Homeschool day in the Crawford house...

Just thought we'd give you a glimpse into our homeschooling world!  Most people wonder what it is that homeschoolers do all day...  and recently I saw what a friend of mine does during her homeschooling day with her girls via her blog.  It was fun to see what they were up to!  So...  if you're interested, here's the skinny at Crawford Christian school.

August 17, 2010...  first day of school...
third year homeschooling! 

Well, let's see, should I tell you what we PLAN to do every day, or what really happens everyday!?  :)  We are pretty flexible around here.  We hold loosely to a tight schedule!  :)  So, here's the plan that's on my wall.  Each child has their own schedule for their day that includes Phonics/Language, Reading, Arithmetic, etc...  Then I made a schedule for me so I can plan to be in each of their rooms when they need me.  (I should tell you that during the time I have scheduled for Reading or Writing with just one child, there are usually several interruptions during that time...  I need help, what's this mean, my monitor just went off, or just Moooom...!  They need to stand by the door while they wait, but it's hard to wait!)  

When we first started homeschooling, a friend told me that she makes sure that each of her kids has their own room and work place.  Then they're not comparing time and classes with each other.  We've tried to do that as well.

each of the kids' schedules,
hanging next to my desk

my schedule so I know
when to be where

We all start our morning together with breakfast.  The schedule says at 8:30, but we sometimes even wait until 9:30!  My hope is to be done (or mostly done) with breakfast by 8:30 so that when we do Bible the kids can help look up verses.  We're memorizing the Beatitudes and Romans 12 this year so I can read that while they finish eating.  (The kids chose to start with the Beatitudes...)  Then we've been reading some other good books.  One is a Kids Bible fact book.  Another is Leading Little Ones to God.  Another is about making good choices...  Each week the kids have their own "day" where they get to choose devotions, and they get to pray, pick songs, etc...  Benjamin's is Monday, Hannie's is Tue...  etc.  So they get to be a part of the leading and they also get a little special treatment that day!   After Bible, we open with the date, the pledge, a patriotic song, the pledge to the Bible, a couple praise songs...  pray together and get hugs and kisses, then we're ready to get to class!

our opening area

We chose to use the Abeka DVDs for homeschooling.  I knew we'd be overseas and I'd be homeschooling four kiddos by myself (with Kevin), and I didn't want them to miss anything!  I felt safe picking one solid curriculum that made sure they covered everything.  If they get back into a classroom setting back in the US, I wanted to be sure they were on top of everything.  (Now they all say that they want to keep homeschooling!  We haven't decided...)  I've liked using Abeka, anyway!  There's so many good choices out there.  I might have tried to use a rotating type curriculum so we could do more together if I knew we'd think about continuing after our time overseas...  but we've been happy with our choice, too.  The kids get to know their teachers and the kids in their class.  They get good instruction which is good, especially for Benjamin and Math!  Yikes!  6th grade math!  Hello!  :)  And the girls are always talking about Megan and Ashley, etc...  the girls they like in their "class".  Lijah thinks his teacher is so pretty!  Ha.  (He'd like to kiss her...)  So they get instruction and even play games with their class (they say "and students watching?") and then they turn off their monitors and do their work, with us if need be, or with each other, which I LOVE to see...  them helping each other.  Blessing.

hannie meeting her dvd teacher
on the first day of school

The older two kids have their own desks here and their own little DVD players.  Benjamin's in the boys room and Hannah's in the girls.  Elijah is in the living room at the kitchen table using the TV.  And Ruth and I share a table/desk in my room.  She is a bit of a tornado so it's an adventure!  :)  But it's worked out pretty good.  Kevin also has a desk (made of our blue rubbermaid tubs) in our room!  Heh.  Good thing we have a big bedroom.

ruth and I share a table/desk

Okay, so that's the set up.  Here's some of the rules/rewards.  We have a smile chart in the hallway.  Everyday I say "His mercies are new every morning" and we get all our smiles back to the biggest one.  Then we try to "keep our smile" all day.  There are four little slips of paper in there that have smaller and smaller smiles with the fourth one frowning.  They each have one set to be responsible to "keep".  We've never gotten down to the frown yet, but I told one of the kids just today that she had two smiles down and I reminded her that if she got to a frown, she was going to BED.  On the other hand, if they keep their big smiles all day, or have the chance to get them back up to the biggest one, they get a sticker to put on their folders at the end of the day.  Whoot.  So.  A good attitude is just as important as a good mark on your paper around here!

benjamin's showing you
our smiles

We all watch the time and work hard for the first hour of school.  Benjamin and Hannah both have Arithmetic that hour and the younger two have Phonics and seatwork papers and Reading.  I do Writing with Elijah just before we go out since I think we can handle doing that together and he doesn't need to watch the video kids write!  Sometimes I even set the timer for this first hour as a reminder to stay on task.  After that's done - Recess!  Whoo.  Dad usually comes out with us for those 20 minutes, too, so it's a good time.  Rocky thinks it's a good time, too!  :)  Usually we visit with Hakob, the neighborhood gardener during recess, too!  These 20 minutes usually turn in to 30 or even 40!  Heh...  but hey, we homeschool!  It's cool.

dad's out for recess!

