The First Day of No School

M was to begin preschool the day after Labor Day. Way back in the summer I planned that W and I would start school at home that day as well, September 3, even though the public school began August 28 for older kids. It made sense to me to start on the day his sister started, so he had my full attention and we could start off on the right foot. I figured W would enjoy a few extra summer days in the meantime-- the first little perk of our homeschool plan. 

But The First Day of School in town was W's first day of not going, and it was tough for him. In those first non school days he kept stopping me in my tracks with some of the things he said and did. I knew this was a big deal for him, it wasn't his choice to be homeschooled, and it was going to be an adjustment. But I think in all my positive vibes and optimistic anticipation, I had underestimated how much was going on inside of him over this transition.

August 28/T-minus 6 days until Homeschool
When he woke up on the first day of public school and (and several times the day before) he seemed lost in thought. I said, "What are you thinking about, buddy?"

"Everything."

...

We had an hour-long visit at M's preschool for her orientation on this day. (She attends preschool at a public school in our district, but not the school W had attended.) So W had to troop there along with us (side note: going to preschool orientation was a thrill for me, because in all the previous years my children had attended preschool, I had never been able to attend because I had to be teaching). While walking down the hallway for M's orientation, with the crisp new clothes and bright bulletin boards and new school year aura about the building, an adult who recognized W gave him a big smile and said hi, then said, "Are you missing your first day of school, W??"

...

Later that morning we stopped at the playground for a nice little picnic. Boy, was he mad at me. He hadn't been mad at me over the summer. The initial news last spring that we were planning to homeschool was a shock to him but he had seemed to adjust to the thought, with some reservations. He hadn't been mad at me all summer, but now it was August 28 and he was mad. He was giving me snide responses to things. He growled at me, "I should be in school. I've pinched myself ten times. I just feel so weird." 

"I'm sorry buddy, I know this is a big change. It's going to be okay. Remember, we decided to do this because we love you. We just want you to get the best education you can." 

"I was getting a fine education!" he snapped. "Did you hear Mrs. So and So at M's preschool?! I can't wait till 5th grade. I'm going back in 5th grade, right?? I never thought I'd want to go back to school, but I'll be so excited to go back to school." 

This was six days before beginning homeschool. Nothing had changed for him yet. But his peers had started school.
     
...

Later at home he was furious with me, something about carrots. How I cut them maybe? Or I picked some without him? I can't remember. But I remember telling him, "I understand you're mad at me. You can be mad at me right now. But please don't be mad at me about everything. Don't be mad at me about carrots." 

And he cooled down a bit and said, "I know, I'm sorry." 

...

That afternoon (still the first day of public school) we were in our yard. It was a sparkling summer afternoon. M was blowing bubbles, W was aimlessly shooting his plastic bow and arrow over and over. The school bus went by on its first afternoon run. I was trying to chat with W, since I've learned that in these moments where he's occupied with something mindless he's usually willing to open up and chat, or take in an idea, more than if I sat him down and said, look here. I thought I'd try to help him see the bright side, so he could focus less on this intense sense of feeling different that was pressing on him today. 

"Remember that with homeschool, we can learn about stuff you're interested in, besides the stuff we need to learn about, which we'll try to make fun..." I was trying to be very positive, trying to cuddle him with my words. "We could learn about cooking, or something about animals maybe--"

"Thanks for reminding me about cooking. That makes me excited for homeschooling."

Of course I couldn't stop there. I kept going, talking about being excited to challenge him, to go his speed. How even really good teachers can't do their best with every kid when there are 20 kids and kids who have a hard time with different things. He launched into a whole bunch of tales of times that classmates were really badly behaved or really stressed. Maybe for him this was just the random association that popped into his mind. But it felt there was some hint of his feeling that maybe that'll be nice to not have to be so distracted by all that.

I followed up on the happy cooking topic later. We brainstormed types of cooking he might like to get better at. "Desserts with fruit and French desserts! I'm really excited about that now. Thanks for talking about cooking and stuff." 

T-minus 5 Days
The next day when W woke up, he came stretching and yawning through the living room, talking as if we were already in mid-conversation as usual: "So, they're probably just finishing morning meeting now and going onto something else." No apparent moodiness or anger today, just matter of fact. But still defining himself by school, by what his peers were doing that he's missing. 

After thinking over the previous day and how out-of-sorts he had felt, I had realized maybe I should have planned some tasks for him to do on the first day of public school to focus him so he didn't feel like he was just playing hooky. I realized he had felt he was doing something wrong by being home and wanted to help boost his dignity about it today. I told him I knew it felt weird to not be at school yesterday, but that I had some work I needed him to do today: I needed him to do a little spelling test to help me make sure I knew what level he was starting at.

He took a deep breath, but I could hear the pride, anticipation, in his voice when he said, "It will be really weird to not have a spelling test [with words] like 'boat.' I’ve known how to spell 'boat' since first grade. It will be weird to be like 'What, how do you spell that?'"

We talked about how that might be a good feeling, to have to think. I resisted an angry speech at this heartbreaking comment about meaningless spelling tests of the past, and said something instead about how even good teachers struggle to meet everybody’s needs in a busy class of 20-plus, and sometimes they’re doing the best they can for everybody but it isn’t really meeting everybody’s needs, such as spelling words that are too easy for some kids. W said, so matter-of-factly and with greater acceptance than I'd like, that yes, they do stuff for the kids who have the hardest time, and yes, for so and so spelling 'boat' would be hard.

...

The kids and I went for a walk that day (another mindless activity great for good chats). I got him talking about the things that typically happen on the first days of school, and what he would like to happen on our first day. We agreed we’d make some hopes and “rules” we’d both agree to and sign it, but it needn’t take a long time like in school. He wanted to jump right in on the first day. He repeated his excitement about cooking sometimes during the school day, that that would be fun. 

T-4 days

My husband had taken the day off and the four of us had driven over to enjoy a favorite bike path in the White Moutains. Before we started, we did a quick hike up to an outlook with an impressive view. Nothing had been said yet that day about homeschool but I know that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on inside. As we climbed back down the trail, I asked W how he was feeling today about stuff. He said he was feeling okay and that "I think I will really want to see my friends a lot more, like I will really be thinking about the next time I see them, like it will be a really big deal. Like I can't wait for O's birthday tomorrow, and like every soccer game and stuff like that." 

T-2 days 

That night after dinner W stood behind his dad, massaging his shoulders (seemingly just being generous; this was not an ordinary occurrence). He good-naturedly shared, “I was crying in my sleep last night. I thought my whole class moved away. I was like L's and B's mailboxes are gone! Then I woke up and I was like I don’t even know where they live!” He also said he dreamed he’d never see a certain classmate again, that he’d moved away "and had a big stick, maybe to move or push his stuff with." He followed up, quite sweetly, saying that doing that massaging was a way to take out his frustration that I’m homeschooling him! 

That night when I noted this conversation in a journal, I wrote, "I do believe we will love this year, and that you will be glad for it and feel differently after some time. But I recognize how big this is for you. It’s such a big change and there is so much going on inside of you-- dreaming of losing classmates who you don’t even play with or talk about much! But they represent that world you feel you are losing." 

~

W was pinching himself at the start of our homeschool experience because he was finding it surreal that he wasn't attending school on the first day with his friends. Meanwhile, I was pinching myself because I couldn’t believe I get to have so much more time this year to be with my kids and help them get better at things without any external forces standing in my way. I get to do what is most important to me right now. I can not possibly understand how life-changing this year is for W. But he helped to show me, especially in those memorable lead-up days. I vowed then to try to have so much patience with him (and I have to renew this vow to myself frequently).

The first days of homeschool once we got started were eventful, too. There was some whining to be sure, and some fascination with the novelty of it all. W surprised me when, after we dropped his sister off at preschool the first day, he wanted a first-day-of-school picture of himself taken sitting on the stairs to our "loft" since that is where we planned to have our work home base be this year.

