Making Homeschooling Work For Us: Short and Sweet

In my last blog post I wrote that Morning Time lasts 30-50 minutes and covers not only Bible and read-aloud time, but also an array of subjects including Geography, History, Math, Science, Latin, and more. It wasn't a typo. Morning Time is always less than an hour. My 1 year old would not make it if it was longer, so we like to keep it short and sweet.

 We start with the Bible and read-aloud because it's something they can actively listen to while they are eating, and it requires the largest chunk of time. However, by the time we begin reviewing our various subjects, we are zooming through.

 If you watched the video above, you saw us review Science AND Math in 1 minute and 24 seconds. We did this for 5 days, and they now know more about the parts of the earth than their mother does.

If you check out the video above, you'll see my kids review their new geography for the week. The video is less than two minutes and it includes my explanations of what we're doing, so really... Geography takes about a minute. You may not think that one minute a day could possibly produce real learning, but I promise it does.

My 5 year old can't read the words Cyprus and Crete, but he can look at map and point out the Mediterranean Sea and show you where those islands are located. He can even tell you a little bit about the ancient civilizations that lived there. My 3 year old has a picture book that has lines like this "If I were a mountaineer, I would take you to the peak/ Of Everest and Fuji, a new summit every week"... and she lights up when I read those familiar words because she actually knows where Mt. Fuji is on the map!

 This week you can see that we learned where Timbuktu is. The next time we watch Disney's "The Aristocats" and Egar tries to lock the cats into a trunk bound for Timbuktu, this will actually mean something to them. They will know that he is sending them to West Africa, to a city along the Niger River, a place far, far away from their home.

Because my kids are interacting with a map or a globe every day, even for just a minute, they are making connections between countries, rivers, mountains, and peoples. They are creating "hooks" on which to add more knowledge. They are also beginning to internalize the reality that there is a great big world that stretches beyond the borders of these here United States.