The Homeschool Review

My first homeschool review was scheduled in early January. For those of you who don’t know the homeschooling rules in Maryland, we have the choice of either being “reviewed” by someone from the county we reside in or we can join a homeschooling “umbrella group” where the group reviews the instruction of your children(there are various methods for this). Essentially it is like choosing public school over private school; you have more freedom in how you choose to school your children with the second option, but you pay for it and you need to research your umbrella group well to make sure they will be supportive of your methods.

 

I chose to complete my review through the county I am living in now. I believed I could demonstrate my methods were providing instruction as required by the state of Maryland, without compromising my own homeschooling goals.

 

The state requires parents to demonstrate instruction in English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Health Education, Physical Education, Fine Arts (Art, Music) and Other (Technology, World Language). Parents can show the instruction through:

  • text(s) or equivalent
  • reading materials/list
  • writing samples
  • worksheets/workbooks
  • tests/quizzes
  • creative materials
  • field trips
  • other

 

I chose to create a document for each girl where I could enter in our activities to show our reviewer what we had done. Below you can see Ari’s and Abby’s charts.

A spreadsheet divided into subjects with activities Abby completed in each this semester  A spreadsheet divided into subjects with activities Ari completed in each this semester

I made a list of all of our field trips, the dates and which child participated.

 

I had pictures of many of our activities, assignments and field trips so I organized these into subject areas and also into Unit studies, as Ari has been completing most of her work through various units.

A screenshot of the albums I had prepared for the HS Review

A lot of Abby’s Language Arts work was done in a spiral 11×14 sketchbook, so I brought that along.

 

An example page from Abby's ELA "Good book" a spiral sketch book Abby used for writing/drawing

Finally, I had a 3-ring notebook for each girl. Abby’s was divided into subjects and assignments; she has a tab for math, letter practice, number practice, assessments and awards and one for writings and stories. Ari’s notebook is divided into math and then a tab for each unit.

All of this preparation not only made the review easy and a positive experience, but it really helped me to reflect on what we had done so far this year. I am happy with what we have accomplished and the learning and growth I have seen in both girls. We were given a paper that showed we had “Clear Evidence of instruction throughout” our portfolio and we will return again at the end of the year.

Abby's HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form
Abby’s HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form
Ari's HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form
Ari’s HS Portfolio Review Reflection Form

Homeschooling: Abby’s First Day

Today was Abby’s first day of First Grade.

Abby and Tigger, first day of school

She brought along a friend (that’s a cool part of homeschooling).

Abby’s school day started off with an Adventure Walk. Basically, we went on a walk while I made up a story that we acted out. Eventually I will have a repertoire of songs and actions I can do on an adventure walk, but for today I made it up as I went along. In the story the fictional characters got up and dressed, explored the woods, saw birds and trees, ran down hills and walked backwards up others, all of which we did together. It might seem like an odd thing to do, but we worked up a sweat (it was about 85 degrees out) and got a great workout. Abby loved it:)

Abby then began her “classwork”; we recalled the story I had told her yesterday, we spoke a verse (Abby knows a little of it) and we drew pictures from the story. My picture even had some hidden letters which we found! Abby then went off to play:

cat dojo house

She created a “Cat Dojo House”?!?

After lunch we had Quiet Time, which is a time of inner reflection or focus. Abby worked on her “cat dojo  house” as I looked through materials for Ari’s afternoon Math lesson, cleaned up a bit and made sure I was calm and centered for what would follow.

While Ari did math, Abby played with some math manipulatives. When she was done, she decided to do math “like Ari” and made herself some addition problems to complete. Once done, we all read a story about finger crocheting. Abby did a bit herself, and then begged me to do more. I held off and right at bedtime she decided to work on it herself using the nightlight we have for her. I don’t think she did many but she had completed a few more when she last told me where she was. For those of you who haven’t spent a few hours with Abby, you won’t know that she talks incessantly and loves to narrate what she is doing. I usually tune her out, which she says is fine with her!