Over two months in now, he's not so angry. Some of the pros of our lifestyle have become clearer to him and I don't think he thinks a great deal about what's happening at school. Just this week one morning as we were getting ready to leave the house to go volunteer at the humane society for the first time and W was beside himself with anticipation about it, he said, "Mommy I know when I'm mad at you I say I don't like homeschool but I just say that 'cause I'm frustrated. I really love it at times like this. Thanks for setting this up for me."

Preschool Drop-Off

We are homeschooling only W, who is 9, for now. His school situation was what drove the decision to homeschool. M, who is 4, loved her preschool last year and loves it this year. While I know there are people who homeschool their preschoolers, I think really this means, or should mean, letting them play. I think it's better for her to play in preschool with peers her age than be on her own half the time at home if I was trying to juggle her needs and interests with those of a fourth grader. We thought it made sense to focus on how to homeschool one child, especially for our first year.

M is such an introvert. She says nothing in many new situations, yet she takes everything in, talks about it all animatedly afterwards in the comfort of our car or home. She takes time to warm up to a place, to join in. Having two years, not just one, it turns out is a special perk of preschool for kids like her. We feel she really benefits from the social skills focus of preschool. She is finding certain kids she gravitates to. (She told me one afternoon, "Mommy this is C. I just love her" as they went in circles down the slide and up the ladder together.) Her preschool does a great job with some early literacy stuff and they have their priorities straight with getting the kids outdoors multiple times each day, talking to them a lot, and focusing on play. They go on little hikes, they putter at the edge of the brook, they paint with apple halves, play dress-up and kitchen, and have circle time.

One of the many bonuses of homeschooling is that I get to drop off at preschool. I never knew what it was like to do that. Last year, and back when W was in preschool for his two years, I almost never dropped off because the timing just didn't work with my teaching job. I usually picked up, but that was at the after school program. M was in the care of a kind older woman with a few other preschoolers by that point in the day. I literally never saw the teacher or daytime staff. Unless something major had occurred I didn't get any messages regarding how her day had gone. I could attempt to send messages through my husband, who dropped off and might get to speak with the teachers each day, or I could email. I felt a little distanced from her preschool world and I didn't like that, but I didn't know how different it would feel to me to actually be there during normal hours till this year. I get to have little chats with all the same parents each day at drop-off and pick-up. I see the teachers and school staff every morning and get to see firsthand how M has grown up and actually responds to their greetings with her own "hi!," which was a long time coming. I get to help her read the morning message as she taps the chart paper with the sparkly pointer, a very big to-do in M's mind. (We frequently have "morning messages" being written and read to us on her art easel at home.) I get to hug her goodbye and see who and what she settles in with as I walk out. I get to see her interactions and actually can match the names with faces of all her classmates now. W and I "volunteered" one morning recently and I did a little drawing activity with the preschoolers; M was beside herself with the thrill of our being there in her class. I pick up at 3 and get 30 seconds every day in the hubbub to check in with the teacher about bathroom accidents or funny stories or new playmates. I get to hear M talk about her day when it's fresh. I love being there to bookend her preschool days, and now I feel like I'm missing an important part of my day on the occasions when I am not the one to drop off or pick up.

Schedule and Balance

Before this homeschool year began I spent lots of time thinking about our schedule and just how we should approach our days.

As a teacher, I always gave serious time and thought to the schedule over the summer because it was like a framework that would allow every other good thing to work within. I sort of felt like I'd started to find my ideal schedule in my last couple of years in the classroom. I've learned a couple important things about schedules. One is, I've learned my classroom schedule needed to allow for sufficient time for each subject/part of the day or else it wasn't realistic and couldn't be adhered to. If reading workshop was supposed to be 45 minutes, trying to do it in 30 just didn't work. Squeezing science in for 20 minutes just because that was the time available that day was not worthwhile. I learned in the last couple of years to not try to schedule every subject into every day because that just means there is literally not enough time in the day for everything. A given part of the day would always run over into the next thing on the schedule or have to be cut off in the middle in order to start the next thing on time. If I felt frantic trying to get through twelve things too tightly back-to-back in the day, the kids must feel that way too. I moved toward teaching the primary skill areas four times a week, and fitting in the secondary subjects around that, and giving each block of math, writing, or any subject, the time it truly needed to feel sane and be able to finish a complete, rich session each time.

