Curriculum Review: Learning Language Arts through Literature

We love reading!

Name: Learning Language Arts through Literature
Website: https://www.commonsensepress.com/covers.htm

Subject Area: Language Arts (Reading, spelling, grammar, writing)

Cost: About $50 per grade level, new. Blue & Red Books cost more because they include readers. (This curriculum is easy to find used. I bought the Yellow Book series for $18 total)

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Pros:

Strong phonics program

Fun readers

Varied activities

Concise lessons

Fun

Easy to teach

Uses children's books to teach
Inexpensive

Cons:

Spelling was not a good fit for us

Minimal writing practice

Additional independent reading is necessary for building strong readers

I started using Learning Language Arts through Literature (hereby referred to as LLATL) with my daughter Lexi at age 5 1/2. At this point in time, she knew her letters and letter sounds and had a basic grasp of how to sound out short words. We were looking for something fun and varied and when I stumbled upon LLATL, I decided to give her the online placement test. Prior to using this program, we'd dabbled in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Explode the Code, and Bob Books, acquiring skills but growing bored with repetitive material.

She tested as ready to begin the Blue Book about 3/4 of the way through, so I bought the inexpensive program, figuring we'd use it with my younger daughter as well when the time came. 

Adding book covers to the chart is a fun and motivating way to keep track of progress.

Lexi is now nearly 7 and about 6-7 weeks away from completing the Red Book program. Overall, I've been very pleased with this program. I think the phonics instruction is fantastic. The Blue Book in particular came with a variety of phonics related games and booklets to keep the process interesting and fun.  Lexi is a strong reader and from the multiple informal tests I've given her, she's reading around a 2nd or 3rd grade level. She loves the readers that came with the Blue and Red books of the program. I felt that more reading practice was needed so we checked out lots of beginning reader books from the library to build fluency and reading confidence. The Blue Book has a variety of short story readers and the Red Book has awesome little "chapter" books that contain 5-6 different stories about a particular set of characters. When she successfully reads one of the stories, she gets to place a picture of the cover onto her reading chart. I think she feels really grown up being able to read a chapter book. Upon completion of each book, she gets to create a final project showcasing what she has learned. The book provides several ideas but she enjoys making things elaborate. So far we've had several lap books, dioramas and even characters from the stories recreated out of clay. Along with learning how to read, we've been discussing characters, plot, summaries and different aspects of grammar using these readers as well as popular children's books such as Harry The Dirty Dog and Little Bear. We love using these great books and I wish I had purchased them in advance because I have trouble getting them checked out from the library on time.

Lapbooks are fun and easy to make!

Lexi showing off her Up, Down and Around the Rain Tree project

While I love the reading aspect of this program, the spelling part leaves something to be desired at this point. I say this because the words seem to be chosen somewhat at random and there are few systematic rules for spelling that are introduced. Some of the words seemed to hard for her and sometimes the words for the week were not related in any way. We decided to stop using the spelling portion of this program and replace it with All About Spelling. She's now almost done with Level 1 and I like that program much better because it provides rules for spelling that allow a child to spell multiple words rather than just memorizing how to spell words in isolation. I felt okay substituting this in because LLATL is very inexpensive. 

I was a little concerned about the writing portion of LLATL at first. I felt that there was not nearly enough handwriting practice and very little writing done by the student. I began supplementing with Essentials in Writing and using different handwriting pages (as well as Draw Write Now books) to help my daughter practice letter formation. I am just now seeing some overlap between EIW and LLATL as we near the end of the Red Book. I have a feeling that more writing will be expected of her as the program progresses.The Blue and Red Books focus more on a student's ability to generate creative ideas and tell stories and less on their ability to physically write the words. Dictation is often encouraged to prevent the student from becoming frustrated. I get that, but I did feel that my kiddo needed practice forming letters. Again, it was easy to supplement. I find LLATL very flexible.

Passages from children's books are used for copy work late in the Red Book and in future books to support handwriting skills and the discussion grammar and other aspects of stories.

Bottom Line: Overall, I think Learning Language Arts Through Literature is a program worth looking into. The lessons are short, varied and fun which I think would be great for a reluctant reader. The program is inexpensive and the Teacher books are reusable, so it would be easy to use this program over and over for multiple children. This program is easy to supplement or make substitutions to if needed for your children. Check it out!

Using cut outs to show how pronouns replace nouns.

