All happy families are alike; each homeschooling family is nerdy in its own way.
This is our 10th year homeschooling and I have loads of free time (haha) so I’m going to share a day in the life of our homeschool—hopefully all 100 days, but this blog is full of one-off “series” so we’ll see how it goes.
Our homeschool style is not classical, not unschool (well, I guess we do unschool, but we don’t not-school or unparent), not Charlotte Mason, not school at home, not Thomas Jefferson education, not K12, not even eclectic. I never use the word rigorous, except when I’m making fun of the local charter school. (“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”) We just love to learn. Here’s what we’re learning this week.
Links go to Amazon but check your local library for free books. If you’re in Phoenix, now you can keep those library books forever because the Phoenix City Council thinks it’s too hard for poor people to return library books (Can you say con-de-scen-sion?). Now you can check out 35 books and movies at a time and sell them on eBay. Maybe the Phoenix City Council wants to stimulate small business? Anyway, get all these books free at the library, or buy them used on Amazon with my affiliate link.
I’ve linked to the cheapest books on Amazon; if you don’t mind reading a screen, classics are often free on Kindle or Project Gutenberg.
Read aloud:
Bible (20–30 minutes)
- Proverbs 1–15 I just bought this large print Bible (NASB version) so I don’t have to run around looking for my reading glasses. Here’s a cheap Bible (NASB version) we have but the print is tiny.
- Proverbs 16–31
- Ecclesiastes 1–7
- Ecclesiastes 8, Isaiah 1–3
- Isaiah 4–8
Literature (45 minutes)
US History (30 minutes)
- George Washington’s Farewell Address (6000+ words; takes about 35 minutes to read aloud.)
- September 11th. We read this article; the full book is here: The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11.
- Land of Hope This is the only book I’ve bought at full price in 10 years of homeschooling. It’s worth every penny.
Science: We skipped science this week since we realized we’d already covered most of the info in the biology book I intended to use. Also, 3 out of 4 people in our house hate science.
- The kids are building a coffee table for their dad’s birthday…we’ll call that Engineering.
- We solved an argument about which grades the kids were in when we moved to Phoenix. The bribe was ice cream and glory. Both kids made a graph to prove they were right, so I guess they get the scientific method.
7th grade subjects:
Math: We use math books I find on eBay printed before 1960 (that’s when New Math started creeping into the math books). If you want painless and thorough math, vintage math books are the way to go.
Projects: Jameson’s current project is songwriting; she’s entering a contest and I built a little practice time into her school day.
10th grade subjects:
World History: The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. Jefferson is reading through the entire set this year (covers ancient history through Napoleon).
Spanish: Duolingo on desktop (it’s easier to type answers quickly on the computer than on the app). This is the only online subject; everything else is covered with real books.
Reading and writing
Reading: Since Jefferson has a 20-inch stack of world history books to get through, I built in mandatory reading time (1 hour).
For the first week I let Jameson read whatever she wanted to, but I’ll assign her a few classics soon. She decided to read the Bible this week because I made a new rule: the kids can only watch TV/use screens a total of one hour a day, but they can earn extra time—one extra minute per minute spent reading the Bible, but no rollover minutes. Predictably, they over-read and under-watch, so I’ve painlessly solved the screen problem.
Writing: Both kids write whatever they want to for at least 15 minutes, every day. I don’t correct it, I don’t judge it—I just enjoy it.
Bonus books from my nerdy references:
The Princess Bride book here and movie here.
Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood watch here.
More unsolicited homeschooling advice here:
An Old Fashioned 8th Grade Education: 4 Personal Development Books To Read Before High School
Why You Should Read the Bible to Your Kids (Even if You’re Not a Christian)
3 Reasons You Should Never Set a Reading Timer for Your Kids
