a new school year.

We’ve done it! We’ve successfully started a new homeschool year.

This is our ninth year homeschooling, and every single spring and summer, at some point, I think, I can’t do this anymore. I just cannot educate our kids at home.

I research school options. I think about selling our beloved house and moving to a different school district. But it never feels right.

So I pray a lot and say, “Okay, Lord, we’ll try it another semester.” It’s a step of faith for me to order the curriculum and make the commitment, when I feel homeschool-weary and unsure of how it will all turn out.

But then we have a nice, long summer break and August rolls around and we begin again and find our rhythm and settle into it. And I remember: I enjoy this. I really do. Perhaps we won’t homeschool forever, but I’m thankful to be doing it one more year.

 

 

We started the second year of our co-op/cottage school, Classical Village. We currently meet on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at our church. Last year was such a success that we added some new students this year.

Previously we only had a formal 7th grade class, then a “siblings class” for the kids of us teachers. Now we’ve expanded into three formal classes: 8th grade, Upper Elementary (4th-6th) and Lower Elementary (this year it is 3rd grade). We still have just three teachers, so it’s musical chairs all morning while we take turns with the different age groups. The classes we offer are Science, Latin/Classical Studies (History), and Writing & Literature/Poetry memorization. I do grammar with the littles too.

 

 

I walked out of my bedroom on Wednesday and Amie said, “Oh Mom! You look like an English teacher!!!” I think that’s a compliment.

Preparing for teaching three English classes instead of one has been quite a jump in work, and my brain has been spinning for the last month as I problem-solve and figure out, “What’s the best way to do this?” I’d found my stride last year, and loved it, but was very nervous to take on more ages. At least my 7th graders last year had had lots of writing experience; I feel like the skill of writing is so important that it’s a huge responsibility to teach younger students how to write.

Thankfully I have a fantastic curriculum that I’ve used and wholeheartedly believe in: The Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) Teaching Writing Structure and Style. Judah used this for three years, and Amie is on her third year as well. I’ve seen it work wonders in teaching my kids how to write clear, intelligent compositions and research papers.

So I’m leading our Upper Elementary students through it this year, as well as teaching a form of it to our 3rd graders, called All Things Fun & Fascinating.

 

 

The first step students learn is to read a paragraph and take notes on it in the form of an outline. The above picture is an outline I worked on during the first week with my three smart, active 3rd grade boys. We read a sentence together, look for the three most important words that will help us remember what the sentence is about, and write them down. We can also use symbols in place of words that don’t count toward our “3-word max,” which the students love.

Referring to this completed outline, the 3rd graders can now tell me all of the main information in our paragraph in complete sentences. As time goes on, we learn how to write it in our own words, and to add “dress-ups,” like strong verbs, adjectives and who-which clauses, to make it more interesting to read.

As time goes on it’s so fun to watch students find their “writing voice.”

The Upper Elementary students and I will be writing similar papers on three books of the Chronicles of Narnia series all year, which everyone is enthusiastic about.

 

 

The 8th grade class is writing persuasive essays again this year on our literature selections (we use The Lost Tools of Writing). We started our year reading The Hobbit, and the above chart shows us the issue the class chose to write about first: “Whether Bilbo should have killed Gollum in the cave.”

We spend time brainstorming both sides of our issue (A=Affirmative, N=Negative, I=Interesting facts), then students choose a side and write their essay to defend their thesis.

As you can see, not only are we learning to write good persuasive papers; we’re also learning how to become better readers as we wrestle with plot and the decisions characters make. We’re identifying aspects of good writing by using Post-It tabs to mark Tolkein’s use of simile, metaphor, parallelism, and alliteration in his novel. Later in the year we will add those literary devices to our essays; for now, we learn by noticing and enjoying how the masters use them.

 

 

I love teaching. I really do. Kids in general make me happy, and learning with them makes me even happier. I love sharing my passion for reading and writing. What could be better than spending a whole school year immersing ourselves in beautiful literature and challenging ideas and lively discussions?

The challenge for me is balancing my co-op teaching with time teaching at home. That was hard last year. This year, so far, it feels even harder. Now we have another middle-schooler in the house and everyone’s workload took a big jump.

But we’re taking it a day at a time. Instead of feeling overwhelmed with the big picture, I just try to do the next thing.

We made a daily schedule. From 8-12 I spend an hour with each kid, from youngest to oldest. Everyone has some work that I need to do with them — or guide them in. Like spelling, grammar, or Ancient Greece. I like to choose one subject a year to do with Judah too. He’s so independent now — he hardly needs me except to quiz him when he’s studying for tests. But I want us to have the intentional time together. So we’re doing world geography, which I’m thrilled about. We each read the selection on our own, then meet together and have a discussion about it and do some map work.

 

 

After lunch we take an hour break for the kids to have free time and Mom to lay prostrate in bed in a darkened room, either napping or just closing my eyes and thinking of nothing.

At 2:30 I stumble out and fix myself a cup of Earl Gray tea. The three younger kids and I gather in the living room for what we used to call “Morning Meeting.” Since we moved it to afternoon, we told Judah we needed a new title, so he’s dubbed it “Afternoon Assembly.” I don’t think it sounds quite as cozy, but oh well.

I settle in with my tea and a stack of books. Amie, Gabe, and Noah pull out Legos or sketchpads and colored pencils and I read from our current read-aloud, then we practice Scripture memory verses and Latin vocab. This week we’ve also used the time for Amie and Gabe’s Latin homework, and science review questions for co-op. Basically it’s for the subjects we can do together as a group. Judah has been using the time to run or work out (can you believe our self-motivated teenager??).

By 4:00, we’re finished with the school day. And it’s time for my afternoon run (which is absolutely miserable in this current state of heat), a shower, and to start dinner.

I have been very, very tired at the end of each day.

But it’s a good kind of tired.

What would I do if I had all that free time to myself? Well, my house would be cleaner, for one. We’d probably have homemade bread every week and my kombucha starter wouldn’t have died. But I know myself, and if I didn’t have some sort of a job, I think I’d waste many of those hours surfing the internet or shopping or reading novels. Instead, God has called me to spend this season immersed in a world of learning with children, and I consider that a wonderful way to spend my time.

I feel very thankful and happy that this is the calling for me, for now, and that it so wholly fits my personality. That is God’s kindness to me. I get to use my college degree in Humanities and Bible every single day, and that’s a gift too.

Yes, it’s a great start to a new year.

 

 

If you’re a book nerd like me, the one thing you really wanted to know from this blog post is: “What are you guys reading this year?” So here you go (I recommend these books for adults too!):

8th grade (students read during the week and we discuss in class)
The Hobbit
Anne of Green Gables
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Oliver Twist
Much Ado About Nothing

 

Upper Elementary (I read these aloud in class)
Lassie Come Home
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Adam of the Road
Chains

 

Lower Elementary (I read these aloud in class)
The Borrowers
Homer Price
Farmer Boy
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children

 

At home read-alouds
Because the kids do so much reading for school, I truly just pick books we love. Sometimes we re-read our favorites. We also listen to many of these as audiobooks, either in the van running errands, or at home during the rest time. Here are some of our family favorites: Kildee House, My Side of the Mountain, The Trumpet of the Swan and any novel by E.B. White, Little Britches series, The Yearling, anything by Beverly Cleary, The Vanderbeekers series, The Penderwicks series, The Melendys series, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Cheaper By the Dozen

 

Happy reading!