Seeking delight in the midst of imperfection
While combining children can be a homeschool necessity, I’ve learned that combining skill subjects rarely works out. Children really need to work at their own, unique levels for those subjects in order to prevent gaps and have a strong foundation in each skill.
But combining kids in content subjects can be a great fit!
Read moreWhile I love the philosophical reasons for Memoria’s approach, I’ve also found it to be highly practical. It means our ability to learn isn’t dependent on whether I remembered to buy experiment supplies. We can add hands-on science activities when we want to, but they’re a support to our learning rather than the means of learning.
It’s the best of both worlds.
But how do you add hands-on science activities without losing your mind? Here are some of the things we’ve done over the years — and a few from my “maybe someday” list!
We’ve used Traditional Spelling for almost three years and it’s been a perfect fit for both my natural speller and my struggling speller! I’ll admit I was tempted to switch my struggling speller to another popular program, but I decided to stick with Traditional Spelling from Memoria Press and I’m so glad I did!
Here’s how we use this phonics-based spelling program in our homeschool.
Everyone says it’s easy to kill our children’s love of learning. It can happen if we expect them to do things they don’t enjoy. It will never return if we “do school at home” instead of homeschool. Our children could have life-long scars if we fail to make all our learning as sensory and relaxed as a nature walk.
Besides all this, we’ll become stressed, demanding mothers who lack any sense of joy or beauty.
These beliefs ruled our homeschool for five years. Here’s what happened when I finally dared to push back.
Read moreOver the past ten years, we’ve homeschooled just about everywhere except the bathroom: our living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom-turned-office, fifth wheel camper, and even the laundry room! Needless to say, I don’t believe a school room is necessary for homeschooling. But my kids do better in a separate space, so we converted the front room of our house into a minimalist homeschool room a few years ago.
I hoped that would be the last stop in our game of “musical school spaces”. I should have known better!
