"How do you homeschool?" - Part 3: A method to the madness.

Once you take school out of the typical classroom, it can seem like there is suddenly no structure. I think this is where most new homeschoolers initially get stuck, and what scares some parents who want to try homeschooling off. If you have no example of or familiarity with homeschooling, there is suddenly this great unknown. Where do you even start? Is Monday math day? Do I need to make sure we do five hours of language arts each week?
In addition to the confusion, there is an overwhelming feeling of responsibility that if you don't do everything right, your child will be ruined forever. What if you miss something, and one day send this poor young adult into the world who doesn't know the genres of literature or the latest in string theory!?

New parents just starting out will find there are a ton of different "methods" of homeschooling. I won't try to list them or go into a description of them. Just do a Google search and you'll come up with a list including Charlotte Mason, Classical, unschooling, unit studies, Montessori, Waldorf, correspondence school, and more. The main reason I'm not going to get into them because I don't know much about them. In the beginning, I started out reading about all these different methods and quickly became confused. I liked different parts of what I was reading, but nothing seemed exactly right for us. At that time The Big One was young enough that I decided I had time to figure it out and put reading about "the methods" aside to look into later. Once later came, however, I still wasn't interested, so we just started to do our own thing and never looked much into the lists of methods again.

When we began preschool with The Big One, which came not at any particular time or age but just as a natural progression of the teaching we were doing already, we did "school time" for just 30 minutes a day. We would do pages out of preschool workbooks, talk about things we saw outside, do arts and crafts, or spend time on www.starfall.com. We pretty much learned about whatever we felt like, for approximately  30 organized minutes. That was time aside from the normal things most parents do with their preschoolers like read, sing ABCS, and play. For example, if we saw ants outside we might try to catch them to look at, write "A-N-T" on the driveway in chalk, and cut paper circles to make ants with a head, abdomen, and thorax. That was preschool.
We did send him to a 6 week My First School camp, being a little nervous about him not having the "proper" preschool start. The teacher basically told us he was well ahead of where he should be and to not worry and keep doing what we were doing. Our pediatrician said the same and advised that if we weren't going to homeschool him, she would recommend a private Montessori program.

The next year, for kindergarten, we increased our time to an hour. We started a notebook where we would do simple math work, practice writing, and draw. We worked a lot more on reading and writing. I also included whatever "basics" I could think of, such as calendars, cardinal directions and map keys, what is a sentence, question words, basic level charts and graphs, and other things like that. I didn't necessarily think reading and writing were necessary skills yet, but I knew that having a start in them would make it easier for the coming years, and plus The Big One had an interest in them. I do think it's best to build off interests, if you can do so constructively.

Once we started first grade, we divided our time into subjects and started to spend roughly 3-4 hours per day on "school time". This remains the same now. How much time we spend depends on how attentive we all are being (yes, sometimes I am as much of the problem as the kids) and how interested we are in the subject. If we like a history subject, and there are a lot of books and videos available, we may spend longer on it. If it's boring, we'll learn what we need to know and move on. Sometimes there are extra crafts or activities we want to do, sometimes there aren't. This ends up meaning that some days we'll be finished in 2 and a half hours, and some days it seems we're working on school alllll daaaayyyy.
Also, we don't necessarily do 3-4 consecutive hours of work. We can start something in the morning and come back to it after going to the store. We can break for lunch, playtime, or socializing time when we need to.

As a parent, not all of the "school time" has to be spent completely devoted 100% to just The Big One and his work, either. For example, when he's doing math we will start the lesson together and then I will slowly back away while he finishes the practice problems on his own. I can start prepping dinner, work on something with The Little One, or check my email while he works. I mention all this just to give an idea of the time required to homeschool. People always ask me, "How do you have time for that?!" It doesn't require a lot.

Particular methods of homeschooling aside, how scheduled or un-scheduled you decide to be will largely depend on your personal style and that of your kids. I like to schedule and plan. The Big One even more so. It helps us to have a general guideline for what we should be doing.