A week in pictures

A trip to the zoo with friends

Teaching the cat something

Letter U and number 2

Lex made an abacus

Introducing the concept of multiplication

Demonstrating equal groups

In case you wanted to see EVERY piece in the box

Building at the library

A trip to the park with neighbor friends

Found a bee hive, yikes

Working hard or hardly working?

Lydia's favorite thing about gymnastics

Painting with berries

Taking a TV break

New baby cousins are the best!

It's her!

Can't you tell?

Back to School

I've been awful about writing regularly, mostly because I don't have anything all that interesting to say. I've started a few posts (7!) and then abandoned them because if I got bored writing them, I figured surely you would get bored reading them. I decided now would be a good time to give a general update on our lives and what the girls are doing in school. I've also got a goals update coming soon. (Spoiler Alert: Not doing so hot)

 My last post was in June! We had a busy summer. We spent a lot of time at the pool, had a lot of play dates, and went to Branson for the weekend with my parents, brother and niece. Lexi played softball and both girls did some camps, swimming lessons and VBSs (what's the plural of VBS?). We celebrated Lydia's 4th birthday and my 29th and it rained. A lot. Overall, it was a good summer. I had intended to keep some school going during the summer but we really didn't do much other than read a lot. I haven't decided if I want to keep taking traditional summers off or if we are going to do a more year round approach with breaks off as needed. We shall see.

The girls started school at the beginning of August. I started with just math and writing the first week, then added reading the next week, and this week I added science, social studies and spelling. And then last night they begged to do art so we did that too. It was a rough transition back to school at first since we pretty much did whatever we wanted this summer, but 3 weeks in, we are getting used to our routine again and moving right along.

What are we doing in school this fall?  

I always enjoy reading what other homeschooling families are doing and what curriculum they use, so here's what we are using and doing this fall. Lexi is in 1st grade and Lydia is in preschool. I linked to most of our curriculum in case you wanted to know more.

Lexi
Reading-  Learning Language Arts Through Literature Red Book (2nd grade). She left off halfway through this in May and that's where we are picking up.

Math- Singapore Math, book 1B (halfway through 1st grade). I think we will finish this book in a couple of months and move on to book 2A. We are also using a cool program I found on Teachers Pay Teachers called Kicking It that helps kids learn their basic facts. It is karate themed and she likes that.

Science - Noeo Science, Biology 1. We started this in the spring and the girls love it. Right now we are learning about desert life, and we will move through different biomes, the human body, plants, and more. This will take us most of the school year.

Spelling - All About Spelling Level 1. We will be done with this about moving on to Level 2 in a few weeks.

Social Studies - Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times. We did several months of this last fall and while she enjoyed it, I felt she would get more out of it if we waited til she was older. So we are starting over from the beginning. We are also reading tons of American Girl books.

Writing - Essentials in Writing Level 1.One of my main goals for Lexi this year is to build her writing skills so she is able to write longer and more independently, so I picked this up. It has videos that teach a component of writing and then practice pages. It's nice to be able to set her up with that so she can work independently for a while. I am going to mix it in with Draw Right Now books and just free journal writing. She enjoys telling stories a lot so I am wanting to help her have the skills to write more on her own.

Art - Artistic Pursuits K-3 Vol 1. I picked this up at a sale and we're going to just throw it in and see how it goes. Both girls absolutely love art. I was planning to wait until next year when Lydia has more skills, but they were begging to start so we did our first lessons last night and they enjoyed it.

Music - Piano lessons with my mom once per week. Thanks Grandma Diane! She is also learning sewing from my mom.

This looks like a lot when I see it all typed out like this, but we don't do every subject every day and most days we are done before lunch.

The cats are always very helpful

Lydia
In January, Lydia started showing interest in doing her own school and she worked 2/3 of the way through All About Reading Pre-Reading. She was begging to do school every day, even on weekends, and loved this curriculum. We got through 2/3 of it and then stopped for summer. When we picked it back up, she wasn't super interested and it had gotten kind of repetitive. So I picked up Level 1 from a friend and sat down with her, but she was NOT having any of that. She could do it but was very against it. So I have decided to wait on that for a while until she is interested. I don't want her to hate learning and she is just 4 so we have time. We might try Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons  (which I used with Lexi) finish the Pre-Reading curriculum, or try Level 1 again after a while. Or maybe we will keep waiting!

