Colby (3) with one of his catches

and water fights and games of tag in the backyard, but one of our favorite outdoor activities is exploring some of the hiking trails in our area.

Colby (3)

We’ve explored hollow logs,

Matthew (11) is brave enough to back into this huge hollow log

gotten caught in a thunderstorm, waded in creeks,

Sadie (6) after 'accidentally' falling into the creek

walked across dams, discovered a butterfly wonderland, hiked in the rain, played in waterfalls,

Kaitlin admires a waterfall

found new kinds of caterpillars, flowers and fruit, seen snakes, dragonflies and deer, but no bears (much to the children’s disappointment), gotten very muddy and Colby (3) is certain he found an owl tree.

Colby's owl tree

Hiking provides lots of opportunities for the kids to explore and learn in a real life setting.  Isn’t that what homeschooling is all about?

Here are some tips to make the most of a hike with your kids.

Things to bring:

• Portable snacks
• Water bottles
• Nature journals and pencils
• Towels (for wading)
• Containers to catch interesting critters
• Camera (to take pictures of wildlife and plants that you want to learn more about)
• Field guides (birds, plants, flowers, insects, etc.)
• Sunscreen and bug spray
• Binoculars
• Whistles – Each of our children has a whistle hung around their neck when we hike. If they ever can’t see anyone in our family that they are to stop and blow their whistle until we come get them.

Things to do:

• Hike slowly – let your kids explore their surroundings and wonder at the things that they see.
• Be prepared for detours – kids love to climb rocks, follow side trails and explore water.
• Have a picnic – We love to carry in granola bars, jerky, nuts and trail mix and then stop at some lovely spot and have a picnic lunch.
• Wade or swim – You get bonus points if you find the perfect wading place and have your picnic there.
• Talk to your kids – Hiking provides a wonderful opportunity to engage your children in discussion, to tell stories or talk about the wonders of God’s creation.
• Let your kids be kids – Water and mud are easy to clean and your kids will joyfully tell their children about the adventures that you shared with them.
• Hike in the rain – One of our kid’s favorite hikes was when we got caught in a massive thunderstorm about 2 miles from the car.  We ended up running much of the way back to the car, arrived sopping wet and were thankful to blast the heat on the way home.  While I wouldn’t suggest hiking in a thunderstorm, a little rain makes a hike an adventure.
• Follow up when you get home – Look up unknown plants and animals, show the children the trail you followed on a map and answer any questions that you were unable to answer while you were ‘in the field’.

Do you enjoy hiking with your kids?  What are some ways that you have fun and spend time with your kids during the summer?

Returning  August 5th

Connie, KimC, the  Deputy Headmistress and I are back together and we’re inviting you into our homes each Thursday during the month of August.  What makes a home work for a large family and what doesn’t?

Get your cameras and posts ready because we’ll include a linky and you’ll have the opportunity to share your homes as well.  August 5 we’ll talk about our yard/porch and entryway.

Click to go to the BF community to leave your comment

Popsicle is giving away three wonderful family trips in their Anything’s Possible with Popsicle Sweepstakes.  To enter kids just need to visit popsicle.com/possibilities and enter the riddle answer from their Popsicle stick.

I’m a Popsicle Brand Ambassador through a compensated Mom Bloggers Club program.

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Related posts:

1. Popsicle Twitter Party
2. Anything’s Possible With Popsicle
3. Hamburger and Ant Cupcakes
4. Spring at the Zoo
5. Free Summer Movies for Kids

KimC @ Life in a Shoe
Connie @ Smockity Frocks
Deputy Headmistress @ The Common Room

In our home we educate our big kids and our little kids together in many (most?) subjects.  There are many reasons for this and if you’re interested you may read:

• 6 Distinctives of our Homeschool
• Our Method for Selecting and Using Curriculum
• God’s Method for Education

For more info on how we teach multiple levels together check out my homeschool page.

So with an age range of 2-13 how do we put it all together?  How do we educate our children so that we can discuss things as a family, they can build stronger relationships with us and with each other and we can talk of things as we stand up, as we lie down and as we walk by the way?

The basic answer to this question is that we teach and talk with our children throughout the whole day, every day.

At Breakfast:

Each morning at the breakfast table Mark reads the passage of Scripture that he will be teaching from during family worship that evening. (I also read this passage to the children at lunch time.)  Mark is also reading and discussing “Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends” for the second time.  After Mark is finished we work through our memorization box.

Reading:

As soon as we finish chores each morning, I sit down with one of my beginning readers.  The older children (9, 11, 12 and 13) work on their independent assignments; Greek, math, music practice and writing.  The other younger children work on their handwriting, copy work and/or dictation.

I spend time with each of the younger children (2, 3, 5, 6 and 7) either reading to them or listening to them read to me.

Each Wednesday instead of reading with the little ones we do a hands-on project that reinforces what we’ve been studying in history.  We’ve made mud bricks with straw like the Israelites,  pottery bowls like those found in Mesopotamia, paint out of charcoal, etc.

Younger kids reading/discussion:

(The older children continue to work on their independent assignments.)

We’ve chosen a variety of resources for our younger kids that coincide with the topics and subjects that the older children are studying. (Many resources are from Sonlight 1.)  Each day we read from a book on their level about  the topic/event that the bigger kids will be studying  later that day.  We also read poetry, memorize additional Scripture and are working through a Bible study for young children.

Several of our older children join us for this time of reading and discussion.  They’ve already been through most of this material, but they love it and want to hear it again.

Older kids reading/discussion:

When the younger kids are finished with their time we gather everyone together.  Our little kids are included in much of this time with our older kids.

We are using Sonlight 6 this year and begin with Bible reading and then a Bible assignment.  (The big kids work on all of their assignments later.)

Next we read the history portions.  Here we cover the same things (but more in depth) that our younger kids studied earlier.  The little ones LOVE being able to tell the big kids what they already know, show them the area on the map or add an event to the time line.  Once we’ve finished the reading portion our younger children are allowed to follow their own interests while we discuss the readings.  They most commonly stay in the room and play quietly.

We read more poetry, read our read aloud and assign independent reading.  The 5 and 6 year old almost always wish to hear this portion.  As always we discuss what we’re reading.

Other school assignments:

Art, writing, logic, nature journals and other assignments are passed out at this time for the children to complete either in groups or independently.  We do not cover all subjects each day.  We think that it is very important for our children to have free time to discover and learn on their own and we make sure that they have plenty of free time each day.

Amber is working through Apologia Science on her own, rather that is her assignment.  It usually works out that she is reading the information and doing the experiments with a group of children who are intensely interested in her level of science.

Has anyone done Apologia Physical Science with children much younger than 7th grade?  I’m wondering if I should do more level combining.

More reading aloud:

Just before dinner, we usually read aloud to the children again.  “Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History“, “The Blue Fairy Book“, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare” and “Charlotte’s Web” are some of the books we’ve read in the past 3 weeks.

Family worship:

I’ve posted about this in more depth, but we are currently working through the Proverbs very slowly with lots of discussion.

Character Study/Literature:

Our oldest 3 children stay up after the younger ones go to bed and Mark is reading and discussing John G. Paton’s autobiography with them.

Everyday learning:

Kids are always learning and we don’t stop teaching on weekends or on days that we don’t work on ‘school work’.   The children don’t watch television, very rarely watch videos and don’t play video games.  This leaves plenty of time for living life and taking dominion over creation.

Check out how the other moms put it all together:

KimC @ Life in a Shoe
Connie @ Smockity Frocks
Deputy Headmistress @ The Common Room

I’d love to hear your ideas and plans for homeschooling big and little kids.  How much will this change as our big kids get bigger?

What about adding another baby?  How does your school change when you have a newborn?

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Related posts:

1. Multi-Level Homeschooling with Sonlight
2. Teaching Big Kids: 4 Moms, 35 Kids
3. Homeschool Curriculum: 4 Moms, 35 Kids
4. Teaching Little Ones: 4 Moms
5. Selecting Curriculum: Our Methods – 4 Moms, 35 Kids

Deputy Headmistress @ The Common Room
KimC @ Life in a Shoe
Connie @ Smockity Frocks

In our opinion the main difference between teaching big kids and little kids is the degree of responsibility and discernment between the two groups. (For the purpose of this post ‘big kids’ means children between the ages of 10 an 13.)  Our goals do not change and neither do our challenges.

It seems to me that when it comes to educating younger children there are two mistakes that we tend to make.   On the one hand, we realize that God has given children the ability and desire to learn and we neglect to consider that they have a sin nature.  In this error we think that if we simply provide the children with a fun, stimulating atmosphere they will learn everything that is needful for them to know.

The other error is that we realize that our children have a sin nature and we forget God’s common grace, that is, even though we are born with a sin nature we are not as bad as we possibly can be and God has indeed given children an innate desire and ability to learn about the world around them.  In this error we believe that we should sit our children down for hours each day and teach and drill so that they get as many facts into their head as they possibly can.

We believe that that the best way to educate young children is a balance between the two.  God has given children an amazing desire and ability to learn AND they tend to be naturally lazy when that learning gets difficult.  Here is our attempt to balance these two aspects of our children’s nature. ~copied from my post on teaching little kids

We teach our big kids in much the same manner that we teach our younger children.  It’s simply a matter of degrees.  We expect more of our older children, but our focus and methods remain the same.

To encourage our children’s natural love of learning:

I would encourage you to read my post about teaching little ones because we continue to do all of the things that I listed under this heading in that post with one difference.

Point #2.  As our children enter the ‘older’ stage (around 10 years) they begin some of the formal subjects that we delayed in the earlier years.  There are some subject that we do not teach “formally” to our children and some we continue to delay.