This probably won't make sense to anyone else, but here's what our schedule looked like last year for 1st grade:

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Intro day – reading / videos	Reading – history topic	Science - info day	Reading – history notebook page	Science - experiment day	60 min
Discussion and map page	Writing & word review	Writing & word review	Writing & word review	Spelling & vocab test, writing	10-15 min
ID vocab & spelling words	First Language Lessons	First Language Lessons	First Language Lessons	Week wrap up	15-20 min
Math	Math	Math	Math	Math	30 min
PE	Art	PE	Music	PE	20-30 min
Free read	Free read	Free read	Free read	Free read	30 min

I didn't do this completely on my own. I got a rough idea of how I wanted to structure my day from the book A Well Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. The book is "a guide to classical education at home". I wouldn't say I follow the classical education method, because I don't exactly, but I get ideas from it and use the aspects that are logical to me as a guideline. 

As from the book's website:

Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments. In the high school years, they learn to express themselves. This classical pattern is called the trivium.

The backbone of what we do is history. In A Well Trained Mind, they've divided history into 4 chronological sections - ancients, middle ages, Renaissance, and modern. You go through the four sections on a grammar stage level, then start at the beginning and do it again at a logic stage level, and finally repeat it in a rhetoric stage level. We attempt to link topics in science, art, music, and even language arts, to what we are learning in history.

So for 1st grade history we covered the ancients. At the end of Kindergarten we had done the solar system, which flowed well into the birth of the Earth, geologic time, prehistory, dinosaurs, prehistoric man, etc. That left us pretty well set up to slide right into ancient history. I'm going to devote a whole post to each of our major subject areas, including the books and websites we use / have used, coming soon. With that, this will all (including my crazy charts) start to make a little more sense, I promise!

Basically, our schedule is history three days of the week and science two days of the week. We do some language arts, reading, and math every day. I haven't been organized about art and music, but have tried mainly looking at them from the stand point of the historical time we're studying. PE is running around outside, or gymnastics, karate, or sports camps. Health isn't even worth mentioning for 1st grade - teaching your child to brush their teeth, go to the doctor, eat healthy, and the like are daily activities in health.

When we started 1st grade, I made our weekly schedule and compiled a list of the main books we would be using. I somewhat reviewed the county curriculum for 1st grade, which was available online, and found that we were on track or ahead on most things. Because The Big One has a late birthday, the state required I register him as a Kindergartener, which set us even more "ahead" (I say this in quotations because I don't really think there is an ahead or behind. In the end the vast majority of people will end up as capable, functional adults no matter what, and even if not independently functional, we all have the same inherent capability for happiness.)

I organized five different colored binders - one for history, one for science, one for language arts, one for math, and one for PE/health/art/music. They have tabs of the different kind of work we do in each subject. We keep all our work filed in those binders, and date all of our pages. This made it really easy when lived in a state that required county reviews of work, and now it's just a habit.

Our schedule is not perfect. I'm sure some things will get missed. It is evolving. This year I started with changes so it looked more like this (colored coded and everything!):
 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
SOTW chapter + review questions and short narration (AB)	Internet videos, library books, KAMW review	Science - info day (BP & USE)	AB activity	Science - project day	60 minutes
Map Page (AB mapwork)	UEWH pages + timeline page	narration page or animal profile page	websites (UEWH)	observation page or animal profile page drawing	15-20 minutes
Character page	Comprehension quiz	Narration and copywork	Plot Page	Book report	30-60 minutes
	FLL	FLL	FLL		15 minutes
Free Read	Free Read	Free Read	Free Read	Free Read	30 minutes
Math	Math	Math	Math	Math	30 minutes
PE	Art	Music	PE	Health (BPJ section)	30-60 minutes

(Again, I will be posting by subjects and explaining what all this means in the upcoming weeks.)

Next year I will make more changes. But the "method" is not especially stressful to me anymore. I've been around enough homeschoolers who are taught in so many different ways, and they are all still wonderful, bright kids, just like their regular-schooled counterparts. It doesn't seem to matter what the parents do, as long as they are doing something. Part of why many families choose homeschooling is wanting to encourage love of learning and inquisitiveness, which can oftentimes be squelched (inadvertently I'm sure) by school. In this open setting, it is important to be trusting. Trusting in your child that they will learn what they need to learn when they need to learn it, and trusting in yourself that you will know what to teach when you need to teach it. This means changing and adapting when methods don't work. With that being said, while this (above) is the current method to my madness, it's not the only way and probably won't even be my only way.

I'm also sure my children will be "ruined" no matter what I do or don't do, so all I can ask of myself is to give it my best shot.

My favorite breakfast #1

This is one of my favorite go-to breakfasts. Doesn't it look yummy? It's a combination of Kashi Go-Lean Crunch, Fiber One Original, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and blackberries.

