Why We Homeschool Year-Round

Our "official" start of the school year starts next Monday, August 26th. The only reason I chose a specific day to start the school year is to have a bit of a transition from one year to the next. But the reality is that we homeschool year-round. So why did we make that choice? I will discuss some of the reasons in this blog.

Learning never ends

A big reason why we homeschool year-round is because of this! Learning never, ever ends. Both children and adults are constantly learning something new every day. We can't really put homeschooling into a 9 month block. Even children who are not homeschooled are still learning throughout the summer. We may go a little slower in the summer, plan more outings during the nice weather, and use it for an opportunity to do different kinds of learning, but my children are still drawn to learning their letters, math, reading, writing, etc.


More time to cover the same amount of material

Homeschooling year-round allows us to cover the same amount of material in a longer time frame. This gives our children more time to master the material, more time to spend deepening their knowledge of that material, and more time to rest when needed. I set goals every year that we want to cover over the year, so having the full 12 months to do this allows us to meet (or exceed) those goals set out at the "beginning" of the year. We also do not need to spend any time reviewing material from the previous year as we just continue with what they are working on pretty seamlessly.



No school room

We don't have a room where we house all of our materials. We do school in our living room and dining room. Our materials sit on shelves in our living room. They are accessible 24/7, 365 days a year to our children. I don't want to pack up materials at the end of one school year and restore them at the beginning of the next. That makes no sense to me, especially after discussing the first point. This also means that we don't have a set school time, which is totally fine by me.


Flexibility

Our state requirements are pretty lax, and we don't even need to take official attendance until children are 7. That being said, we most likely fulfill the state requirements when it comes to the number of days that we homeschool. By homeschool year-round, we have the ability to take vacations or long weekend trips whenever we want, take breaks or have shortened weeks when necessary, and not worry so much if one of the children gets sick and is not interested in doing work for some time. Flexibility is one of the reasons that we chose to homeschool anyway, but it works out well for us to homeschool year-round.


Odd Schedule

My husband works shift work, which can change suddenly or, at the very least, every six months. Some shifts that he can potentially work would mean that he would never see our children if they were in traditional school. It is another reason that we chose to homeschool, but schooling year-round gives us the opportunity to really work with his schedule in such a way that our children still spend significant time with their dad, have family experiences, and have down time.

So those are the top reasons why we homeschool year-round. Do you homeschool year-round? Or do you have specific months that you use to homeschool? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Work Cycles in a Montessori-based Homeschool

I have talked in a previous blog about how we do not have a set "school" time. Instead, my children have access to their materials at any time that they are awake. Our homeschooling and open-ended materials are all located in our living room since we do not have space for a dedicated homeschool room. We do a lot of work on the couch, kitchen table, and the floor.

For a long time, I did not think that my son had a work cycle. I think I had some idea that because he wasn't consistently working the didactic materials for two to three hours at a time, his work cycle was non-existent. It was just recently, in the last month and a half actually, that I realized that he does have a work cycle. Since he is homeschooled, his work cycle looks a bit different than it would if he were in a Montessori classroom. I have since learned (thanks to the wonderful Aubrey Hargis of Child of the Redwoods) that a work cycle is when the child is in the same place for three hours at a time without interruption. During that time, the child has the freedom to choose from any of the available materials, do practical life or art, participate in gross motor or pretend play, seek out the guide for lessons, etc.

My mind was blown. Of course we have a work cycle! Since then, I have done by best to try to preserve a 2.5 to 3 hour time block at least five days a week somewhere within the day for a work cycle to occur. At home, this work cycle either occurs in the morning or the afternoon. For example, this morning we went to the park, came home to have lunch, and then put the baby down for a nap. After the baby was down for her nap, the work cycle began. I did nothing to prompt the cycle from starting. It just started on its own. We began by doing some math work, followed by map work and looking at the different flags of North American and Central American countries. Then we did some language work. Following this, my son played on his own doing some pretend play. He had a snack, listened to some music, and then worked on learning the different types of sharks. We spent a long time reading books before and after the baby woke up. He did some matching work of famous landmarks in North America. He had another snack and some water. Our work cycle ended when it was time to make dinner.

At that point, there was a significant interruption in the space. The kids are invited to help me make dinner, but usually they are playing together or listening to music.

I used to feel that a three hour work cycle was too long. But it happens without us even realizing it, in my opinion. We sometimes go through our work cycle in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. The kids are free to also go outside during this time as well, if they want. Sometimes we have an entire work cycle outside at the local arboretum or a playground (social opportunities are becoming increasingly important to my son!). During a work cycle, I usually work on something of my own. I will read a book (yup!), prep materials for the following weeks, write down observations, give lessons, write, etc. I do not do households chores during this time because I want to keep myself available for lessons when needed (unless the children help with them as part of practical life).