This past week, I set up some activities for her on ABC Mouse just to see how it would go and she is really enjoying that!  It's an online preschool program that has little books, games, puzzles, coloring activities and songs. I set her up on my Chromebook with her headphones on and she just goes. It's adorable to hear her singing to herself. It's kept her interest for a bit while Lexi and I are working on subjects that require my complete focus.  I think we will keep using it as long as she enjoys it.

I also purchased Spielgaben (in short, a giant box of loose parts for building with) and she has been playing with that every day. She's a super creative, hands-on girl and I can see her using this for quite a while. I've printed out some of the curriculum that came along with the set, but right now she is just playing with it on her own and having fun. I'm going to keep things pretty laid back for her this year since she is young.

I believe this is a fairy wedding.

Other Stuff

We do venture out of the house now and then. ;) Lydia just started gymnastics and appears to love it. We go to my mom's every week for piano, sewing and some grandma time. Every Thursday afternoon we attend Park Day with our homeschooling friends and have several hours of play time. Lexi wants to start karate. We've checked out one place and are going to look at another soon to see which would be the best fit. We read from our devotionals most mornings and are excited that Awanas will start up in September!  Tim and I are excited for since it means we'll get alone time every week without finding a sitter. We have play dates with friends and hit up the library about every week. (We read a lot. My voice is tired.)  Honestly, I find that socializing tends to get in the way of school more than the reverse. We're blessed to have awesome friends and family on this journey with us

Back to School Pool Party with friends!

So now you know what we are doing in school this fall.  I need to take more pictures. Hope everyone's school years are off to a great start!

Joy!

Well, it finally has happened!

After about 18 months of hard work in phonics and the craziness that is the English language, checking out stacks of audiobooks and beginning readers, reading aloud til my voice is tired and just gently, gently encouraging her...Lexi IS A READER, BY CHOICE!

She's been able to read at about a 2nd grade level (by my calculations) for a while now but for the first time, she has confidence in her skills and has been reading stacks of books to me by choice. Oh, happy day!

Last week, Lexi disappeared for a while at the library and came back to me with an armload of beginning reader books and a questioning look in her eye. I considered limiting the number of books we checked out (since we owe the library over $9.00 in fines right now due to that time we filled a suitcase with books and misplaced some of them, oops) but then I stopped and said, "Sure, throw them in the bag!"

I'm so glad that I did. She is eagerly picking up the books and reading fluently with little help. I knew she could do it, but now SHE knows she can do it, and that is just so cool. She's reading me books about the sun, amphibians, mammals, the planets, and even tried out a beginning chapter book this morning and discovered that she could read it. I can tell she is proud of her new skill.

"Mom, can we add this to school? Like every day, I pick out a book and read it to you?" she asked.

Um, of course kid. OF COURSE!

We're taking a hiatus from reading lessons to just dive into the pleasure that is reading for enjoyment.

All of her (and my, I guess) hard work has paid off.

I have a reader!

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to teach her.

The most important things I will teach...

 In my last post, I talked about how I as a homeschooling parent will teach my kids to contribute to society. This was based on a question posed by a friend of mine, a question that for some reason really got me thinking about education and parenting in general.

I have been doing some deep thinking about what I hope to accomplish as a parent and what I hope to teach my kids as a home educating mom. Actually, this started with some lighter thinking. About the name of our homeschool. Let me explain.

In the state of Kansas, homeschools are considered non-accredited private schools. If you choose to homeschool your kids, you must register yourself with the state of Kansas by the time your student is 7, or, whenever you withdraw them from public or private school. Lexi will turn 7 in November so I need to register our school by then, which means I need to pick out a name for it. I love naming things so I have been giving this a lot of thought.

My first idea for our school's name was Upward Academy or Upward Sights Academy. I considered these because I feel that the name has two meanings. First, that we should set our sights upward, that is, on God. Second, that we should always strive to improve ourselves or move upward toward the next level. I liked these names, but I couldn't really figure out how to word it to best convey the concept I was going for. I wanted our name to reflect the purpose of our school.

So I took a break from the name game and decided to focus on defining the goals and purpose of our school. What do I hope to teach my kids? What is the most important thing they could learn? There are a million things I'd love for my kids to study, tons of books I'd love to read them, skills I want them to learn.

After a lot of thinking, I've narrowed down my aim as a parent and home educator into three simple skills/abilities that I hope my kids will be able to do when they "graduate":

The ability to think...
To use their brains to analyze situations and life circumstances
To understand how they learn
To thirst for understanding
To gain knowledge and apply
Basically, to use their heads.

