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Sunday, July 1, 2007

Sharing our homeschool with others

On Thursday we attended a homeschool group for a playdate and I was dumbfounded about how to talk about our homeschool. We're a little complicated compared to the other homeschoolers that just use ABeka or Sonlight. The blank look on faces when I say, "we classically homeschool with The Well-Trained Mind as a guide" was disheartening. Not that I expect others to say anything but feeling misunderstood is frustrating. What's worse is that as soon as you say, "hi, I'm Jessica and I have two children..." the questions are, "what curriculum do you use?" Why don't we all create a little brochure for ourselves? Tell a little about our lives, our children, and our homeschools? That way we can focus on subjects that we really want to talk about instead of figuring each other out. Here's a sample our brochure.

Our Family: Jessica (30), Dh (35), Camille (7) and Danny (3).
Dh is a pastor of three churches and attends college, Camille will be starting 2nd grade in July and I just try to keep up with Danny. I am a Navy brat but call Charleston, SC home and I used to be a graphic designer before God decided I should be at home.

Camille, 7: She loves art, cooking and asking questions. She is my perpetual planner and super-duper helper. She can be shy and a little quiet but once she gets to know you she overcomes that. She is a very cautious person with a huge heart. Camille is my daughter from a previous marriage and her dad is very active in her life.

Danny, 3: He is all-boy, he loves anything that has an engine and moves. He is a risk-taker, entertainer and loves music. He is very animated and tends to draw attention to himself. Give him a handful of Matchbox cars and he'll be occupied for a while.

Our homeschool: We are neo-classical homeschoolers and we homeschool year-round from July to June.

Curriculum: Eclectic, The Well-Trained Mind, Tapestry of Grace. I'm not shy about creating lesson plans. We currently use: Explorer's Bible Study, Horizons Math, First Language Lessons, Spelling Workout, The Story of the World, and we created our own science studies this year. We have a goal of becoming a French/English bilingual family.

Schedule: We have a 4 day schedule, Monday-Thursday with extras on Friday if we desire and we are done with our lessons by 12 noon everyday.

Outside activities: Camille takes private piano lessons and we attend church functions. We like to take field trips and visit other homeschooling families. We visit our family often during the year since they live in Georgia and South Carolina.

My interests: Since homeschooling I enjoy reading about homeschooling and finding ways to better our journey through spiritual, mental and emotional growth. I review books and homeschooling products on the side as well. I am currently learning French ahead of what I'm teaching my children.

Interesting factoids:
1. We may adopt an older child or become foster parents once Danny turns 7 yo.
2. We will require our children to go on at least one mission trip before they leave our house.
3. We move every 4-6 years due to being in the ministry and we live in a parsonage.

Regarding homeschooling:
Unless circumstances change, we are confident we will homeschool our children through high school as God equips us. We believe that with God's help we are the best teachers for our children.

Okay, so what would your brochure say? Lol, this was fun.

 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jessica,

I LOVE your post!!! We are the same way, when it comes to curriculums. We use Rod & Staff Read, grammar and math, your science curriculum (try explaining to your friends that your using a 'friend you met on the internet's science curriculum!), Prima latina, My American History curriculum (goign through the presidents and states) and our spelling is just whatever words we need to learn that particular week (probably science words).

We school 4 days a week, and take the month of July off.

Piper (6)takes dance & gymnastics (back to back), piano, a weird science class, and art. Zoie (3)also takes dance and gymnastics. We also do field trips and science projects as they pertain to our curriculum. We are also very active with our church.

I enjoy reading. I pre-read most of the girl's books, and have recently been challenged to read edifying books as opposed to junk.

Our Factoids:

Piper was adopted 7/15/02 from Vietnam, Zoie, 7/15/05 from China.

We will be taking them to visit their homeland when they are about 15 & 12 yrs old. We would also like them to take at least one missions trip, to help them appreciate their life in America.

We have moved 2X, and live about 10 miles from where we each were raised.

We want our girls to learn Chinese. Since they are Asian, we feel that, if they are led to a career, their chances are increased with this langauge.

We plan to homeschool through high school.

Cindy :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Jessica, Great Idea! I just posted our sample brochure on my blog! Blessings! ~Holly

Anonymous said...

Hey Jessica, I did my brochure here:
http://tomzwife.homeschooljournal.net/2007/07/02/my-brochure/

and linked to yours in that post. I think these are interesting. : )

Dawne

Anonymous said...

Great post!! I made a brochure on my blog. Thanks for the idea!

Kathy D.
www.homeschoolblogger.com/myquiversfull

Amico Dio said...

I loved your post so I made a brochure too! Great job! Thanks for sharing.

Jennefer said...

I love this idea because what you said is so very true. So let's stop figuring each other out and get to the business of supporting and encouraging one another!

You can see our brochure on my blog.