Making Homeschooling Work for Us: Skills Work

After posting about our Morning Time routine here and here, a few people asked if that was all the school work we did for the day. My short answer is, no... but sometimes.

I can truly say that if Morning Time is all that I am able to accomplish on any given day, I still feel like a world class educator because I am confident that my children are learning far more than any of my students were when I taught in a "highly recognized" public school classroom. [more on that at a later date]

So, what do we do in addition to Morning Time? We do skills work. I'm pretty sure the teachers of yesteryear simply called this the 3 'R's: Reading, wRiting, and 'Rithmetic. I love that my children are feasting on things that are true, good, and beautiful every morning. This is truly the foundation of their education. Reading them short stories by Kipling and poetry by Dickinson will likely develop in them a desire to read beautiful words and a reason to write them, but, let's be honest; it doesn't actually teach them to decode text or to form letters correctly. Those are skills that must be worked on; thus, skills work. This is less important to me than Morning Time, which may sound bizarre, but hear me out. What good is being able to read if all you pick up is trash and what good is learning the mechanics of writing if you have nothing of substance to say? If you're wondering, that's a reality. I have taught hundreds of 13-16 year olds and the majority of them haven't read a book on their own initiative (or under compulsion, for that matter) since early elementary school, and they struggle to form a complete, coherent sentence on a meaningful topic (thank you, text messaging). This is to be expected when you are 5; this is grievous when you are 15.

This means that while Morning Time happens 5 days a week, my goal is to fit in at least 3 days a week for skills work. For us, the best time is after lunch when one or both of my younger daughters are down for their afternoon nap. It requires 30 minutes for my 5 year old and 45-60 minutes for my 7 year old.

It takes very little time because the student/teacher ratio is 1:1. When I am teaching my 5 year old to correctly form the letter "D", I am not having to watch a classroom full of 20 students at their desks to catch if any of them are reversing the letter, forming it from the bottom up rather than the top down, mistakenly writing a lower case "d" for the uppercase "D", or forming a curved line to make an "O" rather than a straight line to make a "D." All that I have to do is sit next to my one little buddy and say, "One long line going down like this, and big curve around like this." Done. No errors or bad habits to correct later. No roaming the classroom looking for those who might need my help or who might be fossilizing an error that will take weeks to correct and retrain. I'm just done. I watch him complete a row of picture perfect "D"s, and then we move on. He doesn't write the letter 35 times. I don't need busy work while the other kids are getting my help. He writes it 7 times, and he writes it as perfectly as he can (which is infinitely better than writing it 70 times incorrectly or sloppily).

Skillswork looks like this:

5 year old:
Handwriting - 5 minutes
Phonics/Reading - 10 minutes
Read-Aloud/Narration - 10 minutes
Speech - 5 minutes (this is particular to this child because he struggles with certain later developing speech sounds)

7 year old:
Handwriting - 10 minutes
Language Arts/Grammar- 5 minutes
Math - 15 minutes
Reading Practice - 15 minutes

Handwriting: Both boys use "Handwriting Without Tears," my absolute favorite curriculum for handwriting. It's super affordable, and it does a great job of helping teachers by showing them how to prevent errors before they are made. It is not the most beautiful form of handwriting; its focus is on readability not on beauty. With each of my two boys, this has been the 'write' curriculum choice because of this focus (I know, I'm so punny).

Math: We don't do formal math at age 5. It's more than enough to memorize our math facts through our Morning Time and to experience real-life math during our normal routines (cooking, shopping, etc). For our 7 year old, we use Math-U-See. It's a pricier curriculum that we don't mind spending the money on (or the time to find used) because we really appreciate its use of block manipulatives that carries through all the elementary years. This appeals to our son who adores building blocks (he can make forts out of the blocks when he is done).

Language Arts/Grammar: This is something we waited to start until age 7. We use a book that's adapted from a 100 year old gem! It's something our great grandparents might have used! It's a simple, gentle introduction to the elements of grammar and composition.

Phonics/Reading:  Right now, with our 5 year old, we are using "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" a well-loved book that's over 3 decades old (check out the 1000+ five star reviews on Amazon). We used this same book with our 7 year old when he was 5, but it wasn't the best fit for him. We switched to a similar curriculum "The Reading Lesson" that had a less-cluttered format, waited over 6 months to resume phonics instruction, and he thrived. Again, because the student/teacher ratio is 1:1, I have the freedom to purchase or design a curriculum that is perfectly suited for my individual child. I can even put that subject on hold while he matures (in this case, while his vision problems were addressed and corrected). This is not a freedom that a teacher overseeing reading instruction for 25 students has.

