Homeschooling

Browsing through the shelves at the bookstore, I happened across perhaps one of the coolest children’s books I have ever seen! As a side note, I do not allow myself to go into bookstores often as I get lost in all that there is to see there and spend far too much time (and money) so this was a rare treat. The book that caught my eye was called The Black Book of Colors.

The title of the book intrigued me so I opened it up to take a peek and was met with black pages with raised black pictures that had to be felt more than seen. On the opposing page was text in white along the bottom with the braille version at the top. The book explained what colors “look” like to someone who is blind.

I decided to turn it into a small unit study so I planned a few activities for the kids to go along with the book.

I set up containers of coffee beans, cooked spaghetti, dish soap, popcorn kernels, and taco spice seasoning. I blindfolded the kids and brought them into the kitchen one at a time. They had to guess what was in each container using their other senses, hearing, tough, smell, and even taste if they were brave enough! It was a fun activity that led naturally into discussion about how those who are blind use their other senses to navigate the world.

I read the Black Book of Colors to the kids and they later took turn reading it themselves and feeling the pictures and Braille letters.

The kids also took turn trying to navigate their way through the house while blindfolded and talked about their observations. They also took turns helping to guide each other using their voices.

I found a wonderful online resource for sighted kids who wanted to learn more about blindness. It has information about Louis Braille, braille trivia and games.

There is a Braille alphabet printable at Enchanted Learning.

Lastly, we watched the Helen Keller Nest video and the kids completed the corresponding workbook. They love Nest videos and found this one especially interesting.

What does a typical homeschool family look like? The answer may surprise you! A few weeks ago, someone in my local homeschool community expressed not feeling like she fit into the group because of some things that she felt made her different. Others chimed in right away to share similar feelings.

Some expressed that since some of their kids attended public school or because they were school at home instead of unschoolers or other such things that they viewed as differences, they felt like outsiders. It struck me right away that I also feel that our family stands out for certain reasons. Therefore, I have often felt like we don’t fit into the homeschooler mould.

Human nature is that we want to feel like we belong, that we fit in. I don’t know that there is a typical homeschool family anymore though.

As far as homeschool families go, there are working homeschoolers, single parents, adoptive families, military families, unschoolers, families with some kids in public school and some being homeschooled, families living abroad, first year, large families, families with an only child, blended families, former teachers now teaching their own children, and many others.

There is so much diversity now among homeschool families that every homeschool family is a typical homeschool family!

I decided to share with you some actual homeschool families. Perhaps you will see a bit of yourself in one of their stories and it will help you to know that you are not alone. All of us are “normal” in our own unique way.

Real Life Homeschool Families:

Sam is married to her high school sweetheart who became a preacher and is a mother of six blessings. She went into the world of homeschooling kicking and screaming. Three of her children attended public school, the oldest making it to the sixth grade. She is determined that the youngest three will never step foot in a public school door.

Caitlyn is the proud geek-mom to two children. Her kindergartner son loves superheroes, dinosaurs, and is using comic books to learn to read. Her toddler daughter doesn’t talk much but she’ll dance like a maniac if she hears classic rock or grunge music. Her husband served 8 years in the US Army and the family spent the last 3 years of his service living in England, which was an amazing experience that they thoroughly enjoyed. The whole family loves hiking, gaming, and listening to the How to Train Your Dragon series on audio book.

Alisha is the wife of Jason, a minister who travels all over the world teaching in Bible schools, churches and pastors’ conferences. She is the homeschooling mom of three kids, one of which recently graduated. As a work-at-home mompreneur, she is the owner a health and fitness business, as well as a mixed-media artist. She is the author of the book, God Said So (31 Bible Truths Every Kid Should Know). Alisha blogs at Flourish.

LaToya is a single mom of two boys. She is the first person in her family to homeschool. Her oldest son is all over the autism spectrum: SPD, ADHD, and ODD.

The Bussingers are a military family currently stationed in South Korea. Aadel stays home and unschools their three kids, ages 13, 8, and 3. She also works freelance writing jobs, blogs, and attends full-time online college working towards her counseling degree. This is their 9th year of homeschooling.

The Browns are Christian homeschoolers who are now in their 6th year of schooling. Michael and Renee were married for 12 years before they were blessed with the unexpected blessing of a child through an adoption they had not sought out but gladly welcomed.

Their one son who is now 10 years old doesn’t follow any typical grade level for learning. For a few subjects he is working in the 4th or 5th grade level while other subjects he is working at higher levels of learning. For example, he is currently working in high school level geometry.

They chose to homeschool so that they could customize an education to meet his unique learning style while providing that education in a faith filled environment.  You can read more about the Brown family at Renee’s Blog, Great Peace Academy.

Jen is a Catholic homeschooler. She and her husband recently moved their whole family to pursue a dream to be closer to the ocean. They have six children, all of whom joined their family through International adoption (from Russia, South Korea and the Caribbean).

Jen is also a fitness enthusiast. She shares that homeschooling many children and children with special needs can be done!

And then there’s me. Sharla is the mom of seven kids who apparently hasn’t had time to get a family picture since the one below at a wedding two years ago when she still had long hair! Five of her kids are adopted and have special needs. One of her sons is graduated and her second oldest is attending his third year in a brick and mortar school and loving it while she homeschools her younger five kids. She works from home as a writer and blogger.

Do you consider yourself a typical homeschool family? What are some of the things that you think make your family unique to homeschooling or that fit the mould you have envisioned for homeschoolers?

I find that the easiest subject to teach to all of the kids at once is history. I use a variety of different things to accomplish this. I made a video to give an overview of what we do in our homeschool with history. I’ve only touched on what we do so feel free to ask clarification questions in the comments.

Here are links to give you more information about some of the products I mentioned:

Story of the World has 4 Volumes. We started with Volume 1 and went through it fairly slowly over about two years and are now about three quarters of the way through Volume 2 which takes you from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance. We use the book, the Activity Book, and Tests and Answer Key.

Nest videos and activity/colouring books…We use these for history and we also have their artist videos and New and Old Testament videos.

Brimwood Press – the products I spoke about specifically were Colour the Western World and Calendar Quest

Sensory bins that we have done to accompany our history learning: Knights & Kings  and Pirates

Catapult made from popsicle sticks and a plastic spoon

Hopefully that gives you a bit of a better idea of how I approach teaching history to such a wide variety of ages and keep the older kids engaged and challenged while still including the younger ones.