It may have been the best $2.95 I’ve ever spent.

While we were picking up school supplies last week, I grabbed this handy little kitchen timer. I thought it might be something nice to try while I work to keep four boys on task and productive and happy during school time.

And so far…it’s working. It’s WORKING! I love it when things work!

When the boys need a break between phonics and math, I have them set the timer for ten minutes. For ten blessed minutes, they go shoot things and defeat things and build things and knock them over and do all the things boys like to do when they have free time. In the meantime, I wash a few dishes…look over papers…close my eyes…whatever I need to do with ten minutes of quiet.

When the timer goes off, they run back in and are ready to hit the math books.

We’ve also used the timer while the boys are reading books so that they don’t ask twenty times, “How much longer should I read?” They just read until the timer goes off (and then they read some more if they want to).

In the evenings we’ve started a “Ten Minute Tidy” to see how many things they can pick up before the timer goes off.

I’m SO GLAD this little gadget is working. But here’s what I’d like to know:

Why in the world do the boys respond so well to a little ticky thing that has a VERY annoying ~BZZZZZZZT~ to let them know that their time is up…when they could just come down the stairs when their mother’s sweet, loving voice calls them down to do math?

It’s another one of those great mysteries.
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This post is linked to Works for me Wednesday.

I’m a little bit hesitant to share about our homeschooling budget because…oh, I don’t know…I just am. I want to discuss it…I just think it can be a bit of a touchy subject. It’s a good thing all of you are so nice.

There are different ways of thinking about how much money families should spend on their homeschooling materials.

Some people look at it like:  “It’s my child’s education. I’m not going to skimp one bit and I’ll spend as much as I can to make sure my child gets the best education possible.”

Then there’s the flip side:   “I can teach my child using everyday things around the house and a pencil and a notebook and the Bible. That’s all I need.”

I agree with both ideas to a certain degree. I think that it is very important to invest in the education of our children. And I also think that our children can learn a great deal by just living and experiencing life with their families…without spending a dime.

I used to skimp more than I do now when Asa and Justus were in the earlier grades. That worked fine because at that point it was really just about teaching them how to read and a few other basics. I tried to just get as many of the Sonlight recommended books at the library as I could, while spending just a little bit on their math books and a few other things.

As my kids get older (and as I’m schooling more of them) I’ve found that it’s harder and harder to get to the library to get all the books they need to read so that we can cover everything I want to cover in the school year. Having the books at our house on our shelves has been so helpful.

So while I’ve struggled with the fact that I could save quite a bit of money by going to the library everytime one of the kids finished one of the books on their list…I’ve just been unable (or yes, possibly unwilling) to make it happen. I LOVE having all the books we’ll need right on the shelf ready to grab at a moment’s notice.

And these books that Sonlight recommends? They are worth paying money for. They are worth reading over and over. They are really great books. (Sonlight is not paying me to brag on them, by the way.)

Having said all of that…I will tell you that our annual homeschool budget is $450. Total. For all the boys. For the year. That amount includes field trips and school supplies from Walmart. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it’s enough, but that’s all there is. Some of you may see that number and be shocked that I spend that little. Some of you may be shocked that I spend that much.

I’m able to keep it at that number by doing several things. First, I combine curriculums as I mentioned in this post. I don’t buy a separate curriculum for each child.

Second, I reuse many “consumable books”. There are a few exceptions, but many of the History and Science books I ordered for Asa when he was younger, I am able to re-use with all of the boys now. If there was question-and-answer stuff in those books, we did them orally. (He got plenty of writing practice elsewhere.)

Third, once I buy a book for Asa, it is passed down and used for the other boys when they’re ready. I don’t have to buy lots of books for each boy each year.

Fourth, I look for some things on ebay. I got a pretty nice deal on ebay for a Teaching Textbook 7 for Asa this year.

Also, this year I saved up all my Swagbucks…redeemed them for Amazon cards…and ordered a whole bunch of readers for the boys. For free. If you haven’t signed up to earn Swagbucks while you’re doing online searches…you should. Their program helped us get many of the books we needed this year. They were truly a blessing. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for Swagbucks.