Fiber One may look like old people cereal when it's sitting there on the shelf, and I'll admit it's not the most exciting by itself, but when paired with the Kashi the light crunch of the Fiber One "twigs" compliments the tough crunch of the granola clusters very well. The Kashi is very crunchy, enough so that I've read some complaints about it, but I find it's just right when eaten with milk. It's packed with protein, and it's sweet enough that the the unsweetened almond milk is just fine. Berries add a nice natural sweetness, too.

Of course, being boxed cereal, it's quick and easy to grab in the morning, as a snack, or even lunch. The fiber and protein are pretty filling!

Best of all, it's a healthy choice. For 1/2 cup Kashi Go-Lean Crunch, 1/2 cup Fiber One originial, 1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, and 1/4 c fresh blackberries, here is the nutrition breakdown:

My Most Recent Painting

Here is the painting I finished this week:

I already had a pair of matted, framed pictures from when I staged our house for sale last summer. The pictures were close-up photographs of dandelions in a kind of a grey scale. I liked them okay, but Matt did not, so I decided to paint over the dandelion papers. I haven't decided what to do on the second one yet.

I'm not 100% thrilled with the outcome, mostly of the shape of the kid's face and left hand, but it was my first time painting a person so all things considered it could be worse. I like the shading of the kid's outfit.
I used this photograph, which I found on Pinterest, as my guide:

It would have been nice to have been into painting when I was in school so I could have taken art class or lessons or something. I guess it's not too late, but, since I'm just doing it for fun and relaxation it's also not really necessary.

My favorite chocolate chip cookies

I love cookies. Of all the sweet baked goods, they are easily my favorite. No offense to cake, brownies, and pastries. They're all nice, too. But there's just something about cookies.

Of course, the queen of all cookies is chocolate chip. Who can say no to a chocolate chip cookie? I can't even imagine offering one to someone and having them say no. Reason of allergy excluded, it's just not within the realm of possibility.

This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've been making the same one for years. I don't remember where I got it from originally. While I've pinned a million "best chocolate chip cookie" recipes on Pinterest, and looked at pictures of what the ideal cookie is "supposed" to look like (not like mine), I haven't tried another recipe or technique. I just like these. And I like them just the way they are.

These cookies are soft and not overly chewy. They don't crumble and they practically melt in your mouth, especially if you're getting one just off the cooling rack. If you manage to not eat them all immediately, they can be frozen and later thawed out to be almost just as good a fresh. They are easy to take to a party or give as a gift. And if all that's not enough, they also are simple to make and bake up quickly. The Little One has mixed them up before with just minor assistance, and I've made them with a class of 5 nutty six year old boys. So even if you are not baking inclined, don't be afraid to try these. I'm even including notes, in parentheses, in case you've never baked a cookie before in your life.

Ingredients:
1 c butter, softened (Leave the two sticks of butter out on the counter for about an hour, or until reaching room temperature. You should be able to dent the butter with your fingers, but it shouldn't be melted.)
1 c white sugar
1 c light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
1 t baking soda
2 t hot water
1/2 t salt
3 c flour
2 c chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars.
("Creaming" means mixing butter and sugar up very thoroughly until they are fully combined and light and fluffy. Use both sticks of butter and both the brown and white sugars. This is best done with an electric mixer, but can also be done by hand with lots of beating with a fork. Watch as the mixture changes, and once it gets to light yellow and fluffy stop mixing. Over mixing can make butter and sugar separate, but this takes awhile so I wouldn't stress over the possibility of over-mixing very much.)

3.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.
(Crack an egg, pop in in the bowl, then stir it up until combined. Repeat.)

4. In a tiny bowl or measuring cup, mix hot water with baking soda and salt. Add the mix to the large bowl, along with vanilla extract, and stir to combine.
(This is a tiny amount so I usually use a 1/4 cup measure to combine the water, baking soda, and salt. Just make sure to measure carefully and mix thoroughly.)

5. Mix in flour, one cup at a time, to make a dough. Stir in chocolate chips.
(This is pretty self explanitory. Dump a cup of flour into the bowl, mix it up, and then repeat x2. Same thing with the chocolate chips.

6. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet.
(There is such a thing as a cookie dough scoop, which will help make nice, evenly sized cookies, but it's not needed if you don't have one. Just use a tablespoon or even a kitchen spoon to scoop out a ball of dough, and plop it on the pan. Leave the dough as balls. It will flatten and spread into a cookie shape as it bakes, so there's no need to smoosh the balls into circles. Also, because of the baking and spreading, make sure to leave space around each cookie so they don't end up baking together into conjoined twins. I usually space my cookies in rows of three and two, like the super-sophisticated drawing below.)

7. Bake in preheated oven for 10-11 minutes. Remove cookie sheet from oven and let cookies cool on pan for 5 minutes, then move to cooling rack to finish cooling.
(This step is key. Only bake them for 10-11 minutes. They will not look done, and you're going to be tempted to put them back in the oven. Don't. Trust me. The cookies will continue to bake from the heat of the pan for those 5 minutes they are sitting there, and when they are finished cooling you will have something that is soft-baked and delicious.)

8. Enjoy.

Makes approximately 4-5 dozen cookies.
(The exact yield is going to depend a lot on the size of your dough balls and how much dough you eat while baking. Obviously, smaller cookies = more cookies. Now, the dough does have raw egg so you probably shouldn't eat it and all, but, I've eaten a lot of raw dough and haven't died even once.)

Nutrition Information:
(For a yield of 4 dozen, from CalorieCount.About.com)

I'm labeling these as an "under 200 calorie" recipe because each cookie is under 200 calories, but clearly they are not a health food and have no redeeming qualities beyond taste. And happiness.

A Writing on Writing

I haven't written in a couple of days, or I guess it's been over a week now. At first I wanted this blog to be a daily thing, even if it's not exactly the most purposeful blog overall. Then, I thought maybe I'd update a few times a week. Things kept getting in the way and the "few times a week" became nothing last week. This is not for lack of things to say, but because of competition with all the other things there are to do.

I like to exercise. Well, maybe I don't like it, but I like the health and fitness aspect, and I'm finding that with my migraines it is a necessity to keep me feeling well. I like to bake. I like to paint. I like spend time with Matt. I'd like to get more into meditation, but find it hard to find the time for a regular sitting practice. I'd also like to read more, but get pulled away by all the other things I should or could do. Of course there are also all those not so fun things that have to be done like cleaning and laundry and the like.

I've read about how we all need to make time to exercise. Don't make it an option, they say, just do it. I've read about how we need to make time for our hobbies, as to help us all de-stress. Again, it's not an option, they say. Stress is linked to all kinds of terrible things. Don't de-stress and you'll pop. Same thing for meditation. I read about the many benefits and how important a regular practice should be for us all.And of course they say to spend time everyday with your spouse. Still, despite what "they" say, I'm finding it hard to make time for all the things that require time.

Sometimes I begin to think that it may be easier for all these wonderful things if I would send the kids to school. If they were gone for a chunk of the day, I could do the cooking and cleaning and probably have some time left for exercise and a hobby or two. Right?

In actuality, I probably would end up wasting whatever free time I found here and there, if there even was any. And even more than that, if I really think about it, I get to do many of the things I say I want to because I'm homeschooling the kids, just not in the exact way I want to. I get to read about history and science. I get to practice being mindful and present throughout the day through various tasks. Driving meditation may not be the same as seated practice, but sometimes I think the real life practice may be just as, if not more, valuable. In baking, I can do lengthy things like bake bread and not have to worry about missing a step in going out to pick up or drop off a child somewhere. Because they are home-schooled, I can do things not just with Matt, but with my family. His "weekend" is Wednesday / Thursday, so if the kids were in regular school we would all miss out on that. The kids encourage me in my exercise and sometimes join along. They also enjoy painting with me, and are my best critics.

Then there is that writing thing. That's the one thing I haven't really been able to work out, even in a modified way, with the kids around. At least, not without much frustration on both our parts. I'll spend hours editing, thinking, pecking away, picking out pictures and telling the kids "Just ten more minutes. Just be good for ten more minutes while I finish this!" In these instances, no one ends up particularly happy in the end.

With all of this in mind, I found today's post from zenhabits to be quite timely. "Why You Should Write Daily". For me, the take-home message is two part: 1) just do it, and 2) start small and simple. Sometimes I get wrapped up in the need to write something long, with some amount of purpose, and even better with pictures to go along. But it doesn't have to be that way. I can modify my ideal here, too. I can write just enough to satisfy that writing desire. I can write a bit here and there, save it, and do a bit more later. My blog doesn't need to be fancy or purposeful or colorful. It doesn't need to have even one reader. I do need to write, however, for all the reasons listed on zenhabits, plus because I just like to.

