I have been very slack with my blog lately. Mostly because it is Spring in this part of the world, and we are relishing the warmer weather and getting the garden going. Also, Robin starts a new job on Monday and we are trying to make the most of the last few days he has at home with us. A lot of women say they don't like having their husband's around during the day, but that has not been my experience. We have all loved it and are going to miss Robin when he goes back to full-time work. I think having him home for these last three years has actually made me a bit lazy. He's a server by nature and I am not!
Anyway, here is my memoir for this week. This is going to take some thinking out.
Bible-focused - sites mainly about God’s Word - we love David Wilkerson's preaching. We know that man is not perfect, but he has been around all my life, and we feel that we can rely on his Bible-based preaching, and ministry and spiritual advice.
Businesses, particularly homebased - I have to give my own a plug here of course. It's Littlebourne Books
I haven't included all of the choices as I realized that I don't actually spend that much time on the internet anymore - I just stick to my favourites for regular reading.
Goodness, when I think about our homeschool plans, I have an ideal, perfect picture in my mind of getting up early every morning, getting into our lessons by 9am and having a full day of perfectly timed, perfectly run, good obedient robotic children who smile and say, "yes Mummy, of course Mummy, three bags full, Mummy" all day long until 3pm when I let them out.
I don't really desire this - well, not anymore that is. I have had a perfectionists mindset in the early days of my homeschooling, but I think I'm starting to get out of that now - more out of necessity than anything else. We've kind of been doing unschooling these past two terms while I got over the morning sickness, and now this term while I try and get my iron levels up to a range where I actually feel like turning the page of a book.
The New Zealand school year has 4 terms in a year. Each one broken into approximately 10 weeks, with 2 weeks of holiday in between. At Christmas time, we have around 6-8 weeks of holiday. This is the peak time of our summer. So our school year generally starts with the new year or shortly thereafter.
I have big plans for 2009. Our baby is due mid January, so we'll all be on holiday which is quite good timing really. I am going to drop most of the children's extra-curricular activities for term one while we settle in with the new baby. This will mean dropping French and Art, but we'll keep up my daughter's ballet lessons on Saturday and my son's tennis coaching - also on Saturday. We'll pick French and Art up again in Term 2.
Meredith (6) has ballet every week and Hugh (8) has tennis coaching. We'll keep these up next year probably.
Currently, Meredith is doing Abeka Math and Phonics. She is really thriving on this, and I find it easy to run - not too complicated to set this up. She started with 100 Easy Lessons and then graduated to Abeka. I will probably do this with all my other children as well. What I love about Abeka is that it is colourful and attractive, has lots of games, songs and interesting pictorial activities. It really appeals to my 6 year old daughter.
I tried the Sonlight phonics with Hugh at one stage, but I really don't like their books or method. A lot of the readers have American slang and Hugh found it hard to understand.
So Meredith does Abeka for math and reading, and we do Sonlight for Science (I love their Science programme), and history, geography and read-alouds.
Hugh (8), has had a mixed year with his curriculum. We're still finding our feet with him. I made a lot of mistakes with his curriculum in the first years (my first child to homeschool), so I feel as though I'm still catching up. We hope to have a fresh start next year. He does Saxon math. I had my doubts about how well he was doing on this and was considering changing to Abeka, but I had him assessed through an independant teacher, and we found that he is actually has a math level of a 9 or 10 year old, so we will stick with Saxon!
I have tried many different spelling/grammar programmes, but I am finding Easy Grammar the best one so far.
We love our Sonlight. We ordered it early this year, and I'm having to fight off the children from dragging the books off the shelf. They are keen to get into them. Their science programme is fantastic. My children love it and are learning so much. It's very hands on, lots of experiments for them. We even grew radish seeds this year. We're about to start on corn seeds.
Even though we're going into our fifth year, I still feel as though I'm finding my way with the homeschooling, but I am a lot more relaxed about it and more confident than I was when we first began. My goals for the next school year are to establish firm routines, have good structured learning time and really just put our heads down and have a good year. I know that life happens and unexpected things occur, but I hope we can have a more settled year next year.
Last week I joined up with this, and the first theme is to tell all about me - a kind of introduction. I'm looking forward to being part of this and meeting other homeschool mums around the world. Here's my first entry....
This week, we want to hear about YOU. The author behind the words. The Momma behind all the homeschooling kiddos. Just write up something about you, your family, and your home. How long you’ve been homeschooling and why you decided to homeschool. It doesn’t have to be anything lengthy at all, but we’d love to hear it!
I am Rachel, married to Robin for nearly 11 years! We have three children and our fourth due in January. Hugh is 8, Meredith is 6 and Theodore (Teddy) is 3 years old. We live on 10 acres in North Canterbury in the South Island of beautiful New Zealand, in a small rural community about 30 minutes drive from a main city centre.
I was not homeschooled myself. Homeschooling is a relatively new thing in New Zealand. When I was growing up the only homeschoolers I knew lived way out in the wilderness and got their lessons by radio and mail. I never imagined then that I'd be doing it myself one day - and living close to town too! However, I did get to work for a homeschool organization before I married, and my parents decided to homeschool my younger siblings in their final highschool years, so I began to get a taste of it, and be influenced by some dear, wonderful, pioneer homeschool families who inspired me.
When I did get married in my late twenties, my husband and I had been fully "converted" to the homeschooling way of thinking, and always knew that we wanted to homeschool, so I spent the first five years of my firstborn's life researching all the curriculums available. I finally settled on one, and then ended up changing it the next year! At the moment, we're using a mix of Abeka and Sonlight. We love homeschooling and the potential it offers for our children.
A very brief run down of my life before I married includes joining YWAM when I left school and spending the next 10 years of my life as a missionary. I've travelled to remote jungle villages where white skin had never been seen before - learning how to take a bath in the river very discreetly while the entire village looked on, among other experiences, and in the latter part of the ten years I was secretary to a christian leader in the USA and worked for that organiziation for several years before marrying. I have no formal training except for a few semesters at university studying for a degree in communications. But I have learned I'm not a great one for study! ;o) I have worked in many different jobs while saving for money to go on more missions trips or for study. At one point I was a copywriter for a christian radio station. I have also managed a baby/nursery department in a department store. I have done a lot of secretarial work, written a New Zealand history curriculum for a homeschool organization, been a nurse aid, written a children's book, among other little jobs here and there.
Now, my little mission field is the (almost) four little souls in my charge, and I am keen on learning how to simplify my life, become more self-sufficient and learn how to grow my own food and keep livestock.
I love to read, write, knit, sew, cook, preserve, garden and I have gotten the travelling, restless itch out of my feet so that now my most favourite things to do are just to be at home doing home things and having as much fun as we can while we do it.
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 3 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
