Huhtala Homeschoolers

A friend asked me if I thought my kids were learning as much homeschooling as they do at public school. I told her that since we were just beginning, that I was certain they weren't learning the same "quantity" as their public counterparts, but that it didn't really bother me because I knew that they were still learning good stuff. I pondered this for a while afterward and started to think about all the things my kids would be learning right now if they went to the school down the street. Then it hit me...I wouldn't know! I was sending them to school day after day and with the exception of the once a week visits to the classroom for a few hours, I had no idea what was being taught to my child on a daily basis. Of course I would see the homework and know what they were studying in math or what kind of grammar they were learning about, but essentially, I had no idea what my kids were studying all day long. Here are some things I did observe that they did and how I hope to counter teach that in homeschooling:

1. Daily Bell work. Write a few sentences, do a word search, fill in the blanks on some worksheets....

Homeschool: Sing a song we are studying, say a prayer, read some scriptures, practice memorization on the poetry we are studying, practice italics handwriting.

2. Math Studies: Sit and listen while the teacher goes over several problems in detail, then receive a worksheet of several more of the same type of problems and work on it. Take some timed speed tests.

Homeschool: Mom teaches a few concepts if needed, and child finishes one worksheet, asking Mom for help if he gets confused. We also do random "life" lessons with baking, measuring ingredients, doubling recipes, counting money, figuring percentages, fractions, etc...

3. Daily Reading: Teacher turns on a phonics sound recording and children follow along in their reading books. Usually the stories are very simple and teach some life lessons. Afterwards, the children take a quiz with the teacher reading the questions to answer questions. Older children read independently and then write a 5 paragraph essay about what they read after being given a writing prompt.

Homeschool: Mom gets out the current classic literature. Kids get cozy on the couch and raise their hands whenever they have a question. They ask questions frequently, and because there are only 2 children, we can discuss the book in pretty heavy detail. After our reading session, one of the children narrates to me what they remember, almost always, the other child has even more details to add on and fill in the blanks.

4. Creative Writing/Grammar - They do vocabulary worksheets out of a book that usually corresponds with their reading selection. For creative writing the teacher gives the children a prompt on an overhead projector. In the younger grades she gives guides to help them start each sentence such as "First, I would...." "Next, I would..." "Clearly, this shows that....." Payton still tries to write all paragraphs with this kind of canned sentence structure. It drives me crazy!

Homeschool: Right now we are focusing more on copywork. I have them copy the current poetry we are studying, or some lines out of the current literature we are reading. Soon, I will have Payton start writing out his narrations occasionally instead of saying them orally. We are studying Italics handwriting and I am hoping it helps improve Paytons handwriting, as well as my own! We also do some sentence structure study which usually doesn't take more than 10 minutes.

5. Spelling: Repeatedly write weekly spelling words by rainbow writing and creating sentences such as "I take a bath every day." Take a weekly test.

Homeschool: Read, read, read! The more children read, the more they see the words, the better they are as spellers. Copywork also teaches them excellent spelling skills but instead of just writing random sentences, they are writing ones that have interesting structure behind them such as, "The hot summer day made the river feel like a warm bath."

6. Arts/Computers: Watch the teacher on the overhead, create something very similar. Make a fun craft, draw a picture. Go to the computer lab once a week. At our school they were fortunate to have an art teacher who taught them all sorts of cool stuff.

Homeschool: Focus on actual painters and their works of art. Do nature notebooks and sketch what you see. Take an art class (paid for by the charter school). Learn handiwork (not my specialty but we're going to give it a shot). Do a typing program, play educational computer games, type their narrations, write a blog entry (coming soon!).

History/Science: Read from a textbook, create timelines, do a science experiment, make projects, take tests.

Homeschool: Read entire books on one person or subject (instead of a paragraph), create timelines and use maps. Do science experiments. Nature Study.

Now, as you can see from above, I do not know the meaty details of what is being taught in public schools. Maybe that is a part of why I am homeschooling. I felt so left out of their lives! They would come home and be able to tell me absolutely nothing about their day except for what was for hot lunch and why don't they get Hot Cheetos like the other kids?? Which reminds me that I left out an important subject in the world...Socialization.

School: Don't talk in class or you get sent to the office, get tripped by a big kid and called a nasty name (or if you're a girl, get pet on the head and told you're cute). Play games on the playground but make sure your necklace or zipper doesn't cut anybody or you get suspended. DON'T TOUCH ANYONE or you sit on the bench for the whole recess. Get laughed at when you trip, told to "go away" when you want to play basketball, and have your best girlfriend tell you your not her friend because you wouldn't give her the majority of your yummy snack.

Homeschool: Stick your tongue out at your sister, help your baby brother with his scissor practice, tell your mom you hate chores, read your little sister a book, give mom a hug, fight with your sister about who gets to be on the computer, sit in a time out for hitting, kiss your baby brothers owie, build a fort with your sister, tell Dad about the book you're reading, play a board game with Mom, play video games at a friends house, ride bikes with friends outside. They will also receive socialization through dance/drama classes, co-ops, etc...

Have I missed any subjects? Any thoughts? Bueller.....Bueller......