Teaching Earth Science with Food - Layers of Earth and Plate Tectonics

A month or two ago when we started our Earth science unit, we started with reviewing the layers of the Earth and plate tectonics. For science, we generally devote a day of the week to reading, videos, and discussion, and a separate day for demonstrations or experiments. I especially love when I can find or come up with edible demonstrations, since we then get a treat out of it as well. I was delighted when I found two sugary-sweet treat demonstrations that could be combined to discuss our subject.

A big thanks to the American Museum of Natural History and the Red Cross Blog for the inspiration! Make sure to check out their links for more detailed explanations of the science (and not just the yummy food) part of this. All I did was combine the ideas and minorly adjust a couple things that didn't work out as well for us.

And now - Ooey, Gooey, Edible Earth! - A lesson in Earth structure and plate tectonics.

(Please excuse the especially low quality photos. I took these hastily with a cell phone camera, not realizing I would later want to share the demonstration.)

Ingredients:

1 gumdrop
1 large marshmallow (left intact)
2 c rice krispy cereal
1 T butter
13 large marshmallows (for melting)
1 tsp shortening or butter for greasing
1 can chocolate frosting
at least 4 cream-filled sandwich cookies

Instructions:

1. Inner and Outer Core - Use your fingers to poke a little hole into a large marshmallow. Push the gumdrop into the marshmallow and squish the marshmallow around so the gumdrop is surrounded by marshmallow. Set aside.

2. Lower Mantle - Lightly grease or use cooking spray on the inside of a large glass bowl. Place a piece of waxed paper on your workspace. Add the butter and the remaining 13 marshmallows to the bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, then stir and microwave for an additional 30 seconds. Quickly add the rice krispies to the melted mix and stir completely. Keep stirring while the mixture cools slightly. Meanwhile, have student coat hands with shortening or additional butter. While still warm, but cool enough to handle, roll the rice krispy mixture around the prepared core marshmallow.

The wax paper is to protect your work surface from inevitable marshmallow goo droppings.

3. Asthenosphere - Once your rice krispy mantle is packed around the core, dip into the frosting and start spreading. Cover the entire earth in a layer of frosting.

This lasted about 30 seconds before they asked me to take over spreading.

4. Lithosphere - Separate your sandwich cookies and place the cream side down in the frosting. They are not going to lay quite flat, of course. It's okay if they break a bit.

You could coat the whole thing in cookie, but we decided this was sugary enough.

5. Plate Boundaries - First, show how the cookies are like the tectonic plates. They slide over the asthenosphere. Remind the student that the plates move around in different ways, producing different changes on the surface of Earth.

-Divergent plate boundary - Move two plates apart. If you do the demonstration with a little pressure, your student can see the asthenosphere moosh up (that is the scientific term, I'm sure) from the opening between the plates.

-Convergent plate boundary - Push two plates together, with one going under the other. Check out the subduction zone.

-Transform plate boundary - Slide two plates past each other. This works best if you have two broken cookies with jagged edges that kind of grab each other, so you can really feel and hear the "earthquake" when those edges break loose and slide.

Can you find all the plate boundaries here?

6. Examine the layers - Now that your Earth is assembled, cut it open. You can talk about the properties of the different layers - the solid inner core; the hot, liquid outer core; the hard but slightly flowing lower mantle; the viscous, slowly flowing asthenosphere; and the rigid lithosphere.

Lastly, you can eat it!

Can you see the eyes lighting up with sugar?

Just don't eat it all in one go. The exact nutrition facts will of course depend on what kind of cookies and frosting you're using, and how much of each, but I'm coming up with a minimum calorie count around 1300 for the whole Earth model, and over 100 grams of sugar. More than just a tiny piece will make you feel quite ill (ask me how I know..).

"How do you homeschool?" - Part 2: Setting up shop.

You researched your state laws. You filed the paperwork. Now what? You need a classroom, right? With a blackboard up front, an American flag in the corner, a student desk, and some sort of hard, plastic chair?

Well, I'm sure there are some families who choose to set up this way. If it makes you comfortable to create a space that looks like a classroom you remember being in - go for it. But it is hardly necessary.