I've also learned as a teacher how a snow day, a day or two out of the classroom when my own kids were sick, an assembly or special event in school can bump back my lesson plans until I've found myself a whole week behind where I thought I'd be by a certain point. And those weeks add up to a month, which means whole topics or skills may be not covered by the end of the year. I've learned sticking to the regular schedule whenever possible is the only way to have a hope of teaching all I'm expected to, all that kids deserve to learn, in the year.

So I knew what I felt were some best practices around classroom schedules. I needed to decide how that translated to what would be best for us at home. I did research reading online homeschool forums, in a book about homeschool I bought, and in conversations about what other homeschool families do.

I knew there was no one way I had to organize the day at home, with my own child. First of all our state has very few specific requirements. And homeschooling is the freedom to not have to try to be just like school. Many homeschool families chose this path specifically because they wanted to do things differently, to literally "unschool" their kids. They base learning on experiences and whatever presents itself naturally in life-- an interest in birds, a fantastic Lego creation, putting together a model kit, going to the grocery store, etc. I wanted W to be able to follow his interests, but I didn't want his learning to be solely dependent on that. Also, while I like the mentality that learning is a part of life all day, all week, I felt we already lived our lives always thinking about what our kids were learning and we already tried to give them good experiences, cultural outings, and time being active in beautiful outdoor places-- on the weekends, all summer long, on family vacations. I felt like that was all so important and yet that wasn't what homeschool was all about for us.

Some people also talk about integrating all learning-- projects that include math, science, reading, writing, etc. I feel a little guilty I haven't done more of that yet because I know projects are fun and can be memorable. But I still feel a little stung regarding how much of W's public school time was eaten up some years doing large scale "projects" with 20+ kids because teachers prioritized that over teaching math or handwriting or anything else consistently. Honestly that's part of why we're homeschooling, so I could be sure he learned the academics he needs to learn this year (and to fill gaps from previous years). I feel uneasy about projects as a centerpiece to learning because I think there is big risk in telling ourselves we are integrating things when often that can really mean we just aren't teaching things explicitly. I think projects can be great, but I don't think it should be the only way that a subject-- say writing-- happens. The basic skill areas need to truly be taught in and of themselves as well. 

Many homeschoolers it seems give their kids a list for the day (math workbook page 30, social studies chapter 3, handwriting letter "l," 30 minutes of reading, etc.) and when the child finishes the list, they are "done." But I also didn't love that idea because I wanted to be able to actually teach him some things, not just print out and hand him piles of worksheets. I knew a list for the day would just overwhelm him, or make him frantic with the idea that he could be playing-- if only he was done. I also wanted him to grow as a learner, to be more motivated and engaged and do some higher level thinking and get challenged in ways that independent written work all the time couldn't accomplish.

So several modes of homeschooling I learned about didn't seem to fit-- unschooling wasn't for us, all project-based learning all he time wasn't my thing, and a slew of workbooks and worksheets for W wasn't what I wanted.

I knew I did want to take advantage of the flexibility this year afforded us, and I wanted us to have fun and do really cool things that we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. I wanted him to have choices in his day. I didn't want to feel like we were trying to be just like school. I wanted to take advantage of one-on-one time with my kid. Of course I wanted to do "all the things" with him out and about, as one homeschool parent described what was so special about the experience. And yet I didn't quit my job or decide to continue sending M to preschool this year in order to just let W hang out or go on field trips every day.

Wouldn't it be great if he didn't need a schedule, or a carved out space in our house for our work, and was simply more motivated to make his learning happen anywhere, anytime. But for now he isn't quite there. I knew my son, with ADHD, and not a ton of internal focus or organization, really benefited from external structures such as having schedules and routines and help breaking big tasks into manageable-sized pieces.

