
Now that you know why we home educate our kiddos, you are probably wondering (if you’re a fellow homeschooler) what kind of homeschooling we do…(if you’re not a homeschooler you’re probably wondering how we socialize our children).  I’ll get to both of those questions in this post! 🙂
We are eclectic homeschoolers. Â We don’t have one specific method that we use, but we very much lean towards Unit Studies. Â I create my own and will be posting some of them on here in the next couple of weeks. Â I finally think I’ve figured out the best way for ME to create unit studies. Â Everyone is different, so you’ll have to find your own way, but I’ll tell you what I do.
The first step for me, before I even started thinking about themes for units, I made a spreadsheet with all of the Ohio second grade content standards. Â I’m very new to the whole blogging thing, but I’ll try to figure out how to post the spreadsheet on here later. Â Basically I have the subject and every content standard for second grade. Â It took a long time to put together but I’m so glad I have it. Â One of The Superintendent and my’s goals in homeschooling is to keep the kids basically on level with their public school peers. Â I know there are a bunch of homeschoolers that don’t worry about this and I understand that, but for the Super and I, it makes sense. Â If, God forbid, something happened to one of us, and we had to enroll the kids in public school we want them to not be lost and not have to regress.
The second step is to come up with a theme. Â This is the fun part. Â I sit down with Koko and we talk about what she wants to learn. Â Sometimes I have to give her perimeters, such as, we need to study a person, who do you want to study? Â When I did this, I gave her a list of books and a little bit of information on each of the options. Â Other times, there are no restrictions and we just run with what she wants.
The third step is coming up with activities. Â This part is very time consuming. Â I scour the internet and library for books, articles, and activities. Â I try to make sure that we have hands on activities, writing activities, listening activities and activities where she is teaching me (or Boo or the Super) what she’s learned. Â Pinterest is my friend during this process.
The fourth step is checking which standards we are working on. Â A lot of times I will have to modify an activity just a little to make it meet a standard. Â The unit we’re currently working on is on the body. Â Koko wanted to study the body. Â It’s not a science standard, but the activities I chose touched on many Language Arts and Math objectives.
The fifth, and final step, is typing everything up. Â I usually just have the subject, activity, and standards being worked on. Â I think from now on I will also add materials for each activity so I can see it at a glance.
So that’s what we do. Â We’ve tried many different curricula, but honestly I haven’t been impressed with any of them. Â I guess they all have their pros and cons, but none of them have fit OUR needs. Â Here’s a list of what we’ve used:
Confessions of a Homeschooler – Expedition Earth
Weaver Curriculum by Alpha Omega
Sonlight
My Father’s World
Apologia Science
The Story of the World
I’d be happy to type up a review of each of these if anyone is interested.  Just let me know.  🙂
OK you non-homeschoolers…the question has been gnawing at you this whole post…HOW do you SOCIALIZE?!?!
Sundays we have church where they’re both with other kids.
Mondays we have Co-op (it starts tomorrow)!!
Tuesdays we have dance
Wednesday is an at home school day
Thursday or Friday is FRIEND day where we have playdates with our friends
The only problem with our current schedule is that they spend TOO much time socializing. haha We have to work really hard to get school done. 🙂