To help our children overcome their natural laziness:

1. We provide ample opportunities for them to learn through hard work.  We extend our children’s responsibilities to areas outside of our home.  (i.e. They clean house, babysit, mow lawns, rake leaves and cook for families in our church and neighborhood.)
2. We focus on character.  By now we find that our children are basically responsible and diligent in both their household tasks and school assignments and we focus more on service to others.   Most of this training comes not from learning to serve those outside our family (they do a lot of that, but that comes easily and doesn’t test their character), but rather learning to cheerfully serve their younger siblings.
3. We require excellence and focus in all of their academic assignments.
4. We require them to be responsible for their own assignments.  I do not hang over their shoulder and watch as they work.  Mark and I check at the end of the week to be certain that they have accomplished what was expected of them.

To build relationships as you educate older children:

1. Big kids still need physical closeness.  Although they need less now than previously, it is not unusual for Mark or me to have one of the big kids on our lap.
2. Encourage your children.  Remember, if you have your child’s heart they desire to please you and you should let them know that their efforts are pleasing to you.
3. Make time for your older children. It seems that in many ways our older children need the interaction with us now more than they did when they were younger.  They talk with us more and have deeper thoughts, ideas and questions that they want to discuss with us.  This is a precious time, don’t lose it.
4. While our children work on several things independently (math, Greek and writing), Mark and I still work directly with our older children on many subjects;  Bible, history, character studies, etc.  See point #3.  (We see specific commands to teach these particular subjects to our children in Scripture and we attempt to pattern our method after Deuteronomy 6. For more about how this works, read Our Methods and  6 Distinctives of our Homeschool)
5. Don’t fill their academic schedule so full that they don’t have time for the important things in life.  Remember the goal.
6. Give your older children the opportunity to interact with younger ones. (**In our family, we have chosen not to delegate the responsibility of teaching to our older children because we believe that responsibility is  given to parents. Besides, we would hate to miss out on that precious time with our little ones, whether it’s teaching them to read, working with maps or reading about mummies.) Since our whole family is studying history together, older children working with the younger children comes about very naturally.  The older kids love to read additional books on the topics/events that we are studying to the younger children and they beg to ‘lead’ the hands-on activities that I plan for the little kids.  (Yesterday Matthew helped the younger children make mud bricks like the people of Mesopotamia made.)  They also work together on many activities and I often find that when I go to instruct one of the younger kids in something that they already know how to do it because, “Alyssa already taught me how to make a salad, Mommy.”

As our children get older, these thoughts that Kevin Swanson shares about protection in his book  ‘ Upgrade: 10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child‘ are things that Mark and I are considering more closely,

But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me – it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea! ~ Matthew 18:6

Such grim words coming from the lips of Jesus should cause any parent or teacher to stop a moment and ponder. Children are important to Jesus…..This timeless truth teaches that children must be protected from hinderances while they are shepherded down the pathway of wisdom.

Note also what it is that would merit the millstone treatment - placing an occasion to stumble in the path of a child.

But how do we determine how much protection to require for our children?  How much protection is too much protection?  The following wisdom passage provides a helpful standard to answer this all important question.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6

Swanson goes on to say,

The acid test determining whether a child is ready to be subjected to an environment hostile to his own world views and faith is found here:  the child must be prepared to confront the world, to wrestle with principalities and powers, to cast down imaginations that oppose the knowledge of God, and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Many books, teachers and media expose our children “to an environment hostile to his own world views and faith”.

So what do you think?  Are we naive as we enter the teen years?  We’re still trying to figure this out and would love to hear Biblical advice and counsel from those who are ahead of us on this path.

**I know that a lot of homeschoolers do this and we’d love to hear the Biblical reasons and ideas behind it.

See what the other moms of many have to say:

Deputy Headmistress @ The Common Room
KimC @ Life in a Shoe
Connie @ Smockity Frocks

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Related posts:

1. Teaching Little Ones: 4 Moms
2. Our Homeschool: 6 Distinctives – 4 Moms, 35 Kids
3. Homeschool Curriculum: 4 Moms, 35 Kids
4. Selecting Curriculum: Our Methods – 4 Moms, 35 Kids
5. Teaching with Nature Journals

I’ve written 3 other posts about choosing a curriculum that will give you the background for this post:

My heart and homeschool curriculum
Method counts – how you use what you choose
God’s method for education

Some things to remember.

• We have 10 children.  We will be using more books and resources than I have listed to educate our children this year, but these are the things that we will make a specific effort to work through.
• Our method of  homeschooling  is laid back and relationship based.  We use these resources as tools, not necessarily as written.
• We school year round. We will NOT be doing each of these things everyday.  As a matter of fact some subjects are seasonal.  (Nature journals during the summer months and more writing during the cooler months, for example.)
• We do not sit down and do this during ‘school time’.  We read Bibles when we first get up, work on memorization after breakfast, read aloud before nap-time and after dinner, take nature journals when we go to the park, narrate at the dinner table and discuss history in the car.
• The methods that you use to educate your children are just as important, if not more so, than the curriculum you choose.

Our kids:

Amber 13, Kaitlin 12, Matthew 10, Alyssa 9, Carter 8, Sadie 6, Savannah 5, Colby 3, Nicholas 2, Baby girl due July.

For those who would like more info, most links in this post go to an in-depth post about the product or to a post explaining how we teach a subject or use a resource in our home.

All children:

Bible

• Bible reading – Fluent readers- Read through the Bible.  Beginning readers – read through the New Testament.  Little ones work on memorizing the catechism.
• Bible study – Fluent readers Sonlight 6 assignments, beginning readers Sonlight 1 assignments.  All will listen to the Sonlight 6 Bible reading.  Of course everyone takes part in family worship.
• Bible memorization – Psalm 1 – 16, 120-134 using Jamie Soles Cd’s “Pure Words” and “Ascending“.  (In the near future I’ll tell you more about these Cd’s and give you the opportunity to win some of your own.)

History

In our house history is a family discussion and one of our favorite subjects.   Each day we read and discuss living books.  We keep  a time line of important dates and we look up places that we read about on the map.  We also use our history studies as a basis for many of our other assignments.

This year we will be combining Sonlight Core 1 & 6.  We will be using resources from both of these Cores to create a multi-level history plan for our kids.  We will NOT be using Core 1 with some of the children and Core 6 with others.    We will be supplementing Sonlight with The Mystery of History, to incorporate more Biblical history.  Do not let the plethora of curriculum scare you.  This will be our 7th year using Sonlight as a basis for our history curriculum and are familiar with how it works best for our family.   It is a tool that we use.

This is the first year that we’ve used more than one level of Sonlight. Sonlight can be very relationship and family friendly when used in this manner.

Language Arts

• Narration – (daily) all children who are able to talk
• Literature – All children listen to read alouds from Sonlight 1 & 6.  Read lots of other fun books as a family.
• Getty Dubay Handwriting for 5, 6, 8 and 9 year old.  (Unnecessary since the children do copy work or dictation each day, but I like the lovely italic style it produces.  Hmmm, now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if this is something that we should allow the children to drop.)
• Copy work, dictation or writing – depending on child’s ability.  (It is within this context that we teach both spelling and grammar.)

Reading

This is obviously part of language arts, but we have children at different levels doing different things so it’s easier to format it separately.

• Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – 3 year old unless he stalls or loses interest
• Rocket Phonics and Sonlight 1 advanced readers – 5, 6 and 8 year old.
• Sonlight 6 readers – 9, 10, 12, 13
• All non-nappers have an hour of free-reading each day.  They are generally reading things like G. A. Henty, Shakespeare (Amber’s recent favorite),  C. S. Lewis, Brooks, Milne, Sewall, etc. in addition to an assortment of biographies, Landmark and science books, although they have been known to choose things like The Bobsey Twins and Redwall on occasion.

School age children:

Music

• Composer Study by Bright Ideas Press – little ones (2-6) listen to music
• Lessons (piano or violin) for the oldest 5

Science

• Apologia Science -  Physical Science for Amber (13) and Exploring Creation with Astronomy for everyone else.  This is our first year using Apologia, so we’ll see how it goes.
• Nature journals on days they play outside – focus on trees and shrubs.

Art

• Artistic Pursuits - Beginning readers finish K-3 book, fluent readers finish 4-6 book, then move into Jr./Sr. high book 2.

Math

We began using online math in the middle of last year and will continue through January.  Our plan is to continue to use ALEKS for Algebra 1 and beyond, but we will re-evaluate Mathletics.

• Mathletics until they finish the 8th grade level work.  This is not required for our little ones, but since it’s computer time they beg for a turn.
• ALEKS for those finished who’ve completed 8th grade Matheltics.

Physical Education

• Cross Country – The children compete in both the spring and fall and run fairly regularly during the off seasons.

Older kids:

Greek -(Why we teach Greek)

• Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek – 8, 9 , 10, 12 and 13 year old
• Listen to a chapter of the New Testament in Greek each day.

Character study/Worldview

Mark is working through the study of these books (one at a time) using  Kevin Swanson’s “Christian Classics Study Guide”  Jr. Level -  10, 12 and 13 year old

• “The Story of John G. Paton”
• “Patrick’s Confessions and Breastplate”
• “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners”
• “The History of the Reformation or Religion within the Realm of Scotland”
• “The Confessions of St. Augustine”

Logic

• The Fallacy Detective – 12 and 13 year old
• The Thinking Toolbox – We will only start this if/when we finish “The Fallacy Detective”

Cooking

• Sue Gregg’s cooking course – 13 year old

Did you get all that?  Clear as mud?  Have questions?  Ask away, then go see what the other moms of many have to say about their homeschool curriculum.

