Peace to you,
Amber

Not to squelch his love of learning, but right now give him good mental food. I would recommend tons and tons of reading, great books. Here is a great list to get you started. 5 in a row will give you a great book list and here is the AO year 0 list. http://www.amblesideonline.org/00.shtml

Thanks for commenting. I am glad my story has been helpful for you. Homeschooling has been one of the best and healthiest decisions our family has ever made. I do not regret a minute. In our area, we have a LARGE homeschool community, so there are tons of homeschool field trips etc. See if you may have a homeschool group in the area, because then you can slowly make a few friends who are thinking this way too.

CM - Charlotte Mason Method
AO - Ambleside Online - the free online homeschooling resource that implements the CM method. Just google it:-)

Your 2 are still young. You know this but the absorb everything. Fill your weeks with going to the library, lots of creative work with tactile things. (Not pre-printed coloring pages but plane paper where they are encouraged to experiment and get messy).

If a little structure is good for you, then I would recommend 5 in a row for your 3.5 year old. I am using it with our youngest. It is literature based and very gentle. You can do one a week, or 5 days a week and tailor it to what you all want and need. Limit television, and start fostering an environment of exploration.

Read For The Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macualy. It will give you good info to combat misunderstanding parents and friends. Figure out your long term philosophy first, and then go after the method. What is “life” in terms of homeschooling for us may be a disaster for you.
My children are 7,5,and 3.5. This year I will be actively schooling them all. My 7 year old does about 2.5 hours a day my 5 year old about and hour or so and my 3.5 will be doing small little 8 minute lessons broken up by much active gross motor activity. I will slowly work him up to 15 minute lessons. First borns and third borns are completely different animals. Your 3.5 Jax sounds like my 7 year old Jax.

Observe your kids. You know what they need. Instill good habit training as it will lead to successful homeschooling and most of all have fun.

Hope that helps, if you ever need any help I am an email away:-)
Blessings,
Amber

Like many of the previous commenters, I have been researching HSing since I was pregnant with my first AND I have a Jackson LOL. He is 2.5 and his little sister Alex is 1.5. Jackson is, cognitively, very advanced and we are actually (at his guidance) starting to sound out 3 letter words. I am a bit overwhelmed at the thought of what the future will bring with this little guy but I am also even more sure that HSing is the right choice for him. Can you imagine how bored he would be in traditional school? He is also a child of unmeasurable curiosity and energy. So the 15 minute segments you spoke of sound right up our alley.
Like I said, I have been researching HSing but mostly just to decide if it was a fit for me and my family. I have come to the conclusion through prayer and lots and lots of reading that it is. So now, I take on the arduous task of trying to find a method that will work for me, my kids, and our philosophy. I love the tip that a friend gave you about writing down what kind of person you are trying to “grow” and molding your HSing to that. I will be working on doing just that in the near future.

With all that being said, I have a few questions for you. I am new to the acronyms you use. I know what CM is. But what is AO? What are the ages of your children right now? What advice and where would you send me for materials at this point? At the ages of my two, would you suggest I actually start a small form of curriculum with them or is it far too early (even with Jackson being crazy smart LOL)? I won’t squelch their natural need to play and get dirty but I also just want to do what is best for them.

I guess that’s all the questions I have for now but I am sure I will have more later.

Thank you so much for these 5 entries - I read every word. It really did help to have your back story and see how and why you are where you are today.

God Speed.
Mandy (AKA Bobby)

The tying shoes thing came the same way with Jax. He did in about 20 seconds flat and that was it. We used 100EZ also, and it was great. I am doing a combo of things with Chloe, as she wanted to read “big books” right away like her brother. I did a few CM style lessons with some Bob books so she can read those now and we are going back through 100EZ and Phonics pathway so she has the phonetic part as well.

May peace reign in our homes every day! (I am totally stealin’ that one from you:-)

Speaking of being ready and tying shoes and being 5…Sam wanted to learn yesterday and he totally caught on after two attempts! I love that…when you wait and it just works because they are ready and not pressured. It’s happening with reading, too. I tried a few times before (we are doing Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons) with no interest on his part, but he asked for it this time and we are breazing through the chapters. I am so proud of him!