I love that we have found a more natural rhythm to our days. Slowing down has helped us a lot and removing a lot of my own expectations that we needed to always have something to do. It's okay for us to have days of just being home. It's okay for us to have busy days. But a good balance of those helps us to find that rhythm and preserve that essential work cycle for my children's learning in the most important years of their life.

Do you do a work cycle in your homeschool? If so, how does it look?

DIY Land and Water Form Tablets

As I discussed before, my son really enjoys geography. We continue to talk about the continents daily, and I am working on putting together some continent boxes for him. That being said, I decided to introduce the land and water forms to him. We started with the book Water Land, which I checked out from our library (and renewed as much as I could!). I should probably just purchase the book.

I was not too sure if my son would enjoy creating the land forms on his own just yet, so when I saw a post from a Montessori 101 member about making land and water form tactile tablets, I knew I had to try it. My son really gravitates towards anything he can touch or trace, so these seemed perfect.

Here is what our DIY land and water form tablets look like:

A total of 10 tablets - from L to R, top row: isthmus, archipelago, island; middle row: strait, system of lakes, lake; bottom row: gulf, peninsula, bay, cape.

Materials:

• 10 small wooden tablets (I purchased them from Michael's for 99 cents each)
• Blue and brown felt 
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Scissors or rotary circle cutter 
• Sharpie marker

Steps:

1. Trace the tablets on the felt so you have 10 blue rectangles and 5 brown rectangles.

2. Glue the blue felt rectangles to each tablet with hot glue. To make this a bit easier on myself, I did a line on the wood, then laid the felt down on it. I made lines all down the wood, a few at a time, so that I could control where my felt went.

3. Trim any blue felt that overhangs the tablets (this step is optional, but it helped to square off any raggedy edges).

4. Free draw the land shapes on to the brown rectangles.
*Note: Each brown piece will be used for 2 blue tablets. For example, the lake and the island are opposites of each other, so I cut out the island and was left with the shape for the lake. This is where using a rotary circle cutter is extremely useful because I got cleaner lines.

5. Cut the shapes out of the brown felt and set aside.

6. Glue the brown felt pieces on top of the blue felt for each tablet. Trim any overhang from the brown felt.

7. You are finished! I went ahead and wrote the names of each on the back of each tablet for control of error and also for my own personal reference. I also made a control sheet on my computer with information on each land and water form!

This DIY cost me about $20 and only took me about 20-25 minutes to complete!

Enjoy and thank you to the member who inspired me to make these!

Geography for 3-year-olds

My son's favorite subject right now is definitely Geography. He loves everything about globes, maps, water, land, etc. We have spent countless hours with our two globes and talking about the Earth, exploring outside for dirt, mud, rocks, water sources, and pointing out the continents anywhere we see them.

When we first started homeschooling back in September, I purchased a sandpaper globe. I introduced it to my son and showed him the different land and water areas. He has always been a tactile learner and likes the feeling of fine sandpaper, so this intrigued him right away. He spent a lot of time tracing the land, telling me which part was land and which part was water.

After he had a good handle on the difference between land and water, I introduced him to the idea of air, land, and water. Luckily for us, the lesson landed on a rainy day, so we went outside and collected some rainwater in a small mason jar, as well as a sample of the muddy, grassy earth. We brought those inside and examined them, noting the differences between them. With these mason jars, my son did some sorting activities. The first one was a land, water, air picture sorting with just the various landscapes. This was not easy for him in the beginning.

Following that, he sorted land, water, and air animals onto a mat that I printed and laminated for him. He really loved doing this. My husband explained the simple idea that land animals walked, water animals swam, and air animals flew. We use Toob animals, which can be purchased on Amazon or at your local Michael's store. Following that, my son sorted land, water, air vehicles on to the same mat. We also used the vehicles from Toobs.


Once he had worked on these for a few weeks, I knew he would be ready for the Continent Globe. I introduced this to him using the Continent Song. In the beginning, he would follow along with me while I sang and point the continents. Now, a few months later, he sings the song all the time and knows all of the continents! He even knows them by their shape, even though they are all given separate colors on the Montessori Continent globe.

I also introduced him to the different land and water forms using the book Water Land and some DIY land and water form tablets. You can see the DIY instructions in this post.

Next up I think we will do some continent boxes once I get them together!

What Homeschooling a Preschooler is Really Like

Homeschooling is not sitting around a table doing worksheets for a set period of time, or creating a block of time within the day to "do school." Homeschooling encompasses every part of our lives, where skills are gained daily in small increments. So, what does a day of homeschooling really look like?

It is early. 6:30 a.m. Both of my children are awake, and subsequently, so am I. We take some minutes to talk quietly in bed, have a few laughs, and cuddle. Then we start our morning routine: potty, change, and downstairs to eat breakfast.