Day one for Abby is finally done, Ari has started week two and our rhythm actually seems to be working out! I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings.

Homeschooling Day 3: What’s Working and Needed Tweaks

Pshew. Day 3 done. Now its time to step back and see how it’s going, at least with Ari.

Here is my envisioned rhythm for our days and week (click to zoom in):

daily_weekly rhythm

Here is reality:

tie up teacher

Ok, just kidding. That’s not me or my kids; it’s a random picture from Google (which I linked to the picture in hopes someone won’t sue me).

 

Reality was some things worked and some didn’t. On Tuesday, Ari woke up early. Really early for her. This meant all the time I would have used to relax, or as on the rhythm, do yoga, I instead spent with her asking if we could start school yet. It was cute, but certainly unexpected. On the other hand, Abby didn’t wake up at all and we waited and waited and finally I gave in. Ari and I started school early only to hear “Mmmoooommmm” 5 minutes later.

 

Rest time isn’t happening. Ari, who loves to go read or hang out in ther room, says she hates being asked to  do a quiet time. Abby doesn’t even want to go upstairs despite being reminded that she can play with her trains or dolls. Both my kids left naps behind at about two and have bad memories of being forced to lay on cots for an hour during “rest time” at daycare, so I’m guessing it’s reminding them. Of course, that was my “plan dinner and maybe read something for a bit” time that I think I really need :/

 

Ari’s actual “schooling” is going well. In math we are reviewing and extending the basics and on Tuesday she had an “aha” moment when she realized she hadn’t ever learned multiplying double+ digit numbers… We’ve tried taking things down to basics and are using Cuisenaire rods and colored markers to understand some concepts. I’d love to take her back to learning the processes, but she is very hesitant, so maybe we will hold off until it becomes clear to her that the “baby” stuff is important.

 

Finally, the rhythm is nice to have. It gives me an idea about where we should be in the day and keeps me from getting sidetracked as I so often do. The rhythm is often said to be beneficial to children, but I think it help me as much or more than it does them.

 

If you check our rhythm, you will see that tomorrow is a fun day that includes a trip to the library and the farmer’s market. I’m not sure which one I like better!

 

 

 

Homeschooling Day 1

Today we started homeschooling. After a big move and at a temporary address, we decided homeschooling might not be a bad plan for our two girls. After all, we don’t know how long we will stay and it would be sad to put them in school and where they will learn new routines and procedures only to pull them out at some unknown point in the future This way we can continue on with as little interruption in our daily rhythm as possible. Plus, I’ve always wanted to homeschool my kids!

Homeschooling has intrigued me since I became a parent. While I had a great education from wonderful teachers in public school, I feel like I could have gotten more out of education had my learning been more individualized. I was pretty adept at doing the minimum to get pretty good grades, but I never really had to work at school until I got to college. Boy, was that a wake up! I’ve wondered what would have happened if I’d been allowed to work at my own pace in my learning. Would I have learned better study skills or found my education more interesting to me?

I’m starting out only teaching my 10 year old. I can work out some of the kinks with her first, and hopefully I’ll have something working in place before next Monday, my official start date for my 6 year old.

A synopsis of DAY 1:

The good

  • We followed our daily planned routine fairly closely
  • Ari (10) liked most of the activities and was wanting more of some
  • Most everything went as planned

The bad

  • Math was more complicated/ took longer than I thought – I need to make some changes!
  • Without something “school-ish” to do, Abby(6) likes to be “in” on the action (distracting!)

The ugly

  • Boiling a pot of soup dry when I forgot about it (luckily it was on low)
  • The dog returned from a romp selling like horse manure (how?)
Ok, the last two weren’t homeschooling-related, but they sure didn’t make my day any easier!

I will tweak math tomorrow; it took so long today and part of it was just the sheer number of problems Ari had to do. Overall though, I like feeling so connected to my kids and really understanding more about how they are learning!