• KimC at Life in a Shoe
• Connie at Smockity Frocks
• Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room

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Related posts:

1. Selecting Curriculum: Our Methods – 4 Moms, 35 Kids
2. Our Homeschool: 6 Distinctives – 4 Moms, 35 Kids
3. You Asked: Homeschool Curriculum, Year Round School, and Fitting it All In
4. Sonlight: A More Specific Schedule
5. Teaching Big Kids: 4 Moms, 35 Kids

We believe that whatever God commands in His Word in regard to  education (or anything else for that matter), Christians are obligated to obey.  What Christians are not obligated to do is to take our opinion or interpretation of God’s Word and adopt them as their own.

Does God tell us how to educate?

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. ~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (emphasis mine)

If you believe that God requires people to be educated, then you must also believe that God’s Word equips and prepares us to educate.  The best method for educating children will not be found apart from God’s Word.

Whom does God command to educate children?

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Eph.6:4

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. Deut.6:7-9

For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice Gen. 18:19 (God’s inspired explanation for choosing Abram to be the Father of His chosen people.)

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother. Proverbs 1:8

My son, do not forget my teaching, But let your heart keep my commandments; Proverbs 3:1

Hear, my son, the instruction of a father, And attend to know understanding: For I give you good doctrine; Forsake ye not my law. Proverbs 4:1-2

Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but make them known unto thy children and thy children’s children; I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. Deut. 4:9-10

My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not forsake the teaching of your mother; Proverbs 6:20

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: ~ Psalm 78:1-7

When it comes to children, God clearly commands parents to teach, instruct and train them.  God also gives responsibility for education to church leaders.  However, this teaching and instruction is almost** always within the context of the family or discipleship of adults.

**We can not think of any prescriptive teaching where this instruction comes outside of these contexts, but are always open to where we have missed important Biblical teaching.

What are parents to teach their children?

It doesn’t seem that there is much disagreement in Christian circles on what the Bible requires parents to teach their children.  It seems the disagreement comes on the who and the how, so we’ll hit this briefly.

I’ve posted before about the key themes in the Book of Proverbs and how it is a Christian’s manual for education.  It is a book inspired by God and dedicated to a father’s instruction to his son.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instruction.” ~Proverbs 1:7.   And a summary of what parents are required to teach their children in Deuteronomy 6 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

How does God command parents to educate their children?

The Deuteronomy 6:7-9 passage is one that is most clearly prescriptive:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

and we see this born out elsewhere in scripture:

That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. ~Joshua 4:6-7

When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. ~Deut. 6:20-21

When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. Joshua 4:21

And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshiped. Ex. 12:26-27

The way that God commands parents to educate their children is to talk with them, to converse with them ALL THE TIME, to be available when their children have questions.  Parents should be instructing their children throughout the day, during their daily activities and in all the circumstances of life.

What about Jesus?

Some argue that we should look at how Jesus was educated as a pattern for how we should educate our children.  (I think that this idea may be born out of modern  ideas that education is the solution to bad behavior.  Jesus wasn’t prefect because He had a good education, He was perfect because He was God.)  Just as we wouldn’t use how others treated Jesus as a standard for how we should treat others, neither should we base our method of education on how Jesus was educated.  We should rather look at how Jesus educated others.

Not surprisingly, Jesus educated His disciples and those around Him in the pattern and method set forth in Deuteronomy 6 and other Old Testament passages.  Jesus taught and instructed as He walked by the way, as He ate, as He drank, as He lived.  He engaged people in discussion and conversation.  He was available to answer questions.  He developed relationships and used every opportunity, every circumstance to point people toward His Father, to challenge them and encourage them to more faithful, Godly living.

It is interesting to note that nowhere in Scripture do we see Jesus, the most qualified Bible teacher of all time, take children out of the context of the family, even for a short period of time, to teach and instruct them.  We do see parents bringing their children with them as they (the parents) listened to and sat under Jesus’ teaching.

The importance of relationship.

We hesitate to even mention this because we are not aware of chapter and verse that commands it, rather we believe that it is taught and demonstrated throughout all Scripture.  So examine for yourself whether this is true and if we are wrong then please ignore this section and let us know so that we can edit to speak Biblically.

God’s normal choice for intense teaching and instruction is within relationships.  God has a personal relationship with His people, He sends His Spirit to dwell in us and teach us what we need to know.  Jesus selected 12 men to have a close and intense relationship with Him during the years of His ministry.  God desires children to be taught and instructed within the context of familial relationships.  God commands all Christians to ‘make disciples’  of the nations.  Biblically, Christianity is relational and  teaching is relational.

So what is God’s method for education?

God commands parents to teach their children all about Him, His Words, His works and His world.  They are commanded to do this throughout the day and in all situations and circumstances as they walk through life with their children.   Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus set the example for us by following the pattern for education that is given in Deuteronomy 6 as He instructed and taught His disciples and those who came to learn from Him.

What does this mean for us?

As Christians saved by grace we are not our own, we are bought with a price and we should seek to submit our will, thoughts and ideas to God’s Word, in this area as in all others.  As we look at and evaluate the many curricula available, we must measure it by God’s standard and weigh it against the methods revealed in His Word.

On Thursday, I’m going to be posting our family’s curriculum choices and you will probably be able to point to many things and say, “That does not fit with God’s method for education”.  You will be right.  We are still learning and growing.  We are still trying to figure out how to apply God’s standard to all of life.  We are still fighting against a world, both secular and Christian, that holds up standards for us that are not based on God’s Word and often we are still trying to measure up to those standards.  We do not know it all, so take what you can use and ditch that which doesn’t fit with God’s prescription.  If you have Biblical wisdom that you are willing to share with us, we thank you for taking the time to invest in us and to help us to grow in Godliness.

If you haven’t already, please read “Disagreeing with Love”.  We welcome discussion and dissenting opinions that are based on God’s Word.  We pray that God will use others who have better understanding of His Word to sharpen our understanding and help us to become more like Him.

Other posts about choosing a curriculum:

My heart and homeschool curriculum
Method counts – how you use what you choose
Our curriculum choices for 2010

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Related posts:

1. Your Child’s Heart: What’s Your Responsibility Part 2
2. Why We Homeschool: Goals
3. My Heart and Homeschool Curriculum
4. How We Homeschool: An Overview
5. Education and the Book of Daniel: 90 Days

I enjoy art.  I’ve enjoyed art since I was a child.  When I was pregnant with our sixth child, I took a smattering of art lessons, just enough to show me what I didn’t know.  I do not have much time to pursue art these days, but I have wanted to equip my children with the knowledge that they need to pursue it if it is something that they have an interest in.

We have been searching for an art program since our children were young and until last year were unable to find a program that fit our needs.  It needed to teach the children the basics of art theory without simply instructing them in how to draw pretty pictures in someone elses style and it needed to be something that the children could work through on their own (or nearly on their own).

Last fall we found Artistic Pursuits and have been thrilled.  The books are written to the students, requiring little teacher direction, they teach the basic principles of art  and incorporate appropriate practice giving the children the tools they need to improve upon the artistic talents that God has given them, while allowing them to maintain their own personal artistic style.  Artistic Pursuits also incorporates art appreciation and art history as well as observation skills, color theory and technical instruction in multiple media.  This is truly a complete art program.

Artistic Pursuits offers books for preschoolers all the way up through high school students.  Our family was given Junior High Book 2 (color and composition) and Senior High Book 2 (color and composition) to review.  Both books follow the same basic format, teaching art two days a week.

An Artistic Pursuits unit:

Each unit begins by introducing a new art concept (hue in both the Jr. and Sr. High  color books) and has activities that help the child recognize that concept in their environment and create art that reflects their new knowledge.

Next the students are introduced to how a master artist has used this concept in his/her art.  This lesson also includes some history about the example artist and the culture in which they live.  The student once again takes their new knowledge and applies it to a piece of their own work.

The students are then taught specific techniques that make it easier to render the concept that they are learning in the media with which they are working.

Finally the student takes all of the information that has been introduced throughout the unit and applies it by completing a final project.

Junior High: Book 2- Our experience

The Jr. High book instructs the student in the use of both chalk and oil pastels as they progress through their study of color.  Kaitlin (12) worked with this level.  Kaitlin is our child who has always been frustrated with art. She has just never been happy with the results that she produced.  After a few lessons in the junior high color book she came to me and said, “Mom, thank you so much for getting this book for me.  I’m really happy with my drawings.”  This was a first for her.

Kaitlin's first attempt with pastels

This book is a wonderful tool to teach your child about color using pastels.  There is a lot of technical information about using pastels and pastel paper in addition to color theory and applying that theory in practical situations.

Senior High: Book 2- Our experience

Just as the Jr. High book teaches and uses pastels, the Sr. High book teaches and uses watercolor in order for the student to expand their understanding of color.  Amber (13) and I both decided to work through this book, although Amber has progressed a lot farther than I have.  Once again Artistic Pursuits has delighted us with the step-by-step instructions and activities that encourage better observation and provide a knowledge to really create art.

Amber's first (and still unfinished) attempt with watercolors

Pros:

• Terrific instruction in the basic principles of art.
• Teaches children in a way that allows them to use it to improve ALL of their drawing endeavors.
• Includes art appreciation and art history taught in conjunction with the concepts and principles that the children are learning.
• Introduces many different media and techniques over the course of study.
• Parent doesn’t need to know anything about art in order to use this program.
• The books are non-consumable and can be used for multiple children.
• Books include student examples from regular kids, so your kids can see what a child their level can be expected to produce.

Cons:

• My kids get very involved in their art projects and tend to spend a lot of time on them.
• Some of the supplies can be expensive.

