Tag: Homeschool

Compromising With Your Creative Child to Create Calm in Your Homeschool

I recently read the book, Homeschooling Gifted and Advanced Learners by Cindy West.    Lots of great stuff in there.  Perhaps my biggest takeaway was her advice regarding creative children.  She advised to include your creative child when making plans.  Let them play a part in the planning process

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Lists, Schedules, and Plans… Oh my!

Some kids love being given a list or a schedule, and will diligently AND happily go along with your plans.  Some will not.  Especially, if they are creative.  This has been a dilemma for us since the beginning of our homeschool. When you have an outside the box kid, you may need to approach things differently.

I’ll be honest, I read Cindy’s book a few months ago and haven’t implemented the “include your creative kid when creating plans” idea yet.

However this past week, I was creating a “to do” list for myself.  Actually, in an effort to tame the technological beast, I was just moving said list from my phone to a pen and paper checklist I could tape to the fridge and not have to rely on my phone as much.  (Because, inevitably when I go to check my list, I end up distracted and forgetting why I got on my phone in the first place!) 

I digress.  As I was making my list, I thought for the kids’ writing assignment that day, they could make their own lists and design them to their liking.   They obliged and enjoyed it! 

For my creative child, there were pictures and colors.  And laminating.

There was also pushback after this list was done and taped to the fridge.

Creative Compromise or Big Mistake

For the first few days of using the list (which BTW were the same core tasks that already had to be completed every day – but at MY prompting), there was unhappiness and even some anxiety.  I wondered if I had made a mistake.   I mean the list was pretty long.  Maybe we bit off more than we could chew.

But on day 3, low and behold I heard the words, “I like the list.”

GASP!

SUCCESS!

And can I just say it’s been amazing not to need to nag?  It’s been delightful actually.

The novelty may eventually wear off, and that’s ok.  The point is to remember to bring my creative child into the planning process.  And also to remember that sometimes the kids who hate structure the most, still want/need it.  Their structure may just look different than we think it should.

How do you work with your creative child to create more calm?

 

Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels

 

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How Letting Our Kid Dive Into His Passion Helped Him Bloom

Inspired by a 60 Minutes Episode

Many years ago, in 2012, I was watching an episode of 60 minutes about a mom whose son had been diagnosed with moderate to severe autism and was therefore put in many therapies.  Seeing him make little to no progress, she opted to pull him from his therapies and instead focus on his strengths and interests in hopes to draw him out of the world in his head.  Her goal was to mainstream him by kindergarten, which she was able to do.

Through allowing him to pursue his interests it became apparent that this kid had an intricate brain and many of the behaviors they were trying to fix in his therapies were symptoms of his brain working in such complex ways. 

**CAVEAT: Now I realize it’s not generally wise to drop all of your kid’s therapies (though in his case it was) and also that his story is a small percentage of autistic kids (I mean hello, he is a savant with an IQ higher than Einstein’s) but I do think it holds true that when you focus on what someone is good at, rather than only trying to strengthen what is weak, they will blossom! 

This 60 Minutes episode would have a deep influence on me, though right then it was just an inspirational story.  (I recently had the chance to read the book about this incredibly moving story called THE SPARK by Kristine Barnett, which I recommend for ANY parent!) 

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Our Story

At the time of watching this episode, I had two beautiful kids ages 1 & 3. Our 1-year-old son was not yet talking but we were waiting for a language explosion just as we had seen in our then 3-year-old.  Delayed talking runs in the family.  I personally didn’t talk until after age 2, and my daughter learned to both walk and talk at 18 months.  We told ourselves, he’s a boy, a 2nd born, it will come soon enough…

Well, when our son neared closer to his 2nd birthday we decided to move forward with an evaluation done by the Birth to 3 program.  We soon found out he was 50% delayed in speech along with a slew of other delays.   Speech therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Developmental Therapy were all recommended.

Early Childhood Program

We proceeded with a year of all the therapies, which thankfully were mostly done in our home.  And at age 3 he qualified for and started school at the Early Childhood program in our district.  Since therapy is automatically included in the program, we thought it would be the best option, instead of doing private therapy and working through insurance.