This idea may initially be distressing to some people, but you can homeschool anywhere, in any setting. Many of us who grew up in a school system probably have this idea in our heads, whether we recognize it or not, that learning happens in a specific place, at a specific time, for a specific number of hours each day, and one must be formally educated in educating in order to educate. I didn't even realize I had that idea in my subconscious until we got started homeschooling The Big One, but it was there, and it took me a little while to get over. I remembered the little details of the big teacher's desk up front by the chalkboard, the big felt erasers that had to be clapped out, and the pencil sharpener that spun.

That's school, right?

It doesn't have to be.

Learning happens all the time, anywhere, and educating can be done by anyone. You don't have to have a "classroom".
Even if you're lucky enough to have space in your home to devote specifically to a classroom space, it doesn't have to look like a typical school. You can design this space to best fit the individual needs of your kids and your homeschooling style. Welcome to the freedom of homeschooling. It's okay if it's a little terrifying at first.

Here are some space ideas I've pinned on Pinterest, where I have a homeschool board that you're welcome to follow. These are not my pictures, so click for the link to see the original source.

A table cut in half and attached to a bookcase for a two-student space.

A dreamy arts and crafts storage space.

An amazing closet turned office space. Only, a child's would probably look a lot messier.

An Ikea bookshelf on a lazy susan. This would be a neat small space way to store school supplies and books and then turn the bookcase around when you didn't want to look at "school" anymore.

Here's an old-school (is that a pun?) storage space turned DIY pretty.

A clever, space saving, fold-away storage space and desk.

These are all wonderful inspiration. In reality, however, some of us may not have the space, time, energy, motivation, or DIY skills for such projects. Here in our apartment, I am hindered by both not being able to drill into the walls and by the possibility moving again in just a year or two.

Luckily, all that's really required as far as homeschooling setting is a place to be, and sometimes a hard place on which to write.

We usually use the kitchen table. Each of my kids has a bookshelf in their room with their school books and binders on it, and as we change subjects through the day they go to put back or take out their books. If we're not writing, we'll sit on the couch or on the floor or wherever is most comfortable and least distracting at that particular time. If it's nice out, we can even take our work outside. Keeping papers in hard-backed binders makes it easy to transport and have a flat, hard spot to write. We don't do work outside a lot, though, because the possibility of wind blowing papers away distresses The Big One.

It's not fancy, but it works.

Supplies to have on hand depend on your style and how your child best learns. The basics include pencils and paper. Then, just think about what you'd put in a typical school-box for your child. Scissors, a ruler, glue, a pen, some sort of coloring utensil (crayons, markers, etc). Most things you will probably have on hand already. All I bought for school this year was a new pack of lined paper and pack of printer paper. We already had all the pencils and craft supplies we could possibly use.

Those are the essentials. For us, a computer with internet access is also important. I don't how how people homeschooled before the internet. Some families may use the TV for educational videos, some don't have one in their home at all. Some may want lots of craft supplies such as paint, yarn, construction paper, clay, and paper plates, others won't have a use for much of this. Books of course are major, but whether you purchase workbooks, reading books, or curriculum based books will depend on your homeschool style and also the quality of your local libraries. Which reminds me, a library card would also be one of our essentials.

Making Celtic torks in our pajamas on the dining room floor - Bookwork on the kitchen table - Cuneiform clay writing at the office desk

The last part of setting up shop is figuring out your schedule, if you'll even keep a schedule. My next post will be about homeschooling methods, which will largely influence how much or how little you plan or schedule your school time. I can say now, however, that pretty much no matter what, teaching your kids will not take as much planned time as you may think. In the beginning, I had no idea how I'd do it. When kids go to public school, they leave early in the morning and are gone until afternoon. I wondered, "How is there time for all that at home?!"

There's not. If you devoted a full seven hours to sitting with your child in your classroom space, you both would go crazy. But the good news is, it doesn't take that long. Think way back to when you were the age of your child. In school, how much of the time you spent in the school building was productive time? How much of it was spent trying to get everyone to stand in a neat line, telling Johnny to sit down for the millionth time, shushing everyone, preparing film strips, and waiting for the teacher to come over and help? The truth is that with one-on-one attention, or nearly one-on-one if you have more than one child, the actual time for organized "school time" is pretty little.

Again, part of setting up will depend on how you decide to homeschool. Like anything else, all the pieces of homeschooling intersect and depend on each other. I'll have more on the specifics of planning your time and space in my next post - A Method to the Madness.