Alas, after having this circular conversation many times in my head and with my husband, comparing our situation to other homeschoolers, how to fit in what I wanted to this year while keeping it fun, I did what was perhaps inevitable to start the year off: I made a schedule that was not in any huge way different from the way I would make one for a classroom. I pieced together a reasonable amount of time for each thing in the week based on what I'd learned in the classroom as well as my new learning about what fourth graders needed.

I figured any special things that came up that we chose to do, like concerts, or homeschool days at our local museum, or other field trips or occasional just-for-fun things would simply happen when they happened in place of this schedule, and hoped the days and times of those things would balance out so as not to seriously deplete any one academic area.

I fit in two scheduled-in blocks of time devoted to "enrichment," which is not my favorite word, but meaning whatever W wants to be learning about-- I imagined filling this time with something to do with his interest in Greek mythology, pirates, or animals, or teaching him sewing, or getting better at cooking or chess, taking music or karate lessons... Whatever it would be, I wanted to be sure we at least had some time every week dedicated to things besides the standard academics. I wanted him to be excited about choosing anything he wanted to learn about. I wanted him to get in the habit of following an interest with the intent to learn by giving him the gift and the requirement of time to be spent on it.

W checks our schedule as if it's an official document, and I use it to plan, and it's a guide for us both for the "normal" days. We told ourselves we'd start with this schedule but I could change it if it felt too rigid. Depending on how things went, maybe we could make the schedule somehow more flexible over time but decided to default to this structure. I tweak it a little each week or two, based on a problem-solving conversation with W, or a brainstorming session with my husband, or some new epiphany about W's learning style. Every once in a while I have a twang of doubt/guilt one way or another-- am I being less fun than other homeschool parents? Am I focusing enough on what makes him tick? Should I just let him curl up on the couch with a book sometimes and forego the lessons? (Or, on the flip side, yikes, we haven't completed half the work I thought we would this week because of special activities, preschool being closed for two days, etc.) But in general I am feeling mostly at peace about our balance at this point. It is how our days fit together for now.

What curriculum are you using?

Several people have asked me this question recently. I have plenty to say about this, but I try to resist launching into it in casual conversation. So I thought I'd document the details for those who may be curious or trying to piece together a homeschool plan of their own.

To clarify first:

Standards are the expectations for what students should know and be able to do by the end of the year.

Curriculum refers to how you get there-- the lessons, activities, teaching plan.

The Common Core State Standards for math and language arts, Next Generation Science Standards, and C3 Framework for social studies are my basis for the standards in the academic areas.

Some homeschool families rely a lot on online or video-based programs that their kids work their way through. There also is something called "all-in-one" curriculum that some use, where some person or outfit sells a package of plans and materials to use for every day in every area. And of course some homeschool families are doing something called "unschooling," informal learning based on their kids' interests and what pops up in life, and they aren't using any curriculum at all.

I can see how all of those things might make sense for some homeschool parents. But I was coming from a teacher's perspective, as well as the perspective of a parent who had long wanted my child to have a more challenging and personalized academic experience. I was starting out with ideas about what practices mattered in good teaching and learning, and an awareness of programs out there. I couldn't really imagine buying into many programs marketed to homeschoolers because I just felt my needs were so different from the homeschool-specific options I was finding. I wanted to choose research-based programs that were aligned with the standards to help ensure I was teaching well, so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel (or disregard the wheel entirely). I just needed to make sure what I chose would reasonably work for one kid.

Here's what I'm using. (Separate post coming about my attempts to find the right balance in how I schedule all this...)