After recess, we gotta get settled back down and get serious again... hard!  :)  But we do.  When they're all at their desks again, I give them all a little snack to eat while they start their next classes on the video.   They do a lot of reading then and I do a lot of jumping from room to room.   I do try to grade the kids morning classes before lunch so there's less to do later.  Last year I had a problem waiting to grade then at the end of the week I had tons.  Not fun for me or even good for them.  It's better to stay on top if it all.  So this year I've tried harder to have everything graded that same day or the next morning.  It's gone good so far.

lijah writing on his
white board

Usually by 12 or 1 Elijah's done with Kindergarten and Ruth's almost done with 2nd grade.  The older two have History and Science in the afternoons.  Sometimes Art.  We all stop and have lunch.  Kevin has been awesome to make us lunch, but I know he's busy with work, too, so I'm trying hard to be done with reading and things so I can do that instead of him.  During the last half of lunch, Kevin also tries to read from a Narnia book.  We're on the book The Horse and His Boy now.  (We read them all last year, too!)  The kids love it.  (It's a little big for Lijah and we let him play or even go outside on the porch if he wants to...  so he can relax and we can hear!!)  We have a book that goes along with the Narnia books, too, to go a little deeper.

After lunch, the older two go back to school and the younger two play (if they're done with class!).  I have a dresser filled with homeschooling stuff that they can use whenever they want.  They love it.  Usually after school, Ruth and Hannah play fake school together!  :)  I try to have lots of things they can touch and do along with their class, especially for Ruth...  she's our hands-on girl!

Ruth making patterns

Let's see.  Oh, their folders.  They all have their own favorite colors so their folders match them.  We've had these folders for three years!  They're solid plastic ones but are breaking!  I think we'll by more once we're stateside!  ;)  But they've treated us well all these years!  On the back they have a sticker chart.  At the end of everyday they bring their work to me and we double check to see that everything's done.  If it's all done they get a little sticker to mark that day's work.  There are 170 boxes to mark each of the days of school so it's a good count down, too!  Then every Friday, if they have all their stickers (their work has all been done that week) they get to chose a prize from the prize box!  Whoot, again!  :)  We've just gathered little things like lizzards, bracelets, rings, little candies, Crawford Christian School pencils!  This year, I put in a coupon book that has things like Bake Cookies, Pick a Movie, Extra computer time...  things like that.  The girls have already chosen some of those things.  Hannah picked Bake Cookies and Ruth picked Have a Tea Party!  So they worked well together.  I like that.  Time together is a good reward.

the back of ruth's folder
(a little sticky from last year's old stickers...)

prize box!

So I guess that's the long and short of homeschooling at our house!  We're usually done by 2 or 3, sometimes 4!  :)  Kevin wants to work with the kids more on the musical instruments, too  It should be easy now since they're all set up in our living room for worship band practice!  Heh.  The kids want to learn!  Hopefully this year that will take off!  I also want to encourage them to do other things.  Hannie is interested in languages.  She'd actually really love to learn sign language!  So hopefully we can work something out for her there.  I've just looked online so far!  YouTube has some songs with signing, etc.  Benjamin has learned to do Keyboarding with a computer program.  Ruth mostly just wants to run and be outside!  Same with Elijah!  :)  (Lijah also wants to be playing computer games, but that has a limit!)  He wants to be a gardener like Hakob and Ruth wants to be a vet...

The girls have been in dance this past year and Benjamin's been in basketball.  We'd like to keep something like that going when we get back to the US.  We're excited to get back to Royal Rangers and Missionets and those programs, too.  We're hoping to take swimming lessons again, too.  Benjamin wisely told me that if we keep homeschooling, he'd like to be sure he's involved in some extracurricular activities as well!  ;)

One of my favorite things so far this year is watching the kids all work together and help each other.  They love to.  And I love for them to...  for my sake (so I can make lunch!) and for their sake to be friends and helpers.  One day this week just before lunch, I was making eggs and the older two were practicing their spelling lists together and Ruth was helping Elijah finish up one of his papers, reading the directions and talking about matches...  Love it!  Love hearing them helping and giggling and working together.  When school's done, they play games and run outside and basically do more school!  Heh.  They love maps and play with them.  They love to write stories, and read books, and sing songs.  They don't realize it's school...  shh!  :)

So there you have it!  A day in the life of the Crawfords!