Speech: I'm not a speech pathologist, but I did take my 5 year old to our school district to find out if their speech pathologist thought that he needed to be evaluated for speech services. After observing him, she said that we could proceed with the full evaluation, but he very likely wouldn't qualify because all of the sounds that he struggles to make are the last to develop (they sometimes don't solidify until 6 or 7).  My husband, however, asked me to spend a few minutes each day working with him on those particular phonemes. We do! It's great fun. We sing songs and play speech games that are easily looked up on YouTube and suggested by qualified speech pathologists.

Ideally, Morning Time and Skills Work are complimentary. The goal of phonics instruction isn't that they can decode words. It isn't even that they will be able to pick up a technical manual and follow a set of instructions in sequential order. The goal of our phonics work is that they will be able to engage in the great conversation that has been taking place throughout history. I'm not teaching them to read so they'll pick up The Cat in the Hat; I'm teaching them to read so they'll pick up Augustine. I'm not teaching them to write because I want them to be able to sign their name on Christmas cards; I'm teaching them to write because I want them to be able to clearly articulate the reason for the hope that is within them. It just so happens that The Cat in the Hat and Christmas cards may be what get us there.

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.

Making Homeschooling Work For Us - Morning Time

Monday through Friday we have Morning Time, a 30-50 minute gathering of all the kids learning together. We anchor it to breakfast because (a) everyone is already in one place and (b) it ensures that we make it happen every day of the school week. Prioritizing Morning Time means that I do not prioritize breakfast. In order to have the energy and good humor to make Morning Time what I want it to be, breakfast has to be simple and easy. For us, that means that I cook up oatmeal every morning to which I add brown sugar and peanut butter. I find that this sustains them more than cereal and also packs a bit of protein. If I were to whip up a sausage and egg breakfast with toast and orange juice, Morning Time would rarely happen.

 Once the oatmeal has been scooped out in bowls, I call the kids to the table. I shoot for this to start at 8am. Before we eat, Owen Ray leads us in a hymn and Chandler prays for us. This is reversed at lunchtime so that they each have a turn to lead the hymn and lead the prayer.

Morning Time includes:
1. Hymn
2. Prayer
3. Bible
4. Catechism
5. My Book House (read-aloud/narration)
6. Geography
7. Timeline
8. History
9. Science
10. Math
11. English
12. Latin

Next comes Bible and Catechism. I read them a story from the Bible and ask Owen Ray and Chandler to narrate it back to me. It works well to have my older one narrate and then have the younger one fill in any details that he can recall that big brother may have omitted. To make sure my 3 year old feels included, I ask her a question and then have her repeat the answer back to me. She does this every morning, so she repeats without hesitation. It moves very quickly. At the end, each child gets a chocolate chip. Yes, chocolate chips for breakfast. If you're wondering, it tastes excellent mixed into their peanut butter oatmeal. Next up we review catechism questions from past weeks and then practice our new question with lots of repetition. Even though learning about God is reverent business, I also want it to be tied to joy and laughter. I freely dispense the chocolate chips, and I am willing to practice the catechism in silly voices of their choosing because it means that learning about God and hiding truths in our heart is guarded from being thought of as drudgery.

Up next is "My Book House" a 12 volume series of short stories and poetry that we are slowly working our way through. Right now we're in volume 3. I read through a short story or a few poems and then have the kids narrated back to me for... more chocolate chips.

 









We quickly move from narration to our week's grammar. This includes geography, timeline, history, math, English, science, and Latin. If the kids are still eating, we'll do this at the table. If they are done eating we will dance and sing our new grammar around the house with toy instruments. We use the Classical Conversations curriculum which outlines what the kids will be learning for that week. In our case, we are on week 13 which means that we are learning about the function of a helping verb, liquid equivalents, parts of the earth, etc. As much as possible, we use music or movement to help us learn and memorize this new material. This makes such a difference in the kid's ability to recall information they learned 3 months ago.

Once our morning time is done (it takes between 30-50 minutes) then I dismiss the kids. They can build with their Lincoln Logs, play doll house, or dig holes in the backyard. I can start with some of my chores like laundry, dishes, etc. Morning Time does several things for me. It starts my mornings off on the right foot. This morning, I got to start my day hearing the voices of my 7, 5, and 3 year old all joined in song and praising God because "in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the vale." By 10am each day, I already know that my kids and I have been fed. We've feasted on beautiful truths and beautiful words. I can now go through the rest of my day confident that even if this is the only formal "teaching" I do all day, my kids are being educated in the best sense possible. If we have a doctor's appointment or something unexpected pops up and we never get to sit down and do our afternoon work in skills subjects like handwriting, phonics, and math, I'm okay with that. In just this small time period, we are creating a shared family culture of hymns, stories, and memories.