Writing: Units of Study in Writing (Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project)
I've been in love with the writing workshop approach for over a decade, and there was no question this was what I wanted to use with W this year. It involves teaching a brief (ten minute) "minilesson" on a specific skill, strategy, or habit each day for students to add to the repertoire of things you've taught about the type of writing you're working on. Then you send them off to spend the bulk of their time on their independent writing (because kids learn to write by spending time really writing, just like they learn to read by actually reading). Students are never "done" during writing time. It is a workshop; they create and stay busy, whether planning, drafting, revising, or editing. There is regular self evaluation and goal setting using checklists of what narratives/opinion pieces/informational writing at their level should include. They usually choose their own topics to write about; the teacher doesn't assign topics. Part of the process is studying published writing of the type students are trying to write. They try to approximate techniques they find in a "mentor text" or two that they get to know really well through the unit. Writing workshop teaches ownership, initiative, and fosters a growth mindset. Most of all I like that it teaches writing explicitly, as a skill in itself, and writing is not just "integrated" into everything else. I've seen huge growth with it over the years in first grade, and so far this year with W. Our first unit was on writing realistic fiction stories, we're just beginning our second on personal and persuasive essays. There will be literary essays and informational writing about history research later in the year. I hope we'll also get to poetry.

Reading: Units of Study in Reading (Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project)
Reading workshop is the exact same approach as above which I am passionate about, but with reading instead of writing-- the short minilesson on a specific reading strategy, techniques, or habit, then plenty of time for students to read their independent books while the teacher periodically checks in with them individually and pushes them along where they can be pushed, supports where they need to be supported. At the first-grade level where I used to teach there was a mix of lessons on decoding strategies (learning to read) and lessons on reading habits and skills, fluency, comprehension. At the fourth-grade level, beginning with a fiction-focused unit, it is mostly so far about comprehension, thinking intensely about books, discussing with others the ideas you have about books, jotting your ideas occasionally as you read to "grow" ideas, thinking about theme and character traits and how characters change. There are rubrics and learning progressions and checklists to help students reflect and set goals and make progress. W is a strong and voracious reader. And yet it has been a big learning curve to pause, think, SHOW comprehension by discussing a book coherently, and find evidence in a text to support an idea. There is so much in these rich lessons that are perfect for him. Having the language of these lessons thread through our talks about the books W is reading independently as well as the one we are reading together has helped cause huge growth already.

Science: Mystery Science
For a very reasonable fee, homeschoolers can access the Mystery Science web site (but this, also, was something I used in my classroom). It is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. It is inquiry-based. Every session is a "mystery" for kids to explore and figure out, step by step: How can some animals see in the dark? How does your brain control your body? Why do some volcanoes explode? How can you figure out where a rock came from? It is a web site, where you click on one "mystery" at a time and go through it step by step. You have to have your materials ready to go, but they are minimal and easy to acquire. The lesson part might be ten minutes max, then there is lots of stop and talk times and tons of hands-on learning to do. This outfit is run by a (former) science teacher in California. I am not normally one to go for online programs or videos to teach, but this site has won me over. It is fun and engaging and really helps kids understand what they are learning. I think that "Mystery Doug" as kids know him is a far better science teacher than I am on my own, but with his guidance we have some amazing sessions.

Math: Singapore Math
The school I taught in used a "spiraling" math curriculum. (Spiraling is hitting on each topic multiple times over the course of the year. The idea is you add more depth each time you revisit it during the year. I was always advised by math curriculum trainers to not worry if students don't "get it" because the topic will come back later in the year. But that never felt quite right and it felt that some just don't ever catch on this way.) I'd become less than convinced that a spiraling math approach was the way to go. So I was ready to try a whole new approach... I like Singapore Math because in contrast to spiraling, it is mastery-based; we study a topic until W understands it, then move on (while it is still brought into cumulative reviews periodically). I like that the program aims high. It gets right into things. It is focused on straightforward math. There is a very affordable set of program books for homeschoolers: textbook, workbook, home instructor's manual. As far as I can tell, the homeschool version is not a lot different than the other versions, just inexpensive and not dependent on a lot of specific materials. The teaching of a new skill progresses from concrete to pictorial to abstract (e.g. blocks/cards/manipulatives, to representative visuals, to algorithms). It brings in estimating, number sense, and mental math with each section.

