Homeschool in Full

Here is a full day of our homeschooling routine.  By ‘day’ I really mean just a few hours.  I decided to document our routine for 2 reasons:

1) Because I want to remember the details (which is really always my reason for every image I  take)

2) Because I didn’t want THIS POST to mislead anyone.

After I shared those images of Gage here and on Clickin Moms, I received lots of comments on how peaceful our homeschooling is, and how clean, and calm and organized and … you catch my drift.  Really, my time with Gage at the end of our homeschooling day IS that.  But I really don’t want anyone, especially my fellow homeschooling moms, to think that we live in a la-la-land of homeschooling.  So I thought I’d share our process, start to finish. 

I really do start out as organized as I can possibly be.  With the boys’ full array of books and materials laid out on their side of the table, in the order that we’ll use them.  I have two chairs for myself so that I can literally sit on “Cooper’s Side” and then on “Gage’s Side.”  And in front of my chairs, I have my teaching manuals, open and ready to go.

And I also usually have something ready for Kaden, either at the table or on the floor…

We use My Father’s World curriculum and I really appreciate how it holds my hand through each and every day.   Day by day, I’m told what to do and I’m not ashamed to relinquish control here… I’m so thankful for the guidance and reassurance that we’re covering what needs to be covered!

I lay out each boys’ first lesson, which is usually handwriting for Cooper and spelling for Gage.

We usually start each day at 8:30.  On this particular day, we started at 9:30 because I got up later and thus, everything gets pushed back.  That drives me nuts, but its the way it goes.  So while I set up and took the photos, the boys picked out candies.  As much as they would have loved to be passing the time playing the Wii, they aren’t allowed to play until after all of our schooling is done.  And before we start, their beds have to be made and clothes put on (changed out of jammies).  And that goes for me, too!

Both boys’ curriculum usually includes some sort of Bible study, so we start with Gage’s and visit Cooper’s later in our studies …  the scripture we study always coincides with their lessons and I love how this ties everything back to Jesus. 

Truth-be-told, I was super nervous about working with both Gage and Cooper at the same time.  But it is pretty easy each day to organize their workflow in a way that balances out the other’s.  By that I mean, Gage can work independently on something while Cooper works on something that he needs my guidance on, and visa versa.  Then we come together for poems, reading, science and history.  So far, this has pretty naturally worked out!

And then … there’s this little guy… he does surprisingly well entertaining himself. 

I try hard to keep the boys on task and often, often, have to bring them back to focus.  Like here, when Cooper took a break to try to teach Gage how to whistle.   These little blips in our routine are fine, but it can be a struggle to find the right balance between keeping our school-time fun and taking our studies seriously.

Kaden’s new thing is to make a fort under the table while we study …

And about half-way through, I need a coffee re-fill…

All of the boys’ work goes into their own 3-ring binders … I didn’t do this the past couple years and I’m so glad to be doing it now!

Working with straws each day is Coop’s introduction to math … for some reason, this kid is all about the straws!

But he’s not so much ‘all about’ my math questions.

Each week, we study something specific based on the letter Cooper is learning.  This particular week, he was studying ‘A’ so we worked with apples.  We picked out a good variety from a local produce stand and did various activities with them.  Quite simple, but here, Coop was just ordering them largest to smallest …

Someone stole one to eat … and I cut up some for everyone to eat while I cleaned up all of the curriculum and materials we’d already gone through.

And then here is the point when THIS POST picked up on.  The point when Coop and Kaden are sent off to play together while Gage gets to focus on his tougher subjects.  Today, it was Diction and regrouping in Math.

For Diction, I read a few sentences from his English book, and he has to remember and re-write the sentences … this is challenging, but it is exciting to see it get just a bit easier for him each week!

Then we moved on to regrouping in Math.  Remember ‘re-grouping’?  I didn’t remember that term at all … in my day it was ‘carry the 1.’   I LOVE working on math in such hands-on-ways.  There is nothing better than seeing a light-bulb go on in someone’s head when they finally GET something and I  get to see that often with Gage and his math studies.

Good job, Doot. 

And here’s a little secret … yes, it looks quiet and calm up top.  But underneath the table, there was a party going on…

So, that this is the complete story of our schooling for this day.  Well, almost.  Gage read out-loud to me, too, but I try to not refer to that as school-time, but rather him-and-me time.   I can already tell that takes the pressure off of him and he reads so much better when it is just us cuddled up reading, than ‘school.’

On other days, too, we’ll have history lessons, art projects, and science projects.  I’ll tell their story another day.

Anywho … like I said, I don’t ever want to mislead anyone by the photos I share, so there you go!   But remember that an important goal of a lifestyle photographer is to capture real-life in ways that is as pleasing to the eye as possible.  That mantra shapes my photography, but it has also shaped aspects my life, too.

You can learn ALL about that and so much more of my approach to Documentary Photography in my break-out session {Photographing Your Everyday | Easily, Efficiently, and Beautifully} that is still for sale HERE.  This break-out is not just for those who shoot with a DSLR, either, friends … it is for anyone who wants to be thorough and artistic in capturing moments of every day life!  

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