January is the new September. It is.

We're on Christmas break right now. We ended school at home on Wednesday, December 18th; the 19th and 20th were our last co-op days. We return to co-op this Thursday and resume school at home next Monday. As I always do on Christmas break, I'm using this time to tweak our schedule and curriculum as needed.

My friend Tiffany will tell you I frequently say "January is the new September". This is the perfect time to make changes to your homeschool. Got curriculum that just isn't working? Ditch it now. Are you absolutely, thoroughly wiped out at the end of the school? It may be time to revamp your schedule. Worried because your school year started slow, picked up a little steam but began sputtering again around the holidays? Take a few days to chart the next semester. Preparation may be the boost you need.

By now, you should know if a curriculum or text is working--for both you and your student. The best instruction for your child will be the one that perfectly joins his learning style to your teaching ability. That should be the main criteria. If a 20 year old text you picked up at a thrift store works better than the new book you've seen reviewed on a dozen homeschool sites, the thrift store tome is the one you use.

I've seen parents reluctant to part with a curriculum because it cost a small fortune and they fear discarding it will be a waste of money. Nothing could be further from the truth. Slogging onward with no success not only represents a waste of money, but a waste of time--as the child won't retain the material and you will end up re-teaching the subject later. Trust me, I know.

A few years ago, it seemed everyone was jumping on the Latin foreign language bandwagon. We did, too. A certain curriculum was declared the best thing going and several of my friends purchased it and we followed suite.

It was awful. I don't mean it was a good curriculum that just didn't work for us, I mean it was truly awful. When my girls (the oldest was in middle school at the time) began picking out errors on the DVD, I dropped it. I wasn't concerned that the text, workbook and DVD combined cost nearly $100. My girls dreaded that class and we ended up skipping foreign language for a while as I researched other options.

I found another Latin program and we began in February of the following year. By the time the school term ended in June, the girls had made a lot of progress. The reason? When you find the right curriculum you will make up the lost time.  (By the way, the program we switched to was Visual Latin. Get a free trial at the website).

We worked across the summer to catch up and started the second session in September of the next school year.

Sometimes you may need to switch a curriculum for other reasons. We used Mystery of History for a time. My girls loved it, so did I. I learned things from that text I didn't learn in school. The timeline: brilliant. The multi-level teaching schematic: awesome.


Problem was, I didn't have time for the prep and supplementary work it required. I'm a freelance writer and at the time, I was on assignment with two periodicals. We switched to a textbook for the next year. My older daughter took an online class that combined literature with history and has fulfilled those credit requirements. Grace has told me she'd like to return to Mystery of History when she begins high school in two years and we will.

I'm happy with the curriculum we're currently using. I've mentioned them here.

Our schedule may change this time around. The 16 year old is job-hunting. Her dad and I have agreed she can work a few hours on two days: Thursdays and Saturdays. We may need to move her Thursday classes earlier in the week.

What I'm doing this week is reviewing each book, marking the table of contents with the changes I need to make, searching online resources (Khan Academy, YouTube, PBS, et al) for information that will supplement what they are learning. I'm making sure I've got Beth's work graded and keeping an eye on her transcript. I keep all of this information in my planner, which is really a multi-subject spiral notebook. Classy, I know.

Those books you bought that no longer work for you--sell them. There are websites aplenty where homeschooling parents buy and sell both new and used curriculum. I've purchased and sold on www.vegsource.com If you live in the Hampton Roads area, drop by the Moore Expressions homeschool store in Virginia Beach. Cherrie and staff are more than willing to point you in the right direction curriculum-wise and offer assistance with other homeschooling issues. Find them here.

Take some to review your school and be brave enough to make the changes needed to ensure your student's success. Let's finish this school year strong.

2013-2014 curriculum

Today I'm sharing what my girls are studying this school year. In keeping with the theme of this blog (and how I choose to live in general), we've not spent a dime more than is necessary. 

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: it doesn't take a boatload of money to properly educate children. If you've got the time and patience to research, a library card, computer access and a nearby thrift store with great books or a homeschool book store, you have all you need for an effective, low-cost curriculum.

If you're considering homeschool as an option, or if you're already teaching at home, be careful of the curriculum bandwagon that equates popularity with proficiency. It drives the cost of curriculum through the roof.

For example, there is a certain computer math curriculum that is all the rage right now.  It cost more than $100 for each grade level, so if you have two kids, you've spent over $200 smacks on math alone.