Social Studies: A Mix of Things
This is where I had to dig deep this summer and couldn't just buy a program or use one I already had access to. There is a relatively new C3 Framework that lays out not standards, but guidance for states to establish social studies, or "global citizenship," standards. It is vague, focusing on approaches that are best (start with a compelling question, use an inquiry process, do projects with lasting impact, etc) and broad categories to be studied. So I had some background info from that, but still didn't know what we needed to learn in fourth grade. I attempted to communicate with teachers from my son's public school at the end of last year about what their social studies curriculum was from grade to grade...long and frustrating story, but the short of it is that they wouldn't tell me. I met with a former colleague who was very generous with her time and knowledge about social studies at the upper elementary level and she gave me some big ideas to work with about what fourth graders often study at least in the state of Vermont. I got the gist that many schools teach the same set of big ideas on a different scale in different grades-- like rules and laws, citizenship, and history about your town in third grade, your state in fourth, and nation in fifth. With this basis of my C3 reading and my colleague's guidance, I still needed to fill in the details on what I was going to teach when. I found the curricula of some schools I respected online. I also found the Core Knowledge Foundation, which we were aware was used by a nearby private school. I also felt more assured I was on the right track by reading through some general sites intended to give parents an overview of what their fourth graders will learn in social studies by the end of the year, such as Scholastic and Greatschools.org. From all this I began to see overlaps and themes and was able to start to sketch things out. This year we plan to study: map skills, a survey of U.S. history pre-colonization through the American Revolution, our state history and geography and culture, regions of the U.S. and states and capitals, and some current events and their comparison to New Hampshire and relevance to us. My plan is to study these things through a combination of: borrowed free units online, a New Hampshire history for homeschoolers course once a month at the New Hampshire Historical Society, my own hodge podge of things I've put together through research, and some good kid-friendly web sites like Newsela.

Spelling/Word Study: Words Their Way
As a teacher I participated in a book study of the Words their Way approach to spelling instruction. While I'd never taught it myself in the primary grades, I had a good understanding of this program. The idea is that you assess students to find out exactly what stage of spelling development they are at. Then the program provides lots of word lists. Students get a word list targeted at their level each week. Students sort the words in their list multiple times, getting familiar with them. They discuss meaning and "discover" what the spelling rule is. The words all have a certain characteristic to them such as different ways to make the /k/ sound and students figure out the generalization of which words are spelled which ways, as well as the "oddballs" that don't really fit with the rule. There are various activities we can do during the week to work with the words, looking them up in the dictionary, making sentences with them, and spelling games. There's a test at the end of the week. I like that it's not a random list of spelling words and it's not a spelling list on a content-area theme; it's a list of words that have a similar feature so students really have to figure out when to use which spelling. W has challenging words each week, right at his level.

Social-Emotional Learning:
Obviously kids need social experiences to learn social skills. We are working hard to provide W with at least as many social experiences as he always has had, minus the actual school day itself (more play times with friends, the sports he wants to play each season, attending the school Halloween dance and all-school hike field trip, attending PE in the public school twice a week). That said, there are some kids who naturally develop great social skills and others (most, I'd argue) who need some explicit teaching and practice on these matters. So while we value all those social experiences W is having, I also felt he could use a little more guidance sometimes and that there are in fact typical developmental social issues that kids deal with at different ages worth focusing on. Because of this, I managed to get access to the Second Step social-emotional curriculum. It is a simple lesson each week focused on a topic. It includes a 1-2 minute video (max) showing kids his age engaged in incredibly typical scenarios (fighting over who's out in a four square game, for example). We discuss the issue from different perspectives and there's usually a little activity to do to help us be really aware of and intentional about the issue. It might seem a little silly to be doing social skills lessons at home with one kid. Yet it's quick. He enjoys it and it has caused important topics to thread through our week and our conversation-- things like showing empathy, and being assertive rather than aggressive or passive. I think it impacts how he is with his sister or on the soccer field or in other situations. It feels well worth the 20 minutes per week we spend on it.

I think that's all of our official curricula...I'll share soon about some other fun stuff we're doing, including art and music.