how we homeschool

I taught Kindergarten before becoming a stay-at-home mom and have an M.A. in Elementary Education.  I am extremely passionate about early literacy and number sense and have developed an ever-evolving homeschool schedule for my children.

I started out sequencing my children’s curriculum choices by age: tot school, preschool, pre-kindergarten, and beyond into grade school!

Lately, we are really just living our days.  Enjoying one another.  Being intentional some days.  Reading every day.  Learning through play always.

I homeschool my children because I want to be the moral and spiritual influence in their lives.  I want to “take control” — I wrote about this at hip homeschool moms in a series by teachers turned homeschooling moms.  We focus on Jesus morning, noon, and night, and I try to be very intentional with this.  Our God is a loving, and very historical, God — and there is so much to learn!

I also believe that I know my children the best, so I can be the best teacher to them.  This is to establish strong reading skills and math cognition.  Every child’s learning needs is different and my son (and your child!) will need constant adaptation to receive optimal learning!

As far as homeschooling, I have a lot to share and a lot to learn. Here are the basics for what we do and believe, and I will be adding to this page over time as we progress through our learning!

{Click on the pictures to get you to that section in the blog.}

Some baby highlights include: Treasure baskets for baby, our Montessori baby room, and 21 activities for one year olds.

Next, when my son was about two and a half, we initiated a fun and explorative tot school.  We were excited to get posts done from A to Z and you can can see them all here.  We also got involved in a lot of Montessori learning; to include practical life opportunities and sensorial play.  More recently, my daughter, who is now two, is enjoying various tot school activities.

We are currently loving our sensory dough series, which we are involved in with a handful of other wonderful bloggers.

We have now adopted the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy, so I am adding posts about our journey.  You will see many different types of education explored on my blog!  I love learning!  I did an entire series on Charlotte Mason’s teaching reading philosophy and also share my top favorite living books for learning to read.

I am always learning and adapting.  The foundation of my homeschool teaching has been classical education.  We want our children to be edified by beautiful and historical knowledge, based in the trivium and quadrivium — now adapted in the Charlotte Mason educational style, but still focused on classical topics.  See our Classical Conversations books lists for Living Books, Usborne Books, and pairing with other curriculums, such as The Good and the Beautiful.

We have also looked into the Waldorf educational philosophy. I love the emphasis on natural materials, art, movement and no screens! We have incorporated several aspects of this into our homeschool. Here is how we have incorporated Waldorf principles into our Charlotte Mason Homeschool.

But in the early years, I also want my child to lead his learning toward what he is interested in.  He, for example, loves imaginative play, so we can center some learning around that.  I have created various math and literacy provocations for him in our Reggio Emilia inspired learning.

And where we are now.  Our preschool days.  This started with understanding and connecting with my preschool son.  What does he need?  Our preschool plans have adapted into a more natural-based homeschooling days.  We read books and make felt animals based on our letter, and read bible stories in a sequential order.  Other than that, I try to stick with child-directed learning, though I am intentional with his learning, be it through organized inquiries or project based learning.

Here are more tools to help you on your own journey:

• Best Workbooks for Early Childhood
• Teaching Early Reading without overwhelming beginning readers
• 10 Phonics Readers for Early Reading
• Free First Phonics Readers
• 5 Important Ways to Teach Language to your Child

We also incorporate various Montessori principles to both our home and our learning.  We favor using natural and beautiful tools.  We desire our children to become independent learners through hands on free and structured play. Here are some key language arts posts:

• Montessori Alphabet Box
• How to Use the Montessori Alphabet Box
• Creating three letter words with moveable letters
• Rhyming with moveable letters
• Matching letters
• Three period lesson with learning letters and sounds
• Learning sounds with alphabet objects

Curriculum Choices:

See many more of our yearly choices organized by school grade and year here! I’m just finishing up many videos and blog posts to catch you up on what we have chosen to use over these past couple years!

My blog also offers over 50 free printables for helping children learn. Thank you so much for visiting!

If you are still wondering where to start, I have some resources that may help with the overwhelm:

• Learning Essentials for Starting Homeschool
• Giant Free Homeschooling Resource for just getting started!!
• Secular Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum