High School, Take Two (2011 Curriculum Fair)

by on May 27, 2011
in curriculum · 31 Comments

Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home

Ages of my children: 14, 10 (and college sophomore, 18)
Educational Philosophy Influences: Literature-based, Eclectic, College-Bound

In August our daughter will begin high school at home. This is our second time homeschooling a high schooler; our older son just finished his freshman year of college. As we enter high school again, we naturally consider what we’ll do the same and what we’ll do differently.

Our son’s input was tremendously helpful. At the end of the year, I asked him what boiled down to: how did we do? I’ve been relieved at his answers. He didn’t have a list of “Things I Missed Because I Was Homeschooled.” He basically had two items on his “wish list.”

  1. That we had talked more about literary elements like symbolism, imagery, etc. and that we’d analyzed more poetry. (You might have guessed that he is an English major.)
  2. That he had taken a language through dual enrollment at the community college rather than using Rosetta Stone at home.

I can definitely correct those two issues! But there are other places that we’ll tweak according to the differences in the two kids themselves and a few things I wish I’d done differently.

One major difference is that we will have more time with our daughter. Our son wanted to finish high school in three years, so we packed a lot into those years. She’ll take four years, allowing for a more leisurely pace.

For our kids, high school consists of a combination of home, co-op, and community college. Why this mixture?
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Decluttering 101

by on April 22, 2011
in organization · 15 Comments

Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home

My grandmother was a packrat. I’m grateful she saved letters written by my great-great-great grandfather during the Civil War and that she saved a sampler handed down through a dozen generations to me.

But those stacks of magazines and drawers filled with miscellaneous utensils? When we moved her out of her home, she was living in just one room of house. The rest was filled literally to the ceiling with junk.

We’re all far from that extreme, right? But what about those boxes of clothes we’re saving for someone, the worksheets from our daughter’s first-grade year, and the puzzles with missing pieces? Do you ever feel cluttered inside because of clutter in your home?

I have one word for us all: declutter. Get rid of all the junk, and then keep the clutter down.

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Reclaiming Family Time

by on March 18, 2011
in family time · 24 Comments

Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home

If you’re reading here, you probably homeschool or are considering homeschooling. So of course, you’re someone who always puts family first. Right? I mean, don’t we, as homeschoolers, just naturally put our family life before everything else?

Gulp. Raise your hand if you’ve ever wondered what happened to those quiet family evenings spent together, if your car is full of wrappers from fast-food restaurants, or if you look at your calendar and try not to hyperventilate.

The truth is, homeschoolers can be just as overextended as everyone else, and like everyone else, we can fall into the trap of replacing family time with other activities.

I am not here to chastise you for the time your family spends at outside activities. Some families function best on an activity-packed schedule. Some couples enjoy connecting while they watch their kids practice soccer in the evenings. But some of us feel overwhelmed when we look at our calendar and think, “I just have to get through two weeks, and then we’ll have a free day.”

How did we get from eating supper together six nights a week to me kissing my husband hello/goodbye and saying “Fix yourself a frozen pizza” as I head out to take a kid to Bible study? (I mean, it’s Bible study, after all. It has to be the right thing to do. Right?)

How do we get back to that place of simplicity?
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Burying the Big Yellow Bus

by on February 11, 2011
in inspiration · 78 Comments

Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home

I have never, in a fit of the frustration that is unique to homeschooling moms, threatened to flag down the proverbial Big Yellow Bus.

But here is the flat-out honest truth: I have wondered every now and then if I should.

My oldest son attended public school for kindergarten and first grades. As far as I know, he never desired for one second to go back. But there were times when he was in high school that I would think,

“Is this all going to work out right? What if we’ve messed up his whole life by homeschooling him?”

My daughter loved the Junie B. Jones and Ramona Quimby books. Most of the action in these series occurred at school. Such fun things happened there! Parties, plays, recess, glitter-laden Valentine’s cards. Walking home on tree-lined streets. Crossing the street with Henry Huggins.

When she was nine, she saved up all her birthday money to buy a “Play School” kit, complete with name tags, report cards, and a chalkboard. Her dolls and younger brother would be her classroom, and I must say she was a natural teacher.

Sometimes I used to think, “This little girl would love to be in school.”

She’s in middle school now, and again, many of the books she reads and movies she watches take place in a school setting. She knows that kids in public school don’t randomly break out in song a la High School Musical. But every once in a while, she’ll say, “I think it would be fun to be around a bunch of people every day.”

And again, I wonder, “Are we on the right track?”

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Sarah’s Homeschool Day in the Life (with a 10-,13-year-old, & a Graduate)

by on January 7, 2011
in organization · 24 Comments

Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home

When asked to discuss my daily homeschooling schedule, there is only one thing I can say for sure:

Each year is different, and every day within each year is different.

But first, let me introduce my family. We are in our eleventh year of homeschooling. This year I have a 4th grade son and an 8th grade daughter at home, and our oldest son is in his freshman year at college. (Yes, we homeschooled all the way through. You really can do it!)

I think of us as relaxed homeschoolers with a goal of college for all of our kids.

We are the kind of homeschooling family that is frequently not at home. For 22 weeks of the year, we have enrichment classes through our local support group on Mondays. My kids take a variety of classes for five hours each Monday, including science, Bible, writing, literature, yearbook, geography, and other classes.

On Tuesdays for 24 weeks of the year, my kids attend a performing arts co-op in the afternoon. And on Thursdays for about 14 weeks of each year, we have a full afternoon of scouting (Cub Scouts and American Heritage Girls). We also enjoy a couple of field trips each month, although those are lessening as my kids get older.

One could say that leaves Wednesday and Friday as regular, at-home days. But rather than look at these outside activities as intrusions upon our homeschooling, I consider them essential elements of my kids’ education.

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Transitioning into the Big Kid Years

by on December 6, 2010
in methods & philosophies · 30 Comments

Written by contributor Sarah Small of SmallWorld at Home

Let’s face it. Very few of us are completely untouched by public opinion, whether it’s barely beneath the surface or just an occasional niggling feeling. Even the most die-hard unschooler must wonder at some point: Are we on the right track? Am I doing enough?

If your students are under 11 or 12, keep relaxing. Please, oh please, enjoy these days. Snuggle together reading, spend hours doing crafts, take long walks and bend down to examine every insect. Bake a cake and call it science. Go to a museum and call it history. Go grocery shopping and call it math.

I have now graduated one student, who is in his first year of college, and I can say with assurance: I do not regret one single day that we spent decorating cookies instead of doing a math worksheet.

But the time does come to transition.

Generally around seventh grade, you and your student will be ready to ease into what I think of as the academic years—the move toward independence.  This road to independence should be a purposeful one. We have deliberately cultivated a relaxed approach to our lives, and in homeschooling and parenting, this translates at one level to relinquishing control little by little. Your child cannot become independent if you do everything for him because it’s the way you want things done.

So how do you make the transition from playdough to research papers? Slowly, but deliberately.
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