Our family has also been using the K-3 grade: Book 1  and 4-6 grade: Book 2 since last fall.  The K-3 book introduces children to many different media and experiences in art and the 4-6 book focuses on basic drawing and shading techniques.  We have been delighted with all of the Artistic Pursuits products that we have experience with.

Each book of Artistic Pursuits is available for $42.95.

Better yet win your choice of AP books!

To enter:

• Leave a comment telling me something about your (or your kids) experience with art.

Bonus entries:

• Tweet about the giveaway.
• Post about the giveaway on your blog.

Please leave an additional comment for each bonus entry.  Open to U.S. residents only.  Giveaway will end Thursday, March 25 at midnight.

Our family was given the Jr. and Sr. High Artistic Pursuits books in exchange for this review and giveaway.  All opinions are mine and I was not otherwise compensated.

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1. The Winner of Artistic Pursuits is…
2. Sue Gregg Cooking Giveaway and Review
3. Mathscore: Review
4. Quarter Mile Math Review
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Here is our overall schedule:  (To see my original post with notes about this schedule go here.)

5:30 Mom’s quiet time
6:00 Big kids read Bible’s, little kids learn catechism with Dad and Mom showers and tidies bedroom
6:30 Big kids do before breakfast chores, little kids get dressed with mom and help start laundry
7:00 Breakfast, all kids work on memorization box and Bible or book study
8:00 Big kids do chores, little kids help mom with chores
8:30 Big kids start independent work (handwriting, music, math, Greek, etc.) little kids time with mom and/or reading and handwriting with mom
Next: All kids sit quietly for Bible
Next: Big kids history, science, literature, some language arts and assignments for the day with mom, little kids need to play quietly
Around 12:00 Lunch for all kids, mom exercises
All kids play outside, mom cleans up
1:30 Big kids read for pleasure, finish independent work,  little kids nap, mom blogs, knits, draws, naps, etc.
3:00 Big kids have “productive time”, little kids finish napping and have free time, mom acts like a regular mom (fixes dinner, helps with projects, reads aloud, folds laundry, kisses boo boos)
5:30 Dinner
Next: Table Chores
Next: Family Worship
Between 7:00 and 8:00 All kids bedtime

This doesn’t really have specifics about how Sonlight fits into our day, so I’ll attempt to fill that in for you now.

The two time periods labeled ”Next” is where we put in all of our Sonlight work.  First we read the assigned Bible reading, discuss it and pray.  (We do all of our memorization work during the 7:00 time period.  Then we work through the supplemental Bible reading and/or assignment together.

Next we have the little ones move to some of their school time activities and the big kids move right into our history reading and discussion.  As we work through each assigned book, we do our timeline and map work as it comes up.  We use one timeline and markable map for everyone and I ask the youngest students to find and mark things.  I posted about managing and entertaining little ones during this time, here are some of my ideas.

After we finish the history portion of Sonlight everyone gets out a quiet, hands-on activity, knitting, sewing, wood carving, drawing paraphernalia, etc. (the little ones usually play together on the carpet or draw) and we have our read aloud time.  Often the children fix and eat lunch while I finish reading aloud.  My preference is to have all of my part of Sonlight finished by the end of  lunch.

After a play time the little ones go down for a nap and the big kids do their independent Sonlight reading assignment and any independent work that didn’t get done before we started Sonlight.  Most of the time the children read silently to themselves, but for some of the assigned readers, I let them read aloud to each other.

We use one timeline for all of the children and study it together as a group.  I really like the idea that Mystery of History has of making a timeline on the back of a fold-able cutting board normally used for sewing.  I plan on starting one of those next year when we make our way through world history again.

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Related posts:

1. Multi-level Homeschooling: Our Schedule
2. Multi-Level Homeschooling with Sonlight
3. Five in a Row and Sonlight
4. The Schedule
5. Build a Better Schedule

If you haven’t read my previous posts on how we homeschool or why we homeschool you may wish to as they will give you a basis of where we are coming from and why Sonlight is a good fit for us.  Before I go any further let me mention that while Sonlight is a great program for our family, I always hesitate to recommend it to others because every home and homeschool is different and just because we enjoy it and it is a good fit for us, doesn’t mean that it will fit in your home or work with your style of homeschooling.

Our family has been using Sonlight since the winter of 2004, Amber was 7, Kaitlin was 5, Matthew 4 and Alyssa 3.  We also had 3 preschool children.

What is Sonlight?  Sonlight is a literature based Bible, history, literature and reading curriculum that is fully scheduled on a day by day basis.  We have also used Sonlight for language arts and science.  They sell those components separately.

We use Sonlight as the basis for our curriculum, but it is not the only thing we use.  We do a lot of additional memorization and Bible reading as well as considerable amounts of extra read alouds.  (We like to read aloud for at least two hours each day.)

Click here for a glimpse at a Sonlight Instructor’s Guide.

How we use Sonlight:

1. We read the assignments (except the children’s individual readers) together as a group.
2. We discuss what we have read and other topics that the readings trigger in the kids heads.  This is the part that is optional for the smaller children, depending on what is being discussed.  We are currently discussing economics and the price-wage spiral, inflation, money supply, etc.  I’m allowing the younger ones to be excused from those discussions.
3. We work through hands-on projects together.
4. We  look up the locations that we are discussing on the map.  I begin by asking the youngest children to locate it and then move to older children if they aren’t able.
5. We keep a time line of important people and events.
6. We don’t always do the discussion or comprehension questions but we always discuss our readings.
7. We talk about Sonlight most nights at the dinner table.  It keeps daddy current with the conversation and is built-in review for the children.

We will be beginning two levels of Sonlight next year.   Both Sonlight level 6 and Sonlight level 1 cover the first half of world history, while Sonlight level 7 and Sonlight level 2 cover the second half of world history.  So even though we will be working with two different levels, we will still be studying the same things and be able to maintain the family conversation.

What we love about Sonlight:

1. Literature selection – Even homeschoolers who don’t use Sonlight curriculum use Sonlight’s reading lists because they choose books that are not only well written with quality content, but are fun and fascinating to read.  I attribute the fact that our children all enjoy school to the superb literary selections that Sonlight chooses.
2. Pre-planning is already done, I spend my time teaching my children not lesson planning – Lessons are planned out on a daily basis, I simply open the instructor’s guide and begin working through the assignments with the children.  A lot of homeschoolers have said that Sonlight is time consuming for the parent and I’m not going to disagree with that.  However, all of that time is spent directly reading to or teaching my children.  That is what I want to be doing with my time.  There is a difference between having a program that requires significant amounts of time to lesson plan, research and pre-read and a program that requires significant amounts of time teaching your children.  Sonlight falls into the latter category.
3. Method of teaching – Sonlight’s method of teaching is organic and laid back.  Important information is not presented to the children in a list or condensed paragraph that they must then memorize and be quizzed over.  It is presented in the context of literature, of a story and is thought about, discussed and perhaps researched.
4. Simple to teach multi-levels – I have used one level of Sonlight with children ranging in age from 13-4.  Of course, our 4 year old is not getting the specific political tensions between the Japanese and the western world, but she knows that Commodore Perry is the man who opened trade with Japan and she can find Japan on the map.  She may not understand the why’s and how’s of the Great Depression, but she knows that a lot of people lost their jobs.
5. Flexibility – Sonlight is especially well suited to covering more or less than is written in the curriculum.  Our children enjoyed studying about the War Between the States.  Since Sonlight is literature based it is simple to choose additional books and resources and add them to our schedule as we studied that particular time period.
6. Teaches children to think- Because Sonlight uses literature to teach, the children are accustomed to thinking, discussing and analyzing almost everything that they read.  We sometimes have a difficult time getting through our reading assignments because of the questions and conversations that are sparked by the content.
7. Incorporates geography and timeline work with day to day assignments.
8. Creates a family conversation – When we began to use Sonlight this is how I described the change in our homeschool.  Whereas before the children had been reading and studying more independently (yes even at 7, 5 and 4)  Sonlight created a conversation.  We were learning together and “school” was the most popular topic of conversation.  When the Olympics occurred just a few years after we had studied Greece our family was able to discuss what we had learned because we had learned it together.  (This would be true of most multi-level program.)
9. Presents a balanced and honest view of history – With one exception Mark and I have been very please at the balanced approach with which history has been presented.

These strong points of Sonlight work with how we homeschool to create a strong back bone for our curriculum.  It also helps us in our goal of strong family relationships.  The beauty of having the basics mapped out for us is that it gives us a solid plan to cover everything, yet allows us to customize it as we see fit.

What we don’t love about Sonlight:

1. Doesn’t thoroughly integrate Biblical history – This is my biggest criticism of the program and would be a deal breaker if we wished our children to work more independently but because I’m directly involved in teaching Sonlight to the children, I control how much Bible history is included.
2. There have been a  few literature selections that we felt were inappropriate. – Again, because I’m reading nearly everything aloud, this becomes a non-issue.  However, I do not recommend that parents give Sonlight to their children to work through independently.  I try to read the independent readers before the children get to them and there have been some that we have had our children skip.
3. Sonlight’s  independent readers tend to be below our children’s reading level.  This is easily solved with all of the additional reading that our children do on their own.  Sonlight schedules readers that are easier than the child’s reading level for the purpose of encouraging the children’s love of literature and making sure not to discourage them with books that are a struggle for them to work through.  This was most problematic for level 1 and level 2 of Sonlight and we assigned a lot of extra reading.  Now however, our children read so much that I don’t usually assign specific books but allow them to read where their interest lies.  (Our 9 year old is currently enjoying “20,000 Leagues under the Sea”.)