The ability to care...
To love others, like Jesus did and commanded us to do
To care about people
To care about our world
To be sensitive to the needs and circumstances of others
In other words, to use their hearts.

To care without thinking can be ineffective. Thinking allows you to create plans to make an impact. If you think without caring, you may make a callous or selfish choice. Care and compassion are needed.

At first, I thought I was done at these two. I want my kids to think and to care. Sounds good. Then I realized I was missing a crucial piece...

The ability to act...
I realized, without this one, the other two don't matter at all.
This is probably the hardest skill to learn- to see what needs to be done and to do it.
To not let fear get in the way of moving forward.
To keep trying when plans fail.
To use their hands, their bodies, to accomplish what their hearts and minds know needs accomplishing.

All three are necessary. The head, heart and hands work together.

If my kids learn to think, to care and to act, I will know my job is done.

So for the name of our school, I'm going to try to incorporate these goals. Maybe we will be TCA Academy, T for think, C for care, A for act. Or maybe not. I'm still working the bugs out. But now that I know what my focus is and have put it into words, I am going to work on putting it into practice each day.


Note: Someone told me that this sounds a lot like the 4-H motto. I did not realize that when I was coming up with it. Maybe we'll join 4-H someday, since our priorities seem to align ;)

Society needs ya

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Recently, a friend of mine posted a question on Facebook asking myself and other homeschooling parents how we approach selecting curricula and teaching our children how to contribute to society. It prompted an interesting discussion, and, for some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I realized I had a lot to say about these topics, so I decided to write about it, a little at a time.

Thanks for the inspiration, Polly!

Original Question: How do you teach your children to be contributing members of society?

How does anyone teach anyone anything?  Whoa. Actually, I don't want to dive into that right now. Not at that level. But how do we parents, homeschooling or not, teach our kids important things? I'd say the number one way is by modeling. If I want my kids to see what it means to contribute to society, I should contribute to society. If I want my kids to be generous, I should be generous. If I want my kids to be hard workers, I should show them how I work hard. If I want them to know the importance of voting, I should vote, and explain why I do so. Actions speak louder than words. Lead by example. Insert a whole lot of other maxims in here. Our kids are constantly watching us and learning from us, which is kind of scary and off-color sometimes, at least in my house. But it's important to remember that.

When I saw this question was being posed to homeschooling families, it made me wonder about how homeschooling families might differ from public schooling families in regard to this question. Is there really much of a difference? I want to ask, how do public schools teach kids to be contributing members of society? So if anyone would like to share their feelings on that, please do! I'd love your input!

The main difference I suppose is that homeschooled kids spend the majority of their time with their families rather than at school. So it becomes our responsibility to teach them to become contributing members of society. We don't do this by taking extra time out of the day to have, "Contributing to Society 101" class. I think it is something our children learn by watching us, as I mentioned before, and through daily experiences and conversations as we do life together.

I think in order to best explain this, there's another question that needs answering. 

Follow up question: What does it mean to be a contributing member of society?

This wasn't one of the original questions, but the previous question made me think: what does it mean to be a contributing member of society? Well, I think it looks different for everyone but basically I believe it means to use your specific talents and circumstances to make a positive difference to those within your sphere of influence. 

I am the only mom my kids have. If I stopped being their mom, no one would pick up the slack and cover for me. Because of this, I feel that I need to make their upbringing one of my top priorities right now since it is a job that I alone can do with the amount of love and devotion that I (hopefully) bring to it each day. So right now, my family is my sphere of influence and I am trying to make a positive difference to them, hoping that they, in turn, will make a positive difference to others.  As my children grow and become less dependent upon me, I imagine my focus will broaden. Who knows what I will do some day. Right now, I'm focusing on my family.

While I focus on raising my family, I am growing and developing as a person. I am learning what skills I have and how I can use them to help others. I am modeling to my children how to use what they have to make an impact. I am teaching them to care about others. Our kids know that our family sponsors two children in other countries. They know that I vote. They know that we recycle as much as we can. We talk daily about how people are more important than things, and how our behavior should reflect that. They know that I am doing my best to educate them because education is important. My kids see me helping out at church. I used to work with the children and then discovered I enjoyed working with the youth group. I just began mentoring a youth who is going to be confirmed this spring. In fact, today she told me about two ways she enjoys serving others and I was really proud to hear that she has found ways to serve that are dear to her heart and that use her strengths.