He still was not talking at this point, so we really had no idea what he thought about school, though he seemed happy to go.  He went for one year.  I was less than thrilled with the Early Childhood experience because 1) I had PLANNED on homeschooling and this felt like the loss of a dream to me and 2) It didn’t seem to help him with the areas he really needed help in (mainly expressive speech.)  He did have a wonderful OT while at school, but he only worked with her for 15 minutes 2x/week, and that was within a group.  It wasn’t anything like the 1:1 attention he had before for 1 hour each week.

However, I was pregnant with my youngest at the time and it was my first year of homeschooling my oldest, so I welcomed the break I received by having him in school each day for a few hours.  I was very tired due to pregnancy and now what I know was undiagnosed thyroid issues.  I look back and see that year of Early Childhood as God’s provision during that time.

Brain Balance and Beyond

Shortly after his 4th birthday, we pulled him out of school and put him in a program called Brain Balance.  Brain Balance is pretty intense and to do that AND school just seemed like too much.

When Brain Balance was over we made the somewhat scary decision to keep him home and put him in private speech and occupational therapy. I say scary because this meant the responsibility of his education rest completely on my shoulders.

While it was certainly “easy” to send him to school, and I felt less of a load because I could say “Hey, he’s in school, getting the services he needs”, the reality is it (school) hadn’t done much to help him and I knew in my gut we could accomplish more at home.  I also had that 60 Minutes episode in the back of my mind which influenced my decision.  And while I was unsure of that decision at the time,  I’m so glad I took the leap of faith to home educate him.

**Another caveat here: Early Childhood can be hugely beneficial for some kids, but it just wasn’t for mine. Every kid is different!  

Passion for Weather

It was around this time, at almost 5 years old, that it became obvious that this little dude was a little bit crazily preoccupied with the weather.   He would talk about it all the time which his therapists referred to as “perseverating”.  This immediately took me back 10 years to my very first year as a classroom teacher when I had differently wired 2E (Twice Exceptional) kid who was OBSESSED with roller coasters.  This was another way God was preparing me for my own kids. 😊

It bothered me that my kid perseverated about the weather.  I thought it necessary to help him NOT be fixated on the weather. So for a short-lived time, I would always re-direct him when he got going about the weather.  However, again, because of that 60 Minutes episode, I had this nagging prompting that this was a passion of his and it was ok and good, and even necessary to let him DIVE DEEPER into this.

So soon we would start buying weather books (that we would read to him) and instead of trying to redirect him to another topic, we allowed him to dive deep into his interest of weather.

And now?  This kid’s almost 9 and this obsession with weather is NOT. GOING. ANYWHERE.  He’s graduated from kid weather books to adult weather books and is an avid reader of fiction, non-fiction… you name it!

I attribute a lot of that to not spending so much time focusing on his weaknesses and rather, letting him lean into his strengths and watching him “grow” from there.

 

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Taking the “Overwhelm” Out of Decluttering

Christmas is over.  The New Year is here.  And the “stuff” is now everywhere.  New toys, old toys.  New science kits, old science kits.  Boxes of new crafty items, boxes of old crafty items.   You get the idea.  STUFF EVERYWHERE.

I generally take some time BEFORE Christmas to pare down on the stuff, but just didn’t get around to it this year.

Decluttering overwhelms me.

Sometimes to the point where I…  Just.  Can’t.  Move.

It’s perfectionism.  I know I won’t be able to get all the decluttering done in the time I want to or to the extent I want to.  Or I think I’ll get rid of something and regret doing so or that I won’t get rid of something that I should.  And so, I just do nothing…..

Unfortunately, that extra stuff also overwhelms me.  (I’m easily overwhelmed, can you tell?!)  I also find that when there’s too much stuff around the kids play with less of it.  And when I get rid of the clutter they are free to play with what’s there.  They are overwhelmed by the clutter too but don’t verbalize it.

I have found that the best antidote to this state of ‘overwhelm’ is ACTION.  And when I get stuck in this rut of feeling frozen and don’t know where to start I use my tried and true trick…..

