This school year was so tough to decide about. We've always held to the "each child, each year" philosophy where we would evaluate each child's educational options. With Ryan's bullying straightened out, we weren't worried about the new school year. But I knew the kids didn't want to wear masks all day, and we weren't sure what the year would look like. What if they got started and were exposed to someone? That's an automatic 14 days of quarantine. Having just a fever was now a minimum of 4 days out of school, so how much education would they actually get? And then there was the struggle Bella had with e-learning; she took so long to get through the day and I just didn't want that for her. So I talked to friends who have homeschooled. I read books. I followed Facebook discussions. We were still undecided. I narrowed down the homeschooling choices to five, and sat with Joshua to go over the options. Once we decided on Bob Jones University Distance Learning Online (BJUDLO), I had great peace about it and got excited!
We have loved homeschooling. We knew it would be an option for this year, but it might just be how we finish educating the kids. We enjoy the relaxed schedule, the field trips, the homeschool "perks". We have switched to block scheduling where the kids do two days' worth of assignments, but only half their classes in a given day. This had helped Ryan focus and has allowed Bella to finish by 3:00 most days (we start around 9:30).
So below is how things have gone so far.
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This was our setup the night before we started. Bella's desk wasn't in stock at IKEA yet.
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Hard at work on the first day of Hasseld Christian Academy!
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Bella chose to dress up in her Harry Potter clothes for school pictures. Why not?!
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Ryan chose a Jedi robe over his pajamas!
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We found a piano program that plays like a video game. It's an excellent match for Ryan!
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One of the bonuses of homeschooling is "Homeschool Hikes" at the local park. Bella and I went on the August hike (she took the first two pictures), and all four of us went on the September hike.
Another bonus to homeschooling? Field trips! Conner Prairie had ONE homeschool day left for the season. What normally would have cost us $45 cost $13!
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We finally got to ride this balloon.
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Check out this view!
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Bella was mistaken for a worker while we were there.
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| Baby's first trip to Conner Prairie! |
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Love these two.
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Another field trip was the the local park. It has a cemetery, so we looked for signs of weather on the headstones. It's a Quaker cemetery, so we saw the names of some famous Westfield abolitionists. We also took a sample of water from the creek to look at under the microscope.
They were redoing our street and construction vehicles and noise right outside our windows wasn't working. So we made a quick stop at HotBox for pizza and breadsticks, then headed to the library to work.
P.E. looks a little different. Some days we take a walk with the baby and dog, some days we go for a bike ride. Ryan takes frequent breaks outside in the yard. Bella is doing karate, and Ryan signed up for tackle football this year. It was his first year doing tackle and it was a huge learning curve! But we saw growth throughout the season; he grew less afraid to tackling and being tackled, and ended up making three tackles this season!
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| Here's where the kids had three weeks of swim time. We had the whole place to ourselves! |
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Great day for some P.E.!
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| We spent some time at this playground after looking for weathered headstones in the cemetery at this park. |
One of the things the kids love most is science experiments! The kids really love them and we make a spectacular mess!
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| This was building a structure with fettuccine noodles and marshmallows that would withstand earthquake waves. Bella discovered that a teepee-type structure is nearly indestructible, although not really great for high rises. |
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This was trying to determine which substance retained the most water; clay, dirt, or sand. The kids loved it so much they spent about two hours making different combinations! Bella said, "I feel so smart!"
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Is it even a science class if you don't make volcanoes?
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Bella getting hers just so...
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Although I took a ton of photos and videos, this is the only one I can find. The kids kept doing it over and over again for about an hour!
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Another fun thing we do is to celebrate random fun holidays; there is one for almost every day of the year! Below were some of our favorite ones.
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| Apple Betty Day! |
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Mad Hatter Day! Ryan is wearing four hats!
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I have no words.
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Even the baby got in on it!
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| Fluffernutter Day! The kids had never heard of it, but they are hooked! |
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| Ice Cream Cone Day. We biked here at it was our dinner! |
Fridays have become project days: we do any science experiments the kids have (they're using the same curriculum), Ryan does history projects he has, but I have to create some for Bella to do since her curriculum doesn't have any cool projects and she was getting jealous. We also have Poetry Tea Time where we have tea (or hot chocolate), something sweet (one week we baked scones), and I read poetry. We've stuck with funny stuff so far, but I just read "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" because Bella has that lesson coming up.
Ryan is studying ancient civilizations. During his study on ancient Mesopotamia, he got to make a cone mosaic, and write in cuneiform in a clay tablet.
His unit on ancient Egypt had one project about making a yard wig. BO-RING! So, I bought a doll and Ryan mummified it.
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Removing the brains through the nose with my seam ripper.
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Salting the body for preservation.
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Dousing it in oils and spices.
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The final mummy, which Bella wrapped. We created the sarcophagus out of cardboard and spray painted it gold.
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Getting ready for the burial.
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Completed tomb! Ryan made canopic jars out of pill bottles, and he and Bella fashioned some bowls out of PlayDoh. Ryan and I drew heiroglyphics on the walls. Everything is gold!
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Bella is studying American history from the colonies to present day. She's just about to study the Revolution and we talked about spies at work during the war. She read about them on Mt. Vernon's website, then created a cypher that she wrote in "invisible ink" (lemon juice).
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Creating her super-secret cipher.
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Of course she had to write it with her quill and ink!
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Watching her message appear over the candle flame.
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Poetry Tea Time!
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