Our Goals

Our family mission is to:
· Be critical thinkers.

· Provide a quality education for our children.

· Prepare them for lifelong learning, for employment, and for their roles as citizens and parents.
· Maintain a wholesome academic, cultural, and social environment.

Relationship Goals: What is the use of an academic child, who has no relationship with his or her family, and who has not learned how to live in company with others?
Familial Relationships: To develop strong relationships in our home, we plan on spending plenty of meaningful, quality time together. We dedicate one night a week as a family night, complete with mini-character lesson.
Relationships with Others: To develop positive and fulfilling relationships with others, we plan on mainly leading by example. We are respectful to others. We'll teach manners (teach how to greet visitors and welcoming/looking after them in our home, phone skills, how to carry on a conversation). They must develop listening skills. Love others through service.
Relationship with Creation: To fully enjoy the beautiful world around us, they will learn how to take care of our earth. Learn how to garden and compost. Learn how to take care of a pet. Spending time in nature.

Practical Goals: These are aspects of practical living that we consider important for our children to know.
Our Bodies: Focus on healthy eating habits, getting adequate rest, exercise, and developing good hygiene habits.
Cooking: How to prepare, purchase, and cook meals. Ways to be economical in shopping, planning, and storing food. Dietary knowledge.
Sports: Learning how to participate with a team. Learn how to swim. Learning endurance.
Safety: Learning first aid, CPR. Proper handling and maintenance of guns.
Newborn care: Learn how to change diapers, how to hold/bathe them, etc.
Music: Learn competence in an instrument.
Chores: How to maintain a clean home.
Manners: Meal etiquette. Date etiquette.
Money Management: How to save and budget money. How to write a check. Learn about investments, interest, loans. Teach how to keep a record of finances.
Equipment Maintenance: How to take care of a car. How to change a tire, clean the car...
There are so many areas! I'm sure I'm missing a ton of important things, but these are what come to mind right now.

Academic Goals:


What does education mean to you?
Education means EVERYTHING! It's the single most important part of a person's life. It brings happiness and success.

What is your ultimate goal for your children?
Our goal is to enable them to be good decision makers and critical thinkers. Always to challenge and question authority. The more education you have encompassing all realms of learning, the better decision maker you are (academically, financially, socially, etc.). We are preparing them for life-long learning. We want our children to be spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially, and socially strong participants in our world.

When they leave your home, what sort of person do you want them to be?
No matter who they turn out to be, we want them to know they are loved unconditionally. We want them to have the skills to think critically and make good decisions. We trust that how they decide to live their lives, will be in the best possible way for them.

How will you achieve you goals?

What do you want your homeschool to look like?
I want to be organized. I want our days to roughly start and end at the same time. I want to kids to know their tasks for the day/week. I want siblings to help each other.

How will you design your homeschool?

How can you be effective without burning out?
I would like to try and plan school Mon-Thurs, and then use Friday as a catch-up day. We're bound to have weeks where there are appointments, sicknesses, out-of-the-way errands to be done... I would like to have a day that is devoted to getting back on track. For the weeks that we don't get behind, I would like Friday to be a day where the kids can work extra in an area they're enjoying (such as doing extra math pages, or doing another science experiment, or just reading). It could also be a day devoted to field trips, or a day that allows us to go on a long weekend vacation somewhere.

What is the vision of your family?

About Us

Well, I'm not exactly in the throes of homeschooling several children right now. I have a three year old daughter, one year old daughter, and expecting a baby boy. I have, however, written a lot of the info from the perspective as "this is what we plan on using," but I am definitely open to changing that in the future.

My interest in homeschooling began when I started college. I graduated in Spanish Education, but in the back of my mind I was always collecting golden nuggets of information about homeschooling, and what would benefit me in that arena (as opposed to a Spanish classroom in a public school). It has been my passion. I love reading, talking, blogging, and thinking about it. I feel like this sets me apart from many other homeschoolers, who started with having no intention before-hand of doing so. I am a planner, and am definitely planning on doing this! I have a lot of time to get prepared, too, and so I enjoy reading other blogs about homeschooling life to help give me a reality check.

I understand that homeschooling isn't for everyone, and shouldn't be! I went to public school and enjoyed it just fine, and came out as (what I believe to be) a pretty well-rounded person. I am fortunate enough, however, to have the desire and opportunity to be able to stay at home with my children, and devote my time to teaching them. My husband and I have decided it would be a great opportunity for our children and for us.

