What do you do with Sully while you school?

    Adding more children into the picture while schooling can sound real tricky but I don't think it has to be. I take it one day at a time. If Sully (age 2 and a half) needs more attention from me one day, thats fine. I'll hold him or make sure I spend a little extra time before we start school asking him about "bumblebeee" and "optimus prime" from transformers so he can get some mommy time first. We also take several breaks because we all benefit from them. One day I could see us getting it all done in the mornings but for now thats just not realistic. Plus even after you put the books up you will still find yourself doing educational things (write that down in your planner/journal!). Learn to be flexible and be willing to rearrange your day if you need to--with everything!

  Many times Sully joins right in with us on our school days. He might be sitting at the table eating a popsicle, "washing dishes", counting with us, listening to Pippa read to him (that makes my heart explode!) running around the room playing power rangers or pretending he's doing school too. Sure there are times when I do have to say "Sully we are gonna do a little learning right now so I need you to help us". He pretty much knows what the routine is now. Something making me laugh lately is that I find him telling Pippa what she needs to accomplish so she can be done and play. I do allow him some iPad time occasionaly while we do some of our schooling, just so we can maybe get a few things under our belt. I never want to neglect him though, so if he needs me, I will pause and help him. Now that Pippa can read pretty well, I for the most part can leave her with a worksheet and help both kids at the same time.

  At this stage I try and do as many things as I can with Pippa that I know he can join in on too. When it's warm, we take our learning outside to the picnic table or use sidewalk chalk to learn concepts. It sometimes takes some creativity but thats ok, we figure it out!

Recess! 

Quiet time with Jesus in the mornings. 

"my turn"

He actually gets excited to watch this math teacher...cracks me up.

He does still take a nap in the afternoon, so we usually use that time to catch up. 

Like I said, I take it one day at a time (with everything we do!). I haven't got it all figured out but I know the Lord is helping me and guiding me day to day to be the best mom and teacher to my kids. 

Amy 

What curriculum do you use?

    It's January and I believe 18 degrees outside right now here in Columbia, Tennessee and there doesn't seem to be much hope of warmth coming anytime soon. I use to really hate and dread winter but since we've started schooling I actually really love the fact that I don't have to bundle my kids up and get out every day. We can enjoy the comfort of coffee, our dining room table, the couch and sometimes my bed for our schooling. But I do know that all too soon we will get stir crazy and want to get out.

  When the weather does cooperate we go to a few of our favorite places. We enjoy two different libraries and what they have to offer, the local children's museum, playgrounds and ballet lessons. As we are out, I always meet other homeschool moms and it doesn't take long in the conversation for the question to be asked "what curriculum do you use?" It always great to hear what others are using and what they have found is working wonderful for their family. We use a lot of things in our schooling and hearing that word "a lot" use to overwhelm me when listening to moms before we began schooling. Now I understand. When you homeschool you find yourselves doing so many educational things because kids naturally want to learn and explore. I've already found myself several times thinking "how in the world are we googling this?" but we are learning and anytime we can make learning fun I'm all about it.

   As I've mentioned in my last post I do need a plan and something as a base for all of our learning. Oh and maybe you're like me and need to hear that I don't hate anything we are using. It's all working well! So it is possible to buy resources and they work just fine. Don't be overwhelmed by all thats out there. I just needed a Chris Peters and a Julie Hull to tell me here is what you need and they helped me find just the right tools.

When it comes to our schooling I stick to the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic. We use the "Bible" subject throughout our day and thats probably for another post about our daily routine.

Here are 5 of the tools we have used or are using and work great for Pippa and I.

1. Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons



  With this book I've heard both sides. Either you love it or hate it. In this family it was loved! I started using this book last summer before we officially began K in the fall. She had just turned 5 in May and I felt like it was a good way to begin this pattern of "school" without throwing it all on her at once. We did it almost every single day (even weekends) so it wouldn't become negotiable. It worked out perfectly because at the end of this book we were about 2 months into schooling and she was reading so well. I will totally do this again with Sully.

  We used this book every day and it took about 15 minutes to complete each lesson. Some days were hard and there were almost tears but I encouraged her and we got through those tough days. Those tough days were worth it once she could read on her own!  There is nothing like teaching your child to read and seeing them become giddy about it. I mean pause-I taught my daughter to read! How cool is that?! I always had a candy jar with her favorite candy only for reading lessons. When she completed her lesson she could march over and get that piece of candy. I kept a chart handy and once we got 50 we went for ice cream and then at 100 she was able to pick out something at the store.

After we finished that book I transitioned her to these amish Pathway readers and workbooks that were suggested to me. I love them for their simplicity. If you go to find readers for a 5 year old you will find that it's very hard. These pathway readers have simple names like "Peter" and "Mother" instead of "Xenia" and "Cedric" etc found in disney and other common fun looking children's readers. These amish ones are straightforward, plain, black and white so she can focus.

2. Before we read

This workbook has lots of coloring, cutting, pasting and beginner reading exercises. My daughter loves crafting so this was perfect.

We are now into "First Steps". We use the workbook and reader. They have many more fabulous looking workbooks but I felt like these were sufficient for our needs.

First Steps 

3. Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears 

I purchased the workbook, teacher book, wooden alphabet manipulatives, small chalk board and the large one with double lines for learning lowercase and the music cd. I felt like these foundational tools were worth the investment because I wanted my kids to be able to read and write really well.






I love how wide this workbook lays. There is plenty of room to write and color on the pages.

I made my own "mat man" using bottle caps, pipe cleaners and card stock that is mentioned in the beginning lessons.

    This book also comes with a license to use their online learning tools too that we pull up from time to time to keep things fresh. 

4. Math-Math U See

 Math U See Integer Blocks  I bought the manipulatives that you can use all the way up through highschool. 

