FIRST GENERATION HOMESCHOOLERS
At our final Becoming History Presentation, my kids and I shed tears, as our youngest graduated twelfth grade.
We had loved every minute of learning together and creating presentations to share with extended family what we had learned.
My kids proclaimed that I need to write everything down, so they can recreate their homeschool experience with their own kids when they get married.
WHAT IS CLASSICAL EDUCATION?
As they kept busy with college, work, and meeting their future mates, I found much more time on my hands.
After years of reading tons of history and literature books, to rewrite others’ curriculum to better fit my kids, I finally had time to deep dive where I chose.
Thus, I filled my days with deep study of classical education, back to its origins and growth, distinctives, and benefits.
TEACHING THE GOOD, THE TRUE, AND THE BEAUTIFUL
The most important thing I learned, was that the goal of a classical education was not to learn a trade, but to learn right from wrong, to develop a Christian worldview, putting God first in our life to honor Him.
God is good, true, and beautiful, and all things in our lives should point to him, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Another important distinctive I learned was that classical education isn’t about reading every book out there.
Instead, it’s about deep study of a fewer selections, so that the student learns how to learn, so as to teach him or herself.
CURATING A BETTER HOMESCHOOL LIBRARY
Feeling quite misled by a classical homeschool curriculum we used, that was book heavy with little help thorough the process, etc, etc, etc, I recalled many books that were not well written, nor documented history well.
Thus, I purged our extensive homeschool library to the very best of the best books.
Then, with all the new books coming out, and more time to read, I explored other options to curate the best homeschool library I could find, upon which to base future lessons…and hopefully on-line Tea Time Talks about History, while dressed in historical attire. (Stay tuned for that growing development!)
SECOND GENERATION HOMESCHOOL BEGINS
Every year my son-in-law Mr. A (who was public schooled) exclaims: You’re going to help us homeschool, right? How do we get started?
Generally explaining the plan, I assured Mr. A that Mrs. A (my daughter) was doing a lot of great stuff already, since their daughter (Miss M) was quickly picking up her alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes.
Meanwhile Mr. A attempted teaching multiplication just through mental math queries…which astonishingly Miss M picked up at the age of 3!
Beyond that, I said to read lots of books to her, teach her about the Bible, and do lots of outdoor play…just like my daughter remembers from her childhood.
OUR PLANNING SESSION
Last winter, they came over to the house to discuss more details, because Miss M would turn 5 in the summer.
First I wanted to hear from them their goals and questions.
I explained, this is their homeschool, not mine. They needed to own it. However, I am a very happy advisor and resource! After all, I care deeply for them and my granddaughter, while I do respect their wishes.
Understanding that, they asked their questions, but were truly wanting to hear my specific recommendations.
Then we talked about classical education, with which my daughter was familiar since that was our homeschool model when she was growing up.
The more Mr. A heard, the more excited he got. Yes, he exclaimed, that’s the plan!
GRAMMAR LEVEL – 3RS FOCUSED
First, I explained that grammar level in classical education is focused on the 3Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic, which is foundational to learning everything else.
If a student learns the 3Rs, they can teach themselves with the parents as a guide.
I warned them that it’s SO easy to get caught in all the flashing programs for little ones…that can drain everyone’s energy and reduce time from learning the 3Rs well.
ABEKA
For that, I highly recommended Abeka, primarily because my daughter is familiar with it, since I taught her grammar years with it.
Further, Abeka is fully laid out, arguably too much, which merely means one can edit where needed, and I can teach my daughter how to do that.
Otherwise, why reinvent the wheel?
Additionally, the worksheets assigned daily are few, which is good thing.
When I studied for a teaching degree in college, the professors lectured us to not do more than one worksheet a day and I agree to keep that as a goal.
They are useful to assess, but balance is needed.
As a bonus, the worksheets at the grammar level are too cute!
GRADUATING FROM ABEKA
As much as I like Abeka for the grammar years, I like other stuff in other years.
To learn composition, we’ll add Institute for Excellence in Writing in first grade.
We’ll switch from A Beka to Teaching Textbooks (because it’s like having a math teacher living with you 24/7!) by dialectic level.
Each year we’ll assess when we change from Abeka to other options, many of which I gave an overview for that day.
HSLDA
For all the legalities, I showed them how to navigate the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) website, where I highly recommended their membership for legal protection if needed.
After showing them the section for state laws, we talked about each allowed option, and on that day they chose the plan they wanted to proceed with.
Although they were ready to send in the paperwork that week, I suggested we do that in June, once the current school year was completed. (which we did)
Thus, in June, we again visited the website, created a membership for a small fee, downloaded forms, etc,
SPRING CLEANING FOR HOMESCHOOL
In May, they asked me to help create a homeschool space in their home for a focused study area…which meant helping them purge clutter.
As my daughter made executive decisions, I hauled clothes and toys outgrown by Miss M to the Salvation Army, to bless those in need.
Other stuff we hauled to the dumpster.
Then we reorganized.
At last we had a clean slate for our new adventure!
NEW STORAGE BOOKCASES
To celebrate, I brought 2 small bookcase units with baskets, which my granddaughter couldn’t wait to help assemble!
This was totally a team project!
NEW WHITEBOARD-CHALKBOARD EASEL
On my next visit, I brought a brand new easel…which, again, my granddaughter jumped in to assemble herself!
BETTY LUKENS FLANNELGRAPH
I also bought a Betty Lukens flannelgraph set to tell Bible stories, but with smaller-sized pieces than I used with my kids.