The homeschooling day has already started. Completing the morning routine is an exercise in encouraging independence and patience with one another. Social skills are happening at almost every moment of the day when you have siblings.

After we eat breakfast, I usually do some morning chores and the kids have some independent work time. I invite my son to help me with the chores if he wishes, but he usually goes right to his shelves and starts on work that he does every day (here is where I tell you that his favorite "work" is his Mr. Potato Head and it is the work that he chooses every single morning as the first thing to do).

The rest of the morning depends on what we have planned. If we have a morning activity, we get ready and we leave. This varies by day - from swimming lessons to library time to speech therapy to visiting the animals at a local park. If we don't have a morning activity, we stay home. This repeats again in the afternoon depending on if we have errands to run or an activity to attend. All of these things provide essential skills for my children.

So what happens if we have no activities and we stay home? I will ask my son if he would like a lesson or what he wants to work on. His current favorites are sound games and sandpaper letters, pattern blocks, art work, puzzles, and cutting work.

I have NO planned lessons for the day. Here is where I think homeschooling is different. I have overarching goals for the school year. These are things that I believe my son will be able to achieve by May or June, but it is not a big deal if he doesn't. But I do not write out what we will do every day. I follow my children and their interests.

So what DO we do ALL day? (Besides activities and errands) And, what is my role as a homeschooling mom?

We learn (and guide)! If my son wants a lesson, I give it to him. Sometimes it is a formal three-period lesson, and sometimes it is a quick lesson. Most of the time he can figure out a work on his own without my guidance. I am always around to guide him through a work if he needs it. My son does language all day, every day. He talks non-stop. He works on letter sounds. My son also does math every day. We count everything. He works on "how many?" questions and quantity work. He does practical life work such as helping with the laundry, vacuuming, dusting, washing windows, feeding the pets, baking, etc. He does sensorial work outside or works with the materials I have for him such as sound boxes or the pink tower. We read a lot of books! I mean, a lot. This is an area where we practice some turn-taking because the baby wants to turn the pages as well, so we practice patience with waiting. I help him work through those really tough moments where his emotions overwhelm him, where he is angry or upset or sad about something.

The best part of every day is that we laugh and smile together. Every day. Even on the really hard days where life is really getting us down, we always end up laughing about something. Preschoolers think a lot of things are really, really funny.

At the end of the day, he has learned a lot. His knowledge is growing every single day. Some days we do a lot of work, and other days are more relaxed. I am grateful I get to spend these days with my children, guiding in their knowledge and seeing how they discover this beautiful world that we live in.

DIY Montessori Sound Cylinders

Sound cylinders are used in Montessori education as a sensorial material at the primary (ages 3-6) level. They help the child refine their auditory senses. The cylinders look the same except for the red and blue tops, so they isolate the sense of hearing. The child will initially match the sounds of the cylinders by shaking them and finding the two that have the same sound. There are also extension activities with the sound cylinders.

Sound cylinders are an easy DIY if you are homeschooling your child or want to do sensorial work. I could not find cylinders, but I did find small boxes at Michael's that were 99 cents each. This project took me less than 10 minutes (most of the time I was searching for items to place in the boxes and I burned my finger on the hot glue once, so you can easily do it under 10 minutes)! It is cheap, quick (less than $10), looks great, and all of the items in the boxes are things I found around my house.

For this project, you need the following:

• 8+ (even number) similar small boxes, cylinders, containers
• Hot glue and hot glue gun
• Markers, paint (I did red and blue acrylic paint), 2 small paintbrushes
• Non-perishable items from your house

 Next, I marked the bottom of the boxes with a small dot - one color for 2 boxes. This helps to remind me which ones match as well as control for the child to see if they are correct.

After that, I went to my pantry to see what I could find to place in the boxes. I wanted sounds of varying grades - from soft to loud. I made sure that none of them sounded the same. I chose sugar, uncooked rice, uncooked pasta (rotini), and coins. Don't fill the containers too much because you want the items to move around and make noise.

Then I glued the tops back on to the boxes. I put a small dab of hot glue on the very top of each side of the box and put the top back on. The tops are pretty tight fitting, so it worked really well. My only mishap is that, since the boxes are a heavy paper material, the sugar was coming out of one of them when I shook it. I just put some hot glue all around the edge of the top to keep the sugar inside. I did not do this for all the other boxes because it was not necessary.

Ready to be painted!

The final step was to paint the tops. This is done so the child can place the boxes back in their groups after finishing the activities. One red box matches one blue box. It makes presentation easier (so I don't have to look at the bottom of the boxes) as well as an aid to put the material back on the shelf as it was.

Ready for the shelf!

I hope my son will enjoy these. I will present them to him tomorrow morning! :-)