The blocks are great or sometimes"flipazoos" for equations. :) 

    These manipulatives are wonderful. Even Sully uses them! 

   I must admit, at first I was worried about the videos that came with this curriculum. There is a very dry math teacher that teaches a lesson on the dvd once a week. To my surprise both of my kids love this part of the week. Something about that man makes Pippa laugh and she pays attention the whole time. Maybe because it's someone different than me for a change! Either way, it works for us. 

We also occasionally do some work on time. I purchased the Judy Clock and workbook. I think this summer I will focus more on time with her. It will be better without all the other subjects pulling at as. Judy Clock

5. Lastly we use Saxon Phonics. 

 This was the first thing I bought last spring. I don't know that you HAVE to have a phonics curriculum but I will say I think it's been great for Pippa. We decided to go through this since I already had this before we knew how great the Teach your child to read in 100 easy lesson would be. 

     

   We can go back through and review the technical parts of sounds and words because the first book I mentioned doesn't really explain vowels and consonants. Sometimes I think she is way beyond this basic phonics curriculum and then other times I think this is great because its review of all these concepts she basically learned in the super fast method the Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons book seems to use. Plus its kind of good that she can feel like she knows the answers fast. I can tell she feels super smart when we do phonics. 

  It also provides good skills like listening to directions and identifying. 

These are the foundations of our learning we do at the Howland home. Feel free to ask me specifics and I will do my best to answer. 

Blessings,

Amy 

Stick with it.

Ok friends,

   When I first began researching our materials that we would use for Kindergarten I kept reading on many homeschool blogs that if their student didn't like a certain curriculum they would just try another and honestly that stressed me out. It felt like this homeschooling thing would be a try this and that and I was scared of all the things I would have to invest in or find so my child would "like" learning.  I have never thought of myself as an educator until now and I personally needed a plan that wouldn't change. Don't get me wrong I totally love the freedom of using what you want for your schooling and I'm sure we will have times where things are just not working for us as a family so we throw it out but you have to also keep in mind one piece of advice a mom in our church said to me and it helped me find a sense of stability. She told me that "you just have to decide we're gonna stick with it". I had not heard that yet but it reassured me that sometimes you just have to teach yourself and your child the discipline of doing a task even if it's not "fun".

    Every child is different and what motivates them is different. I can honestly say that all the things we have used and are using have been great. I sometimes feel like somethings wrong because my child is for the most part participating and eager to do our schooling.

    I do believe there is great reward in teaching your child the discipline of completing tasks even if you don't "feel" like it. I have also learned that I am very much a stick to the plan gal and that I have to recognize when it's time to bump the breaks and know when to let off or when to do a little extra. I tell myself constantly that there isn't anything to prove to anyone. As long as we are making progress and sometimes progress looks different than you might think, then I can feel good about that.

   When we first began schooling I thought we could "school" year round because why not? But as we've now made it half way through one year, I think I have seen that our family needs real true breaks. I need time to just be Pippa's mom not teacher. We took an entire week off for Thanksgiving and we are taking two weeks of Christmas break because I promised we would "if you complete the work".  She did! :) I really think a summer break would be great for us too. Sure we will still read and review concepts but everyone needs breaks to refresh.


  Since we as a family have begun this homeschool journey I have had several mom's ask me what curriculum and methods we use. I'd like to share about two things in this post just specifically for the moms. I first want to say that pretty much everything I use has been suggested to me from seasoned homeschool moms and I am so thankful for their guidance. Having a support team around you giving reassurance that "you got this" is the biggest blessing. So if you have said "you can do it" to me, thank you again and please keep saying it! I can now with a smile say that these first 5 months of schooling has been so enjoyable for me. Pippa is interested and loves our school days so I count that as a win. My favorite thing right now is all the reading we are doing in our pajamas on cold mornings curled up by the tree.

2 things that I love for moms that have decided to do this homeschool thing!

- Teaching From Rest

I am not a reader... but I loved this book! I read it the summer before we started our official first day of K. I highlighted the junk out of it and I often return to it and it gives me the pep talk I sometimes need.

2 - The Well Planned Day  - This is my favorite thing ever...really.

My friend Julie that has now successfully homeschooled both of her children all the way through grade school suggested this wonderful spiril-bound planner. She said it was worth every penny and I have to say I'm sold now.  I will continue to splurge on this every year. This planner has brought more productivity to my life in general too. It has wonderful articles, quotes, shopping lists, Bible reading plan for each day, Christmas card lists, gift giving lists, field trip lists, budget sheets, attendance sheet, report cards and honestly its just so pretty and you need something pretty in your life if you're a stay at home mom!

I love to write in one weeks worth of plans (in pencil!) at a time (because your plans will have to change sometimes...ok a lot with a toddler in the picture too). Also anytime we do something that counts as school but it wasn't planned like library, crafts, baking, watching videos about animals, children's museum, playground, shopping trip- hey its math, creative play, coloring, painting etc I pencil that in! There's something about seeing a list of things we did that makes me feel better than if I have a set plan and we don't do everything exactly as planned.

That little check beside things feels so good!

I love the little tips and bible verses scattered throughout. 

There's room for everything in this planner. 

-

Pippa turns 3

I can't believe my little girl is 3 today. With a baby boy due any second now we weren't sure how to celebrate her birthday. My friend Michelle has been fixing up this adorable little vintage camper for a while now and I had the idea to take Pip and let her celebrate with her favorite stuffed animals in this camper. Pippa thought this was the coolest thing ever (I do too!). Michelle has put ALOT of hard work into making it so beautiful. It kinda changed my whole perspective on camping in the best way.  If you see me camping it will probably be like this!

This girl loves cupcakes....

 

We love you Pippa Lou! And we are so proud of you.