I see signs that my girls are already learning about how to contribute to others. They draw pictures to send to our sponsored kids and remind me to pray for them. They try to share what they have with others when the opportunity arises. The other day, Lydia (age 3 1/3) told me that she wanted to give some of her toys to kids who don't have many toys. Even though she had a hard time deciding which toys to give, I was really touched by her generosity at such a tender age. They want to help others. They aren't perfect, but there is still plenty of time to continue training them. As they get older, I hope to help them find different ways to use their gifts to help others.

I feel like developing our talents and using them for the good of ourselves and others is a lifelong process. This is because it not only takes time to figure out what our gifts are and learn how to use them, but we also have different gifts that we use at different points in our lives. It's important for all of us to discover what our strengths are and to put them to good use. I believe that God made us all very different, and for good reason. There's a lot of work to be done here on Earth and there are a lot of different and important jobs to do.  We aren't all going to be good at all of them. But if we all take the time to figure out what we are good at and then DO it, we as individuals will grow and our society will benefit.

This is something I am still working at. I know that teaching is one of the gifts I have and am using daily with my girls. I thoroughly enjoy researching curriculum, writing lesson plans and watching the girls learn. I think that writing is another gift I have, but I am still working out how to best use it. And as simple as it sounds, sometimes I think I am just meant to make people laugh to make life a little more lighthearted.

I would not be a good daycare teacher for babies and toddlers. I don't have the patience to spend all day with a herd of nonspeaking people wearing diapers. But I have friends who work wonders with little people.

I would make a terrible nurse. Bodily functions are not my favorite and when it comes to human anatomy, I'm straight up ignorant.  But I've got friends who are smart, really nurturing and take great care of those in their care.

I really hate the world of insurance. It's confusing as crap and frustrates me to no end. I also think it is boring, to be honest. But my dad, brother and husband have a knack for it and I am glad, because people like them help people like me wade through that crazy stuff to make good choices and protect my family.

We've all got different gifts and talents to put to use to make this world a better place. One of my jobs as a parent is to help my kids figure out where they fit into society and how they make an impact. One of your jobs as a person is to do the same for yourself.

So, what's your thing? How are you giving back? Because society needs ya. 

Getting this party started...and stopped...and started

This is the final post in a series explaining how we began our homeschooling journey. For the conversation that started it all, click here. To read about socialization, click here. For individualization, click here.

For starters, this was going to be a Choose Your Own Adventure post. Exciting, huh? When I began writing this, I thought I might need to write two versions. The long version with greater details and specifics that might interest those who are homeschooling, considering it, or interested in specifics, and the short version, for everyone else. Then I realized that I don't even want to write the specifics. So I stopped. If you want to know more, just ask!

Flexibility is the theme of this post. This world needs more of it. The ability to change plans, to bend and adapt to different situations, to transition, even to crumple up your list of plans, toss them away and start over. Flexibility is a good life skill to have.

It's also one of my favorite perks of homeschooling. Not only does homeschooling allow for flexibility, it requires it. In order to best educate your child, you have to be flexible. Heck, isn't that true of all parenting? You have to roll with the punches to a degree. Or else you completely lose your mind.

So, first, the ways in which homeschooling has allowed us to be flexible. It's given us the gift of time, really.

Well, we don't have to wake up early. Which rocks. I don't have to set an alarm. I have Lydia. We can stay in our pajamas until we are ready to get out of them (sometimes we stay in them til right before Tim gets home from work, but don't tell him that) and we can take the morning slow if we want to. Some days we don't even eat breakfast until 9:30. There's less rush in our days because we don't have to drop off or pick up at certain times.

We can pursue other interests. I'm in two different moms' groups that meet in the morning. On those days, we don't do school until we get home. The girls go and play with kids their age while I go play with moms. We can also take classes that meet at different times of the day, rather than in the evening when everyone is cranky and tired.

We can travel. By the end of this year, we'll have gone on four different trips that would have required that the girls take time off school, had they been enrolled. Instead we've schooled on the go or just planned breaks around the times we've been gone. We've hit Colorado, Chicago and Omaha and are visiting Branson this weekend. I love traveling and I'm glad we get to do this. The girls have learned so much visiting other places.

Lydia and a Stegosaurus

We love jellyfish!

So many different kinds of butterflies

Petting and feeding sting rays!