The 15 Minute Timer

I may not be able to organize my house in the next day, or week, or let’s be honest…month (c’mon I have busy kids!)  But I CAN set my timer for 15 minutes and do what I can.

Anybody can do 15 minutes of decluttering.  You don’t have to work fast, just do SOMETHING.  And it’s not like you’re committing to a day, or even an hour of de-cluttering.  It’s ONLY 15 minutes!

Often that 15 minutes will turn into hours of de-cluttering for me.  But even if it doesn’t I will still have STARTED and broken out of my “frozen with overwhelm”  funk.

Now to what I consider the hard part, the decision-making part, of decluttering.

DECISIONS: To Keep or NOT to Keep

I find this “decision” part of decluttering AGONIZING, and I really think this is what keeps me from doing it more often.  For each item I have to make a decision: Should it stay or go?

I created this chart to help with this process:

Getting Started on Decluttering

 

Having moved twice in the last 7 years has wisened me up a bit on knowing what to keep and what to donate.  During our last move, when I was packing up boxes, I realized I had been holding onto a few things for WAY too long.  So THE QUESTION I ask myself when deciding what to keep is: If I were to move tomorrow, would this item make the cut?  If YES, then great, it can stay put.  If not, then you have options…

The FIVE Categories I Use When Decluttering My House

I find it more empowering, and that I get more done when I have multiple categories when decluttering.

These are the FIVE categories I use:

  1. DONATE
  2. TRASH/RECYCLE
  3. SELL
  4. KEEP
  5. KEEP (box up and put in attic or basement) 

Regarding Category 5: This option isn’t the best, but if you struggle with indecision (ahem, points to self) or have a child that is STRESSED OUT at the idea of donating something, it’s a good intermediate step!  When we have boxed stuff up and put it away in the basement or attic, the items are generally not missed.  This has been a lifesaver for us in helping our creative child’s room not turn into a place of complete mayhem!  It just took us forever to figure out.  So let me save you some pain if you have a creative, sensitive child who can’t bear to say goodbye to anything.  Try category number 5!

Final Thoughts on Clutter

I find that if my surroundings are cluttered, my brain is more likely to be as well.  And when my surroundings are less cluttered my brain is less so too.  And when you’re a mom, especially if you’re a homeschool mom, you need all the extra brain space you can get! 😉

I hope you find these tips helpful in getting off to a more organized year!

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6 Easy Mood Busters for Homeschool Families

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Let’s face it.  If you’re a homeschool family, you’re together A LOT.  You get to make tons of amazing memories together, but you also see the less than ideal sides of each other – A LOT.  There are times when the mood in your home will go south (FAR south) and you just want to throw the day away and start fresh.  But that’s not how it works…

In this post, I’ve included some of the ways we combat crabbiness in our own home.  Mind you our kids are 4, 8, 10…  SO, if it’s moody teenagers you’re dealing with, well, I can’t really speak to that.

Read Aloud

It’s amazing to me how reading aloud a good book(whether print or audiobook) can bring everyone together.  Notice I said a GOOD book.  You’ve got to pick one that will draw them in.  For us that good book is currently Farmer Boy on audiobook, read by Cherry Jones.  The whole family enjoys listening to it.

I’ve got a saying that was inspired by a certain movie with Kevin Costner from the 80’s, “If you read it, they will come.” And hopefully snap out of it!

Music

With winter here, (no not technically, but let’s face, temps in the teens and 20’s, um yeah… that’s winter!), I know my own mood is sinking just a bit.  I don’t have that skip in my step that I have when the sun is shining or when I hear the birds singing.

For me, music is always a mood changer.  Lately, our family has been playing Slugs & Bugs around mealtimes and it really can change a climate of fighting and crankiness to one of smiles and laughter.  And with Christmas around the corner, I just have to add, Slugs & Bugs Christmas has been their favorite Christmas album for 8 years!  It’s a winner!

Games

Games can be a mood changer, provided you don’t have anyone in your family that is super competitive.  No one has kids (or spouses) like that, right!?  But seriously, if the mood is tense, playing a game together may be able to cut through the tension.  You can find a few of our favorites in this post.

