part three-the other stuff about homeschooling!

aside from our daily worksheets and periodic test in our regular subjects, we also went to “enrichment class” once a week, where we had physical education of sorts and art. let me tell you that all of us homeschoolers in one school gym was, as you would imagine, a funny sight to see. [i only say this in hindsight, as i am guilty of thinking i was actually cool]

however much of a nerdfest it was, enrichment class was a great way for us to interact with other kids, as well as play oregon trail on the computer, run around like crazy in the gym, make art projects, weave baskets, have valentines day parties, and even be involved in a little local theatre!

we were only homeschooled in elementary school and i really enjoyed both be homeschooled at a young age and going to public school. entering the public school system in middle school worked well, because at the time, there were nine elementary schools funneling into the junior high school, so none of us were really considered the “new kid.” i would say we’re all pretty normal socially, half of us at least are considered “cool.” [i’m talking about levi, adam and alyssa, of course, i don’t know if i’ll ever make cool status]

i’m not going to lie, sometimes we would con my mom into letting us have a day off by telling her we’d clean the entire house [pretty good deal, right?] and she’d cave. sometimes, she would also let us have a “where in the usa is carmen san diego?” game day. and every once in a while, she’d even break out the box of cards and we’d play a little texas canasta. again, she was pretty relaxed.

overall, i believe we will homeschool our future red-headed children, at least in early elementary school. homeschooling in my family taught me that every child is different. my mom had 6 very different children. she had me, who taught myself how to read, and my brother, who seemed to learn everything kicking and screaming. we all made it through school and we all got decent grades if we tried.

so far, no one has had any questions, so i’ll leave it at that! but if you do have questions, let me know. i’d be happy to post a q&a blog!

part two-the details of homeschooling

our school day started around 8 in the morning, sometimes earlier if we i wanted to get a head-start [like some nerdy child] and it would usually end around noon if we had completed all of our schoolwork.

we sat at our kitchen table together while my mom was usually close by in case we needed help. every time we would ask for help, she would ask, “what do the directions say?” we would proceed to read the directions out loud to her. often, upon answering her simple question, a light bulb would magically go off and we would understand what we had to do. if we still didn’t understand, she would then proceed to explain it to us.

we got very good at reading directions and guiding ourselves through our homework.

we had workbooks and reading books. our workbooks included a school-years worth of double-sided worksheets, so we completed one every day. sometimes, it was really fun to get done with three or four math worksheets so you wouldn’t have to do any for a while. [can you tell i was a nerd?]

our subjects included:
arithmetic
language arts
spelling
reading
science
history
cursive

am i forgetting any, mom?

my mom would correct our worksheets every day, and we would have to redo what we got wrong.

sometimes we would have history and science tests, as we just read a section of those every day. we’d also have spelling test every week over twenty some words, we’d usually give those to each other.

it usually took us the morning to complete all of our work and the rest of the day we were free to imagine, run around, play with the homeschooled neighbors, or light each other on fire [as my two older brothers were fond of doing]

to be continued…