Homeschool Living

Hope & Scott with Johnathan, Eden, and Judah

Do you home school or know someone who home schools their child?  It's a privilege to be both educator and parent to our children.  Throughout the years my children have gone to Christian Schools, home school, and for the first time this year my son, who is about to turn 15 years old, is going to public high school.  I am presently home schooling my two daughters, ages 11 and 13, in 5th and 7th grades. 

Judah and Eden holding a snake skin that they found while hiking to White Rock, Pennsylvania

• Bible -- I LOVE A Beka's large Bible story flashcards for the elementary ages.  You can teach a family of 10 children with those large cards and they LOVE IT!  There is something about a Bible story being told from parent to child, a gift that cannot be replaced by the latest videos on the same subject. We also spend time listening to heaven.  We put on music-- One of us will play an instrument or we put in a worship CD or video.  Everyone takes time to be still and know God.  We draw pictures of what God shows us or look up scriptures that God brings to our hearts.  Precious moments!  At times I will assign chapters of the Bible for reading.  
• Reading/Spelling/Writing -- K - 2nd grades -- my favorite age group!  I definitely recommend learning to read phonetically because generally a good phonetic foundation will build a great  middle school speller.  I used A Beka phonics, but I've heard of a few other programs that are out there that work well, too.  Anytime I veered away from A Beka's Language Arts curriculum to try something new, I always came back to A Beka! 
• Math -- I liked the colorful workbook pages of A Beka for 1st - 3rd grade math, but switched to Saxon for upper elementary and middle school.
• Science/Health -- I've enjoyed the new Apologia Science with Dr. Jay Wile for middle/high school ages and its corresponding series on Exploring Creation for upper elementary students by teaching each day of creation in a different science textbook.  

Most of my science classes for K - 3rd grades include constructing insect boards, nature hikes, field trips to natural museums, farms, and nurseries, drawing and  identifying animals in their own nature book ...

(Baltimore Science Museum)          ...and looking under rocks!    

• History/Geography -- In elementary years we memorize the pledges, the national anthem, the presidents, the states and capitals, continents, US History timeline. My children love to do map puzzles.  I have puzzles of the world, the USA, and just bought a book at Borders where each page is a puzzle of a new continent.  It's a great hands-on way to learn geography!  Of course, we do the old school method of drawing, coloring, and labeling maps, too. And don't forget field trips!   

                     (Field trip to Ft. McHenry)

I just started a wonderful new series called Mystery of History by Linda Hobar.  This year we are in Volume II, The Early Church and the Middle Ages.  This series is great because the whole family can do history together.  She has activities at the end of each chapter for the little ones and the older ones.  It comes with quizzes, tests, answer sheets, and maps.  Let's just say I'm learning a lot this year in history!

• Art -- I lean on my mother and my friend's mother for art ideas.  We have drawing books that the children love to work with at home.

• Music -- I teach piano and/or rent library books on great composers.
• Gym -- This year we're doing gymnastics.  Last year my friend Jennifer asked her husband, a phys-ed teacher, to lead us.  We've done swimming, diving, hiking, biking, and the trampoline.