Primarily written by Adrienne, a homeschooling mother of seven, ages 10 and under. She chronicles life, laughs, struggles, and lessons learned as she raises a larger-than-most sized family and tries to figure out what she's doing day by day.

With occasional posts, Alexandra, Adrienne's older sister, writes of her ranch life in Nevada and raising four sons, ages 5 and under. Life is never dull and her boys have given her some pretty awesome stories to tell.

Stick around awhile, and you're sure to laugh, nod, smile, be encouraged, and see what life is like with a big (little) family.

1.30.2013

Pictures: what our homeschool looks like.

Every homeschool blog I look at looks idyllic. Orderly, labeled, color-coded shelves of perfectly graded schoolbooks, desks free of pencil marks (and dust), and charts on the walls to tell each perfectly groomed student which minute of which hour they should be doing their 3rd grade Geometry.

Oh, to be so organized. But I’m not. So, without further ado about what I don’t have, a look at a day in the life of our homeschool:

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Sometimes, they sit where they are supposed to: at the little table, in front of our less-than-organized children’s reading bookshelf. (Do I get points that the kids’ books have their own shelf, and 95% of them are on the shelf or on top of the book on the shelf? Please?)IMG_4233

Or they work in the middle of the room, on their laps. Because that’s super comfy. (?!)

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Younger siblings sit and soak up the instruction as well. The way I figure, they’ll know half of what they need to know before the age of five at this rate.

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The floor is a popular place to be.

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But it has it’s risks.

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And in the end, it usually works something like this.

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I attempt to keep children on task and distractions to a minimum. But it doesn’t always usually work.

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Our school shelf screams for someone, anyone, to do something. It started out the year organized, and each child’s books were together, youngest to oldest, left to right. Now, they are all on the shelf, and when room runs out, they are on the books on the shelf. It’s success so long as it’s on the shelf, I’m afraid. As long as the encyclopedia set is in alphabetical order, I tell myself there’s hope.

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When a dear child fails to maintain their proper schedule on time, penance must be paid. It’s rough.

But they are learning. And one day, when they are older, they will thank me for their ability to concentrate despite extreme circumstances.

At least, that’s what I tell myself.

**Just for the record, Pierce was napping during our photo session this school day. If he hadn’t been, the camera shake would have been considerable and the learning level greatly diminished.

6 comments:

Kristin said...

I love your homeschool it is lovely.

Enjoying the Chaos said...

I'm glad our days are not so unusual - my kids end up all over the place - and on top of each other too! Fun memories though!!

Unknown said...

That is awesome! While I too have a cozy (and somewhat disorganized) homeschool corner, it seems most of our school occurs on the floor or table of my living room!! But the smiles on your kids faces makes it worth it!

Unknown said...

Ha! That's great! I love it when we peel away the "I'm perfect" mask and show reality!

Rose Casell said...

it's real life! I love it.

Unknown said...

Thanks for keeping it real!