Homeschool 2018-2019

My back to school post is much later than usual this year. Fall has been full with getting our lives ready to move to Africa. I am so thankful that we have a solid routine established in our homeschool, because this season I do not have energy to reinvent the wheel.

This summer as I was praying over our upcoming year, God kept placing the word “trust” on my heart. This year will look different. A move to Africa in mid-January will make January look very different learning wise. My natural tendency is then to shorten our Christmas break and fit more “school” into this time so that we are not “behind”. As I have prayed about how to proceed this year, I just kept hearing God tell me to “trust”. We need to take a full Christmas break and soak up time with precious friends and family before we move. This is not the first year that has been “interrupted”. Peter was born in September of Ella’s kindergarten year. Silas was born in March of another homeschool year. These were not “interruptions”, they provided us with a different way to learn. And those years are some of the years that we cherish most on our homeschool journey.

I am confident that our family will be learning and already is learning so much with our upcoming move. We are learning to trust Him. We are learning that our journey will look different. I also no longer like the term “behind”, or “ahead”. It makes me ask “behind what?” or “ahead of what?” I understand that we need to have standards for education, but I also believe that God created each one of our kids to learn at a different pace and I am going to embrace that.

Every time stress or worry tries to creep into my mind, God keeps whispering in my ear “trust”.

Here is our routine this year:

We start the day by reading the Bible with breakfast. We are continuing in the Ergemeier’s Story Bible. Each of our kids (except Silas) takes turns narrating the story. Narrating means they tell the story back in their own words. We then spend time praying together. Our family has a prayer calendar from a company called “Bear & Squirrel”. This calendar has been amazing. It has a different verse for each date of the month, and we use these verses to pray over whichever family we have chosen for that month.

After breakfast, our kids do their chores (tidying up from breakfast, making their beds, cleaning their rooms) and they head downstairs for math. Ella, Juliette, and Karis all continue to use Math Mammoth. It has been a great math curriculum for our family and the girls work though it quite independently. I spend this time playing with the boys on the floor and helping out the girls as needed.

When they are wrapping up their math, I put on a song called “Little Boy Heart Alive” to give them a 5 minute warning before morning time starts. This gives them time to grab whatever projects they want to work on during their morning time (this usually involves knitting, crafts, colouring…). Morning time is my favourite. We gather together and read through books, sing hymns, etc. The girls narrate everything we read during morning time. Here is our morning time routine:

Hymn (learn one new hymn per month and review an old one)

Verses

Poetry (learn one new poem per month and review an old one)

Picture Book

*after I finish reading the picture book, the boys go and play (usually with Lego)

Pilgrim’s Progress

Pagoo

Composer / Artist Study

Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

After we are finished morning time we head upstairs for a snack. Everyone helps get the snack on the table. While they are eating their snack I read to them some more. We are currently reading through a David Livingstone biography. Then we sing a fun song. Right now we have started singing some Christmas Carols.

We clean up snack, and head out for a walk. We take Winnie and go to Robson Park. We love to look at the ducks, herons, bull frogs, turtles, and evidence of the beavers. Our trips to the park usually last a long time. Our kids love to bike laps around the park and then we take Winnie to the upper field and let her run loose for awhile.

When we get home from the park, the girls make lunch while I read to the boys. This has been such a great routine for all of us. The girls love working together in the kitchen, and the boys thrive under my full attention. Our girls have also become quite the tea makers. So after lunch we drink tea while I read from our read aloud (currently Little Women).

After lunch is rest and read and quiet time. The girls go to their rooms and read for about 30-45 minutes. The boys play with cars, legos, or look at books. I also take a break. They then all go downstairs and play together for about 30 minutes.

In the afternoon, depending on the day, our girls do either note booking, nature notebooks, typing lessons, and they practice their piano every day. And then the structured part of our day is complete.

It’s simple, it’s predictable, it’s pretty much the same as what we did last year, and we love it. We do a lot of reading, math, and writing. We take time to slow down and appreciate beauty. This term we have been listening to Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaichovsky. We then were able to visit the symphony and listen to their pieces performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Our kids are in swimming lessons at the YMCA, nature group, and our girls continue with piano lessons.

This year, God has been doing some specific work on my heart. I have been learning that I am a way better homeschooling mom when I am learning and growing myself. For me, this happens best when I am reading great books and when I am spending time in God’s word and in prayer. When I look back at the past few months. I can see weeks that have been amazing and weeks that have fallen flat. The weeks that have been amazing are the weeks when I have been in prayer, in the Word, and reading great books. The weeks that have fallen flat are the weeks when I have over-committed myself, spent too much time on my phone, and become short and snappy with my family.

God has also been teaching me to not compare my kids with other kids. Not to compare with public school kids, private school kids, or other homeschool kids. He has given us a clear calling to homeschooling (for now) and I am to trust that what we are doing is more than enough. I am truly thankful to be in this role.