The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

Next year will be our first year of homeschooling the entire crew of children! I tried homeschooling Sam and Elizabeth when I was pregnant with Nathan but it wasn't a very good year. I was on bed rest 6 of the 9 months making it a challenging year for school. The past two years the kids have been in public school. We are blessed that we have a good public school here in Pembine. However, we do not like the challenges of peer pressure and the constant world-view that is being fed to our kids 8 hours a day. Also, I am seeing more and more each year that each of my children have different learning styles and abilities which are not being met in the traditional classroom setting. So, next year will be the start of our home schooling journey.

I'm doing a classical approach to learning which will include a hodge podge of curriculum's and learning styles. I thought I had chosen all my curriculum's but was still struggling with wanting to have a relaxed, FUN learning experience for the kids. Today I found a site called edhelper.com. It offers lessons for every topic imaginable. I'm sure that the science is very evolution based, so will not be using it unless I find worksheets that have actual scientific facts instead of evolution theories. I really like the options for worksheets this site offers and am thinking about using it for a lot of our subjects so I can pick and choose what we will do based on the strengths and weaknesses of each child. I think it might give me more flexibility than purchasing a specific curriculum then find that it is too advanced or not advanced enough for the child I chose it for. Anyway, it is $39.98 for a year's subscription which includes an entire section for Special Ed Students! If your a home school mom check it out! It might be a great resource for your family education program!

I'm also really excited about doing the children's history and science as a group. We will be using Story of the World and starting with Ancient Times next year. The older children will have extra reading and assignments whereas the younger children have simple worksheets/coloring pages to do. It is designed for teaching children at all ages which I like. It is one of the few history programs out there possibly the only one that truly goes chronologically. Most history textbooks focus primarily on US history.

For science we are going to do a lot of fun things applicable to what we are doing on the "farm" and in the garden, as well as studying animals by using the book: The Complete Zoo Adventure. My kids really enjoy listening to Jonathan Park Adventure stories. There are 5 different audio packs of stories you can get and each one comes with a study guide that is AMAZING!!! We will be learning about a lot more than dinosaurs, which is the main theme of the Jonathan Park Adventure stories. There are a lot of other scientific truths about human and animal make-up and all with a great Biblical perspective. If you've not heard of this audio series visit JonathanPark.com and listen to one of their stories. You can purchase them from that site or through CBD.

If your a home schooling mom or were a home schooler and have some suggestions I'd love to hear your ideas, leave me a comment!