A Day in Our Shoes : Part 2

NOTE: This blog has moved, so when you finish reading this post, be sure to head over to www.StillLearningToFollow.com for more on our family's adventures!

Hello again!  Four days in a row!!!  Can you believe it?!  I, for one, am proud of me;) 
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and I plan to take tomorrow off.  Fridays are our day off, so I will not be boring you tomorrow.  However, (note: this is not a promise!) I do plan to write again Saturday...we shall see! ;)

Before I get into today's post, I thought I'd give you a quick heads up about what's to come. 

First, I do not plan on writing one "A Day in Our Shoes" post after another, for days on end.  You can expect to see them on and off for the next couple of weeks.  In between I'll also blog on...whatever else that comes into my little head. ;) 

Second, some of these posts will be longer, more detailed, and have more pictures than others.  Specifically, I plan to make sure that I include several pictures for the upcoming posts about our ministry days and travel days.  I thought you might like to see Thing 1 helping Josh set up and tear down on stage and Thing 2 helping Josh hook up the trailer to the truck...things like that.  Those posts will be sometime next week and the following week, because I don't have the pictures yet. 

Now, on to today's post.

Homeschooling
At least once a week, I have a conversation that goes something like this...

"So, since you travel all of the time, you must homeschool the boys?"

"Yes, I do!  It's an adventure!" ~ me

"That's great.  We homeschool/homeschooled our kids.  What curriculum do you use?"

There it was!  Did you catch that all important, ever intimidating, unavoidable question?

"What curriculum do you use?"

In the past, this question would cause my heart to race and my hands to sweat.  I've changed curriculum so many times in my short three years of homeschooling I can't even keep track. Sometimes I've even changed twice in a year.  I have often been using 5 or more different curriculum pieces at the same time.  In fact, currently I am using...wait for it....NO curriculum!  *GASP*!!! The horror!  Can I even really be a homeschooler without curriculum?

I say that all with great sarcasm, but hear me out.  I am not against curriculum!  I am not for curriculum!  Honestly, I just don't think there's one "right" way to homeschool.  I am responsible before God for the upbringing of my children, so I just keep seeking Him and doing my best.  I don't know my children best, He does.  He knows what their future holds.  He knows how our personalities mesh or clash.  And He knows that we're trying to homeschool on the road, with very minimal storage or study space, and unreliable internet.  Yet, His grace is sufficient and we're doing great!  I love my homeschooling system right now.  I might decide it's not working next year, next month, or even next week.  If so, I'll change.  Maybe I'll even use an all-in-one curriculum?  But for now, this is what we do...

Bible - The boys and I are reading through the Gospel of John and memorizing scripture together.  This Bible time of ours includes things like, reading aloud and copywork (i.e. handwriting).

Math - Both boys use Saxon workbooks.  I assign pages and they do them mostly independently except when something new comes up, then we discuss it together. T-1 is also working on math fact flashcards.

Language Arts / Reading Comp. - T-1 is using a BrainQuest workbook I got from Target.   T-2 has a Spectrum Language Arts workbook and an Explode the Code workbook. 

Personal Devotions - Both boys have a "Gotta Have God" devotion book they read each day.

Both boys also are required to read silently for a minimum of 30 minutes each day.  (T-1 loves to read, so he probably gets more like 1-2 hours in each day.)

T-2 reads aloud to me each day for 20 minutes.
T-1 reads aloud to T-2 each day for 30 minutes.  He is currently reading "Time Traveler" by Usbourne.

In addition, we visit National Parks and museums regularly.  These visits often inspire further study, which we do online or at a library.

I try to also watch for events, questions, etc... to come up in our daily life and use them to engage conversation or direct research. (For example, T-1 stepped on a honey bee two days ago and got stung, so yesterday we did a mini unit on bees.)

That is how we homeschool...at least for today! :)

 NOTE: This blog has moved, so when you finish reading this post, be sure to head over to www.StillLearningToFollow.com for more on our family's adventures!