My problem: math hasn't changed. No matter how many bells and whistles you add to the mix, there is only one way to learn math: memorization of basic facts then learning the formulas. That's it. And you can learn that free online or with a library book or for next to nothing with a pre-owned or less than popular text. If you prefer to teach online or use a website to supplement, there is Kahn Academy, IXL, and a host of other sites to help. Just google.

Know that the cost of a text can have very little bearing on its effectiveness. Though we assume the opposite to be true, there are pricey books that are rubbish and inexpensive books that seem heaven-sent. Personally, I prefer older books, especially history books.

I've gotten the girls' input on occasion. I took Grace with me to our local homeschool bookstore to choose her science book.  I got Beth's o.k. on the free online psychology class after we both found the book she was using a bit boring. (Thank heavens it cost only $2.00).

Though I don't spend any more than I have to, I have decided that should I find a curriculum or text that cost megabucks, I would purchase it if it were the only thing I felt would work. So far that hasn't happened and I've got nearly twenty years under my belt.

Our homeschool days begin the same on Monday through Thursday:  half hour of Bible reading followed by current events. We attend a co-op on Fridays.

The Bible reading is personal. The girls aren't tested and I don't require scripture memorization. (We have an actual topical Bible study later in the week.) We do this because the girls need to read the Word on their own.  I know the Holy Spirit is leading this 'class'. On more than one occasion, we've been studying another subject altogether and one of the girls will mention a scripture or lesson she learned or that was illuminated during that private time.

This is our first year studying current events. Our young people have more knowledge at their fingertips now than at any time but that potential must be harnessed, otherwise peer and social network interaction will stuff them full of the latest boy band or video game.

I teach at our co-op and am still surprised when my students can name every member of One Direction or list the intricacies of Minecraft but can't name our Vice President. And these are juniors and seniors who'll soon navigate the world on their own. Frightening.

 We want our kids prepared spiritually, intellectually and socially.  We use CNN Student News for current events. It's today's news from around the world given in 10 minutes bites. Each broadcast has a lesson plan with vocabulary, study and discussion questions. We've had great discussions during this time, and they're occasionally assigned a research paper. Because we co-op on Fridays, we watch the Monday through Thursday reports. In order to test their long-term memory and their note-taking skills, each Monday starts with a test of the prior week's information before beginning that day's lesson. 

We DVR each program, but you can sign up at the website and watch it online as well.
www.cnn.com/studentnews  Now my girls know Naill, Harry and the guys AND can explain the recent government shut-down.

The girls also study Latin together. We struggled through a popular Latin curriculum but it didn't work for us. We now use Visual Latin. The girls love it. The dvd program is a half hour lesson followed by five or six worksheets. We use the DVD on Tuesdays, then I make up follow up work on Thursdays. www.compassclassroom.com


Because Bethany is older, we've added  Hans Orberg's Lingva Latina to her study. Written entirely in Latin, it supplements Visual Latin's program nicely. In fact, Dwayne- the Visual Latin instructor, recommends it and gives a schedule that aligns the chapters of books. Beth is required to read a chapter or two daily while I check her via Google Translate.

Bethany's 11th grade curriculum:
Geometry (Harold Jacobs. Free- library)           
Biology  (Abeka.  $20 text & teacher's book, used)          
Psychology  (Free- online: Carnegie Mellon University)

Bethany also takes a few classes at the co-op: 
    Shakespeare (Free- library book & lecture)
    Economics  (Thomas Sowell. $25 new)
    Drama

Bethany's total: $45


Grace's 7th grade curriculum:
Fundamentals of Math  (Bob Jones. $1)
Physical Science (Prentice Hall   $12.00)
Enjoyment of Music  (Forney and Machlis   $2.50)

Grace's co-op classes:

   Government (no book cost.Teacher worksheets) 

   Grammar  (Easy Grammar $10)

   Geography ($5 atlas. Teacher developed curriculum)

   Math Games  (no book cost. Reinforces facts)

   Worship band  (no cost. Gracie already owns violin)

Grace's total: $30.50
 Beth's total:    45.00
Visual Latin    40.00 (for 30 lessons)
Latin Reader     5.00

TOTAL:      $120.50

What I've paid for two students some homeschool moms spend on one subject for a single child. Again, if you can justify spending that kind of money, go for it. But if you're like most homeschool families, funds are tight as you've sacrificed an income (or least part of an income) so that the children could be taught at home.

Don't think your child's education will suffer because you lack deep pockets. If you take the time to research and plan, you can save money and brain cells when purchasing curriculum. Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions or need help.

Decorate for free? You bet!

The adage 'One man's trash is another man's treasure' really resonates with me. I've been known to grab discarded household items off the curb. Don't judge.