Poetry Teatime

Bake a treat.  Light a candle.  Set out the tablecloth and just enjoy reading some poetry together.  Never tried Poetry Teatime?  You can learn about it here: Poetry Teatime 101.

Get Outside

This may not be a possibility due to your climate. And I will admit, I thoroughly despise feeling cold.  BUT, it is amazing how therapeutic being outside can be.  I have seen how just going outside can change the moods in my kids pretty drastically, not to mention quickly.

Pray

Sometimes, especially if it’s you with a bad mood, you may just need to remove yourself from a situation and pray.   And if you can’t remove yourself, just pray right where you are. Even if you don’t feel like it. In fact, it’s always best to start with prayer!

I’d love to hear from some of you…  What do you do to combat crabbiness in your  home?  Leave your comment below.

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Why I Named My Blog ‘Outside the Box Learners’

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of starting a blog, at least for me,  is all the ideas of possible posts that come to you and then having to decide what to write about next.  Well… that and the logistics of creating a website!  But to think I originally thought I might not have enough to write about!  Ha!  This has been a fun adventure for me.  Re-discovering the joy I experience while writing has been amazing, and the fact that I get to fuse it with my everyday job of homeschooling my kids makes it even better!

My blog is still very young at this point.  Before I write any more posts, I wanted to address why I named my blog  ‘Outside the Box Learners’.  It actually was my first choice for a website name and was thrilled it was available!

Defining ‘Outside the Box’

Let’s start with a definition of ‘outside the box‘.   When I hear those words I think of anything that is not conventional, or anything different from the norm.  Not mainstream.

According to Dictionary.com, ‘outside the box’ is an idiom that means:

“in an innovative or unconventional manner; with a fresh perspective”

What is an ‘Outside the Box Learner’

This might more appropriately be stated who is an outside the box learner?  People are who’s, not what’s, after all!  Unless maybe you are a character in a Dr. Seuss book. 😉

Since we’ve already covered what ‘outside the box’ means, it should be clear what an ‘outside the box learner’ is, because we’re just tagging learner to our definition.   And thus we get: A learner who learns in an innovative or unconventional manner or a learner with a fresh perspective.

When I first got the bug to start a blog, I knew I wanted to write about my homeschooling experiences both of my son with dyspraxia and also my daughter who is gifted, especially in the creativity arena.  From the little research I did about ‘outside the box’ students, it was my guess that my daughter more readily fit the stereotype usually thought of when one hears the words ‘outside the box‘.

Outside the Box Learners Learn in Unconventional Ways

Being the analytical person I am, I really thought about those words ‘outside the box’, specifically how they mean unconventional and outside the norm.  I use unconventional methods to homeschool both my 8 and 10-year-old.

For my son, I frequently make modifications to help him succeed, specifically with handwriting, which is very hard for him.  He is very asynchronous in that his reading capabilities and handwriting capabilities are lightyears apart.  If he was in a regular classroom, he would not be your typical student.  I LOVE that I am able to meet him where he’s at and he doesn’t have to feel like he’s “less than” or just “can’t keep up” due to his difficulties with handwriting.   And he is able to maintain a love for learning!

My daughter is my creative child who definitely approaches things with a fresh perspective.  She is inventive and always thinking of something new to try (as I write this she’s making sushi, which she’s done before, but this time experimenting with new ingredients!).  She is in her happiest and most peace-filled state when she is creating something new.  Her mind is in a constant state of motion. She hates worksheets and anything conventional really and learns by doing and teaching.   In my opinion, she is a poster child for an “outside the box learner”.

Emphasis On Learners

Since I knew I would be writing a lot about my kids and our homeschool, I wanted to emphasize learners in my website name.  And really the whole reason I’ve come around to homeschooling the way I do is to meet their needs, which I talk about in this post: How We Became Outside the Box Learners.

They learn in unconventional ways, so I’ve come around to teaching in unconventional ways.

