We’re back to school this week, and sitting down here to gather my thoughts and to write, to share about our homeschooling journey, especially after such a long blog break this summer, feels incredibly cathartic.
Some of you have asked how it’s been going since I shared about embarking on the homeschooling path a year ago, and you might have noticed that I’ve not posted much about it. Let’s face it- it’s hard to share about struggles, and I won’t lie to you- we struggled. There were tears. There were triumphs too, and sweet hugs and math wizardry and wonderful stinky vinegar egg experiments, but yes, there were definitely tears shed by just about everyone at some point. By the end of the year I was hanging on by a thread and couldn’t quite decide whether it had been a success, or a complete failure, or perhaps just par for the course of a first year rookie. I have no doubt that I made just about every beginner mistake in the book. Not enough planning, and then too much planning…schedule was too loose, then it was too tight…didn’t explore enough curriculum and then I got overloaded with too much curriculum…I expected too much, then too little… In the spirit of Thomas Edison and his tale of failed light bulbs, I pretty much discovered 101 things that don’t work (at least for us).
Is there such a thing as a homeschool intervention? I don’t know, but there is now. A divine intervention is exactly what has unrolled these past few weeks, by way of encouragement from friends, a mild (ok, moderate) dose of venting, heart searching, and a handful of miracles. At the heart of this intervention was my coming to grips with a very important reality for us right now (and maybe forever): LESS IS MORE. By that, I don’t mean less learning, or less teaching, or even less time. What I need this year is less stress, less pressure, less guilt, less confusion, less uncertainty. I need simplification.
I’m starting to learn that keeping it simple is one of the biggest keys to less stress and more success for a family just starting out on a homeschooling journey. It’s tough not to become overwhelmed at the mountains of fabulous curriculum to choose from in today’s market, not to mention the infinite number of ideas and resources just waiting to bury me alive on Pinterest. The 926 unit study lap book ideas I’ve pinned, however adorable, are not doing me one lick of good. What is, though, is honing in on a simplified, streamlined game plan that’s realistic for us. Enter: A Beka Books.
This traditional-style curriculum has been around for ages– tried and true if a curriculum ever there was –and I don’t know why I didn’t explore it from the start of our family’s adventure…maybe I thought I wanted something flashier or more exciting? Trendier, maybe, than the A Beka I remember my mother teaching me from when I was a girl? I don’t know. All I know is that this summer, as I struggled with the decision to even continue homeschooling, and earnestly prayed for guidance, God pointed us toward A Beka with what felt like a dozen flashing neon arrows.
Two Sundays ago I sat in church, unable to concentrate on the message and literally wracked with terror at the reality that back-to-school had arrived and I was literally unprepared, undecided, and unenthused. Late and lost. But isn’t it in that last hour that God does some of His biggest works? This has definitely been a reality in my life. As we walked out of the sanctuary and I turned on my phone, I noticed a blog post in my feed that mentioned A Beka. Hmm. Not a minute later, I chatted with a friend, and veteran homeschool mom, and asked her what curriculum she uses. A Beka. Then bumped into another homeschool mom: A Beka. Not only did this curriculum seem to be on the lips of everyone I encountered that morning, but on the way home I received a text from a friend letting me know about a live A Beka curriculum display event in my area. It was the last one of the summer and it was the very next morning. With no time to prepare, I hauled it over there, all 4 kids in tow, desperate for an answer to prayer and curious about this curriculum that somehow God seemed to be leading me toward. As I picked up the first book and started flipping through it, literally, I think light shone down from the heavens on me. I nearly wept. Simple, sweet, straightforward books that all work together to create a thoroughly comprehensive traditional Christ-centered curriculum that’s incredibly easy to follow for both student and teacher, and with very minimal, if any, required prep. Fool-proof…Amy-proof.
From the thick, perforated pages and bright happy illustrations, to the concise, user-friendly lesson plans- it’s everything I need and nothing I don’t. Our disorganized all-over-the-place tornado (or at least what felt like a tornado to someone who hangs all of her clothing in color order and runs screaming from cupboards filled with matchless Tupperware), had finally started to calm. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel with each sweet, simple page of straightforward, traditional instruction, already mapped out for me, lesson by lesson. Done. I might be a hot mess in dog-hair covered yoga pants, with a crying toddler on my hip and a mug of lukewarm coffee in my hand, but gosh darn it, I can do this.
One thing I’m particularly excited about (the frosting on the cake, really) is the inclusion of cursive handwriting practice literally from kindergarten on. I know we live in an age of computers, and are likely to continue in that direction, but no one could ever dissuade me from my love of a beautifully penned word. To me, it’s like art. We could probably get by without it, but who’d want to live in a world void of that beauty? The cursive writing in A Beka is modeled in all subjects of learning, including this charming writing practice tablet that’s infused with character-building messages. This is the stuff that makes my old fashioned heart go pitter patter, and I love that my kids actually begged me to let them start early (who are you and what have you done with my children?).
