maybe it’ll be something I’ll look at more closely when Dash is in high school. One year at a time!
You’ve heard my struggles! But even with the challenges, I know this is where I’m supposed to be and how my kids are supposed to be learning right now. I liken it to a calling.
I used Seton so I can’t be of much help. But, you have my prayers. Also, if I were to ever home school again, I would build my own curriculum basing it roughly on what is required by the state/county for the kids to know and be proficient at . . . and I’d dollop fun all over the place! Kids learn best when touching and experiencing things – boys and girls do learn differently as well. Figure out your style and figure out how your kids like to learn . . . and make it fun. God bless you!
All my kids got to school…sorry I am pretty much the black sheep of the family around this “homeschooling” blog world.
I am impressed by your 7 mile bike ride.
I put my own curriculum together usually using a lot of CHC’s stuff, but this year I scratched all my plans and decided to follow a more unit study approach using the Prairie Primer with 2 kids and Elizabeth Foss and Jennifer Mackintosh’s Literature for the Young Lady for my oldest dd. My 1st grader is following along with the Prairie Primer but not doing everything the other 2 are doing. I think this will help get me out of a funk or more of a same ‘ol same ‘ol attitude that I had before I revamped our school plans. We don’t have to document here so I am thinking ahead because I will have a high schooler next year and I will have to come up with how I am going to keep her transcript records. I’m sure that was more than you wanted to know : )
Good job on the bike ride!
great job on the exercise. sorry to say i cant help in the independent category, we use our lady of victory curriculum.
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Thanks for the vote of confidence in the kitchen. Too bad you can’t pop over for a bite.
I hope you iron out the wrinkles in your homeschool plans. I’ve never had the desire to do it all on my own — not a homeschooler at heart, I suppose. But I tweak Seton’s plans a lot and add my own ideas. Luckily it has worked for us all these years.
we follow ambleside online. and then modify it with mater amabilis – for the catholic parts.
my oldest is only is 2nd grade. so i’m no expert.
the turning 5 in a few weeks boy wanted to read, too, so we took out the bob books. he makes it a bit, and then gets tired. and i use alpha phonics about once a week, too. nice and slow. no hurry. and lots of books on cd – so he can memorize the book and then “read” it to me on his own. great confidence booster, that.