 

 

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How Planning Backwards Breathes Life into Our Homeschool

Planning backwards has revolutionized our homeschool and my sanity!  I first heard about it last school year and it was a like a lightbulb went on for me!  It has been a game-changer.

What IS planning backwards?

Planning backwards is simply writing down what we did each day, after the fact.  I still have a basic idea of what should be accomplished any given day or week, but I am not bound to that.

No more late nights planning

Ions ago, when I was a classroom teacher, my favorite part about the job was lesson planning.  I loved finding ways to engage my students and help them learn in a fun way.  This was pre-kids of course, and I had the opportunity and TIME to work 12 hour days and create awesome lesson plans.  Enter in real life – marriage, kids, sleepless nights, and homeschool.  Time is at a premium.

In the past, I have been known to stay up too late getting everything set up for our next school day or anything really.  Maybe I’m a little obsessive in that way…  Maybe.  I do this to set everyone up for success.  Rather than succeeding, however, these well laid out plans just frustrate my highly creative child. 

Also, late night planning is just not a sustainable practice (unless you are a high energy person… which I am NOT).

Leaves room for rabbit trails and other things

If you have especially curious kids, rabbit trails are inevitable!  By planning backwards, we can go on rabbit trails without feeling the guilt of going off course.   We can experience learning in a relaxed state and simply enjoy the rabbit trail!  And often times the BEST LEARNING happens in those rabbit trails.  When you are addressing kids’ natural questions their brain is like a sponge.  They are learning A LOT in those moments!

Planning backwards also allows more flexibility for going to the park, on a hike, or possibly even a last minute field trip.  You don’t feel like a slave to the schedule.

No checkboxes to worry about

Confession here… I am a card-carrying member of Box Checkers Anonymous.   When I have boxes to check, I am one motivated lady!  It helps me GET STUFF DONE.

However, that box-checking mentality does not work as well for our homeschool.  And removing the boxes to check off allows me to feel more relaxed and engaged with my kids’ learning.

I should mention there are a few things that absolutely need to be done each day.  For those items, I give the kids a daily schedule where they need to check things off when finished.

Could planning backwards be a game-changer for YOU?

Obviously, planning backwards is not necessary, or even best, for everyone.  However, if you are more right-brained or have a right-brained creative child, and need a method of homeschool planning that doesn’t feel so rigid or restrictive, backwards planning could be your answer!   It has definitely breathed more life and joy into our homeschool.

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Weekly Wrap-Up: October 1-5

Activities for kids with sensory issues

Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost to you).

Weekly Wrap-Up: October 1-5

I thought it would be neat to have a weekly post, that included highlights  (and possibly lowlights too…) from our week.  So, here goes!

Rocky Start

This past week had a rocky start with Daniel getting a stomach bug and missing preschool on Monday.  Since Daniel is high maintenance for me, I rely on his school days to get a lot done with the older two.  We still got a fair amount done but not as much as usual.   It may have been for the best as it definitely forced me to slow things down which was good after a weekend of camping.

Overcoming Fears

We still managed to get swimming lessons in on Monday (thanks to my parents coming over to watch Daniel).   Lydia is getting braver each week and wanted to try jumping into the 10 feet deep area.  This was HUGE for our girl.  She was a sight to behold… goggles, nose plug, earplugs and all.  God bless her swim instructor!  🙂

Read Alouds

Reading Aloud is one of the pillars of our Home School.  Unfortunately, sometimes appointments and schedules get in the way of having the time to do this.  Tuesday brought Joe’s 2nd Vision Therapy Evaluation and a lot of time in the car.  We redeemed that car time by starting the Mysterious Benedict Society on audiobook, which is our Read Aloud Revival book club book for October.  MBS is an entertaining book about “Outside the Box” kids on a mission.

Also, just yesterday, we finished “On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness”  by Andrew Peterson.  This was a delightful novel full of action, heart, and hilarious characters with a Chronicles of Narnia/Lord of the Rings feel to it.  This is Peterson’s first novel and it is part 1 of 4 books in the Wingfeather Saga.  Andrew Peterson is an amazing musical artist AND author.  He is a true “creative” (yes, I just made it a noun!) and he reminds me of my own creative child.  We will certainly be reading his other books!

