Easter Totschool

Our Easter week this year wasn't really much different than other years except for two things. The first being my husband wasn't working due to being furloughed, and the second being we could not attend physical church. Thankfully, we are not newbies to homechurching and have done it many times throughout the years. While we did miss celebrating the resurrection of our Savior with like-minded believers, there definitely was no shortage of our family acknowledging the significance of the Easter holiday.

As y'all know we love to celebrate the holidays. When planning for this year's Easter totschool week, I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to do some spring crafts along with our Easter projects. The children and I were super thrilled to have daddy home for our Easter fun week, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances. 

Our Easter week sensory box included felt bunnies, plastic grass (Easter basket filler), rubber bunnies, cloth carrots, small plastic carrots, and a wooden scooper.

Y'all know my kiddos love making the marbled pictures so for one of our Easter crafts we made marbled eggs. I cut out egg shapes from white construction paper, placed the paper in a shallow cake pan with paint squirted on the egg. We put three marbles in the pan and the children moved the pan to make the marbles roll through the paint.

I didn't realize the paint colors I had chosen resembled Mardi Gras colors until after the fact, but they turned out cute and the children had fun making them.

Next the children took plastic eggs and painted with them. 

To make sure the 'stamps' resembled eggs it took a minute to dig through all my plastic eggs and find ones that were cut long ways and not across the middle. To be honest I had never really paid attention to how plastic eggs were cut until we did this project. But, if you were curious, not all plastic eggs are cut the same way. Daddy was super sweet to get involved with several of our Easter projects this year, which made our children super happy.

I found this awesome Easter Story snack mix on Pinterest and had the children make it. As the children added each ingredient we talked about the symbolism of how it related to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

I love making snacktivities with my children. It's so much fun learning through different avenues. Not all learning must be done with a text book, even if they are valuable resources. 

Making the Easter Story snack mix was a big hit with my people and I think it will be added to our Easter traditions for the foreseeable future.

Last we made these cute handprint chicks. I must admit this was not the easiest project for my age group of children. I prefer to do projects that the children can do mostly on their own. This one required a good bit of big kid/adult help.

We did quite a few Easter projects as an entire family. I will share about those projects in my next post which will elaborate more on our Easter Funschooling week. Today's post, is focused on our Easter projects that were done mostly by our youngest children. 

I know I say it pretty much every time I post about a totschool fun week, but I will say it again; I really love that I planned for these fun schooling weeks. It's allowing us to break away from our normal schedule and do some focused unschooling activities. While I will always consider us purposeful unschoolers, our normal academic routine does include a little bit more structure than our funschooling weeks. I do not consider our funschooling weeks, non-learning weeks, they're just learning weeks with a different approach.  I'm so thankfull God has given us the ability to learn through a myriad of different venues and outlets, but mostly I'm thankfully I GET to be present for all of my children's learning experiences. Homeschooling truly is the BEST.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Why We Homeschool

Every family has their reasons as to what led them to homeschool, and honestly for us it wasn't just one reason and it wasn't what you probably think it was. Now, 15 years into homeschooling our reasons continue to grow and evolve. Even when we have really bad days or seasons of difficult homeschooling days our reasons WHY always supersede those challenges.

While we do not homeschool to 'school at home', we are continuously educating our children. It is a precious gift from the Lord, and we do not take it for granted. Homeschooling has always been apart of our lives and at this point I can't imagine what our lives will be like when our last child graduates. Thankfully, even if we don't have any more children, we're still looking at another 18 years of homeschooling, and for that, I am extremely grateful.

I will never profess to know it all when it comes to parenting, much less homeschooling. I do know without a shadow of a doubt that homeschooling is exactly how WE are supposed to educate our children. Yes, we have struggles along the way, and even days when I don't want to do it anymore, but the Lord always carries me through those 'dry' seasons. Holding on to the following reasons as to why we homeschool, always keeps me grounded and determined to finish the race God has set before me.