We use Sonlight to teach multi-levels simply by exposing the younger children to the information and the discussion, by encouraging them to be involved in map work, asking questions aimed at their comprehension level after each reading and including them in the dinner table discussion by asking them questions about the basic people, places and events, whereas the older children focus more on the “whys” and “hows”.  We also select additional read alouds if we feel that they need more exposure to a specific time period.  We incorporate all our children similarly with science and I will be writing a separate post about using Sonlight language arts for multi-levels, or rather my version of Sonlight language arts.

Each year when we reevaluate our goals, plans, where we are and where we are going, we consider switching away from Sonlight and research other multi-level teaching programs.  Every time we have come to the conclusion that, for us, Sonlight is the best fit.

So there you have some basic information about Sonlight in our homeschool.  What did I miss?  What do you still wonder?  Want to come over for a day of school at our house?

If you decide to purchase Sonlight through one of my links, you will receive a discount on your order and I will receive credit toward future Sonlight purchases that our family may make, so THANK YOU for making the effort of using these links to place your order!

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Related posts:

1. Multi-level Homeschooling: Our Schedule
2. Homeschooling Multi-grades: Have Questions?
3. Sonlight: A More Specific Schedule
4. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 1
5. Multi-level Homeschooling: The Homeschool Room

Our School Room

The majority of the time that I spend working with the children on school is spent reading aloud and discussion.   This time generally takes upwards of 2 hours each day.  In addition to this we often read aloud for fun  in the afternoons and evenings.  Most of this reading and discussing is something that we want our little children to hear, so we like them to be in the room, but to be quiet so as not to be a distraction.

One of my favorite ways to keep my little ones quiet while reading and talking with the older children is what we call blanket time.  Each small child gets a designated area or a blanket and a special, only-during-school activity.  We typically have 3-4 preschoolers at a given time so we set up 3-4 areas with different activities, varying the activities from blanket to blanket or area to area.  Each child begins on a blanket or area and then when their time is up they all rotate to the next blanket or area.

I think that it is important to have a clearly defined area to use for blanket time, an area that is obviously clear to the youngest child doing blanket time.  We have always started the children on an actual blanket.  The blankets we use are small, the idea is to give the child enough room to do their activity, but not enough room that they are tempted to stand on their head, do flips or hop like a bunny.

As our children learn what is expected during blanket time, we give them a little more freedom, using not only blankets, but space at the activity table and the whole area rug.  Time on the area rug gives them the opportunity to get some of those wiggles out and having only one child on the rug at a time generally prevents the activity or noise level from escalating.

We allow each child to choose an activity and then they start with that activity.  Sometimes I will have more than one activity in a certain area.  For example we may have a puzzle on a blanket for our older-little ones, but when the baby gets to that blanket he will get some Matchbox cars instead of the puzzle.  I also put a few books in each area in case they tire of their activity.

Our blanket time rules:

• Toys may not come off of the blanket, carpet or table.
• Children or parts of children may not come off of the blanket, carpet or chair.
• No noise with your mouth.
• You do not have to play with the activity or read the books, but you must have a happy face.
• Pick up your area before you go to the next activity.

My ideal would be for each activity to keep the children happy for half an hour, but it’s usually more like 15-25 minutes.  We allow them to switch whenever they get antsy as long as it’s been at least 15 minutes.  This usually gives us about an hour and a half of calm quiet preschoolers during school time.

Types of activities for blanket time:

• Puzzles
• Pattern Blocks
• train with tracks
• Pegboard
• matchbox cars
• DUPLO’s or blocks (I love finding old sets of Jenga blocks at yard sales, perfect size for blanket time)
• one person games
• stickers and paper
• crayons or markers
• preschool activity bags
• doll with clothes
• lacing cards – Our kids love this Lacing Kit with Pattern Cards

When each child has had a turn with each activity we put everything away and they may play quietly together in the room.  Often these two activities will keep our young ones entertained for the whole time that we are busy with school, but here are some other things that we have used with success:

Room time – Each child gets to go play in their room while listening to a story on CD.

Play-Doh, Finger paint, Acrylic paint or other messy activity. I get everything and everyone set up outside on the deck at a kid sized table.  Often the big kids will join in and we will move our reading and discussion outside too.

Plain ole “go run around the playroom (or deck)” time.

When the toddler begins to get tired as we near lunch time, they often will come and snuggle in my lap as I finish up reading, special for mom and special for toddler.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

For lots more ideas and links check out Preschool Activities.

How do you homeschool with preschoolers and toddlers in the house?

To read more about our homeschooling look at Why We Homeschool, How We Homeschool or you may read what I’ve written organized by subject if you visit the site map.

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Related posts:

1. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 1
2. Multi-level Homeschooling: Our Schedule
3. Multi-level Homeschooling: The Homeschool Room
4. Multi-Level Homeschooling with Sonlight
5. Homeschooling Multi-grades: Have Questions?

One thing that I learned from being homeschooled is that for our style of home education, most learning will take place where our family lives.  Even though my mom and dad had a “school room”set up where we stored most of our curriculum, we usually studied, learned and discussed around the dining table or in our family room where the rest of the family spent their time.

We have continued that in our family (our school room has always been in or adjacent to our kitchen) and I think that communicates some of our educational goals to our children.  By educating our children in the “heart of our home”, we are telling them that education is a part of everyday life and it isn’t divorced from it.  (Also one of the reasons that we school year round.)  We are also saying that you learn through living, you don’t have to go off to a special place to learn from “experts”.  We are also encouraging our children to learn together with the rest of the family and encouraging discussion within our family.  Discussion grows relationships as well as logic and reasoning.

I realize that having a full blown school room in your dining room, kitchen or living room is not possible for everyone, but if you are reevaluating or trying to figure out where to have your school room, I think it may be a good idea to consider having one of those areas available for school work.  This allows mom to continue to get household work done during and in between teaching as most of us don’t have the luxury of 3-4 uninterrupted hours each day.  I usually continue to read aloud while one of the children starts fixing lunch and dinner preparation is usually in the midst of looking over assignments and answering questions.

Also, having a school area that is conducive to entertaining little ones can mean the difference between easy multi-level learning and finding messes and trouble all about the house from little ones wandering about unsupervised.

Our current set up is ideal for our family.  Some of these ideas will work in your home, others can be adapted to work and still others will not fit with your family preferences.  Our school room is a large family room that opens off of our kitchen.  We don’t have room to store all of our school books in this area, but we do have all of the books that we are currently using in here.

In the area labeled “school books” we also have all of our maps and geography things.

Did I mention IDEAL?  Even to the detail of having our laundry closet where I can start and switch loads all day long.  I only wish those doors were sound proof.

We have comfortable seating for read alouds as well as seating for all of the children to work at a table. This is the inside of our art closet and the children usually have two chairs up to this desk when they all have desk work to do.This kids play area doubles as desk space for our two little girls and or our two little boys.

On the other side of our kitchen is our dining room with the chalkboard wall and magnetic wall.  We do a few subjects that make use of that chalkboard in the dining room, but the vast majority of time we are in the family room.

We have several options in this room for our little ones:

• Art, art, art.  Many of our art supplies are accessible to our little ones so long as they ask permission.  (This is simply so I can make sure that they have picked up their previous mess before moving on to make another one.   As long as they have I always say yes and they are able to reach everything themselves.)
• Pretend play.  The little kitchen above has led to hours of pretend play, they pull the cushions off the couch and chair to enclose their area and make beds and… you get the idea.
• Blocks.  We have several baskets that hold an assortment of blocks for terrific open ended play.  Jenga blocks are some of our favorites.
• Wooden train and track.  You do remember my train-crazy 3 year old, right?
• Outside play.  Since our deck is completely gated AND we can see them through the glass door, our little ones may play with play dough, riding toys or just run around outside on our deck.
• Quiet learning games and puzzles.  We have collected a wide assortment of these and get them out only during school time.

We also have activities for the bigger kids during read alouds and discussions.  Each child has an art bag in the art closet where they keep their projects.  Alyssa (9) is currently knitting a scarf with a pair of pencils, Matthew (10)  has a wood carving project going and Amber (12)  and Kaitlin (11) are both working on needle work.

All of these activities take place in this room and by the end of the day it looks like a tornado has gone through, which is why we have a half hour of clean up time before daddy comes home.

I’d love to hear your ideas about what is important for a homeschool room.

You may also be interested in my series on why we homeschool or the rest of our how we homeschool series.

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Related posts:

1. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 2
2. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 1
3. Multi-level Homeschooling: Our Schedule
4. Multi-Level Homeschooling with Sonlight
5. Homeschooling Multi-grades: Have Questions?

Our Multi-level Schoolroom

One of the most frequent questions on my post about multi-level homeschooling was, “What do you do with the little ones?”  So here is my attempt to tackle this BIG question.

Since we began homeschooling until recently we have had 3-4 children ages three and younger, (we now only have a 4, 3, and 1 year old) so some things that work well for us, may not work for you.  We’ve never had only one small child and I imagine that would be quite different.  So as always, take what will work for you and forget the rest.

Train your little ones.

In our home the most important aspect of peacefully homeschooling with little ones around is that those little ones must be well trained.   I’m not talking about having young children who sit quietly and still for hours on end or who never squabble or get into trouble or make messes.  I am talking about having young children who are obedient, respectful and kind most of the time.  This post explains that our primary goal is godliness, not academics, so in our home we will and do take a break from  “school” in order to take the time necessary to train children, both little and big.

Spend time with your little ones first.

We have always scheduled “little kid” time before we launch into our regular school day.  This allows those little guys to get some mommy time and focused attention before they are expected to behave while mommy is otherwise occupied.  Here are some examples of little kid activities that we enjoy:

• window markers
• cutting and gluing
• painting
• sidewalk chalk
• bubbles
• London Bridge, Duck, Duck, Goose and other fun active games
• gymnastics class (I teach them how to do rolls and cartwheels and we play hopping and skipping relay races.)
• reading
• play-doh or clay
• puzzles
• memorization songs
• dancing

You get the idea.  When our little girls (now 4 and 5) were younger we did more quiet activities, now that we have two little boys (just turned 3 and 1) we gravitate toward more active choices.

