Zachary finally got to have his 14th birthday party last weekend. He had fun playing video games and hanging out with his friends.
Our Homeschool Room & Bless a Homeschooler Giveaway!
I decided it’s time to share pictures of our homeschool room. See pictures below, and enter a great Bless a Homeschooler Giveaway!
Our Homeschool Curriculum 2014-2015
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This year my students are in 8th grade and 10th grade. Here’s what they are using this year. You can also see what I’m using for Lesson Planning.
Homeschool Lesson Planning
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Once you’ve decided to homeschool, and decided what curriculum you will be using, the hard decisions are over. The hard work, however, is just beginning.
Lesson planning comes next! There are no hard and fast rules of what to do when lesson planning. Here are a few things I have learned since I started homeschooling 23 years ago.
Planning Your Homeschool Calendar
For our first year of homeschooling, in 1991-1992, I followed the local school calender. After the long summer break, starting school again for our second year was hard for my son. That was the year I decided to change our homeschool calender from the local school calender to one that really worked for us.
Planning Your Homeschool Calendar
I changed our calender to having the month of July off, and having most of the month of December off. That worked much better for our family! The kids remembered more of what they had learned. and we enjoyed having more time in December for holiday projects and activities.
I was already homeschooling my two older kids in elementary school when the Lord started blessing us with more children. So we started taking “baby vacations” instead of summer vacations. It was always so nice to have a couple of months off from school while adjusting to a new baby. We did that four times!
When one of my sons was diagnosed with leukemia, we were able to take days, or weeks, off when he was in the hospital. It was a lot less stressful on the whole family when the kids at home didn’t have to struggle to do school work when missing Mama, and worrying about brother.
A couple of years ago, I read about some homeschoolers who took every seventh week off. A Sabbath week. So we tried that. It worked out very well for us. The kids liked having that built in time off. They would count the weeks to be sure they didn’t miss it. We were still able to take off most of the month of December, and still get all the school days in that we needed.
My youngest daughter who is in the middle of 10th grade now, wants to graduate early. So she has been working ahead, and taking less time off. While she did take most of the month of July off, she won’t take most of December off this year.
This year, I plan on having my youngest son take off every 7th week, and the month of December. Having that built in week off works for him.
Yes, my two students will be on different school calendars. That’s ok!
That’s the beauty of homeschooling! You can tailor your homeschool to meet the needs of your family, and each individual student!
So as you get ready to head back to homeschool this year, remember you can plan your own school calendar. You don’t have to follow your local school calendar. Set your own vacation times. Decide what holidays are important to your family and take those days off. The holidays you don’t want off, continuing working so you can take off the days that are important to your family.
Want to start school earlier or later than your local school? Want to take off every 7th week? Want to take your 2 month “summer vacation” at another time of year? Want to work extra days during the year so you can take off on a grand 3 month vacation?
You can do all those things, and more, by planning your homeschool calendar now!`
Plan your homeschool calendar to work for your family!
Our Homeschool Week in Review
We started back to homeschool this week! Monday morning to be exact. The kids didn’t even complain! Love it!
Ever since we began homeschooling and took our first summer off, I haven’t liked long summer breaks. It’s too hard to get the kids back onto a school schedule. I’ve always said it’s easier to homeschool year round than to hear the arguing, whining, and complaining after summer vacation. That’s why the most we take off from school at a time is one month.
Our Homeschool Week in Review
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This week, my baby turned 14! As of right now, my kids are 28, 26, 19, 16, 15, and 14. Yes, I’m old. lol anyway, back to the birthday boy. Poor Zach. He ended up at the doctor’s office on his birthday due to a tick bite he got at church camp the week before. I have a picture, but I will spare you the horrors of that picture. lol He is on antibiotics for 2 weeks. He had to go to the doctors for a recheck on Friday, and it has improved greatly. He’s not nearly as sick in the picture as he is pretending to be. lol