"How do you homeschool with 4 young kids?" That is a question I get asked a lot! So, for those of you who are curious about how I do this, I thought I would explain what our day looks like. First of all, it is by God's grace!! He is my Provider, my Source of Strength, my Maker, my Helper. He gives me wisdom, patience, creativity, and so on. That is not to say that I don't make mistakes. I am only saying that when I do teach, discipline, love, etc. and do those things well, He gets ALL the credit! And I have a very supportive husband who believes in me and homeschooling. He is also very encouraging. Anyways, I try to start my day with reading the Bible and praying. I don't always start like this, but this is my goal. The kids are up between 7-7:30. So, after reading (and maybe exercising), a quick shower, I help get the kids up and ready. Jonathan really is such a big help in our house. He makes his own bed and gets himself and Rachel breakfast. Sometimes, he even gets Mark some breakfast. I usually nurse Sarah and come downstairs. I usually do a bit of cleaning... dishes, laundry, picking up clutter, etc. By 9 or so, I like to start "school." We start our day by doing a Bible lesson and working on our memory verse. Jonathan then does spelling, while I work with Rachel on reading/math. Next is English with Jonathan. Sometimes we do this together, other times he does this on his own. It depends on the lesson. We then have History/Geography. Both Jonathan and Rachel participate in this. I usually read aloud and then we do a craft/activity together. This is one of my favorite parts of the day! Next comes a break, then Math, and finally Art. We have some CD's that we are listening to for music. For instance, we listened to the biography of Tchaikovsky and then read "The Nutcraker." During the biography of Tchaikovsky, we heard some of the music played in the Nutcracker. Rachel loves to play on her own. So, she sort of filters in and out throughout the morning. This is fine with me. She LOVES to draw and seems to have a real gift at it. So, often, and I mean often, she will color or draw at the table while I work with Jonathan. She sometimes helps with Mark or Sarah when I ask her to.
Mark, also, likes to draw. Actually, he LOVES, to draw and color as well. Really! He has his own chair and every day, while I work with the older ones, he draws. When he gets bored, I let him play with playdough or read books. And sometimes I let him wander (yes, I do know where he is... :) Our new home is very open and he can do loops around the downstairs. And if I need to do some one-on-one work with Jonathan, I sometimes, put him in the playpen. He usually cries at first, but then after a few minutes, he is happily playing.
Sarah is a pretty content baby. Often she sleeps for 1-2 hours in the morning. When she is not sleeping, I either hold her or put her in the bouncy seat.
Ideally, I finish our day by noon or so. Then we can relax, have friends over, sleep (that is the little ones and once in a while, me!) Mike is doing Science one evening a week. He loves it and it gives me a break. Our days don't always go smoothly. One of the hardest things for me is when all 4 kids want my attention. I am only one person.... So I prioritize and do the best I can! Overall, though, it works. Imperfectly, yes. But is works!
I find that training the children and expecting much of them is helpful. I expect that they do everything excellently, as taught in the Bible. I expect that when I am reading something that they listen and don't interrupt. (We are working on this...) I expect that when I ask them to clean up, they do it well and without complaining. For those of you who know Rachel, we are working on this, too! I expect that they treat each other kindly. Okay, so we are working on this, too! We have our moments of frustration and disobedience. We confess and know that we are forgiven! We often pray, "Help me, Lord, to do better!" And then we move on.
Well, those are my ramblings for now. I truly love homeschooling and feel called to it. And I as lean on the Lord, He is faithful and provides!! I know that homeschooling is foreign to some people, so please feel free to ask questions or comment. I would love to discuss it with you!