One thing that has helped me to manage this time was to compile a list of possible activities and allow the children to select one activity each day.  This helps keep variety without the necessity of me having to rack my brain for ideas.

Use morning nap time.

Our little ones take a morning nap for a long time.  Our one year old is still regularly napping every morning.  I time this nap so that he goes to bed right after we have our little kid time.  This gives us 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours of time while the smallest baby is sleeping.

Include your little ones in the big kid’s school.

Each day our little children (everyone who is awake) participate in memorization work, Bible and read aloud time with the big kids.

We do our memorization box at the breakfast table and everyone simply stays in their seats and recites right along with us.  We also read and sometimes discuss a book during this time.

Then after we have had our “little kid” time everyone gathers for Bible.  Our little ones (everyone who is awake) are expected to sit still and listen quietly while we read and discuss.  Since the children worship with us each Sunday in church they are accustomed to being still and quiet.

Our read aloud time comes at the end of our school day.  We like for the little ones to be in the room while we read aloud, but depending on the book we are reading and the age of the little one, it may not be required.  The rule during our read aloud is, “no noise with your mouth”.   All of the children are allowed to have an activity while they listen.

Send your little ones out of the school room.

Sometimes mommy and the older children just need a break from all of the busyness, so we send the little ones off to a safe area to play.

• Let them play in a play room.
• Let them listen to a story on CD in another room.
• If it is safe, let them play outside.  We sometimes allow them to play in the yard (depending on how old/responsible our biggest non-schooler is).  We also have a large fenced deck just off of our family/school room that is safe for young ones.
• Schedule a big kid to play with them.  (Since we teach so many subjects together, this has never worked very well for us.)

Here are some guidelines that we use when our little ones are playing elsewhere:

• I must be able to hear them if they raise their voices.
• If I hear fighting, I stop school and deal with the problem immediately.  (Again see our homeschooling goals – Godly kids are more important than finishing math on a given day.)
• They can lose the privilege if they are not reliable.

Keep your little ones in the school room.

Don’t be afraid to allow your little ones to stay with you during school.  This is what we do for the vast majority of our school day.  Those little ones will learn more than you think.

So I know what your next question is going to be, “How do you allow your little kids to stay in the room while you are teaching your big kids?”  Of course the most important part of that answer is my first point in this post, train your little ones.  However while this helps, I do realize that it doesn’t really answer the question.

I’ve run out of blogging time for today, (we began our new, full school schedule a few weeks ago) but I will talk about that next, starting with ideas for setting up or adapting your school area to easily facilitate multi-level learning.  School room pictures are coming.

Edited to add this link to how we keep our kids in the room with us while we are  homeschooling.

As always, comments are gratefully accepted.  Questions about our little kid time? small ones playing elsewhere?  I’d love to know what you want to know more about, what is new to you or what you do with your little ones,  so please leave a comment.

Would you like to talk with other Raising Olives readers?  Visit the Raising Olives Community , introduce yourself and start or reply to a discussion.

You can find the rest of my posts on how we homeschool here.

Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 2

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Related posts:

1. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 2
2. Multi-level Homeschooling: The Homeschool Room
3. Multi-level Homeschooling: Our Schedule
4. Multi-Level Homeschooling with Sonlight
5. Homeschooling Multi-grades: Have Questions?

This schedule in some form or another has been in place for nearly nine years in our home.  Some specifics change with our life seasons, but the basics have been consistent.

The links in the schedule below will take you to a post where I explain the activity more fully and as I post more about multi-level homeschooling, I will hopefully continue to add more links.

5:30 Mom’s quiet time
6:00 Big kids read Bible’s, little kids learn catechism with Dad and Mom showers and tidies bedroom
6:30 Big kids do before breakfast chores, little kids get dressed with mom and help start laundry
7:00 Breakfast, all kids work on memorization box and Bible or book study
8:00 Big kids do chores, little kids help mom with chores
8:30 Big kids start independent work (handwriting, music, math, Greek, etc.) little kids time with mom and/or reading and handwriting with mom
Next: All kids sit quietly for Bible
Next: Big kids history, science, literature, some language arts and assignments for the day with mom, little kids play quietly. (More specifics about this school part of our schedule.)
Around 12:00 Lunch for all kids, mom exercises
All kids play outside, mom cleans up
1:30 Big kids read for pleasure, finish independent work,  little kids nap, mom blogs, knits, draws, naps, etc.
3:00 Big kids have “productive time”, little kids finish napping and have free time, mom acts like a regular mom (fixes dinner, helps with projects, reads aloud, kisses boo boos)
5:30 Dinner
Next: Table Chores
Next: Family Worship
Between 7:00 and 8:00 All kids bedtime

Some notes on our schedule:

• Remember that this does not happen perfectly everyday, it is simply our goal.  Yesterday we ditched the schedule at noon and headed to the pool.  Everything is flexible, even nap time and meal times.
• I’m a morning person, so you’ll notice that the schedule is weighted very heavily toward morning.  I tend to be much less productive after lunch time.  (Don’t try to imitate our schedule if you’re not a morning person.)
• I think an important part of this schedule that may tend to get overlooked is that I spend a good amount of time with my little children in the morning, before I begin to spend concentrated time with the big ones.  They have gotten to be with mom before we ask them to play quietly and  independently.
• “Big kids” and “little kids” in this schedule does not necessarily refer to the same group of children, sometimes the 2, 4, 5, 7, or 8 year olds are “big kids” and sometimes they are “little kids” 
• If you aren’t a schedule person, don’t set times with your activities.  I like for breakfast and nap time to fall “on time” everything else in our schedule is very fluid,  I simply listed times to give you a general idea of how long we are spending on each activity.
• One of the biggest challenges to getting done what needs to be done, is having children who are not obedient or self-disciplined enough to do what they need to do when they need do it.  Sometimes character training is more important than math.

I posted more specifically how Sonlight fits into this schedule here.

Remember if you have questions or something that you would like to be explained more fully, please ask.  One of the things that to which we believe God has called our family, is ministering to other families who are trying to walk this same path.  That is the primary goal of this blog.  So please help us know what would be helpful to you by telling us.

You may also be interested in my posts Scheduling Basics and Building  a Better Schedule.

You can see more posts about how we homeschool or the series on why we homeschool.  You may also wonder, Why So Many Children? For, hundreds more posts sorted by topic visit the Raising Olives Archives or browse the categories at the top of the page.

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1. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 1
2. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 2
3. Multi-level Homeschooling: The Homeschool Room
4. Multi-Level Homeschooling with Sonlight
5. Sonlight: A More Specific Schedule

Since our children are all fairly close in age (spaced 14-18 months apart), we’ve been multi-grading from the beginning and we multi-grade a wide range of ages together.  However, I think that multi-grading works well even if your children aren’t spaced so closely.  For history, literature and Bible we multi-grade all of our children (an 11 year span).  For language arts we are currently multi-grading the 4 year old all the way up to the 11 year old.

So here is how you can help me.  What are your specific questions about multi-grading?   Do you wonder what multi-grading actually means?  What it looks like for specific subjects?  How it works?  Am I driving you crazy with how slow I’ve been posting about homeschooling?  Do you want to know which curricula works well with multi-grading?  How we make sure the big kids are challenged and the little ones aren’t overwhelmed? What advantages we’ve seen with multi-grading?  What do you want to know???

Here is your chance.  I want to know what you want to know, so ask away and I will post according to your interests.

Even if you don’t have a specific question, but are just interested in reading more about this topic, please leave a comment, so I can gauge the level of interest.  I don’t want to prepare 15 posts about something that only a few of you are interested in.

You may also want to read what I’ve already written about how we homeschool or  why we homeschool. And stick around for my thoughts on more homeschooling resources.

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2. Multi-level Homeschooling: Our Schedule
3. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 1
4. Multi-level Homeschooling: The Homeschool Room
5. Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 2

When Amber was 3 we pulled out “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” and she progressed beautifully, except for the short writing assignment at the end of each lesson.  She struggled and tried but could not do it.  Being the naive beginning homeschooler that I was,  I insisted.  After all sometimes “education is hard work”.   She continued to struggle and the result was often tears at her failure.   I hope that you are all just shaking your heads at my inexperienced self.

Finally, I wondered if writing a letter each day was really necessary for a 3 year old (ya think?), so we dropped it.  She learned to read lightening fast, she was no longer reduced to tears at not being able to write, and neither of us was frustrated with the process, but I hadn’t really learned my lesson yet.

When Amber turned 5 I pulled out our handwriting book.  She was officially in Kindergarten and Kindergarteners learn handwriting.  We were once again in the land of frustration and once again I backed off.

It was only a few weeks later that she brought me a “note”.  She had written, “mom”.  Over the next few weeks she continued to bring me handwritten notes.  The light bulb went off, NOW she is ready to learn handwriting and she was.

So in our house there is no handwriting instruction until the child begins to write letters or notes on their own and then formal handwriting begins immediately.  Our logic is this, if they are trying to write on their own then they are ready to begin handwriting and we want to start teaching them the correct way to form their letters before they develop bad habits.  (Why is it that children always want to go clockwise when writing the letter a?)  This method has worked with all of our subsequent children, no more handwriting tears.

We have used the Getty Dubay Handwriting books.  This is an italic style of handwriting, so rather than teaching the children ball and stick letter formation and then completely changing that formation when they are ready for cursive, Getty-Dubay teaches italic handwriting and then simply teaches how to join the letters when the children are ready for cursive.  There is no drastic change between handwriting and cursive, the children simply add joins.

