First Week of Homeschooling

It was our first week of homeschooling.  I wasn't planning to start until Sept 1st but my kids wanted to start right away after we got organized.  We started last Sunday and we just finished a full weeks worth of schooling today!  Things I have learned :)

I was thinking oh I can have all the kids do the same subject at the same time, umm nope lol.  Since every child is different, each child had their own pace and material.  My kids followed the class subject order I had written out for them but some kids finished before others.  I would bounce between each child, have a child work on independent work while I helped another child learn. 

We don't start a set time for school.  Even though my kids wake me up around 5ish wanting to get school started.  It's been a super early morning week lol.   School can be around 5-7hrs depending how far or behind my kids are.  If we just stick to Abeka curriculum we would be done within 4hrs but we add a lot of learning fun within the day. 

What a blessing my typed week's worth of lesson plan check list has been.  Kids love it.  They get to check off what they have done and see what else they have left.  It helps them keep motivated and get things done.  Most of the time my kids do extra lessons a day.  I have the kids choose if they want to work ahead or not.

Now after a week of using Abeka curriculum which I think is amazing by the way.  I'm leaning towards doing homeschooling method called unschooling or Charlotte Mason.  Teaching  the kids what they want to learn.  Learning by experience and more hands on.  Not worksheets and dry textbooks non-stop.  For example how I added creative topic time which is Dolphin Tale at the moment.    I more likely keep some of the subjects in a curriculum based form like spelling and math.  That's something I can change next school year.

It's been amazing to have the flexibility with schooling.  With husband's work he gets around 1 day off a week and it's changes every week.  So the kids can have that day off from school to spending time as a family. I never seen my kids so motivated to learn.  My kids are not morning people so waking up excited to start school around 5ish in the morning says something. It's been hard work but also a blessing.  Of course I miss out on having time to myself during the day but I never been so close to my kids as I have experienced this week.  Looking forward to see what our family has in store for the future.