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Steven and Sarah are 28 months apart and Simon and Samantha are 20 months apart, making it easy to combine curricula. While we move at their pace for things such as phonics and math, history, science, and literature can be easily combined making our days a little simpler. So just as customizing our work to fit the needs of each student is easily done, so is letting them learn together in some areas to accommodate for the one thing we don't have a lot of, time.
I have found that what works for one kid does not necessarily work for them all. That is why I am grateful that I can use whatever curriculum, process, or system that works best for each of my very different kids. We have done Abeka, Landmark, Sonlight, Math-U-See, Bob Jones math, Horizons spelling so on and so forth. Each of my kids require a different approach. Though I do try to use the same curriculum when I can, when I see that their learning process differs from the other kids, we try something else. Can public or even private school teachers give that much attention to the individual student. I think not.
Most days we get dressed. This day however both the little kids did school in their pajamas, which suits me fine. It's Wednesday and we have church tonight, so after school is done and they have eaten dinner, they'll get showered and changed. I won't have to worry about anyone spilling, or better yet, using their shirts for napkins, which would mean changing their clothes again. Less work for me and them, plus what could be better than hanging out in your pj's all day.
I have started Samantha on a new math curriculum for K-5 ( though she is only 4). Mostly because she was struggling with place value with our regular curriculum, but I didn't want to hold her back from other math concepts she could learn. Also, she just always wants to do math. She watches Simon and asks "Mommy, can I do what Simon's doing?" She finishes a math page in a few quick minutes and always asks to do another one, which my response is always "No, we'll do another one tomorrow." Today as she was finishing up her math sheet, it dawned on me that I was doing exactly what traditional schools do. Hold students back to keep to a schedule. That is the exact opposite of what I want to do. One of the big reasons I home school is so my kids can move at a pace that is right for them, taking extra time on things they struggle with and advancing quickly through the concepts they easily get. So today, Samantha did five sheets of math and enjoyed everyone of them.
This year we were able to take an awesome vacation to Orlando. Disney World offered military personnel and their guests a greatly discounted rate for their four park five day combo tickets. Now, Florida isn't my favorite place to be. I would much rather be in the mountains taking a hike, or on a lake kayaking than baking in the Florida sun, but as far as doing something really fun with the kids, Disney was perfect. We have an eleven year range between kids with the oldest being fifteen and the youngest being four. That being said, it's hard finding family stuff to do that everyone enjoys. Disney fit the bill. What was even better is that with our flexible school schedule we were able to go for ten days at the beginning of October. Lighter crowds, shorter lines, but all the fun.
The roads are covered with so much ice and snow that local schools are shut down. This phenomenon called snow is very rare here in southeast Virginia and while other parents try to figure out how to entertain their kids for the day mine are fast at their studies. While my kids won't necessarily consider this a benefit, but rather a drawback, of homeschooling, I am grateful that we are held back by very little and can easily compensate for days we take off for whatever is necessary, and sometimes not so necessary.
Here my dear daughter snuggles with our sweet Cocker Spaniel Sunny while working on school. We don't have one room in the house that we can commit to school. Even if we did, I just don't think it would work with our style of home school or with the amount of kids and grade levels that have to be taught each day. Though in this picture Sarah is on the couch, she is usually in her room on her bed listening to the radio. Some people may not feel that this should work, but after reading a book on different learning styles I have found that letting my children do it their way is usually best. So as long as the work is getting done and they are excelling why mess up a good thing.