1. We don't want our children attending an establishment where God is not permitted
2. We believe the scriptures say that parents should train and teach their own children
3. We believe the scriptures say we should not be 'unevenly yoked' with non believers
4. We don't want our children taught false teachings such as in regards to science, history, and our government 
5. We don't want our children taught sex education without our consent
6. We don't vaccinate
7. Having our children at home allows for more flexibility in our schedule
8. Public and private school are both extremely expensive
9. We have several children with learning challenges and if they were in a traditional school environment we fear they would be forced to be on medication or neglected in their academic lessons
10. We also have one child with a depressed immune system and being in close proximity with other children who may be sick is not ideal
11. We don't want our children forced to learn things at someone else's pace just because they think it's whats supposed to done
12. We don't want our children in a bullying environment where there is little to no adult intervention

To be honest I could on and on about why we homeschool, because the reasons just keep growing as our world continues to spiral out of control with little to no morals or values.

Every parent has their reasons why they make certain choices regarding their children, especially as to where they will be educated. While I'm extremely passionate about homeschooling, I understand that each parent has to do what they feel is best. Our family's reasons to homeschool are unique to our family and may or may not resonate with other families. Thankfully God has given each family their own special journey to travel, there is no wrong our right way. For us it just so happens that homeschooling is the best choice for how we educate our children. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Table Time

 We kick off each homeschool day with our table time lessons. Our homeschool table time is my absolute favorite part of homeschooling. Table time in the homeschool world has many different names: morning time, morning basket, tea time, morning menus, etc. whatever you choose to call your 'group' homeschool time is personal to each family ~ but we choose to call it 'table time' since that's where we have it. 

 I prefer to do our table time lessons first thing in the morning because that is when our family is at it's 'best'. We are all in best form, present in mind, not distracted, basically 'fresh' for a new day. Since table time is the core of our homeschooling, it only makes sense to do it when we are all at our best. Also, since I practice intermittent fasting, and don't break my fast until 10am, it is perfect for me to begin our read aloud while everyone else is eating their breakfast.

The above picture is a glimpse at part of my homeschool planner. I have scheduled each week of our table time (the top section of the page). These pages tell me what hymn, bible verse, interactive notebook, storybooks, projects, and quiet time boxes to do for each week. Our bible, nature, and nonfiction books are just read as we see fit for each day. This is the first year I have used these personalized weekly planning sheets, and they have been AMAZING!! As this year has progressed it has been easy for me to add, subtract, and make adjustments. We have accomplished more than we ever have and I owe it all to this detailed homeschool planner I created just for our family.

Our table time routine looks like this: I first read aloud from a bible story book (I own several that we have read through over the years). We read from a nature book; sometimes it's a fiction book while other times it's nonfiction. Then we read from a nonfiction book. I really enjoy picking a series so we can follow characters throughout multiple books and storylines. We practice reciting our weekly bible memory verse, then we sing our weekly hymn or praise song. I read our scheduled story books for the day. (I plan these books out before the school year begins). We also do our interactive history and science notebooks and the coordinating read alouds. Table time is also when we do our projects, whether it be crafts or experiments. To wrap up our table time we pray.

To keep the littles occupied and as quiet as possible during table time, I have designated educational activities for them to do. I have been intentional to budget for these educational toys throughout the years, and we have acquired quite a few. 

I've tried to box up the toys into coordinating totes, which are only brought out during supervised play time ~ mostly just table time. Some of these toys were not cheap, and losing pieces typically renders the toys useless, hence the fact that they are put up and only brought out during table time.

 Most of the toys were purchased through Amazon or Learning Resources. My favorite time to purchase educational toys is on Black Friday/Cyper Monday and Prime Day. I can usually find great deals allowing my budget to stretch even further.

The educational toys I purchase have to be quiet toys which means they don't make noises (obviously if they required batteries and made noises that would defeat the purpose of quiet time toys, lol). And yes, even my little bitty ones are required to sit at the table for table time. It's a good lesson for church or other times when they will be expected to sit still and be quiet. The homeschool lessons are not always book lessons, but lessons in behavior and character; from mama all the way down to the baby. 