The final book of Getty-Dubay introduces calligraphy, extra flourishes and fancy joins.  Both Amber (12) and Kaitlin (11) have chosen to complete this book which is optional in our home.  Matthew (10) is still debating if he wants me to purchase it for him.  He likes the calligraphy pen, but is it worth a whole extra year of handwriting practice to get to use it?

While we are happy with our choice of handwriting books this decision, like every other homeschool decision, is personal.  I’ve heard some people say that they don’t care for Getty-Dubay because the cursive does not look traditional.  Everyone has their own preferences.

Of course you don’t really need to use any handwriting program, you can simply teach your children proper letter formation and then use copy work for them to practice.  We do plenty of copy work and I’ve often wondered if our additional handwriting was necessary.  Although nice handwriting is important to this very visual mom who loves order, and Getty-Dubay has produced lovely results.  This falls into the category of “Why change a good thing?”

How do you teach handwriting and what books or resources do you love?  Have I missed the handwriting boat on some wonderful new (or old) program?  I’d love to hear from those who don’t use a handwriting program and simply rely on copywork or dictation.  How have you implemented that and how has it worked for your family?

You can read more posts about how we homeschool or why we homeschool.  I also have an expanding series about how we are making our physical home into a great place to learn and of course my list of homeschool product reviews is also growing.  Also, since many of you all REALLY want to know more about multi-grading (read point 4 in this link), I am going to attempt to tackle that next.

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We have generally taught our children to read early, beginning around age 3 or4 and having proficient readers by age 4 or 5.  Reading allows children to learn on their own and feeds that natural love of information that they have.  Teaching them to read early allows me to be more relaxed about beginning other subjects because they are already learning on their own.

You may wonder how early reading fits with the natural homeschooling that I mentioned in my last homeschooling post.   Our little ones are generally anxious to start “school” and love spending one on one time with mom or dad, so rather than teaching them traditional preschool information (colors, numbers,  shapes, cutting, gluing, etc.) which they will learn on their own with little or no effort on our part, we spend 15 minutes a day teaching reading.

Some children are not ready to learn to read early.  Don’t push it.  If they struggle back off and give them more time.  Remember children want to learn, but if they are not ready to learn to read you will just frustrate them.  Learning to read should be work, but should basically be fun and the child should make steady progress.

We have had two children who did not excel with early reading.  With one of our sons we did not even attempt to begin reading until much later.  He wasn’t ready and we knew it.  As a matter of fact, we have delayed much of his formal education.  One of our daughters had difficulty remembering her letter sounds, but she did not want to stop trying to learn to read and so we used more tactile and visual teaching styles.  If she had not been so motivated to learn, we would have encouraged her to just have more play time, but she wanted to learn to read and would cry if we suggested that she take a break, so we plowed on and by the time she was six, she was reading through the Little House series.

I’m telling you this, so that you will remember that your children are individuals.  You know what is best for them, don’t let others dictate what you should do.   God gave you, the parents, the responsibility to educate your children, He will give you the ability and the wisdom to accomplish what He requires of you!

Some things that we do before our children learn to read that I think may prepare them for success are:

• We read to our little ones, a lot.
• Our little ones sit through worship services and  family worship from the time that they are born.
• Our little ones hear reading several hours each day during the bigger kids school.
• Our little ones do not watch any TV, rarely watch DVD’s and do not spend time on the computer, playing games or otherwise.
• Our little ones listen to a lot of audio books.
• We have books available in every room of our home, occasionally even in the bathroom.
• Books are a favorite plaything and we teach our children early on, how to look at books carefully, so books are never off limits to our babies.

We have successfully used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with our seven children who are old enough to read.  “100 Easy Lessons” is a very simple, inexpensive reading program that maps out exactly what you, as the teacher, should say and even tells you how to correct mistakes when they happen.  It is well suited to teaching reading early since it does not require the children to learn all the letter names and sounds before they begin to read.  It introduces a few sounds at a time and by the third or fourth lesson the child is reads a real word.  Since we teach reading early I skip the writing assignment at the end of each lesson.  Our little ones simply do not have the coordination to do that without frustration.

After our children get somewhere between Lessons 50 and 75, we switch them to the Sing, Spell, Read and Write readers.  (We have the readers that my mom used when she was homeschooling her kids.)  I like these particular readers because they have whole books dedicated to several common phonics rules (“quiet e”, “two vowels together”, etc) and 100 Easy Lessons tends to be a little light on phonics.  Another option to cover this step would be the Bob Books. (With our two strugglers we used a lot more beginning and easy readers.)  Then our children move to books like The Cat in the Hat, Mouse Tales, Owl at Home, The Frog and Toad, Little Bear and the Bible.

Edited to add: This past school year we found and implemented Rocket Phonics.  I still teach my children reading with 100 Easy Lessons, but rather than move from there to the readers, we move our children into Rocket Phonics.  (Link will take you to my full review of RP.)

We have them start reading the Bible to us as soon as they are making progress in the easy readers.  We start in Genesis or John (I don’t recommend beginning with Matthew’s genealogies).   It is a large jump in reading level for them and when they start they may make it through one verse or less a day. We just have them read the Bible for the last 5 minutes of their reading time.   We have told them from the beginning that the reason they are learning to read is so that they can read God’s Word on their own and they know that as soon as they can read the Bible, we will get them one of their very own.  This is a huge incentive in our home, the children talk about getting their own Bible before they even begin to learn to read.

As soon as they are capable we have them begin reading through the Bible each year with the other children.  They begin with reading just the New Testament assignments for each day until their speed improves and they can read the assigned passages in around  30-45 minutes.

We continue to have them read aloud as opportunities arise and talk with them about what they are reading to be certain that their comprehension is fine.  Each afternoon the children have an hour to read and they may generally pick whatever they like.

How do you teach your children to read?  What program do you use and what are your favorite easy readers?  I’m always looking for more fun readers for those little ones.

Read more posts about how we homeschool .   Raising Olives also has information on laundry management, teaching children to do chores, scheduling and saving money by doing it yourself.  We’re also pretty funny so check out Not Me Monday’s or Giggles from the Grove.

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3. Teaching Little Ones: 4 Moms
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As I write about how our family homeschools, remember that this is NOT gospel.  These are our preferences and they are working for our family currently.  All that said, these are some of the overreaching goals and ideas that have guided and will continue to guide our choice of methods.

1. Christ is King.  We choose to examine everything by the the standard of His Word.

2. We try to educate in a natural, as we live type of style, concentrating on teaching and training our children all the time and in all circumstances.

4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

This passage is speaking specifically about teaching your children what God has said.  If this is a good method for teaching what is most important then we think that it is probably also a good way to teach things that are less important.

Children LOVE to learn.  A small child’s whole life is consumed with learning and he doesn’t get bored.  Adults continue to learn and many adults still LOVE to learn.  Often it is the method of instruction that becomes tedious.

When we moved four years ago, Mark and I had a lot of things to learn, new city, new people, etc.  If someone had sat us down with a street map and said, “Next week you will have a test on all the main roads in this city” that would have been tedious.  However, Mark and I learned all of the main roads in our new city by LIVING and DRIVING in the city.  We memorized a great deal of information by acquiring it as we “walked by the way”.  We weren’t concentrating on learning, we were concentrating on finding the bank.

This type of learning requires parents to be plugged in and available to their children.  It sometimes requires us to actually help them go look something up.  It requires that we talk and discuss with our children daily and that we take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us.

Now we are not saying that all learning will be fun.  Children are lazy and sinful and may not want to learn some things especially if it takes a great deal of effort.  However many times we take a process that should be fun and natural and make it tedious and boring.

3. People/children are able to learn even when the the instruction is not aimed directly at their level.

This fits into our beliefs about worship.  Our family believes that families should worship God together, children included. (Deuteronomy 31:11-13) Our children have been exposed to sermons directed at adults since they were born.  We believed that our children should be part of worship before we understood what a blessing this was to be to our children.  Our children learn from the sermons, even though they may not understand everything that was said.  They may not even understand the main point of the sermon, but each child gleans knowledge at their level from the same sermon.  We know this because we ask our children about the sermon and then discuss it with them.

When a new Christian reads a passage of scripture it is instructive and useful for him, even if he does not completely understand the historical and narrative context.  If a mature Christian were to read that same passage it would also be instructive and useful to him but hopefully on a deeper level.  He would be able to glean from that passage something that the new Christian may not understand for time to come.

This is one reason why we do not make a habit of reading Bible story books or allowing the children to watch Bible story videos, but rather stick with reading the inspired scriptures, even to our very young children.  (Neither Bible story books, nor videos are inspired and to the point that they alter God’s inspired word they are false and can be confusing to young children, but that is another issue.)

4. Relationships are most important.

Everyone agrees with this point when it comes right down to it.  (What is more important your college degree or your wife and kids?)  This a big permeating principle of the Bible.  It is an all pervasive assumption in scripture that God is a relational God.  Throughout scripture He reveals Himself in terms of relationships.  He is our Father.  He sent His Son.  The church is the bride of Christ.

So what does this have to do with how we homeschool?  Two things:

A. We want to learn together as much as possible.  We do not want to send our 12 year old off to her room with her pile of books, and our 11 year old somewhere else with her pile, and our 10 year old off with his pile, etc.  We want to learn together, to develop relationships while we develop knowledge and to be able to learn from each other.

B. We say no to a lot of activities that would result in the same type of fragmentation of our family that I described in point A.  We don’t want our 12 year old running off to ballet, while the 11 year old goes to horse back riding, and the 10 year old has guitar lessons.  This type of fragmentation is worse (in our opinion) because not only does it draw the children away from each other, it draws the family away from the home.

