Eclectic Homeschooling: 2025

     

  

 

I wish I was better at journaling. Blogging is a form of journaling for me, but I am not very good at being consistent with anything other than getting up every morning, haha. I have been feeling a pull towards documenting homeschooling again, but I am nervous to because after a few weeks it becomes too much. I don't make time for very many things anymore. I squish in what I can during the day. But I guess even if I don't stick to this for very long this school year, it is better than nothing.

We are taking a more relaxed approach this year. The 3 boys were awarded a scholarship for school related expenses, but unlike last year, we aren't going to be doing an expensive and extensive curriculum that covers everything. I decided to do it this way this year because although we did all the subjects and read all the books, no one really learned anything because we were just trying to get through it all as quickly as possible, because even when we weren't dwaddling, school could take 4-6 hours a day to get through everyone's work. It was just too much. I liked the curriculum (we tried Timberdoodle), but hated doing school. So we just needed a change this year.

This is what our current daily "schedule" looks like. Like I said, it is super basic and we will probably start adding stuff over the year, but the boys currently love that we are done before lunch every day. The only subjects that sometimes happen after lunch are what I call "Special Activities", but since they are suppose to be fun, they don't seem to mind.  I think we are on week 3 of this schedule, and so far it is working. 

Everyday (Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri)

• Read-Alouds- This is what we call "Together Activities", when we come together to take turns reading verses from a chapter in the scriptures. Then I read a chapter from a book and a fairytale. We just started "Magic Tree House: Knights Before Dawn". I wanted to start with an easy chapter book because, unlike what seems like every other homeschooler experience, my boys do not listen well to books. They have a hard time comprehending, and they can't sit for very long listening. I have for a long time been envious of the blog posts describing how a 4-year-old begs for yet another chapter from "Little House on the Prairie".  I have always thought I must have ruined my children by letting them watch tv, and that is why they don't listen to books. Even if that is true, I have worked long and hard to not give up (at least not all together) on read aloud time. They have honestly gotten better at listening. So we will keep it up. We also read a story from the Barnes and Noble classic version of Grimm's Fairytales. They listen surprisingly well. The more gruesome and violent the better to them, haha.

• Math- They are all definitely all over the place with math. No one is starting with the book I would have chosen for them if we were following a curriculum. Ira is finishing up his Saxon 5/4 book. Asa is working though a Kumon Multiplication Workbook because he was really struggling through Saxon 3 lessons, and I believe it was because multiplication was killing him. And I am letting Summer Bridge be enough for Ean right now. He will be starting Saxon 2 sometime this year though.
• Independent Reading- Ira and Asa get to pick a chapter book to read. Ira is going through Harry Potter, Asa just started The Chronicles of Narnia. Right now I am just expecting them to get into the habit of reading every day. I am focusing on helping Ean learn how to read this year. He is 6, and knows most of his letters and a few basic sight words. I think he has an interest, but isn't very self motivated, so I am only pushing him a little. He loves to look at books, so if we could just get him past the first stages of reading, I think he would really take off.
• Summer Bridge Activity Workbook- We do this workbook every summer, and then usually finish it the beginning of every school year because I am always over summer school by July, haha. Nothing to really say about it. Just trying to finish it.

Special Activities

• Monday: Art- The boys requested we do HIGASFY Renaissance Curriculum again, which we did last year. It is super fun art history course that we loved, but we didn't do any of the extra activities, like actually doing art (remember the time problem?), but we always watched the videos. So this year we are watching the videos again, and then actually doing the art projects for them. There are even more activities recommended for each video that help you explore geography, science, history, and even writing and critical thinking prompts, but my kids groan at writing even just one sentence, so we are just sticking to art projects.
• Tuesday: Piano- I signed my 2 oldest boys up for free piano lessons that are offered in my neighborhood. So they have a lesson every Tuesday night for the school year. I am curious if either of them take an interest. 

• Wednesday: Handcraft- The plan is to learn knitting this year. I don't care if they ever knit again, although I would love to have a little knitting boy. I just want them to learn useful skills like patience and finishing projects they start. Also, if they end up in a desperate bind for a washcloth or scarf when they are adults, it is hard to forget how to do a simple knit stitch.
• Thursday: Errand Day- I guess this day gets the ever popular label "life schooling" because we have a long day of running errands while Ira had ABA therapy for 3 hours. Library, grocery shopping, playing at parks, etc. By the time we are home, they get to watch a movie so I can take a nap, haha.

• Friday: Recorder- More music! They are learning the recorder this year too! I love music and hope that even if they never get super into playing instruments, they will each get a good foundation in an instrument of their choosing to be able to competently play when they are older. Or even maybe get into voice. I don't really care. Like I said, I am just focusing on foundations. I know literally nothing about woodwind or brass instruments, so we are using a curriculum from Prodigies called Recorder Prodigies to help us. 

And that is all we are doing for right now for school. Just reading over this post makes me panic. This does not feel like enough. But then I remind myself what are my goals for this year? I am looking less at academic goals. Those will come with time. They will be accomplished when I work more on basic academic and character goals. For example, I think both of my oldest boys are more than capable of writing a paragraph on whatever is asked of them, but they both think even writing one word is torture. So we are going to work slowly on being able to put thoughts to paper. 

All of them could work on focusing on doing their best work, instead of doing a bad job just to be done faster. Or even guess answers knowing I will help them through problems that are difficult for them. I would like them to learn this year that the reward for working through tough things far outweighs any poorly done job. The sense of accomplishment and pride in oneself is incredibly rewarding and will help them get far in life. 

They also will be learning that doing things that don't come naturally to them can be fun. We don't do music or art in this house because none of the boys naturally like it. It was a confirmation to me, then, that this goal is worth pursuing when after some tears of frustration and wanting to give up, two of the boys proudly showed me their art project, which was just trying to draw different parts of real animals to make a new creature, just like Leonardo Da Vinci used a rat, cat, bird, and snake to make a dragon. They ended up having so much fun that they continued to draw creatures of things of their own making for about half an hour after the activity was over. 

They were also pretty disappointed after their first recorder lesson because they could barely play one note. But they were all amazing and much more motivated to keep going when not only could they "magically" play the note they had been struggling with, but they could move on to more of them the next week. It is rewarding as the parent/teacher to watch firsthand these breakthroughs for them. I just hope that they will be believe me and notice them for themselves. 

I am really wanting to be more consistent with recording how our year goes. I will need to be much better with the pictures. I have really tried hard to get off my phone, but that means I never have it with me to take pictures. Also, the baby has recently decided that if she sees it, that must mean I have left it out for her, haha. So I really try to keep it put away. But, more pictures will be super helpful for me. Also, I want some sort of record to see how adding things like more language arts and an in-depth science curriculum will go. Just because we aren't doing them at the beginning of the school year doesn't mean they shouldn't be done or that they aren't important.