Does our table time always go off without a hitch? Hardly!! No day is ever void of an opportunity for mama to child train. I've learned that planning and scheduling helps keep those hiccups down to a minimum. My children tend to do best when they know what is expected of them and there's a consistent routine. Every family has to find their own homeschooling groove. It's highly unlikely any homeschool family will look like the next, but we do have a common thread and that is to give our children the best platform for learning; and for us this is what is at the core of our homeschool day and works best for our family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Routine

If there is one thing I've learned in the nearly 16 years I've been homeschooling, it's having a set homeschool routine is critical. Without a 'set in place' routine for my children and myself, we wouldn't get done half of what we get done. Our homeschool routine changes every year, and even more so when we add and graduate children. 

I keep our homeschool routine posted on the fridge for all the children to see which helps to keep the squabbling to a minimum. No one can argue whose turn it is to do what. If my older children are not scheduled to be doing something then they have free time (within reason) but they must remain in the house in the event I need them for something. 

The above routine is my personal homeschool routine. We first start the day with table time (which I will be going into more detail about in my next post). Table time includes all members of the family who are under the age of 18 and still officially in 'school'. Next I do tot school group lessons. These lessons are currently done with my five children under the age of seven. Then I have one-on-one time with each of my children to go over their individual lessons.

I do one-on-one time with each child in a separate room, with the intentions that we will be undisturbed, but with a house full of children this does not always happen. Some of my children require more of my undivided attention than others when it comes to lessons. I evaluate this yearly and make adjustments to the schedule accordingly. 

I have gone to great lengths to teach my children to 'own' their education. For the most part, my older children do their lessons independently, and their one-on-one time is mostly for accountability and for me to review their work. While I consider us to be relaxed homeschoolers, and maybe even unschoolers compared to some; I do require my children to partake in some form of academic lessons daily.

This second chart is mostly for how I strive to keep my younger children occupied during my one-on-one time. I would love to say my younger group of children were well behaved during our lessons; but honestly, if they're not scheduled to be doing something constructive WITH a supervisor they will most likely get into trouble. {{sigh}} Which is why I have devised the above routine. 

My big kids do not need this chart/routine. They are very well behaved and have learned how to use their time wisely, my younger crew not so much. This chart helps all of us stay focused and make sure everyone is doing their part to make the day run as smoothly as possible. After table time and tot school, my oldest son sits in the living room while the littles as they watch a scheduled educational movie. Next, they go to the girl's room to play puzzles, educational games, and play in the weekly sensory box with my oldest daughter. Then they rotate to play in another room where our blocks and play kitchen are located. Last they play outside on our back porch where we have riding toys and for the warmer months we have a water play station set up.

I have times posted for this routine, but they are really just for a guide. We begin the day when we are able  and then proceed in order of what the schedule indicates. Each of the big children are required to watch/play with the younger kids for 45 minutes ~ and YES I set a timer, because if I don't, there will be arguing about who did what for how long. {{insert eye roll}} Real life here y'all ~ I refuse to sugar coat the way things are, that doesn't do any good for anyone.

Our homeschool routine is a suggested guide. We do not live our days in bondage to it. We make adjustments as we need to each day. But, it's great to have a plan, a goal to pursue each day. I've been doing some variation of this routine for many years. When I had just littles we would do 'blanket time' where the children not doing lessons had to sit on the blanket and play quietly with a designated toy. But as my children have gotten older I'm able to adapt the routine to fit our ever changing needs. 

I'd also like to add that I've always 'scheduled' play times for my children. It's real easy in large families for certain children to group together, alienating other siblings. Some children like to play with just the babies, while others don't like having anything to do with the babies; or children born close together had rather play with just themselves. I think it's important to be intentional to cultivate sibling relationships across the board. By scheduling my children to have playtime with all their siblings, it insures they're building relationships with each of their siblings and not just one or two. 

This is our current 2019/2020 homeschool routine. In August I will reevaluate and make adjustments as needed. For the most part it will probably stay the same in for the next school year since we will not have any children graduating and I don't officially add children to lessons until they are two. While it can take some time figuring out a viable homeschool routine, it has been well worth it for our family for many reasons. But, I especially love our homeschool schedule because it allows me to spend adequate time with all my children, making sure they are getting the academic help they need. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Halloween Fun Schooling

Since our schedule was so crazy for the month of October, and I am very pregnant we divided our Halloween fun schooling activities into two weeks. This post includes more of what I did with the littles, but there are still a few things for the big kids too. This post shares more of what I did with the big kiddos for our Halloween Funschooling.