Math Facts Break Through

For math facts, we use Math-It, which I really love.  It’s simple and effective AND my kids aren’t breaking out in tears when practicing their facts.   Joe finally broke 1 minute on his addition math facts this week.  He’s been working on them since February so this was extremely exciting!    We tweaked how he does his facts due to some fine-motor limitations he was running into because of his Dyspraxia.  With that adjustment, I have a feeling he’ll be getting his multiplication facts down before the end of the month.  It is so awesome to see him soar!

Bath Bombs

I’ve been promising the kids for a while that we could make bath bombs.  Every time we see them at a store, they want to buy them and they are PRICEY!  We used a recipe from The Superkids Activity Guide to make bath bombs.  As a side note – Lydia LOVES this book ( I do too, but Lydia has spent hours paging through it).  It’s colorful, well laid out and packed with outside the box  AND useful ideas for kids with various sensory challenges.

The bath bombs are meant to encourage kids who normally hate being bathed to take baths.  Thankfully my kids are all past this (though it wasn’t too long ago we were dealing with this issue!) and we just made them for the fun of it.   We used cupcake shaped molds, which I’ve had for many years, but you could use any type of mold or shape them with your hands. The bath bombs just popped right out of the molds.  The secret ingredient to making them fizzy: Citric Acid, which I learned is found in the canning section at the grocery store.

Activities for kids with sensory issues
Our bath bombs drying in the cupcake molds

And that’s our Weekly Wrap-Up!

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First Day of School All About Me Printable

All About Me Printable

Tomorrow is our first day of school!  To commemorate the occasion (and just for the fun of it!), I created an All About Me printable (free!).

I love doing these “All About Me” printable sheets at the beginning of the year because it’s a great memento to have, and fun to look back on, and see how your kids have changed from year to year.

Instead of searching the web for an “All About Me” sheet (that is what I’d typically do), I thought I’d make my own!  I will have my kiddos fill them out and then stick them in their portfolio binders for the year.

As for our first day, we’re not doing a whole lot tomorrow.  Our 4 year old will go to his first day of 4K preschool.  Then, the older two kids will accompany me to the park for a get together with some other moms and kids from our church in the morning.

In the afternoon, my plan is to do some reading with the big kids on Yellowstone National Park and have them fill out their “All About Me” sheets.  Maybe we’ll throw a math game in there too! 😉 We’re easing back into it…

I wish you a joy and peace-filled start to your year!  Enjoy!

All About Me

*I created a “printable” category on my menu, so you can also access the printable there!

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Homeschool Curriculum Picks 2018-2019

Our Picks: Homeschool Curriculum For Outside the Box Learners

Perhaps a better title for this post is “Homeschool Curriculum Picks (so far)“.   I’m sure there will be tweaking, and I’m ok with that.

We follow a Charlotte Mason/Classical/Eclectic style of homeschooling and these curriculum choices reflect that!

This year will be a change for us, as we have spent the last year and a half in Classical Conversations (CC).  After much thought and prayer, we decided to not be part of any formal co-op this year.  Not an easy decision, but the one that gave me the most peace.  And part of our journey as Outside the Box Learners.

The biggest changes for us will be a shift from IEW (for writing) to Bravewriter for my 5th-grade daughter, Lydia and introducing writing to my 3rd-grade son using Bravewriter.  Also, we will not be doing memory work (a big part of CC).

I think it’s important to note that we won’t do everything on this list each day.  We will for sure do handwriting, math and read (good ol’ Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic!) each day, and then loop the other subjects.

HERE WE GO!

Curriculum Picks for 5th Grade:

Handwriting:

Getty Dubay Handwriting

Writing/Language Arts:

Bravewriter – We are starting with Writer’s Jungle to get our feet wet with the program.  

Math:

Dreambox – Online program

Life of Fred – Starting with Ice Cream

We will be exploring Beast Academy this year – to potentially be used instead of Dreambox.