It just occurred to me that this might be starting to sound like a sponsored post- believe me, it’s not! I’ve received no compensation from A Beka for this post- I’m just sharing because I’m excited at what feels like a fresh start for us and a clear answer to prayer.
Hallelujah! I’m so happy to be out of my first-year-failures funk and to be starting a fresh new year with a new plan that I think is going to simplify our schedule and keep things organized and achievable. SO happy, in fact, that I decided to celebrate by refreshing the kitchen table area where we do most of our schoolwork. A fresh coat of yellow with a bit more a greenish tint than we had before (fits better in our home), and I’m really loving it, along with that new Amy Butler valance (shhhh, don’t tell anyone that I haven’t actually sewn it yet! It’s just yardage draped over a rod right now…there’s a 72% chance I might just leave it as-is).
I also asked the hubs to devise some cute art holders out of metal clips and scrap wood. This is what he came up with and I adore them!
Here’s our materials area, with the little Raskog Ikea cart I picked up last year (I love it so much!). Like I said, I’m a bit of an organizing junkie, so starting the year off with a place for everything, and everything in it’s place, is a little slice of heaven for me.
Here’s the other side of that grey buffet table…you can see my un-sewn valance a little better (it’s passable, right?), along with a cute vintage globe I found at Goodwill. ALSO- my girls and I did a really fun little makeover on that rack holding our apron collection. I’d been waiting for the perfect project to use those Cotton & Steel picnic baskets in, and I think I definitely found it.
Here it is before… I think someone gifted this to us years ago, and I’ve always loved the functionality of it, but it never matched our decor. After a decade of it hanging in the kitchen and wanting to redo it EVERY single time I looked at it, a makeover was long overdue. Well, Mr. Kitchen Rack, your day has finally come.
We fussy cut our favorite baskets, glued them down, then painted over the whole thing with Mod Podge.
Makes me smile every time I see it.
Well, that’s our little overhaul in a nutshell! It’s going to be a great year, and I’ll definitely keep you posted on how the A Beka is working out. I know we’ll have ups and downs, no doubt, but I’m feeling blessed by the renewed optimism, and by the gift of a chance for a better year. 2015-16 or bust!
Recently, I have been doing a bunch of research into teaching cursive first. My oldest is just starting Kindergarten this year and everything I’ve read has been so positive about cursive first over printing. Montessori even promotes it. There are so many great benefits and I doubt it will go away (when the power goes out, typing is useless). Here are some of the cool things I found: 1. It uses both right and left side of the brain and creates a stronger bridge (printing is a left brain activity), 2. It is less fatiguing (after all, it was designed to be done all day long), 3. You can write more words in less time (with rampant cheating on tests, many schools require blue book essays and no electronics in the room), 4. People judge you by your handwriting (Abraham Lincoln knew that when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and the story goes that he took a very long time to sign his name because he didn’t want it to have the slightest tremor to it – indicating doubt or haste), 5. there is only one starting place in the lower case letters (95% of your words start lower case) versus seven starting places in printing, 6. It emphasizes the beginning and end of a word and naturally spaces the words from each other, 7. Printing the whole lowercase alphabet requires 55 lifts of the pen from the paper whereas if it’s written in cursive it only has 5 lifts (i, j, t, x), 8. It reverses dyslexia as you cannot confuse the letters (b, d, g, p, or q) and is even endorsed by those advocacy groups on dyslexia, 9. A child who learns cursive can read both cursive and print, whereas a child who learns only print cannot read cursive (good for letters from grandma).
Here is a really good article on the topic with newer articles added to the end of the document: http://donpotter.net/PDF/cursive-first.pdf
Praying for a better year for you. Homeschooling isn’t for the faint of heart but oh so worth it!
Oh yeah!!! I’m so glad you found abeka. My best friend and homeschooling mom of 11years swears by it. She even used to be a teacher. We use the literature and penmenship. But, our zoey has different needs when it comes to other subjects so I had to deviate. She also learned cursive in kindergarten and when it came time to do some print in second grade she was a natural pro. People are amazed at how beautiful her cursive is! Not only that but our hands and wrists find cursive a natural movement and not so with print. That’s why writing has gotten so difficult for so many… Print exhausts our hands!! Hang in this year! You can do it!!! If you ever need a ear to listen you know how to reach me :)
Sounds like divine intervention for sure and just the peace you needed to help you start the year off with a smile. I’m so happy for you! Loved reading all of your thoughts friend. Best wishes for a wonderful year of learning and teaching and growing together. Love the hooks too!
