Life as a Yowler

Some of you already know that we have decided to homeschool the kids this year. This wasn’t an easy decision, but we feel this is the best thing for our family and our lifestyle. We decided we want to continue traveling together as a family. My kids have had so many educational experiences traveling. They have seen so much of the US and have had so much hands on learning. I really prayed about the decision, and I have a peace about homeschooling. I tried it out last year, and it worked very well. I have been working and trying to come up with an organizational system for school at home and school in the RV. What has worked for RVing is school time when we are driving. Everyone is cooped up and sitting. When we are at campgrounds or site seeing, everyone wants to be outdoors and exploring. When we are at home we do school in our basement. The basement is the school room/toy room.

We have already started school this year. I wanted to work ahead, to have a few flexible days for when we are traveling. Joah is officially in Kindergarten this year. He just turned six the beginning of August. Brielle is 4.5 and doing some pre-K work. She is very interested in learning along with her big brother.

We have been working together on setting up our classroom. The kids have been making crafts to hang.

These are the things we have studied so far this year. We find a print out page, then laminate, then hang it on our wall.

Here are our books and school supplies.

We love this clock for teaching time. The big abacus comes from Brandon’s mom’s classroom. When she retired from teaching, she gave it to us to use. It’s perfect for teaching to count by 5’s, 10’s, and everything else up to 100.

We set up a little house area for the younger kids to play in, while I work with the older ones.

Caed loves when he gets the chance to play by himself, with no one picking on him.

Here he is gathering veggies from his garden.

A school day for us varies a little bit. I try to stay as consistent as I can. I try to have breakfast by 9. My kids wake up about 8. They like to take their time waking up. No one, including myself, moves fast in the morning. After breakfast we head downstairs about 9:30.

We always start the day with Bible time. Here are some of my favorite resources we have. I always read to all the kids from one of these books. We focus on one character quality per day and read a verse to go along with it. I then read them a Bible story. Today’s story was The Good Samaritan. We memorize a new verse each week. Currently we are studying the 10 commandments and the fruit of the spirit. Before bed each night, Brandon reads the kids a chapter from the Bible or The Jesus Storybook Bible.

After Bible time, we jump right to reading time. I try to catch Joah while his mind is still sharp. I think reading is so important. I want my kids to have a good understanding of what they read. I want them to enjoy reading, and choose a book over a screen.

We have three reading workbooks, then I have Joah read to me some of his first reader books.

After reading comes handwriting. We practice wrong numbers, letters, and words. After handwriting, we move on to math.

Joah enjoys math, as it comes pretty easy to him. He has a math workbook. We also include some telling time, counting by numbers, and counting money. After math, I let Joah take a 15 minute break. I always encourage him to jump on his trampoline or balance on his balance board to get some energy out. I run upstairs and switch laundry or do dishes or do some lunch prep….whatever I can do in 15 minutes. I always set the timer or I get carried away.

After break we move to history. I have tons of books and resources. I read to them about an animal, a famous person, and a place each day. Joah is really interested in learning about different countries right now. He is into asking tons of questions…..like super deep and tough questions. Let’s just say, I’m thankful for google and the quick searches I can do to save myself the embarrassment of not being a genius.

We save the fun for last. My kids love crafts. We always do a craft if the kids work hard on their workbooks.

We always end the day by reading 5 stories. Here are today’s stories. These are some of the kids’s Favorites.

By the time all this is done, it’s lunch time. We head upstairs about 12:30 for lunch. After lunch the kids play while I clean up. We read a couple more books, then have rest time. I turn a movie on for the older two kids and let the younger two nap. I try to rest myself, or read, or blog, anything quiet to keep the kids from waking up.

After rest we have free time. I give the kids a choice what they want to do. They almost always choose to go outside when the weather is nice. They climb trees, play in the playhouse, pick raspberries, ride 4 wheelers or bike, or just run around. I try to take that time to exercise. I jog around the driveway. After the younger two kids wake up, we head inside and get dinner around. The kids love to help me cook. Sometimes they do more crafts or coloring while I cook.

Evenings are unpredictable. It depends on what the Yowler has planned. Some days he comes home from work and is like”put dinner in the fridge. We are headed to Saginaw.” Other days he’s like “I’m so tired. Let’s stay home and do nothing all night.”

Things can get crazy, but I love our life. I love my little family. I’m so thankful I get to stay home with my kids and teach and train them. It’s a job I don’t take lightly. It can be scary thinking about how I  am responsible for their learning and growing. It’s such a huge responsibility. I’m thankful Brandon is a genius, to fill in my gaps. I’m thankful for God’s grace when I mess up. I’m thankful for kids who are eager to learn!