Faces of Homeschooling - The Franzen Family

Hello, devoted readers!

I'm excited to kick off my Faces of Homeschooling project by offering a peek into my own family's school. In case you missed it, let me tell you a little about this project. (You can find my original post here.)

I have always enjoyed learning about what people do. When I ask someone where they work, or what job they have, what I really want is to know how they spend their days. I want a walk through! I am fascinated by the day-to-day tasks that make up the jobs that keep our society running. I want to know more about what people do, so I am going to interview others and share the findings with you on my blog.

Because I am part of a large homeschooling community, I'm beginning this project by focusing on the Faces of Homeschooling. I hope to post weekly so you can peek into the lives of homeschoolers. I hope that after interviewing homeschoolers, I'll be able to interview other groups as well. I hope you find this project as fascinating as I do. If you'd like to participate, please drop me a comment below or use the "Contact Me" form in the column to the right.

So, here we go!

Faces of Homeschooling - The Franzen Family

Introduce your family.
I'm Melissa. I'm a 29-year-old stay at home mom. I teach the kids while my husband Tim works as an adjuster for an insurance company. I have two teaching degrees that have come in handy! I've stayed home since our second child was born, but I occasionally try to make money selling cupcakes or substitute teaching. Our daughters are Lexi, age 7 and Lydia, age 4. We have two cats, Luna and Arya, who like to hang around/sit on our papers while we are working. We've been homeschooling since Lexi was 4.

What brought you to homeschooling?
Our daughter Lexi attended one year of preschool nearby. She had a lot of fun with it, but seemed ready to learn how to read rather than practice colors, which was what they were doing. When Tim lost his job, we were unsure if we would be able to send her to preschool the following year. I'd just began talking with a trusted friend whose daughter attended the school we were zoned for. She was considering homeschooling because of some safety concerns. Her concern led me to start researching homeschooling. Honestly, I'd always thought it sounded crazy. I was just finishing my Master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction, so I was trained for public school. But when I saw how my daughter was ready to learn more and realized that I was more than capable of teaching her, I couldn't resist giving the homeschooling thing a try.

What has kept you at it?
I love, love, love it. I love teaching and I enjoy staying home with my kids. I'd struggled with the idea of leaving them to teach, because I felt that teaching and parenting were huge jobs that required a big commitment. I didn't want to give less than 100% to anyone. Now I get the best of both worlds. I love the flexibility. Sleeping in and making our own schedule are huge perks.

Walk us through a typical day in your school.
I usually wake up around 8am, as Tim is leaving for work. Lydia gets up around 7 or 7:30 and eats breakfast with her dad. Lexi has been sleeping in until 9 lately. We don't usually start school before 9:30 or 10am. The girls eat breakfast or a snack while I read aloud to them. They practice Awana verses and Lexi practices piano and get their morning chores done. I get Lydia set up on ABC Mouse and she works on letters and numbers while I work with Lexi on Language Arts, Spelling and Math. We'll take breaks for playing as needed. We usually come back together for Science and Social Studies, which we do on different days, and Art, which is weekly. Often while Lexi is doing some copywork, I'll sit down with Lydia and do a Spielgaben activity or just read more to her. It usually only takes a couple of hours to get all of our work completed. We are typically finished by lunch.  The kids spend the afternoons playing outside, going to activities, listening to audiobooks, having play dates, or having quiet time. They participate in karate, gymnastics, Awana, homeschool park days and piano lessons each week. Around 4pm, the kids are allowed to have screen time for a while. Lydia loves to watch Octonauts and Lexi likes to play on the computer. After dinner, everyone gets ready for bed and has quiet time in their rooms until I turn the lights off around 8:30 or 9. Lexi likes to stay up late reading and frankly, I let her! While the kids are in bed, I unwind and hang out with that guy I'm married to ;)

There's usually something cool going on at the library.

Favorite moments?
I love the peace of having slow, calm mornings without rushing. I am so not a morning person! I love to start the day by reading a great book aloud and then getting my kids set up with their work and just watching them go at it. I love those Aha! moments when their eyes light up because they've made a connection between something they see in the world and something we're learning in school. I'm grateful I get to be with them. I honestly feel it has been a privilege to teach them- especially teaching my eldest to read. So satisfying!

Challenges?
It can be challenging to balance everyone's needs. Specifically, Lydia's desire to be played with constantly. She is learning to become more and more independent as she gets older, and that is great. She is really enjoying her ABC Mouse time and that gives me the time I need to teach Lexi a few things one on one. When she is feeling needy, I've found it is best to sit down and really spent some time with her. That helps her to then play by herself a while longer.