I found two window frames at the site of a remodel. I brought them home and put them on the wall in my bedroom. I was going to sand and paint them, but decided I liked  them the way they were.

The one by the sitting area has the Father's Day and birthday cards from Bethany and Grace to their dad.

 This one is on my side of the room. I got that cute sign from Wal-Mart.

I mentioned in an earlier post the shutters I found on the side of the road that I used in my kitchen. This picture was taken a while ago, when I was in my Tuscany/Olde World decorating stage. The kitchen looks totally different now and I've since thrown these shutters out. Maybe somebody got them off the curb.....

If you haven't heard of Freecycle, you're in for a treat.

Freecyle is an online Yahoo email group that allows people to share items they no longer need with others. It's the ultimate in recycling. Clothes, sofas, books, and the like are posted on the site. Interested parties will contact you by separate email to arrange pickup. No money changes hands. All items are free.

 Items may be transferred in the safety of a public place, such as a parking lot.  Most common is the porch pick-up, where potential new owners send a private email informing what time/date they can retrieve the item from the current owner's porch.

I can't decide what I like best about Freecycle: the reduction of waste, the free treasures you find or the chance to pass on an item that still has some life but no longer works for you.

Sign up for Freecycle here. You can get started as soon as you choose your state and city.

When I was going through the aforementioned Tuscany/Olde World decorating phase, I really wanted upholstered chairs at my dining room table. I found two wing chairs listed on Freecycle. I kept them for two years. When I re-did that room, I placed the chairs on Freecycle and they were picked up within hours.

Freecycle does have a downside. No-shows are frustrating. I've actually thrown items out because a person who promised to stop by didn't. A few times they were picked up from the curb. 

You never know what you'll find on Freecycle. If you've got the imagination, you can use it to your decorating advantage. Someone posted a few empty frames and I snapped them up.

 I used the first one in the master bath. I didn't add a mirror or picture. I used it to frame a plate instead.

 I added another frame over the linen bureau on my husband's side of the bedroom. Same set-up: the frame is framing a candle holder.

You're ignoring the dust on top of the dresser, right? Thanks.

The last frame in the set was reserved for the dining room. It has a gold metallic finish. It's used to frame a smaller red mirror.

Free decorating? It can be done.

Homeschool: How we roll....

We enjoyed a peaceful, glorious holiday at the Nichols compound. Hope yours was the same. Public school begins tomorrow in these parts, but we'll use the remainer of this week as a review then hit the ground running next Monday. Illness cancelled four days of school just before the holiday and the girls have tests to take in Latin, math, science and Bible.  We They will review tomorrow and test Thursday. Friday is our usual co-op day, but since we don't report back until next week, I'll schedule something else instead.

Nichols Academy doesn't follow the normal Monday-Friday approach to school. Six or more subjects a day for five days would drive me totally bonkers. Really. I'm sure it works for some, but I'm convinced that successful homeschools incorporate the needs and strengths of  both the parent and the child. But especially the parent. Just joking. Not really.

We follow a Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday schedule that covers 3-4 subjects a day. That may not seem like a lot of instruction, but I can't  emphasize how much more deeply the girls get into the subjects when they can spend one and a half to two hours on each.

I keep it all straight in my handy dandy homeschool binder. The open notebook is for my girls. The rest of the binder are the classes I teach at our co-op.

Here's how our schedule works. I'll discuss curriculum in another post.

Monday/Wednesday: Bible, Latin, home ec, math

Tuesday/Thursday:  co-op homework, literature, science

On alternating Mondays, our school begins in late afternoon as we all join my husband on our church's visitation team.

Bethany (15) has drama rehearsal some Tuesdays, band and dance on Wednesdays and co-op on Fridays, where she takes logic, SAT prep, African studies and drama. She also takes an online literature/history course. Because she plans to study communication in college, she was assigned a blog this year. She's graded on set-up, maintenance and making at least two posts weekly.

Grace (12) has violin on Mondays and Girl Scouts on Wednesdays. On Fridays, she takes an entreprenuer class at the co-op and is a teacher helper in the first grade reading class.

I've reviewed the table of contents for each text book we use and mapped out a schedule for the year. Online resources, labs, research papers, Netflix and/or library support are added in. This isn't as difficult or time-consuming as it sounds, especially given our schedule. It took several hours over 2-3 days to create.

 I can't tell you how handy this is. In years past, I set apart Sunday evening to plot the week's work. Often, this time was eaten up with my freelance work or I was just plain tired and I ended up cobbling together a lesson plan the hour or so before the school day began. Bad idea.