I once read somewhere that if we train our children to run from one activity to the next during their formative years, why would we expect them to be content and joyful to stay home as a mother, or happy to come home each evening as a father.  We have taught, by our actions, that you must look outside of the home for education, excitement and socialization.  This is not what we wish to teach in our home.

So we choose to make learning joyful, fun and exciting by incorporating learning into living.  We feel comfortable multi-grading and teaching to the oldest, knowing that the younger ones will also benefit.  We remember that relationships are more important than academics and seek to build both together and we make a concerted effort to not get carried away with all of the great educational opportunities that are available “out there” and fragment our family for a mess of porridge.

This post is not an exhaustive discussion of the reasons and principles that we consider when we are deciding how to educate our children.  For example, even though I talk about teaching to the oldest, I still spend much of my day with our younger children and even though we multi-grade (A LOT) we tweak and  adjust the assignments to fit each child’s specific and particular needs.

These are guidelines that we try to implement into our choices as we decide how we are going to accomplish this grand task of educating our own children.  This post focuses on areas where our homeschool style differs from many other homeschoolers and from a classroom settings.  Don’t be afraid to be different.  Everyone is talking about how the educational system needs an overhaul, needs more money, better teachers, smaller class sizes.  In other words, even those who promote public schools are not happy with how they are currently functioning, so don’t copy them.  Read and study, learn what you can, pray and allow God to lead you to the methods and curricula that will work best for your family.

You may be interested in reading Our Homeschool: 6 Distinctives or my series on Why We Homeschool .  Coming up next: Teaching Reading.

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1. Why We Homeschool: Goals
2. God’s Method for Education: Choosing Curriculum – Part 3
3. Your Child’s Heart: What’s Your Responsibility Part 2
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5. Multi-level Homeschooling: The Homeschool Room

Every morning and evening our family gathers for a time of  Bible reading, prayer and singing.  This a priority in our home because our family’s first goal is to glorify God in all aspects of our lives and this provides an opportunity to instruct our children in God’s Word and to worship God together as a family.

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• 4 x 6 cards
• 42 – 4 x 6 dividers
• 4 x 6 card box
• pencil or pen
• something to memorize

I suggest that you  just purchase the type of dividers that you can write directly on. You will want 42 of them. (I found this set of dividers with a box and cards at a yard sale for $.50, so I’m creating my own labels.)

Label the dividers as follows, one divider for each label.

• Daily
• Odd
• Even
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• First week
• Second week
• Third week
• Fourth week
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• and so on all the way up to 30.

Your box should now look like this, minus the card in front. That is our next step. Write out whatever your children have memorized on the 4×6 cards, one passage or poem per card. Better yet, if your children can write, assign them a passage to write and skip handwriting for that day.

Place all of these cards evenly spaced (i.e. one card behind each divider or two cards behind each divider) throughout the whole card file except for the divider labeled “Daily”, the more thoroughly memorized the farther toward the back.

Now copy out any passages, etc. that your children are currently working on and place these behind the divider labeled “Daily”.

This is the hard part. Get this box out EVERY weekday. Recite out loud each card in the “Daily” section AND the cards behind the odd OR the even (i.e. if the date is the 27th then the odd) AND the cards behind the divider with the day of the week that it is, AND the cards behind the week that it is (If it is the 27th recite the cards behind the divider labeled 4th week), AND the cards behind the date (If it is the 27th, recite the cards behind the divider labeled 27). This is much easier to do than it is to read this explanation.

So the idea is that when you have nearly memorized a passage in the “Daily” section, you move it back behind one of the odd or even dividers. When you have no problem recalling that card every other day, move it back to the section with the days of the week, when you can recall it only reviewing once a week, move it to the section labeled “1st, 2nd, week, etc”. This gives you a full week each month of reciting that passage every day and then 3 weeks of not looking at it. When the passage is well in your memory, move it back to the section labeled with the numbers. This will have you reviewing everything you have memorized once a month.

When your numbered section gets too full you can move some cards out of the box all together, just rotate them back through every once and a while.

We recite our memorization box at breakfast each morning. All of the kids working on all the passages together. I just made this second box for my younger children. They will still do the box with the big kids, but I want them to have an opportunity to spend more time learning passages the big kids already know.

For those of you who wish for your children to learn a catechism this is how we do it. I keep the Shorter Catechism in our box and then I write a card like this “SC 26-30″ This means we will be reciting the Shorter Catechism questions 26-30, we look it up in the book and I don’t have to write out all of those questions.

You may also be interested in my post Bible Memorization for Kids, where I write about what and how our children memorize and include some of the other tools that we use to help with memory work.

Read more Works For Me Wednesday posts at We Are THAT Family. You can see my other WFMW by clicking the WFMW category located just under the picture at the top of the page or check out my  homeschooling posts .

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We began using nature journals (we use black spiralbound sketch books) for science about 7 years ago. Don’t be fooled however, nature journaling teaches them much more than science. They also learn observation, art and basic research, not to mention they understand that they are able to learn on their own. They realize that they can go out, see something they don’t understand, and then find the answers. They learn to be their own teacher.

When our children are old enough to begin a nature journal, between 4 and 6 depending on the child, we allow them access to some good quality art supplies. We use Prismacolor pencils. They allow our children to add detail and color and are easy for the little ones to manipulate. We have given our children more options as their art skills have progressed. These Caran D’ache water color crayons are my new favorites. I will suggest that if you expect quality results give them some quality tools. (Trust me on this one, I don’t recommend spending money very often but nice art supplies are worth the investment IMO.)

The first assignment that we give each child is for them to go out into the yard and look around very carefully. They are looking for something that they have not noticed before. It can be the veins in a leaf, the spots on a fuzzy caterpillar, a blue rock or the fact that our dog has her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. When they notice something that is new to them, they get to draw it. They must look at it while they draw and we encourage them to try to notice even more details while they are working. If our child notices a bird or something else which would not stay put long enough to draw, they may look it up and draw from a picture in a book or online.

If your children are like mine, their first drawings will not be impressive. It is okay if the drawing is immature and even unrecognizable. Their art skills will improve over time. At this point just encourage them to notice details and to try to include them in the drawing. So if your child noticed the veins in a leaf, and has drawn an uneven circle with lines going who-knows-where, that is wonderful. They have learned to look more closely at nature and to communicate what they discovered through art.

Next we have the children write something about their drawing. For the example of the drawing of veins in a leaf, we would ask what she just drew. If she says, “I drew lines in the leaf,” then we would direct her to a source where she could discover what those lines are called. If she already knows that they are called veins then we would ask her to find out why a leaf has veins. The idea is to require them to find out something new and write that beside their picture. As soon as she understands how and where to find information, she no longer needs help with what to write unless she is having difficulties.

We require one nature entry a week. When I look at their assignment for the week they are usually full of information that they want to share with me. After we have discussed their page, I will usually tell them what I want them to do for the next week. Often the assignment will be exactly the same as the one I outlined above. However, if I notice that a particular child is struggling to do meaningful research or is stuck in a rut, I will give them a more specific assignment to help them progress in their ability. For example, if they are failing to convey new and meaningful information on their nature page, I would give them a specific question to answer or a process to explain for their next assignment.

If you don’t have time to do anything more than this, your children will still benefit greatly by taking some time out each week to observe, wonder, draw, and study God’s creation. However, I highly recommend the Handbook of Nature Study. (The Handbook of Nature Study is also available  free online.)  We use this to give us more focus and to help us go deeper into a topic. You can work your way through a section doing a page on all the plants (or whatever) that are native to your area. It is an amazing resource; the only nature text that you will ever need.

Allow your children to enjoy journaling. As something interests your child, let them explore it further. We have studied rocks, leaves, squirrel habits, butterfly life cycles, live bearing fish, and the reproductive process of our pet guinea pigs. Hmm, I should probably get my children to produce some nature pages about ants.

If your children tend to focus on different aspects of nature, set aside time for them to show each other their books and talk about what each one is learning. This expands everyone’s horizons.

They don’t have to learn it all in a week. They don’t have to produce a work of art every time. It is the process that teaches. Relax and enjoy.

Feel free to browse my homeschooling category for more related posts.

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We have been asked why we make Bible reading an assignment. After all, the argument goes, we want our children to read the Bible because they want to know God, not merely because we require it. True, just as we wish for our children to brush their teeth in the morning because they desire to be clean and have good grooming habits. However, in our house we do not give our children the option of brushing their teeth, we require it and we trust that through the habit of brushing their teeth every single morning they will appreciate the benefits and acquire the habit.

So how do enable all of our children read the Bible daily?

• We have time set aside first thing each morning for Bible reading.
• We give each independent reader their own dated Bible reading schedule.
• Mark and I also read from this schedule, so that all of us are reading the same passages. This works for us because we are able to ask our younger children questions about their reading, in order to see how much they are comprehending. We are also able to better field questions from the older children . All of us reading the same passages each day also encourages discussions between the children about topics or stories that they have read.
• We like to pick schedules that have New and Old Testament readings each day. Our early readers just read the New Testament assignments, which are generally about 20-30 verses long and the older readers read the whole assignment.

Reading through the Bible each year has given our children more biblical fluency than I had hoped. It has equipped them to think more biblically because they know more of what the Bible says and has helped them to realize that the Bible speaks to all areas of life. It has also lead to several interesting conversations. After all the Bible is not exactly G rated.

There are many Bible reading schedules available online. I like this one. Another one that is already dated and goes through the Bible chronologically is here.

Read about our Bible memorization system, or check out my other categories listed just under the header picture.

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2. Teaching Reading
3. Bible Memorization for Kids
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