Tell us about the curriculum you are using and how you choose curriculum.
I chose my first curriculum after visiting the annual homeschooling convention in our area. There are lots of vendors that come out each year to show off their curriculum and help answer questions about finding something that fits your children. From there, I've made choices based on asking other moms what they use, reading Cathy Duffy's 102 Top Picks book, and doing lots of internet research. There's some trial and error involved for sure. Some things have not worked out like we hoped (such as this year's Social Studies curriculum) but for the most part, we love what we are using. Here's what we are using this year.

Lexi

Language Arts - Learning Language Arts through Literature

Math - Singapore Math

Spelling - All About Spelling

Writing - Essentials in Writing

Science - Noeo Science

Social Studies - This is currently a work in progress. I didn't like what we chose last year so I'm doing some research!

Art - Artistic Pursuits

Music - Piano lessons with my mom each week

Lydia

ABC Mouse

Spielgaben

Both girls LOVE art.

Where do you find the patience?
I've developed more patience as we've gone on. I have to let some annoying things slide or else we'd never get anything done. I don't typically have a problem finding the patience to teach my children- that's probably the teacher in me. I have the same parenting struggles as any parent, I'm just with them more so I have to pick my battles. I have to give myself a break each afternoon to read, write or watch my shows. I have to get out with my friends at Park Day or at dinner.

How are you going to teach your kids subjects that you haven't learned or don't understand?
That's what Google is for, my friend. Only partially kidding. When I want to learn something new, I typically read up on it. There are so many resources out there. Books. Librarians. Community colleges offering classes. YouTube videos. My kids are already asking questions I don't know the answer to and we look things up together. My goal is to teach them how to learn rather than dumping information in their heads.

This question always makes me think of the Physics class I took in high school. Despite having a highly qualified teacher, I didn't understand it at all. I cried about Physics often. My friends helped me through. When I had to take it again in college, I had a different curriculum that made a lot more sense to me and I did fine. Luckily, Tim understands Chemistry and Physics and is going to help our girls with those when it is time. If my kids are struggling, you can bet I'll be doing whatever I can to help them figure out how to get through.

Grandma teaches Lexi piano and sewing each week.

Are you worried about the social skills your kids aren't learning by not being in a traditional classroom?
No, not really. Lexi has always made friends easily wherever she goes. Lydia struggles a bit more in group settings because she would prefer to have a couple of close friends to play with one and a time. We're working on it! All kids are differently wired. We have them involved in several activities so they get used to the idea of taking turns and getting along with others. I want them to be social beings, yes. To learn how to make friends and interact with others peacefully. To solve conflicts. I don't think they need to be in a classroom with 25 kids their age to learn these most important social skills. I model effective communication to them when I speak with others and I talk them through problems. We talk about making friends and being kind. As for stuff like waiting in line, we find Target to be a good place to practice that.

We get plenty of play time with friends :)

How do you find balance?
Well, since this is my full-time job at this point, I give a lot of my time to it. But by late afternoon and early evening, our day's work is typically done and I use that time for other things. I am trying to get better at setting and reaching goals. It's tricky. I save a lot of bigger chores, like meal planning and grocery shopping, for the weekends so that I can go alone. Tim is great about pitching in around the house too and the older the girls get, the more we will teach them.

Do you plan to homeschool through graduation?
At this point, yes. But we are going to re-evaluate each year to make sure that what we are doing is effective.

Do you have a Secret Weapon or Hidden Gem that you'd like to share?
Headphones. Lydia can listen to and play her games on the computer without interrupting Lexi and vice versa. They are also great for audiobooks and for long car trips. My other secret weapon is the audiobook. Each girl has her own CD player in her room and they are happy to listen to stories when I need a break. It has really helped develop their vocabularies as well. The library is chock full of audiobooks!

Nothing like learning in your jammies!

What would you like others to know about homeschooling?
It's not just for crazy people! I used to think that homeschoolers were all weird and extreme people who were wanting to shelter their children away from the world and brainwash them into a specific set of beliefs. Talk about judgmental! What I've learned is that we are all different. We started doing this for different reasons. But we're all dedicated to helping our kids learn and live the best lives they can.

Homeschooling is fun!

Got questions for the next edition of Faces of Homeschooling? Be sure to let me know by leaving a comment below!

This post is part of the 30 Day Challenge.