Just like anything else in life, homeschooling is full of opportunities for growth and because of that there will be struggles as we grow. I finally learned to relax, let each day be it’s own day, not worrying about what was missed yesterday or what you need to do tomorrow. Just focus on that day, let it unfold into what God wants you to accomplish. Letting go of control was so hard but so good for me to learn. It took me many years and the ability to be able to look back to really see how wonderful it was and how much we all learned, student as well as teacher. And the alternative, long days away from home plus hours of homework, just not worth it! A bad day homeschooling is so much better than any day in public school in my opinion. I wish more families could afford to do it. (Off my soapbox now) ;0)
Oh Amy! I know of this simplification you talk about. How the many things in our life shape us back to the simple things. I recently vented on FB about simplifying my own life. Kudos, to you, sweet friend. Divine intervention is definitely at work for you and your daily challenges.
You are right on target with the inclusion of cursive writing in your curriculum. My 19-year-old never learned cursive (long story) and when he went to fill out job applications and PRINTED his name on the signature line, the manager chastised him about it. He gave him a fair amount of grief over it stating that a printed signature is more easily forged than a cursive one and told him to get with it and learn cursive writing ASAP. He said you may not think anything of it now at 19, but when you get to a point where you’re signing formal and legal documents, you’re going to want your own unique signature. Good luck, Amy.
My guys went to (one still finishing up) a private school where they use A Beka. It got them off to a great start! You are such an inspiration, tears and all!! I just now feel that i actually have time to be creative. When my guys were little, i just couldn’t find the time! We are all doing things differently, but what matters is that we are doing our best. Kudos to you and yours.
May the the Lord continue bless your work and give you His strength. As a homeschooled kid from Australia My parents didn’t find A Beka till I was in about grade 6, Science, History, and then High-school literature were amazing!… My mum started my little sis on A Beka from the start (12year gap between us) unfortunately mum’s health required her to go to a school half-way through grade 2, but she loved the younger grade curriculum as well. All the best for the exciting new school year! Those first couple of weeks are so much fun, decorating new exercise books, and organising the school room (aka, dinning room : )!….
You hang in there, awesome home school mom! The first year is always tough. Keep on home schooling and keep your children on YOUR team. I did it, and you can, too!
Hang in there Amy! I have had my up and down struggles with homeschool and which curruculum works best for us as well. We have used some abeka but have found cle works well for us. No matter what u pick over the years to come..find what works best for u and ur kiddos and dont let anyone try to change that because u know ur kiddos and their learning style best and u know what works best for u. No one knows u and ur family better than u!
Great job! It sounds like you are off to a wonderful start!
Amy, you’ve got this!!! Abeka is a great ciriculium you will like teaching it and your children will learn a lot.
I started homeschooling our daughters after many years in a private Christan school. One daughter was really struggling to keep up. I prayed & prayed & prayed. But I did know one thing, homeschooling was exactly what God wanted us to do. I had so much opposition from family (a school teacher sister) and received very strange looks from friends & some in our church. In my heart I knew without a shadow of a doubt, God was behind it and I had such peace. We had our ups and downs, I did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, we made it through.
Our girls are 38 & 33 now and I cherish those homeschooling years.
Thanks for sharing Amy! I love your blog as much as your quilts, books, Craftsy classes! Happy the Lord pointed you in the right direction! Funny how that works!
I am so thankful that you share your trials and successes. I think sometimes we think only the good stuff helps, but I think being truly real is what helps. Our lives are all filled with ups and downs and we learn from both, and grown from both. So glad you are finding your answers and listening to that still small voice, that we sometimes in our hast miss hearing. I am with you on the cursive writing too. Love your learning space and what a creative way to repurpose the hanging hooks.!!
Love to hear from you. Sounds like you are off to a great start and this year will be fabulous for you. Blessings and may God direct you as you continue.
Best wishes for a wonderful year of home schooling.
Anything is better than public government run, teacher’s unioned institutions of “learning” :-D
I taught the A Beka program for many years in a small private school. I had 15-20 students from 1st to 6th in the room with one aide. I loved the program and the challenge it gives the children. Having multiple levels works With the consumable books. It gives you time to work with the child and then have them do the work. Teach it, walk them through a dry run and then they are eager to finish the work themselves. I always had fun pages for them to do when they finished. Word search, crossword puzzles, dot to dot. etc…The spelling was very challenging at first but they learned how to alphabetize, use the dictionary for meanings and create sentences using the words in meaningful ways before they had their tests. They had a goal to meet each day of the week. I liked the math too as it has review in each lesson. It also made them learn their times tables so they could do the long division. Great program!
I hope Abeka works out well for you. I’ve used Abeka for the past 21 years of teaching (20 of that, homeschooling) and love it! I’m glad you’ve gotten some renewed energy/vision for the coming year. You made it through year 1 and learned a lot, it seems. Give yourself grace and keep learning! My homeschool years changed dramatically off and on depending on life circumstances and the ages of my children. The toughest year was when I had a HS senior, HS freshman, kindergartener and preschooler – chemistry to “A says a-a-a apple.” Whew! My brain hurt every night and my house showed the investment in schooling, but I would never trade it for anything! The Lord taught me a lot. Will keep you in my prayers.