Approaches We Integrate

During the early years, a large heaping of play, small dose of letters/phonics, and hours spent reading.

First and foremost, we want to encourage critical and free thinking within our children. We want them to have the freedom to explore and question and wonder. We want to provide the resources on subjects that interest them.

Classical Education is the approach we most identify with. Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study (The Grammar Stage). In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments (The Logic Stage). In the high school years, they learn to express themselves (The Rhetoric Stage). This classical pattern is called the trivium. To the classical mind, all knowledge is interrelated. A classical education meets this challenge by taking history as its organizing outline — beginning with the ancients and progressing forward to the moderns in history, science, literature, art and music.

The twelve years of education consist of three repetitions of the same four-year pattern: Ancients, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, and Modern Times. The child studies these four time periods at varying levels — simple for grades 1-4, more difficult in grades 5-8, and taking an even more complex approach in grades 9-12.

The other subject areas of the curriculum are linked to history studies.This pattern lends coherence to the study of history, science, and literature — subjects that are too often fragmented and confusing. The pattern widens and deepens as the student progresses in maturity and learning.

This method is known to be rigorous. In order to tailor this method to our family, we would like to spend more time learning and experimenting in science. I'm not sure what subject(s) we're going to have to spend less time on in order to accomplish this, but I will continue to adapt and report on what we are doing.

I reference The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise a lot! This book is essential for any family wanting to homeschool with this approach. It is a wonderful resource. Our family, however, will not be following the book's methods and outlines unwaveringly. 

Charlotte Mason is a humanities- based approach with heavy emphasis on literature. Children are not exposed (much) to textbooks, but rather to "living books" which make the subject matter come to life- novels about the Civil War are read, for example, to explore that time period. Classical literature is also emphasized in this approach, with parents doing a lot of read-alouds while the child is still young and developing their reading abilities. My favorite part about the philosophy is the emphasis on spending time outdoors, interacting with nature firsthand and learning the living ways of the world.

Our homeschool is secular in nature, although we highly encourage religious literacy.

Resources

Articles and Websites
Academic Excellence Grades K-4
Classical Schooling with Multiple Ages 
Curriculum Reviews
Homeschool 101, Curriculum Info, and much more
So You're Thinking About Homeschooling? (and further reading)
Setting Goals and How To Design Your Homeschool
The Well Trained Mind Website
What is Classical Education? 
You Can Homeschool

Books
Teaching with Love and Logic by Jim Faye and David Funk
The Educated Child: A Parents Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade by William J. Bennett
The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling by Rachel Gathercole
The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise

Math
Pattern blocks and pattern cards
Fraction Action Board puzzle
Bead Sequencing Set
Creative Color Cubes and activity cards

Printables
Preschool Shape Tracers
File Folder Games
Nursery Rhymes and Stories
Unit Study Printables
Shape Coloring Pages

Reading
Phonics primer The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise
Reading skills and beginning reader books- Explode the Code  and Bob Book Series
Check your library for thousands of beginning reader books and audio books!


Science
Thames and Kosmos Science Kits
The Young Scientists Club and Magic School Bus Kits

Writing
Zaner-Bloser Handwriting with Continuous Stroke Alphabet Series Grade K Student Book
Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Paper

Socialization

Under construction!

Characteristics of the Rhetoric Stage

“The final phase of a classical education, the “rhetoric stage,” builds on the first two. At this point, the high-school student learns to write and speak with force and originality. The student of rhetoric applies the rules of logic learned in middle school to the foundational information learned in the early grades and expresses her conclusions in clear forceful, elegant language. The student also begins to specialize in whatever branch on knowledge attracts her; these are the years for art camps, college courses, foreign travel, apprenticeships, and other forms of specialized training.”  

-The Well Trained Mind

Characteristics of the Logic Stage

“By fifth grade, a child’s mind begins to think more analytically. Middle-school students are less interested in finding out facts than in asking “Why?” The second phase of classical education, the “logic stage,” is a time when the child begins to pay attention to cause and effect, to the relationships among different fields of knowledge, to the way facts fit together into a logical framework.

“A student is ready for the logic stage when the capacity for abstract thought begins to mature. During these years, the student learns algebra and logic, and begins to apply logic to all academic subjects. The logic of writing, for example, includes paragraph construction and support of a thesis; the logic of reading involves the criticism and analysis of texts, not simple absorption of information; the logic of history demands that the student find out why the War of 1812 was fought, rather than simply reading its story; the logic of science requires the child to learn the scientific method.”  

-The Well Trained Mind