So there you have it. If you homeschool and care to share a bit about how you budget for it, I’d love to hear!

I promised a long time ago to talk more about our homeschooling. Since we’re coming up on a new school year I thought I’d better get my act in gear and answer more of your questions. (We’re starting August 3. Read this post  from last year to understand more about why I like to start so early!)  Here’s the question I’ll cover today:

How do you design your curriculum? Do you do the pre-packaged stuff or customize your own?

I guess I do a little bit of both. And I kind of go about it in a weird way…but it works for me and I love it. It takes several hundred hours to figure out and put together…but I love that too because I love surrounding myself with our books for the year.

Here’s how it works for us:

We’ve chosen to use Sonlight curriculum.  We completely, totally and absolutely love Sonlight.  It is literature based and teaches the kids about history and science and life and all of God’s people all over the world in such a fun and natural way. Instead of textbooks…we read and learn from regular books. Regular really, really good books. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned from this curriculum (and the kids have learned an awful lot too!).

The reason I say that I sort of put my curriculum together myself is this:  I’ll have a 7th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader and a four year old this year. I love all of Sonlight’s recommended books, but I’m not able to teach four different grade levels to my four different boys (and still keep up with their laundry).

I use Sonlight curriculum catalog as a guide…then I piece together what books and subjects we’ll cover for the year. I do this for history, science, Bible and read-alouds.

This year, for instance, we’ll all be studying American History. I will be using several of the books recommended for the 3rd and 4th grade level…and several from the 7th grade level and use them altogether for all the boys.

So far this method works well for us (although this year or next year may be our last year for combining all the kids together since Asa’s working his way toward <cough> high school).

What I’ve found is that my littlest boys catch quite a bit of information…Justus catches more…and Asa learns even more than that. It’s working great and I love that we’re all working on the same materials together. It makes for some pretty cool discussions and some awesome times together plopped together in the living room on couches and pillows.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you can teach your family in whatever way works best to teach your family. Almost all curriculums out there have a very easy and detailed teacher guide to make homeschooling possible and simple for every parent. Sonlight rocks in that department with super detailed week-by-week teacher guides. I just go about it in a different sort of way and create my own teacher guide/school outline because that’s what works best for my family at this point in our schooling.

And…have I ever mentioned how much we LOVE homeschooling in our family?  Our books have started arriving and you would think it’s Christmas. I love how excited the boys get! Coming up…I’ll share about our homeschool budget, what books we’ll be using this year…and I’ll answer more of the questions mentioned in this post. I’ll also try to share more of the books and programs we like for math and phonics, etc.

Any of you other homeschoolers care to share what curriculum you like and how you go about planning your school year?

I recently heard from Karen, who asked some great questions that I haven’t addressed yet on my blog.

• Why did you choose to homeschool?
• What do you love about homeschooling…and what is really challenging?
• How do you budget for it?
• Do you worry about your kids being ready academically for high school/college?
• Do you participate in any social or sports groups that extend the opportunity for the boys to meet others?
• How do you design your curriculum? Do you do the pre-packaged stuff or customize your own?

What a great list of questions… Can’t believe I haven’t written about them yet. :)

Today, I’ll answer the question of WHY we homeschool. 

Homeschooling was not something Matt and I gave much thought to when our first two boys were little. Asa was four, Justus was one and a half and we had another baby on the way. It seems our days were full of diapers and toys and tantrums and just making it until bedtime in one piece. 

At that time, we only had a few months before Asa was to start kindergarten. People began asking us where he would go to school or if we were going to homeschool him. Our answer was to shrug and simply say, “Hmm, we don’t know yet.” We really did not have any strong convictions one way or the other.

Just before Elias was born, I began to read Creative Correction, by Lisa Whelchel. Call me dense, but before reading that book I was just kind of floating along and trying to keep my kids clean and fed and happy and well behaved (and keep myself sane). All good things. I had just not given a lot of thought yet to their character training and the fact that raising children wasn’t just about taking them to church and working to teach them to be “good”. Lisa’s book opened my eyes to the magnitude of the wonderful task Matt and I had before us.