No Holiday is complete without an appropriate sensory box. For this year's Halloween sensory box we had dyed purple white beans, plastic bugs, a pail, and pinchers.

It took me many years to figure out how to best incorporate art into our homeschool schedule. A few years ago I found something called directed drawing. With directed drawings I draw with the children guiding them through each step of whatever we are drawing. 

It's so fun to see how everyone interprets the drawing assignment and creates their own personalized picture. Since we've been doing the directed drawings for several years now, it's really awesome to watch the children's drawing abilities improve.

We did a few specific tot school halloween activities. This project was to paint paper plate pumpkins with homemade puffy paint made with shaving cream. 

This particular project made a giant mess and the pumpkin paintings never dried (which meant they went in the trash ~ sigh. I prefer to keep the children's projects at least for the school year.) Despite the mess, the children really enjoyed the activity and were even disappointed when I took the paint away. 

 Next the younger crew made torn paper pumpkin collages. I free-handed a pumpkin on card stock and cut it out for the children to glue torn construction paper on them.

For some reason all of my children really seem to enjoy glueing, lol.

Yes, we love all the holidays around here and I try to collect movies and books that help us celebrate them accordingly. We have this cute collection of Peanuts Holiday movies. We watched the Halloween one as part of our Halloween festivities. 

Last we made Halloween Muddy Buddies. I shared this recipe here for those who are interested, and as an added bonus, it can easily be adapted for any holiday ~ yeah!

I won't lie, homeschooling is tough. Doing extra-curricular projects seldom plays out like I have it in my mind. There's ALWAYS fussing and complaining and usually some cross words. But, Lord willing my children will remember the 'highlight reel'. Nothing worth doing is typically easy to do and I have to remind myself of that fact quite often ~ especially when most of my days are spent in the trenches of child training. 

Our fun schooling weeks are my personal attempt to break up the homeschool monotony, lighten our academic load, and create treasured memories as a family. Even when the 'fun' weeks usually present their own difficulties and aren't as fun as I had hoped ~ I still keep trying. Because maybe just one day, our crazy, wild crew will get it together and it really will be the fun I had envisioned, lol.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Fun at Steele Apple Orchard

This past Friday was brimming over with family fun! So not to make my posts lengthy and drawn out; I've decided to break the day up into three separate posts. Our Friday adventures began with a trip to the Steel Apple Orchard in Cullman, Alabama. 

It took us a solid two hours to get there, and folks let me just tell ya, it was a l-o-n-g two hours!! All you mama's out there know those 'fun' road trips that just don't go as planned ~ well this adventure certainly started out a little rocky to say the least! We had two pit-stops (because hello, 27 weeks pregnant and I have the bladder the size of mustard seed - insert eye roll), a detour in downtown Birmingham through the projects, a puking (carsick) child, and crying babies ~ yeah it was a blast!!

Once we finally arrived at the orchard the day started to get a little better, but it certainly wasn't without it's struggles. I still had sour attitudes and cranky babies. Lord willing my kiddos will remember the highlight real and not all the drama, because the Good Lord knows the drama meter over runeth on our trip to the apple orchard that's for sure!

The real culprit to all our road trip troubles was a nasty head cold we all seemed to be nursing. Unfortunately, I couldn't cancel our apple orchard tour, or we wouldn't have been able to attend this year. Since we missed last year, I really didn't want to forgo the experience, especially for the little kids. 

We were supposed to 'piggy-back' on with another group for the apple orchard tour since our group did not total 15 people, but the other group never showed up. I was a tad bit anxious we were NOT going to get to do the tour, but the folks were super kind and basically gave us a private tour despite us not being a 'full group'. 

Steel Apple Orchard is a family owned, small farm that began in 1985. They have 15 acres and over 200 apple trees including 20 different varieties of apples. The wife actually does part of the tour with another farm worker. The tour began in their processing room where they share about how they pick, sort, and store the apples as well as what they do with all their apples. 

