to finally write that stinking homeschool post

so i've been saying i will write about homeschooling,
and people have been asking about homeschooling,
so i guess i'll take the time to do it.
i think the easiest way to explain how we homeschool
in our home is to just have you follow along
with a typical day.
today was a typical day. {or yesterday, i suppose}
so.
here goes.

we rose before the sun.
always.
daddy,
four littles and i, and
i sing a song with the four littles
when we first wake. it's cheesy,
forgive me.

"good morning jesus,
thank you for this day.
help us to be kind and good
when we work and play.
thank you for the sunrise,
thank you for my family,
thank you for the stars and trees,
thank you God for everything."

but they sing along with me and it's
really cute
and it sets them off on the right foot,
so, yeah.

and they play.
and i read my bible.
and i pray.
and journal.
and daddy gets ready for work.
i make breakfast,
typically eggs, bacon, sourdough toast or
oatmeal which was prepared the night before.
this morning it was oatmeal.
we eat between 7 and 730.
 
then we set about attending to chores and such;
cleaning up breakfast, folding laundry, putting away toys
from the littles early morning escapades.
the kids get free time after chores until 9,
needless to say they work pretty diligently at cleaning
in order to have more time. i spend the time nursing pearl and
this morning, as usual,
she drifts off for her first nap.

come 9 i call the children in
and we pray,
read from the Jesus storybook bible,
sing a song {johnny cash's version of do lord}
review some memory work {1 peter 4:9 and some family rules},
read a poem by hilda conkling,
layla recites an emily dickinson poem and
then i read to them from our current read aloud, the hobbit.
{behind the scenes: moses is running around the living room
"shooting dragons" with his bow and arrow, josiah is
hanging upside down on the couch, layla is drawing in a notebook,
the twins are snuggling with me until the middle of the hobbit reading
when hannah runs outside to play.  i have to remind moses ten
thousand times to quiet down and that you don't have to yell
"YAH" when you are shooting dragons with arrows.}

we have, somehow, reached 9:45.
layla and josiah read quietly from their own bibles and
write in their journals for a few minutes while
moses, hannah and ruth run in different directions;
hannah outside, moses and ruth to the doll house to
lose themselves in their imaginary play.
and pearl wakes up.

around 10 i put a roast in the slow cooker and
sit down with josiah to read to him.
our homeschool methods are a mixture of
charlotte mason and waldorf. 
i love the way the two methods of education mesh
so well together,
making for a gentle, relaxed, real way to learn.
our early years are primarily waldorf inspired with
lots of imaginative play, rhythms, work with hands,
imitation and of course the cm gets thrown in there
with loads of reading aloud and sitting in with older
siblings while we study art, music, folk songs, and
have nature study.
when it comes to actual curricula,
i have somewhat designed our own cm/waldorf curriculum
using ideas from ambleside online, higher up and further in, and
rudolf steiner's {creator of waldorf education} basic grade level outline.
if you want to actually see our curriculum/book list, let me know :)

anyway,
josiah is concurrently studying the Old Testament along with
basic ancient history and early American history.
Tuesdays we do our Old Testament study,
reading the story of the ancient world.  We read and
he narrated three short chapters.
{behind the scenes: josiah kept yelling out, "nimrod is a nimrod" and

"job should get a job", pearl climbed on my lap and ate a banana,
layla did her own readings and written narrations, she is quite
self sufficient, hannah and ruth came inside because it was too cold and
went back to playing with moses in his room.}

when we finish our reading,
josiah takes a few minutes to run outside and
get some air and play.
he returns and draws a slip from our copywork
jar, goes to the dining room table and
does his copywork.  layla also does this at the
same time.
hannah and ruth come to the table to draw,
while moses and pearl play together on the floor.

after about fifteen minutes,
i give josiah his math page {he has three math days and
each day he does a different math... one day is multiplication
work day, one day is division and the third is a waldorf math.
every day we work on his times and division tables by tossing
a bean bag back and forth and saying the tables.}
while he does his math, layla works on hers and the four littles play,
i prepare lunch.
today we just ate left overs, as our refrigerator was overly full.

{yes, ian is here too.  he is in and out throughout the day,
working on some stuff, helping with little ones,
cleaning up.  he is practically finished with his high school, just
has a couple of books to finish reading.}

when lunch is finished we all clean up together and
the kids get some free time.  layla and josiah race outside,
i nurse pearl,
and moses, hannah and ruth just play.
they play a lot.  they get lost in their games.
it's a beautiful thing.
 
 
one o'clock is upon us and we all find our favorite seats,
a bundle of books and have our quiet reading time.
i love this time.
hannah, ruth, and moses just grab a bunch of books and look
at them quietly while the rest of us read.
and drink tea.
and pearl is typically either
a}asleep
b}playing quietly
c}not cooperating.
today she was b.
so it was good.
 
{behind the scenes: moses looked at one book and
then decided he was done and would not be quiet.
i sent him to his room to play.  he stayed and played fine
and we still got our quiet time.  yay for me}
we always end quiet reading time with a read aloud.
the twins brought me two picture books and i
read to them.
ruth was then excused to play quietly while i
worked on hannah's reading lesson with her
{teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons}.
when we finished, hannah played quietly and
i did the reading lesson with ruth.

{b. th. s. : pearl was no longer cooperating.
i nursed her.  then ian offered to take her outside to play.
that was good.  when he brought her back in,
he offered to make me a latte.  that was even better.
don't you all wish you had an ian?
he will most likely be leaving us for college in august.
then i will be wishing i had an ian too :) }

we straightened up a bit, then
all headed outside for some nature/play.
the kids know the drill...
observe something outside in nature then come tell
mama about it. {once a week we have a focused study
and they draw, paint, or we study about something}
then they ran around carefree and pearl took another nap
and i drank my latte and read while they played.
 
 
 
my roast is nearing done,
i begin boiling potatoes and cooking
cabbage and
when the roast is finished i make
a gravy.
daddy arrives home just in time to eat.
and so we do.

we clean up,
bathe little kids,
6pm, moses climbs into my lap
in the rocking chair and i read him a story
and then rock him to sleep.
{yes, you read that right. 6.
the boy doesn't nap.  he's tired at 6. and
pearl goes down at 6 too.  and our
nights are amazingly peaceful.  it's good}
once i lay him in his bed,
i nurse pearl to sleep.
my husband and i spend a bit of quiet time
with hannah and ruth,
then at 730 i go to their bedroom with them,
read to them {currently farmer boy},
pray with them,
lie with them a few minutes until they are sleeping.

my husband, ian, layla, josiah and i spend
the rest of the night quietly together.
some nights we play games,
some we read aloud,
occasionally we watch a movie together,
sometimes we just talk,
and then sometimes we do our own things.
this night i talked with my husband a bit until
he had to go to bed, he has an extra early morning,
and now the three eldest are reading and
here i am, typing this ridiculously long post for you.
if you even made it this far.
which i doubt you did unless you are very interested
in homeschooling.
or life with seven kids.
or me.

but anyway... i'll wake up in the morning and do it all again.
and i love that.