A rushed, harried teacher without a focused teaching plan will not result in a student who enjoys learning. I can't say it enough: take the time to plan, and plan as far into the future as you can. It doesn't have to be the whole she-bang. If you've chosen the appropriate curriculum, a few lines will suffice.When sickness, appointments or life takes you temporarily off-course, it'll be easier to get back on the road. This is Beth's biology schedule for February - June 2013. It's too small to read, but I added it to show that you don't have to write your arm off to complete a yearly schedule.

When the girls come downstairs in the morning, the first thing they do is consult the dry erase board listing  chores, assignments and anything extra going on that day. I write it out the night before using my master schedule. This helps teacher and student 'see' the day. 

Each girl has a school binder. When they complete their work, it's placed in a file on my office wall to be checked. (Yeah, I'm kinda behind.....)

Gracie is a middle schooler, so I don't officially record her grades. Beth, the 10th grader, has her grades recorded on a transcipt. More on that in a later post.

We have time built into our schedule should we fall behind. Each girl has a study hall hour at Friday's co-op that can be used to catch up. Also, because daddy works nights, we're not cutting into family time should we need to study later hours, and we have on occassion.

It's important that each family follows a schedule that works for them. And by 'works' I mean creating a plan that maximizes student achievement without causing mommy to lose her marbles. If something isn't working for you, pray, seek, tweek and change until you find what does. I'd love to hear what works for your homeschool.  

Our homeschool year - What works for us (Part 1)

We've just completed the first quarter of our 2011-2012 homeschool and things are going very well. We're pretty much on track, haven't suffered any (teacher or student) meltdowns and intellectual, emotional and spiritual progress has been noted both in and out of our homeschool classroom, important to us as we believe true education encompasses all three.

Education is the knowledge of how to

 use the whole of oneself.

Many men use but one or two faculties out

 of the score with which they are endowed. A man

 is educated who knows how to make a tool of

every faculty--how to open it, how to keep it sharp, and

 how to apply it to all practical purposes.

Henry Ward Beecher

 

 

We've been teaching at home for more than a decade yet every school term offers a new lesson. It seems this year's theme is FLEXIBILITY. School started in September, but we've already made three major changes to our school.

The first change involves the hours we homeschool. The typical 'begin at 9/end at 3' (or similar) schedule just doesn't work for our family. For starters, my hubby works from 3pm to midnight.  Spending the time he's home with school work just didn't sit right as the chance to enjoy and enhance our family life is one of the (many) reasons we chose to educate the girls at home in the first place.

 I work from home as a weekly columnist for our local paper and have regular freelance gigs in addition,  so it's imperative that I have fixed time to focus on those assignments. My editors, kind as they are, won't suffer a missed deadline because my ninth grader's interest in history resulted in an extra hour of work or because my ten year old came up with a cool game to help prepare for our local spelling bee. Not gonna happen....

In addition to our work schedules, our family is one that volunteers for causes in which we believe. Hubby serves on our church's visitation ministry on Mondays. We join him alternating weeks. Gracie and I help out at the library every other Saturday afternoon. A local church operates a thrift store to raise funds for its outreach programs and I give them a few hours on Thursday mornings. 

We're currently a one-car family, and that car is hubby's 5 speed, which I don't know how to drive. Please, no emails telling me how easy it is; I've tried and it ain't. Two hands + three pedals + 1 gear shift = hubby is my driver until we can afford another car next year (more on that in another post. Shout out to Dave 

Ramsey).

 

This means shopping, errands, and anything accomplished away from the home happens during the hours before hubby leaves for work. We've changed our weekday schedule so that it supports our lifestyle without detracting from our educational goals.

Our homeschool day runs from 1pm - 6pm, though it occassionally starts later and/or runs longer. It's odd but it works for us. Mornings are spent either volunteering, running errands, reading or relaxing. The girls have learned that if their morning chores are done (their bedrooms, their bathroom and the upstairs den), they basically have all morning to themselves on the days when appointments or volunteering isn't on the schedule. My teen uses this time to complete homework from the once-a-week co-op she attends. Our state requires 4 hours of weekly class time per subject for high schoolers and this downtime allows her to get this work done without affecting our homeschool schedule.

Though it may seem a bit unorthodox, this schedule is a total win/win for our family: Dad gets quality time with the girls before work, I have time carved out for my writing and the girls have the benefit of easing into their homeschool day (they are not- I repeat, are not- morning people).

In my next homeschool post, I'll share the curriculum changes we've made thus far.