What a great way to makeover the apron rack! I truly enjoy your creativity; you make me want to try new things! Ikea…was just talking with someone yesterday about a shared love of Ikea! I could live there! :)
Dear Amy,
As I read your blog about finding your way in the homeschooling choice, tears came to my eyes. I am so happy you discovered these beautiful and simple books for your children to grow on. For me, it is too late. I saw all the pitfalls of public education, but didn’t pull the string on homeschooling because I had a son who needed major stimulation, and I thought he could find that in the traditional avenue. He is now a senior and my other son is a sophomore. Why am I tearing up? Because, even though they are good kids with good grades, I know being with undisciplined, unchurched, unguided kids all these years has changed them. I can’t get that back, I can’t put some of that smoke back in the bottle and they will be different men than they could have been because of their surroundings. I pray they will still be good men; it looks like they will be, but I bet they could have been even better. God bless you, girl! Keep up the good work. You are doing the right thing.
Good for you Amy! I have always believed that God has a plan. You needed last school year to realise that you needed to simplify. If only schools would simplify and get back to teaching values our world would be a better place.You are doing a great job and your kids will thank you for it. Take care.
I love your homeschooling space, and how awesome is it that God totally led you to a curriculum! He is so good to us. I wish you a loving, productive and fun school year.
I’m so glad you found an answer to your prayers with A Beka! It sounds like it will be a much better school year :) Also, I love your kitchen! It looks great, and the makeover you and your girls did on the apron rack is perfect.
Amy, I just love your absolutely honest sharing of yourself on your blog! You are a real and dear person! I especially loved your “vintage” globe – exactly the same one I got brand new when I started homeschooling my boys 24 years ago. Oh my gosh that’s hard to believe!! Now my globe is “vintage” – yikes! Well, I don’t think it matters so much which curriculum you use – whatever works for you is good. The greatest good of homeschooling is the opportunity to live out God’s command in Deut. 6:4-7. THAT will affect your kids for eternity, and that’s what it’s all about! Sending up prayers for your journey this year! God bless your sweet family!
Amy, thank you for sharing your struggles and God’s Provision!! May God bless you as you persevere with homeschooling!
So glad you found something that will work for you and your girls. We school year round but the summers are very relaxed. I’m getting ready to start our new year with Sonlight curriculum. Haven’t used it yet but researched it a lot and I’m hoping it will be a good fit. One of the things I love most about it is the Charlotte Mason approach and that it’s heavy in good, quality books. We spend a lot of time snuggled up reading. I’m also introducing note booking this year. Have you heard of it? There are so many free resources for note booking pages and ideas. It’s a fun way for them to use their writing and creativity skills and make their own book on what they’ve learned. Anyway, homeschooling is certainly an adventure but we are really loving it.
I’m so happy for you and your kiddos! Sounds like divine intervention for sure. Sometimes you just gotta keep it simple.
I’m happy you found A Beka books. I have a friend who has been using them. She has 5 children, one is in college now. They are all doing well. Don’t ever doubt your choice. She said it is the best she has found. Hope you are having a good start to school.
I’m so happy that you found A Beka Books. I used their curriculum for my daughter through 5th grade. I would still be homeschooling with them but my daughter requested to try a go at public school. She is in her second year of public school and thriving well, thanks to the wonderful start we had with A Beka. I love that the planning is already done, its easier to calculate the grades (if needed), and the stress level was so low compared to what I was hearing from other parents who tried to go it alone. Good luck with this new school year!!
lady, i can’t tell you how many tears have been shed by us over homeschooling. mostly by me, probably, worrying that i have totally messed up my kids, their education, or their childhoods. all not true. =) my oldest is now a hs junior (but taking college classes), and i currently have 6 who are school age. it is definitely a struggle, but most worthwhile things in life are. i’m way off from where i meant to be in my idealistic, rosey-hued dreams when i started out. and because you chose to do something different than the norm, you feel so much pressure and responsibility (can’t blame the school if they don’t turn out), that you feel like you can’t have problems or complain. ever. really, every choice has pros and cons. even homeschooling. but that doesn’t make it wrong! my husband reminds me that our primary goals are being met even if all the little ones aren’t and that it’s been a lifestyle choice that we are happy with. i always say i would have been an amazing homeschooler if i had stopped at 2 kids. but i had 5 more. more kids and less perfection have been really, really good. hang in there! one of the great things about homeschooling is you can always do a complete overhaul or change directions whenever you feel you need to. even if at some point that means you choose not to homeschool anymore. go with what God tells you, keep loving your kids, and all will be well.