God began to work on my heart to teach me what that might look like.

Right after Elias was born, I kept thinking over and over:  God gave us three boys. Boys.  Three of them. Why? What was God’s plan? (Of course I had no idea that there would be a fourth boy!)

I suddenly felt very strongly convicted (whacked over the head). God gave us three boys so that we could raise three godly leaders for his church.

And eighteen years didn’t quite seem like a long enough time to instill in them all the truths that we needed to instill in them.

We made the decision at that point to homeschool them. The biggest reason? Time.

Time to be together. Time to train. Time to learn. Time to talk. Time to listen. Time to hold. Time to work. Time to just be.

Since making that decision, we have never one time questioned that we were doing the right thing for our family. God has shown us in countless ways through the years that our choice to homeschool our kids was the right one. 

So, that’s our story. 

Let me say that again…that’s OUR story. This is what God convicted US to do. I never, ever want to sound like we think we’re better parents because we homeschool. It’s what we’ve chosen because when God whacks you over the head, it’s always a good idea to listen. And so we did.

The end. :)

I’ll plan to answer more of the above questions during the next several weeks. Feel free to write more of your questions in the comment section!

I’d love for you to share how God has convicted you in this area. What has God led your family to do in regard to your children’s education? If your kids aren’t school age yet, what are some of your thoughts for the future? Please everyone, keep your comments kind and non-condemning, okee-dokee?

DID YOU KNOW IT’S ALREADY THE END OF MARCH?

Yes, I suppose you knew that.

I knew it too, but it sorta just hit me a few days ago that after March comes April and then it will be May and well…I can’t believe another school year is coming to an end. 

If you remember, last summer I posted a list of the books we would be reading through for school this year. Here’s how we’re doing by now:

History:  We’ve made our way through the first two Story of the World history books and we’re now reading about ships and how ships were made through history. (Ah, you’ve gotta love reading about those naughty pirates.)  (Well, you don’t gotta love it…but my boys sure love it.)

Science:   We are taking some time to study evolution vs. creation using the books I mentioned in this post…plus some DVDs we borrowed from a friend called Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution. There are several books on the list we haven’t touched yet…partly because I took a detour to read these books and watch the DVDs about evolution. If we don’t finish all of the books on the list, we’ll read them through the summer or during the next school year.

Math:  I told the boys last week that as soon as they finish their math books…they’ll be done with math for the year. I do believe that was motivating, since Justus started doing five lessons a day…calculating that he could be done in two weeks if he did. Go Justus! Asa’s doing two lessons a day now on his, which is quite an accomplishment since his lessons take longer. Who am I to argue with extra math lessons? Why, with all that extra time on their hands, they’ll be able to fold more laundry.

Bible:  Since January, our Bible focus has been the book of John. Asa and Justus are participating in an event called Leadership Training for Christ (LTC). They’ve been working hard preparing writing projects, skits, puppet shows and sculptures. Most importantly, they are learning the book of John inside and out as they prepare for the Bible Bowl. We’ll head to Kansas City in April for the big gathering! 

Reading:  Elias completed his reading list a long time ago…leaving me forever hopping trying to give him books to read that are on his level. Justus’ books are a little harder to get through, but he’s plugging away. Reading is a little more challenging for him, but he works hard. Asa has finished many of his books too…his just take longer!

Malachi:  Well…some days I do some activities with him…sometimes I don’t. FUNNY how he’s learning anyway. I love that. I will tell you a little secret though:  I’ve been working for over a year on a curriculum for early learners called “Learn Your Letters…Learn to Serve”.  I’m trying so hard to finish it by summertime to make it available for YOU to use in the fall if you’d like…and I’d really like to use it with Malachi too. I think I can…I think I can…
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So, how’s your school year going? If you homeschool…what have you and your kids been up to? If you don’t homeschool…what have your kids been doing in school? I LOVE hearing about what everyone is learning and doing!!!