May Peace reign in our homes today!

Interesting about unschooling. I think it is a nice concept, but with three littles living in a suburban enviorment, I am not sure it would quit work for me. Plus, once you are schooling a few olders and have a younger looking at you saying “I want to do copy work too Mama” , you have to come up with some type of structure for them, other wise your house will be torn apart:-) I do agree, that relationship building is one of the main “reasons” we are homeschooling our kids. Well, I am sure you figured that when you read my tag line:-)

Because I am also influenced by Montessori methods,and Sophia Coveletti, I also think that 3-6 is a very sensitive period that so much can happen for a young one if you are just observant enough to nurture it. When a child is ready for something, they are ready and not before, so if you watch for it, you can just jump write in. Currently our youngest is ready for some things just this month as he asks incessantly, so I will happily oblige:-)

Enjoy your little punkin’ seed. Kiss him and hold him and take lots and lots of video/pictures so when he is 5 and you are teaching him to tie his shoes, you can watch him when he was a baby and wonder at how big he is.

My boys are super active with my youngest being the most active. He has to have outside time or we all go insane. I am glad you brought this up. I wrote that late last night and totally left that part out.We do have plenty of outside time, when it isn’t so dang hot!

What I have done until the summer heat hit, is usually take them all out to a local park for about 2 hours every afternoon before dinner. We usually “hit the bricks” around 3 or so and go different places throughout the week. We live in a small townhouse, so we take advantage of all the free parks around the area. It worked very well last year, but I did find that I didn’t leave anytime in the afternoon for special work like the ones I mentioned in the post. Those “specials” at most would only last 30 minutes leaving the rest of the time to go play.

One of the things I will be experimenting with, is having our helper take our youngest out several times during our school situation and depending on how Chloe does with her work, sending her along for some of those outings.

The CM methods stresses short 15 minutes lessons which I love. Anything past that and everyone is a mess. The day moves along quickly though, and my older needs more focused time. I get him done with school from start to finish with no stops in about 2 hours, Chloe will do about and we hour and Hudson we will see. So when you throw in breaks, moving around eating snack and other stuff, it should take me about 3 hours to get them all through the paces. We will still have a gentle CM day, but I need to make sure I plan for what I want to get done, or as I saw last year, I wont get to it. Serious bummer! Again, I will dry run it and see how I can tweak it and probably adjust a bit. I am also doing the “planned” PE thing so they get the feel of team sports without all the weekend game and evening practice craziness that the local leagues require. Keeping my life simple is super important and I refuse to become a Mom running the rat race:-)

I love copy work too. I only required Jackson last year and will begin to have Chloe do some this year. I actually use quotes from great literature we are reading, or bible verses or poetry. This year, I will start to give Jackson more lengthy pieces that he will work on on all week. That way he starts to absorb good flow and has to monitor himself to get it done by weeks end. You are at the same place I was last year with your crew, so I would highly recommend going to the AO website just for the email threads that come through daily. They are tons of help. Also, Moms upload things they have created to the yahoo groups that we all can use for free and I snagged a great copy work selection for year1. Your oldest would probably be ready for year1 come August.

Yes, they have jobs, and I am adding more as the grow a bit. They all have to make/strip their beds, get dressed and clean up their plates after eating. Jackson sorts laundry, and Chloe and Hudson “wash” dishes. OK - who am I kidding they play with the bubbles but it is a start:-)

I actually fit small chores in between each lesson, or get the started and throw a load in or fold a load. I am forever running up and down the starts each day, but such is life.

I have not heard of the Moores, but I will Google them. Once I found CM I was sold and even more once I discovered AO. “For The Children’s Sake” by Susan Schaffer Maucaly is my number one homeschool read for those just starting.

I will leave it at that as this post is already very long, but I wanted to leave it here for other “lurkers” so they could see my response.

Any other thoughts?
peace to you,
a

Thanks for your thoughts,
Amy