We're spreading our schooling throughout the year. This past year, we did school through June, took July off, then got started again in August. We took days off here and there for travel and holidays and are taking most of December off of our "formal" schedule. I love how this has really taken the pressure off. We're in no rush to complete a certain amount of work by a certain time. We can slow down when we get confused or spend extra time on something interesting.

On that note, Lexi is working at her own pace. She just started a 2nd grade reading curriculum in October and is working in a 1st grade math book. Her fine motor skills are still at kindergarten level so we are developing her handwriting little by little from where she's at now. The science and social studies curricula we are using are able to be modified for different ages. Lydia's enjoying our Zoology course right now too. I appreciate that Lexi can just be herself and improve on all levels at her pace. School doesn't take very long each day, maybe an hour or so. Her lessons are short and we are done when we are done.

We love reading about animals and then visiting them at the zoo

Now, for the other side of flexibility.

After we decided to dive into the world of homeschooling, one of the first tasks ahead of me was to select a curriculum to use with Lexi. She was 4. She missed the kindergarten cutoff by a couple of months but was ready for more than what preschool was offering.

Now many moms told me that I didn't need one at her age, or that I should use free or cheap resources to teach her. Did I listen? Of course not. I heard about an awesome, expensive, literature-based curriculum.

So many wonderful, beautifully illustrated books...

It was beautiful. A giant box arrived on our doorstep full of gorgeous looking books. I couldn't wait to get started. We sat down to follow the schedule that came with it and realized...we didn't love it!

What to do? Should we power through?

I decided not to. We continued reading the story books that came with the curriculum for fun, along with the math work books, but luckily, one of Tim's homeschooling aunts had shared some of her favorite resources with us and we started using them. First up was Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I realized that Lexi knew a lot of what the beginning lessons taught, so at the advice of another mom, we skipped ahead. This book actually taught Lexi how to READ! She and I were both amazed and excited at how quickly she began sounding out words and reading short books. It was very cool.

It ain't pretty, but it's effective!

It's exciting to read a whole book!

Then, she got bored. What to do? Was it okay to not finish ANOTHER piece of curriculum? Would I scar my child for life?

No, I decided. She was bored, so we moved on! I didn't want her to think that reading was boring. I wanted her to love it.

I found another reading curriculum that came with a placement test. It placed Lex about 3/4 of the way through the first book in the series. Geez, that seemed messy. But ok. We started there and finished the book. Then we started the next book. It had a bunch of boring review at the front, so guess what?

Lex enjoys placing the covers of books she's finished reading on this chart

WE SKIPPED IT!

Whaaaaat?!

Yep, we skipped it.

Know why? Because it was the right choice for my kid. I want her to love reading. Whatever skills she may have missed by moving on could always be taught later.

And thus, I learned what it means to be flexible. It means following your child's needs. Even if it means trying something and quitting it. Even if it means trying different things and quitting them. Even if it is messy. I learned that learning doesn't always fit into a nice, neat box. It won't always be a nice little list we can check things off of when we are done. Education isn't always something beautiful and orderly that can be measured. It's a lifelong process. It's going to jump around sometimes.

It's hard to be flexible, but I've learned that it is a life skill worth practicing. When I am flexible, there's less pressure on me and on my children. When I'm flexible, we can take advantage of cool opportunities that pop up randomly. When I'm flexible, my kids realize that learning isn't about sticking to a schedule, but discovering and enjoying this amazing world around us.

I want my kids to be passionate, lifelong learners. I want them to follow their interests and develop their passions. But I have to be flexible with them, because they are people and, frankly, people are a mess. We don't fit into neat little boxes either. It's going to take me some time to figure out what works best for my kids- how they learn, what they are good at, what they need extra practice with. And that's okay.

We've got time. 

The IEP

This post is part of a series about Our Homeschooling Journey. Click here for the conversation that started it all. Click here to read about the S word.

As Tim and I weighed the pros and cons of different educational options for our children, we talked a lot about the purpose of school and education in general and we shared about our personal experiences in school.

We graduated together but I got the fancy cords for doing my homework.

I was a goody-two-shoes straight-A student in high school, Tim was the kid who aced the tests but didn't turn in the homework. I diligently attended even the most boring of classes, Tim found himself skipping classes that weren't interesting or challenging him. We were two very different students. We still are two very different learners. Tim can read a book while watching TV or listening to music and comprehend all of the different stimuli. I need quiet to read and I still struggle sometimes to follow the plot of a complicated movie or TV show.

