I love school!

So, we’ve completed our second week of our new homeschooling year. It’s been so fun!! I guess it’s a good thing I majored in teaching language arts. Savannah’s favorite part of school is English and the boys love Phonics! (They love math, too, though.) Even on the weekends or family day, the kids often ask if we can do school. The other day we had a trip to the Children’s Museum planned, and Peter and Alex begged to do a phonics lesson before we left. Brad keeps asking when my kids will figure out they’re not supposed to like school. :) (I guess he didn’t like school too much as a kid.)

We plan on heading back to the States in about a year. We’ll take some vacation, see family, and Brad will finish up his degree. Then, we’ll come right back to this side of the world. But, since we know we’ll be heading to the States in a year, we decided it would be best to try to stretch this home school year out and make it last until next March/April. There’s no use in having next year’s curriculum mailed here, just to use it for a couple of months and carry it back to the States.

So, in my opinion, that’s one of the greatest things about this year! I feel free to do projects, watch educational films and do other things that make school extra fun! So, even though we do school five days each week, I we only do four lessons in each subject each week.

So, just in case you’re wondering…. Here’s a glance at our typical week….

Mornings:
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings: Brad and I meet with a tutor while our kids are in local school.

Tuesday is family day.

Thursday: Brad is at work all day and I spend time preparing for an English class I teach in our home on Saturday afternoons.

Homeschooling:
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday look pretty similar. I teach English/phonics, math, and reading to Savannah and the boys separately (Peter and Alex are together.). Each class is about 30 minutes, so that takes from 1pm – 4pm. Then, from 4-5 I teach science (Wed) or history (Mon & Thurs) to all three kids.

(Thankfully Leigh is here to do a lot of my dinner prep!)

On Fridays our homeschooling day is cut short because we get together with other foreigners for worship every Friday late afternoon/evening. So, I teach reading for an hour, then we have Math Fun Day for second hour. For Math Fun Day we may play a game, play with cuisenart rods, base 10 blocks, make a graph, put together a store, etc. Depending on the topic, I may do something with all three kids together, have Savannah teach the boys, or split the time between them. We all look forward to Fridays!

Then, we do school one day on the weekend. Brad works at the English school all day Saturday, then, he tries to do some work at home on Sunday. (That way we don’t have to fight the weekend crowds on family day.) So far I’ve done school once on Saturday and once on Sunday. I think Sunday is better because that keeps us busy and out of Brad’s hair! But at this point, I’m still thinking I’ll take it one weekend at a time…. On the weekend, we do English/phonics, math, and science.

I have to say….. I love homeschooling!! I know it’s not for every family. But, I’m so thankful that it’s the Lord’s plan for our family! Over the next few posts, I’ll share about the curriculum I’m using.