Homeschool

I am a mommy blogger and try to keep my blog all things mommy topic related. I believe my children's education is included in one of my many mommy jobs. I am a homeschool mom. Brian and I have several reasons for homeschooling #1 At home I can guarantee my children's safety. #2 My children can learn at their own pace faster or slower, there is not a No Child Left Behind law for homeschoolers. #3 I can keep my children innocent a little longer and monitor what they are learning and hearing. #4 Having four children and my oldest only being five, homeschooling can simply be convenient for us.
I have nothing against public or private education. This is just they way we have chosen to teach our children at this time in their life. What works for one doesn't alway work for all.

I would like to share with you what we do and what works for us at home. Eli soaks everything up like a sponge. He is only five but is reading books with ease and recently started learning the multiplication tables. In most subjects he is in 1st grade except math he is in 2nd grade. The truth is if he was in grade school he would still be in preschool with the rest of his class and they would not advance him, maybe give him extra work but not advance his grade level. I do not use curriculum to teach my children. I use free online resources and just recently joined education.com plus membership. They offer unlimited copies of their worksheets and access to their educational online games for a small fee. I have also learned the Dollar Tree and Dollar General stores have a great selection of school books through grade school. In the photo above Eli is doing a reading lesson from his McGruffey Reader which is an old book but excellent for beginner readers. When I started to teach him to read I was looking for books to teach him to read. I quickly realized the "beginner" level books were just too much and didn't teach him more about reading. I have found that books with copy write to the 1940's are terrific at actually teaching reading and using repetitiveness to help speed up the process.

My mom homeschooled me and my siblings as children and she bought me this book recently which I am in love with! This book contains my true desires of homeschooling. My desires are making learning fun and this book reminds parents school doesn't have to be just writing papers in a cut and dry approach but learning can be fun using other projects and games to teach children the same thing but making school something that they look forward to day to day.Our new routine consists of one or two subjects of paper work and then fun creative learning time. 

Bella is learning the value of numbers and letters learning their names and what they really mean and do. I also have her trace and write her name using using this excellent website to make personalized tracer sheets http://www.kidzone.ws/TRACERS/NONE/index.asp.

Lily is still working on her colors and shapes but learns with Bella of letters and numbers as well as tracing her own name.

Homeschooling is not for everyone. I don't think everyone should do it. You must be committed, know why you are doing it and be an organized person. It's always a bonus to love learning yourself! I'm glad that I have the opportunity and ability to do this myself I think it makes a big difference in our home. Our children may not always be homeschooled but for now it's working and they're learning above and beyond the "standards".