The truth is, all people are very different. We all come with our own unique abilities, interests, attitudes and needs. I think this is great. It'd be boring if we were all the same. We all have something different to contribute to the world and society needs a lot of different kinds of people to function.

At the time we were discussing homeschooling, Lexi was 4. She was a bright kid. She has always had a strong vocabulary and good communication skills. She had a killer memory (as her mom that can be a good/bad thing for me) and was naturally curious. She was interested in learning to read and enjoyed building things with blocks and creating art. She was one-of-a-kind in our eyes.

She loved drawing as soon as she learned to pick up a pen (with her left hand!)

Which is what made me a bit concerned about sending her to a classroom of 20-30 kids someday. I have a background in education and I understand how challenging it can be for a teacher to cater to the varying needs of so many students. I often saw the bright kids, and sometimes the average kids, get left behind.

Actually, I remember once exercise I did in one of my education courses at KU. We were given a roster of 30 make believe student profiles and had to pick which kids we'd most like to have in our imaginary classroom and which we would least like to have.

Can you guess which kids myself and my fellow future teachers did NOT want in our classrooms?

The gifted kids! I was really surprised at this result. We all chose the struggling kids to have in our classrooms over the children who needed an extra challenge. I know from experience that it can be difficult to come up with challenges for the bright kids in a class, especially when there are some kids struggling to stay caught up.

I remember one student that I student taught who had mediocre grades. He always finished his work quickly and then space off or messed around, sometimes distracting other kids. One day I called him over and asked if he was bored. Yes, he told me adamantly. I told him I would try to come up with something extra for him to do. He came to my desk daily from them on asking if I had something for him.

I don't know if Lexi is gifted. I don't really know what that even means. I know she is smart. I wonder how she would behave in a classroom if she finished all her work. Would she bother the other kids? Read the dictionary in class, like her dad once did? I can't say.

What I can say is that kids who are bored or not kept busy and challenged can begin to feel negatively about school in general. Being bored in school can lead to a disinterest in learning or a squashing of passion.

What is the point of school? To me, school is about education. Education is about learning. In my eyes, the goal of education is to develop knowledge and skills that enrich life and benefit the individual as well as others.

What's the best way to accomplish this kind of knowledge and skill development?

Well, that depends on the person. We're all individuals. What works for one person may not work for another.

In the education world, students who have special needs qualify for an IEP, or Individualized Education Program. Each child's IEP lays out needs, goals, accommodations that will be made for the child and a plan for helping them reach their goals. A team of teachers and staff members meet periodically to monitor how things are going.

I like the idea of the IEP. I think every kid should have one. Does that sound crazy?

I think it's crazy to assume that all the kids in a classroom are the same.

Each child has different abilities, needs, interests and even attention span and energy level that affect her ability to learn. So why not take these factors into consideration?

Well, in a classroom of 30 kids, it would be nearly impossible for one teacher to be able to teach each subject to fit each child's individual differences. That is asking a lot. There are a lot of wonderful teachers out there who do a great job teaching their students to the best of their abilities. Sadly, these teachers often have time constraints and limited budgets as well as mounting responsibilities (state testing, anyone?) that don't always make it possible for them to cater to each student's specific, individual needs.

But, I learned, there is another option.

Homeschooling.

As my child's mom, I am already familiar with many of her quirks. I am aware of her interests, abilities, and I've been taking care of her needs since she entered the world. I get that she is ready to go first thing in the morning but hits an afternoon slump- I do too. I know that she could listen to books for hours on end but that she tires quickly when she's writing.

At the time of this decision, Lexi was only 4. She already showed strengths in some areas and weaknesses in others. She was excited about learning. I didn't want that excitement to fizzle out.  I always knew I wanted to be the one to have the honor of teaching her to read. I got excited about the idea of being the one to teach her other things too. I could create a plan for her education based on her specific needs.

Once homeschooling got into my head, I knew I had to try it out. It seemed to fit. I could teach Lexi at her own pace, following her own interests, which would fulfill my desire to be home with my children yet also exercise my love for teaching. Win-Win.

So when Tim lost his job in the winter of 2013 and we legitimately could not afford preschool any longer, we decided to officially make the plunge into homeschooling.

What a wild ride it has been.

Lexi was very interested in gardening and chose to buy herself a tomato plant

Mushrooms were fascinating to learn about

She loved writing stories

There's nothing quite like dancing in the rain.