This particular apple orchard sells all their apples to patrons visiting the farm. They also make a variety of apple products including apple cider, apple butter, and fried apple pies which they sell in their country store.

Once the children get a lesson on the farm operations, everyone is taken outside the 'shop' to learn some more fun facts about the health benefits of apples, how the honeybee is beneficial to the apple, and of course no apple orchard tour is complete without a thorough education on Johnny Appleseed. 

To conclude the tour the children have a blind apple tasting of different apples and the kiddos try to guess what kind of apple they were eating.

The folks at Steele Apple Orchard are just as sweet and down-to-earth as they come. While it was a long and difficult drive, it was absolutely worth it, and I'm glad I was able to take the children on this little adventure. (Even if half of them didn't really want to go.) I'm quite used to my people giving me grief over road trips ~ most of them are homebodies, but they usually have a great time and admit it once we've get home from the crazy escapades I drag them on, lol. So, I reckon I'll just continue planning these 'fun' trips and giving my children a taste of adventure; after all getting out of our comfort zones is good for all of us!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Apple Fun School Week

Johnny Appleseed Directed Drawings

Fall isn't quite here and most folks aren't even thinking about apple picking season, but for us it just worked best in our schedule to do our apple fun week the last week of August. And we've technically already gone apple picking and made applesauce; so I guess for us it isn't really too much of a stretch to do our apple fun week so early in the year.

Most of the activities are geared for the younger ones in the bunch, but I made an effort for the bigger kiddos to have a few fun apple learning activities on Friday. 

Over the years I've had the tendency to go overboard on our fun schooling weeks, so I made a major effort this year to taper things down just a notch. For our apple fun week I planned for one apple-tailored activated a day and then Friday had a few more sprinkled in for the older ones.

I read these books during our read aloud time. The top two right books are fairly long so I divided them up throughout the week.  My collection of apple themed books is not that extensive, but it's enough to get us through the week. Each year I try to grow our home library and it looks like I really need to work on this particular theme, lol. 

First we started off with apple stamping. I cut apples in half, painted the inside with red paint, put a corn poker into the apple and let the children have a go at 'stamping' their construction paper.

The sensory box this week was apple themed with old fashion oats, faux apples, cinnamon sticks, green pieces of yarn (to imitate worms, lol) a small scooper, and a small tin pail.

Another day the children made torn paper apples. I printed off an apple template on card stock, poured some glue on it and let the kiddos glue bits of red torn construction paper onto their apples.

We made marbled apples by placing another card stock apple into a pan, squirting some red paint onto the middle of their apples, and then placing three marbles into the pan for them to roll around.

For our apple themed snack activity day the children made no bake apple pie in a cup. We put graham crackers into a baggie that I let each child take a turn smashing with a rolling pin. We put the crushed graham crackers into the bottom of a cup, scooped apple pie filling on top of that, and then topped with cool whip. I let each one help make their 'apple pie' in a cup as best I could, lol.

On Friday the older children added to their ongoing interactive notebooks (we do a daily history science, or project interactive notebook activity) with a writing assignment regarding Johnny Appleseed, whom we'd read about during the week.

We discussed and labeled the parts of an apple which also went into their interactive notebooks.

Finally they added an apple lifecycle craft to their interactive notebook.

One of our favorite art projects is Directed Drawings. This is where I advise the children step by step what to draw. I love how everyone's pictures turn out and since we've been doing this for years, it's amazing to watch each child's drawing skills improve over time. This week we did a Johnny Appleseed directed drawing that I found for free at Teachers Pay Teachers.

The last project the younger children did was a paper plate Johnny Appleseed craft that I found for free on Pinterest.

I'm still hoping to take the children on a field trip to an apple orchard in North Alabama, but it's a really long drive and we have to 'piggy back' the public school tours or daycare tours; so it's not always something we get to do yearly. The children did ask if we were going to get to go this year as it has been a couple years since we've been, Lord willing I'll be able to make it happen. 