Math-It – Math facts practice

**Novelty is huge for my daughter, especially with math, and we find it works best when we mix things up.  That’s why I don’t just use one math curriculum.**

Curriculum Picks for 3rd Grade:

Handwriting:

Getty Dubay Handwriting – Character Basic Print

Writing/Language Arts:

Bravewriter

Explode the Code

Math:

Dreambox – Online program

Math-It – Math facts practice

Life of Fred – Apples through Dogs

Preschool:

Our youngest, age 4, is going to a year of 4K this year, 3 days a week.  On his off days, we will do lots of reading together.

 For Everyone:

Bible:

A Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos –  We are currently working through the Old Testament.

Scripture Memory- We will be focusing on one verse a week.

Reading:

Read Aloud Revival Book Club – This is new and I’m hoping a great addition to our homeschool.  I’ll keep you posted!

Beyond the book club, we will read aloud as many fantastic books as time allows.

Poetry Teatime – Check out my post on Poetry Teatime here.

Independent Reading – Thankfully my kids enjoy reading immensely, and I don’t actually keep track of how much they read since it’s just something they love to do!

History:

Ancient History Living Books – Our goal is to get from Creation through Greece this year.

A Child’s History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer – to read alongside our Living Books.

The Story of the World (audiobook)

Geography:

A Child’s Geography, Volume 1: Explore His Earth By Ann Voskamp

Maps that go along with Ancient History from this website.

Science:

A whole lot of nature observing.  We are going to attempt Nature Journals this year.  We will use this book to help guide us in Nature Journaling.

A Child’s Geography, Volume 1: Explore His Earth by Ann Voskamp – This is a Geography AND Earth Science Curriculum.

Music and Art:

I don’t have grandiose plans for these subjects.   I will probably follow CC’s Cycle 1 using my CC Foundations Guide, sprinkling things in throughout the year.

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Disclaimer: In the name of full transparency, please be aware that this blog post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links will result in a small commission for me (at no extra cost to you).

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How We Became “Outside the Box Learners”?

Isn’t it funny how so often things in life come about from what DOESN’T work? We can make plans but must adjust if we are hitting a wall.  

Homeschooling Outside the Box Was Not the Original Plan

I did not set out to be “outside the box” in regards to homeschooling my kids. I’m a planner and there are plenty of well-planned out homeschool curriculums. I would prefer to be using one of those lovely well planned out curriculums. I’m a list person. A box checker. I prefer to have my plan and stick to it. However a lot of methods that SHOULD work and DO work for most families, simply are the not the best way of learning in our home.

We have a wall hanging in our school rooms that says “Mistakes are lessons inside out.“ I had it custom-made for my daughter – to remind her it’s OK and NECESSARY to make mistakes! It’s part of the learning process!

Our family has come around to this “outside the box” approach to learning in an inside-out way. And it has been downright frustrating for me at times. There have been tears shed by more than one person…..including myself! And definitely more than once!

And the truth of the matter is my kids did not become “outside the box learners”. They always were. It just took me a few years and to catch on and have the confidence to do things in less conventional ways.

Finding What Works With Our Outside the Box Learners

After years of trying things that “should have” worked, I’ve learned to follow my kids’ lead more. Sometimes that means stopping what we’re doing, and continuing at night while drinking hot chocolate after younger siblings have gone to bed. Sometimes
it means switching between different types of math curriculum throughout the year. Often it means checking out loads of books at the library on whatever is interesting to them that week…..or decade! For my creative child, it frequently means letting her get her inventive ideas out of her head in the morning so she can more fully focus on her work later in the day.

Ultimately it means letting go of the idea of doing “school at home” (as a former 4th-grade teacher this is hard for me!) and remembering one of the beautiful things about homeschool is the flexibility it offers. This attitude/philosophy is a work in progress for me. I have certainly not arrived. And I am too much of a list/plan person to let all routine go to the wayside. I do have things I expect my kids to accomplish each day.

However, every day I also try to give them time to create, imagine, play and read. And the great thing is, when we’re in the rhythm of this, it doesn’t feel like school. It’s enjoyable and there’s plenty of learning happening. Just not the way I expected it to.

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