Although the smaller dimensions takes up less space for our homeschool purposes, they sure are challenging to cut out when there seems to be a million pieces!
Designed to use for multiple stories, some pieces lend themselves to only one story, so I gathered them into small baggies.
WALL MAPS
Meanwhile I found the same fabric world map that I had for my kids when they were little!
From a young age, my daughter’s #1 gift was geography, so she accumulated tons of geography games which she always chose for game night, much to our chagrin. 😉
Then I entered her into the local homeschool Geography Bee, where the winner can advance to state then nationally, with Alex Trebek in Washington DC, earning scholarship money.
Although she knew a lot, she always froze in front of crowds.
Ironically, my son who didn’t know as much geography as she did, usually aced competitions because he can annoyingly think through logistics and somehow figure out the answers! 😉
Thus, he won the local competition his last two years.
Meanwhile, my daughter grew stage presence, so that she placed in the top 3, then 2, in her last two years.
Since my daughter would be geeked out for me to find this map like the one from her childhood, I had to figure out how to easily mount it onto something sturdy so that apartment walls aren’t messed up.
I found a massive enough foam board at Hobby Lobby to use as backing.
Thought I took pictures of the process, but after cutting the board to size with an xacto knife, I secured the map to the board with clothespins.
When everything was centered and the fabric was taut, I glued the edges down on the back, which kept the front smooth.
It’s lightweight and easy to carry!
FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN
And here I was this morning, on the first day of school, ready to take the rest of the surprises to my daughter and granddaughter.
While I had taken the key Abeka books to my daughter the week before and showed her how the lesson plans work with the different workbooks and flashcards, etc, I kept the extras at my place.
Abeka can be a little overwhelming at first, even for me and I used them with both my kids years ago.
Although I think the layout of the lesson plans, now all in one book, are more confusing with too many ideas, I do believe that it will make more sense with use.
OPENING HOMESCHOOL WITH BIBLE TIME
Opening the day with the Bible, I began at the beginning with the story of Creation, some of which Miss M remembered from her Bible storybook.
Since I was at her home a lot to help organize, I read to her from her Bible storybook, so now she won’t let me read anything else to her.
She calls it her grandma time.
Now we are taking it tactile with flannelgraph.
My granddaughter loves to put the pieces on as I tell the story.
(The Betty Luken flannelgraph set keeps Adam and Eve “clothed” out of respect to littles, hence those golden robes. Personally I’m surprised they didn’t stick them behind the bushes like most storybooks do, but everything else is quite spot on.)
With a million and one pieces, I keep this set at my home, and when I come to visit on occasion, this is my teaching time with Miss M!
After Bible time, we pray to God, thanking him for the lessons learned in the Bible (which we specifically name), and to ask him for his guidance during our homeschool day.
OPENING EXERCISES
After that we do Calendar time, and assess the weather with a cute spinner and a wheel that Miss M made.
PHONICS
Her first official letter to learn (which she already knew) was I.
However, she is now learning the sound it makes…
CURSIVE
…and how to write it in cursive!
The white board is primarily for practicing cursive, since it allows for ease in keeping the hand in proper alignment. (Read all the reasons and tips here.)
This easel has a white board on this side, but a chalk board on the other.
At the top is a roller board for paper to pull down for art projects, while the holes in the tray are for paint cups.
NATURE STUDY
Surprising them with the cutest scrapbooking paper I could find, I helped them decorate nature journals.
Instead of purchasing the science book from Abeka, my daughter is putting together nature walks and activities each day.
The weekend before we had our last summer blast with Miss M’s cousin, my other granddaughter and her mommy, at the park where we saw black swallowtail butterflies.
My daughter found a cute color sheet of a black swallowtail, that she printed out for Miss M to color, cut, and paste into her nature journal, which my daughter dated.
Now, if my son the artist was here, even at age 5, he’d have drawn it himself.
I understand that through patient observation outdoors, and trying carefully, those of us less skilled can learn basic art techniques, so that is the goal.
This is such a fun way to learn more about God’s creation and develop observation skills.
CRAFT TIME
Although I was never personally keen with the Abeka art book, nor was my son (the artist), my daughter really wanted it.
Since she’s the teacher, I ordered that after I ordered the kit.
One of the activities we found was for the making of a Creation booklet!
Since our flannelgraph story was of Creation, Miss M worked on her Creation booklet that afternoon.
Behind my daughter is the calendar that I purchased at Lakeshore Learning, along with little numbered suns with cute faces, for my granddaughter to learn about how a calendar works.
Every morning she adds the numbered sun for the day, then names the day of the week, month, and date.
Although my daughter had wished for a fancy calendar like the one I made for her and her brother (and I agree), it takes SO much time that neither she nor I had, so this works!
GEOGRAPHY
Since we decided to teach geography through picture books, we used one of the Madeline books to introduce France and England (since she lives in Paris but flew to London to visit a friend).
Marking those spots with a pin, we can now review the countries with the stories learned through them.
I couldn’t resist this cute apple pointer when I saw it at Lakeshore Learning. I think I had one for my kids too.
Meanwhile, she is also learning how to find her home on the world map…mainly because she asked!
She wants to know the name of every single location on that map!
And at the bottom of this photo is all the new storage for flashcards, art supplies, etc, etc, etc!
At the end of the day, they took me on a nature walk nearby, so my daughter could also have a lovely spot to photograph their first day of homeschool!
Miss M aspires to become a doctor!
For more photos of our Classical Grammar years, check my Flickr set.