It can be mighty hard to find the balance between 'real homeschooling' and 'fun schooling'. There have been seasons of homeschooling where we've done no fun learning activities and then other seasons where that's all we've done. I'm currently on the platform that it's okay to plan and incorporate fun learning activities and field trips into your academics, they just shouldn't be the 'meat and potatoes' if you will. 

While I'm not a fan of recreating the public/private school's broken system; I am of the mindset that children need to be in a constant state of learning which must be encouraged by their parents. What works for one family may or may not work for another. This is why it is so important for homeschooling families to share the nitty gritty of their homeschooling days ~ for no other reason than that we may all glean and improve our methods of educating our own children. Which is why I try to share what we do. I have gleaned so much from other homeschooling families over the years. And maybe, just maybe this is a tiny way I can pay it forward. 😊

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Preschool

Homeschool Preschool, it's a topic of quick division amongst homeschool families. To do it or not to do it? I've swung to both sides of the pendulum, but I'm currently under the persuasion of including Preschool lessons into my little ones daily routine.

My main reason being that my little kids easily get ushered around here and there as I'm bustling around trying to manage our home and educate my six older children. I want to spend time with them and include them in our day. I find that they love to have their own little 'school' time and it really doesn't take much time out of my day. Plus, I like knowing they're getting a head start on their academics and getting into the habit of how to do 'school' for when they get older. 

When I had only one or two under five I did 'calendar books', which were a compilation of a traditional 'circle time' activities that I would do one-on-one with each of my little bitty ones. Now that I have four in that age bracket, I created a circle time board which we use together (saving a lot of time doing it once as opposed to 4 times). It's more of a fun approach with songs and hand motions to get the children involved and learning.

This year our circle time board includes:

• A welcome, good morning song which we do first to try to get everyone focused.
• A days of the week chart
• A weather song; we sing the song and then discuss the weather 
• A letter chart where we sing the alphabet
• A months of the year song
• A monthly themed fun song 
• A calendar where go over the month and day. For whatever day it is we clap the number, stomp the number, and whisper the number
• A weekly color, shape, and letter. The color and shapes have a matching poem
• For the weekly letter we have a motion activity card (for example: letter C we shiver acting cold)

While I love this circle board and we're having loads of fun with it, AND the children are learning from it; I already have plenty of updates I plan to implement next year. Some of our circle time activities I created, found for free on Pinterest, or found at Teachers Pay Teachers.

I made up these homeschool 'week at a glance' schedules to help me keep up with our table time and preschool time. Our preschool time includes story books, usually two or three that I have collected over the years. The children watch an education movie, we have a weekly sensory box, and they have worksheets/crafts that we do together.

These are the preschool educational movies we rotate between.

One year I bought the Abeka preschool program (yeah, that was not our cup of tea) and it came with these awesome letter posters and letter songs CD that coordinates with the posters. They're a lot of fun and the children love doing them, so we do that along with our circle board time.

Each week I rotate our sensory box, with a new theme each week. Tabitha (my 13 year old) lets the little ones play in the box (supervised) during her block of watching them each day. The sensory box is not left out for free play, it is put away each day.

The worksheets that I do with them is dependent on their age. For my two year old, she does a series of worksheets I created that review the weekly letter, shape, color, and number. My three year old does a set of worksheets that I purchased from Teacher Pay Teachers. The projects I do with them include a lower case and upper case craft each week that coordinates with the weekly letter. 

Every few weeks we have an 'off week' where we do not do a weekly letter, number, shape, or color. During that week we focus on seasonal themed crafts which I found on Pinterest. I will share in the future all about our 'fun themed weeks' and the activities we do.

I try to keep our preschool time play based and more like fun schooling. I don't want my little ones to be burden down with 'seat work' and flash cards. Not that those things are bad, but they're not exactly fun for small children. It's taken many years of trial and error to come up with what works for our family and this is finally exactly what I've been trying to create for 15 years! Even though I still have some tweaking I plan to do in the future, lol. I guess that's par for the course for homeschooling a large family. What works for one family won't work for another, but I love seeing what other families do for their homeschooling, so that is why I'm sharing our Homeschool Preschool routine. 😊

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer