Meet em' Mondays {The Ahlgrims}

Welcome to Meet em' Mondays. 

This week we have the Ahlgrims family from Oklahoma with us. 

Family Name: The Ahlgrims

Ages of your children:

Vesper is 3, and Grey is 2.

How long have you been homeschooling?

Two months

What state do you live in and is it a homeschool friendly state?

Oklahoma, and yes, it is a fantastic place to homeschool!

What is homeschool to you?

Creating an environment that promotes learning in all situations for our children. It also means the freedom to tailor lessons to the learning styles for my children in order to set them up for success in the future.

What made you initially decide to start homeschooling?

I was an education major in college and my husband and I always knew it was something we wanted to try. When we realized our oldest was advanced, it only reaffirmed our decision to do so!

How do you choose your curriculum?

When I first began doing research, I thought that I would need to choose a style and a curriculum right away. But because we're only doing PreK/ K, that hasn't been the case. Instead of using an out-of-the-box curriculum, we chose to create our own Unit Studies with a theme for each week. We cover reading and writing every day, and then down either Math, Science, or Art. We're using the few couple of years as a trial period to figure out what type of curriculum we'd actually like to use in the future!

Do you stay with a schedule or are you more flexible?

We stick pretty closely to a schedule, as my kids tend to respond better to having a predictable routine. But our school only takes about two hours each day, so we're flexible within our schedule as well!

How do you handle the family schedule?

I keep a paper calendar and one large family calendar in the kitchen so everyone knows what's going on and when.

How do you make sure your child has regular interaction with peers?

We are very active in our church and attend there about three times a week for various activities. We also do one of our schooling days at a local Early Learning Center- a "Mother's Day Out" of sorts- where they have a regular teacher and classmates and attend music and PE classes as well as work on things like letters and colors. Additionally, our daughter is enrolled in Tap and Ballet classes at a dance studio.

What resources are available if you do not understand how to teach the material you are supposed to teach?

Luckily, we haven't run into this yet! But I take comfort in knowing that our area has plenty of local co-ops to attend, and I have lots of online groups of other homeschooling moms and teachers that are more than willing to lend a helping hand. The homeschool community really is one of the most generous I've ever seen! Sharing knowledge is a really awesome thing!

What has been the most surprising part of homeschooling?

We originally started homeschooling because our oldest was already beginning to read at 3 years old. She craves school work and I knew she would really excel- and she has, but the most surprising part is the benefit her little brother has received from our homeschooling! He is only 2.5 and has had little interest in learning traditional things so far (letters, colors, shapes, etc) but lately, just being included in our daily school time, he has really started to open up and spout off answers when he knows them! You can tell he's so proud of himself, and it really makes my heart happy as his momma!

You can follow The Ahlgrims family on their blog at: Everyday Light

Thank you so much Chelsea for sharing your beautiful family with us! 

Meet em' Mondays { The McKinney Family}

Welcome back to Meet em' Mondays! We took the Summer off and now we are ready to get these Mondays started again!

This week I would like to introduce to you The McKinney Family.

Family Name: The McKinney Family (McKinney Academy)

 

Ages of your children: 11, 6, 5 and 3

 

How long have you been homeschooling? 8 years (Started the oldest in Preschool)

 

What state do you live in and is it a homeschool friendly state? Kentucky, it is yes homeschool friendly. Very laid back and the laws are easy. We simply have to keep records, attendance and notify the BOE

What is homeschool to you? Homeschool to me is life. We learn in almost everything we do. I am teaching my children to not only be "book smart" but to be life smart. Its not all sit down learning, we are learning to cook, to build, etc. Its not all about the book lessons (though they are important).

 

What made you initially decide to start homeschooling? My husband, from the time I became pregnant with my oldest he was telling me that we would homeschool, He isn't a fan of the public school system because of personal experience on his part and some other things he saw/heard. I wasn't on board at first (if I'm being honest, mostly for selfish reasons) but we agreed on a trial run, for preschool to see how it went. From day one I was in love with it. Not to say some days I didn't want to pull my hair out or scream in frustration (and still do sometimes) but it's always worth it once we over come the obstacle in our way. I will never forget the first time my son read a book to me. I was in tears.  Teaching how to read is something that takes time and patience, once I taught him how to read I knew we was going to make it. I knew we would (and could) do this together. Now here I am years later, teaching three sometimes four (when the littlest one wants to "play lessons") kids and I couldn't imagine my life any other way. I'm so glad my husband stuck with his guns on this one.

 

How do you choose your curriculum? I (for the most part) create my own, I do buy books, I love thrifting for books and I  can not pass us a learning/teaching book if I find one. I use various books/brands though and create my own to fit my children. Only thing I would say is a favorite is Abeka Science. I prefer it over any other science program and my oldest really enjoys it as well. He has taken his science book to bed to read at night instead of his normal bedtime stories. We do lots of hands on, it seems to engaging the kids more and make them more willingly to learn, especially when its something they aren't too happy to do.

 

Do you stay with a schedule or are you more flexible? We are a routine family. We do not follow a schedule (schedules make me anxious, which makes me become grumpy when I don't think we will be where we should be when wee should be,etc) I am flexible about it as long as we get everything done in a day we should what is the rush? That's part of what I love about homeschooling. If we need to go somewhere and not get home until 4 in the evening we can still do our studies. Homeschool teaching never closes, never goes home for the day. It is home.

 

How do you handle the family schedule? Our family schedule is pretty much nonexistent. I'm a stay at home mom and my husband works full time. Only days we really have a schedule is Sunday because of church and my husband is off that day so its easy to follow.

 

How do you make sure your child has regular interaction with peers?  We have a huge family,  we have friends with kids (when you become a parent you lose friends, become a homeschool mom and you lose even more) we go to church, we go to play areas. Peer interaction is something I do not worry about it.

What has been the most surprising part of homeschooling? How simple it can be sometimes. Going in to homeschooling I thought it was going to be an uphill battle all the time, that teaching them everything when they knew nothing was going to be impossible. How could I ever do such a thing? Then we start something and BAM they already have it. We are equipped by God to learn. Sometimes it takes more time than others but I truly believe and follow the guideline of when they are ready they will learn. It something  I never truly knew or appreciated until I started to teach my children.

You can follow the McKinney Family and their homeschool adventures at their Facebook page: McKinney Academy

Thank you to the McKinney Family for sharing your homeschooling with us! 

Meet em' Mondays ( The Kaiser Family)

Welcome to another week of Meet em' Mondays.

This week I would like to introduce to you The Kaiser Family. 

Family Name: The Kaiser family

Ages of your children: 9 (just turned 9)

How long have you been homeschooling? This is our first year.

What state do you live in and is it a homeschool friendly state? Texas…and yes.

What is homeschool to you? "Homeschool is freedom to me. Freedom from stress, freedom from worry. I am actually in control of what my son learns and how he’s learning it." 

What made you initially decide to start homeschooling?  "My son was in public school, and he would go in at the beginning of every year with a positive attitude and ready to make friends and learn, and then we noticed every night he was angrier and angrier.  It was frustrating to say the least.  We found out he was being picked on and threatened and, although he was on honor roll, the stress was keeping him from learning to his full potential. While since beginning to talk he had a very large vocabulary…he lost it by 1st grade…and then second grade we noticed depression and weight gain setting in.  My final push was when I was working with math and he couldn’t add simple numbers……but was still on honor roll….I made my decision then."

How do you choose your curriculum? "This year, I just kind of looked around and asked for suggestions, but after 8 months, I’ve kind of figured out what is working for us. So- this year I’ll be looking a little closer. I know we need things with a little “creativity” base."

Do you stay with a schedule or are you more flexible?  "We try to stay on a schedule, but we are flexible. Some days are hard days and we do what we need to do to make it peaceful. For example…today is clean up day. No school…just working around the house."

How do you handle the family schedule?  "It’s actually easier now than when he was in public school.  I’m a “list” person…so I make sure that I get all of the important things done, and then just kind of glide through the rest. I have my son help with a lot of things….let him feel “in control” a little."

How do you make sure your child has regular interaction with peers?  "We joined a group in the Houston area HEART- and they have a lot of social events, plus he goes skating, playground, but truthfully, he has never really interacted well with other kids his age…always older."

Do you believe that you provide the same level of education that the children would get going to a public or private school? "Higher level- mainly because I’m able to focus on the things that he has problems with more and give that one on one attention. In some of the subjects, he’s beyond his grade level…in math, he’s around his grade level….(not a good subject for him, so trying various things to make it more interesting to him). I push him more than the school system would, and he has learned to actually challenge himself.  He has even become more creative and has been making stop motion capture films with legos (you can find him on youtube under Zachary Kaiser Films OR www.zacharyscomp.wix.com/stopmotion. It's all him…we let him move ahead on it."

What has been the most surprising part of homeschooling? "His change in attitude for learning and his creativity. He always felt like an outcast therefore became introverted. Now he feels better about himself and has become a little more extroverted. (Still working on the public speaking though…if he doesn't know you he backs away from conversation!)"

 

You can find and follow the Kaiser family over at: www.itsyourtimeblog.blogspot.com

Meet em' Mondays ( The Burgess Family)

Welcome to another week of Meet em' Mondays.

This week I would like to introduce to you: The Burgess Family. 


Family Name: The Burgess Family

Ages of your children: Three girls ages 10, 7, 5 and one boy 3.

How long have you been homeschooling? We have been homeschooling for 2 years this September.

What state do you live in and is it a homeschool friendly state? We live in Georgia and it is very homeschool friendly. Hardly any worries :)

What is homeschool to you? "Homeschool to me is "life" long learning. My children get to learn and grow realistically and are given the chance to be themselves. I love that I don't have to stress so much about how they are being influenced."

What made you initially decide to start homeschooling? "When my second child was having such a difficult time adjusting to Kindergarten in public school, when my oldest daughter was having health issues and they were sick all the time! They were missing so many days of school. I was getting letters from the school saying they were missing too many days even though we had doctor notes. Once I pulled them out I started to learn so much more about all the benefits of having them home with me. I never realized there was such freedom with homeschooling. I didn't think I could do it. But here I am :) here we are."

 How do you choose your curriculum?  "We haven't chosen a particular curriculum. We use many different resources. We go to the library and learn what we want. Aside from the basics like math, reading and writing, we go where our hearts take us."

Do you stay with a schedule or are you more flexible? "Ahh, a schedule? I try as I might ,but we rarely stick to one. Every day is different. I do have a small list of things they have to do before they are aloud to watch tv or play on tablets."

How do you handle the family schedule? "As far as how I handle the schedule...I am not alone we all handle it together and work as a team. With chores, learning and fun time."

How do you make sure your child has regular interaction with peers? "I am going to be honest. My kids do not get enough interaction with peers. It is hard to find the time. They do have pen pals they write regularly as well as face time. I know that one day when they are older and make friends more easily, they will do great." 

In your view, what are the benefits to homeschooling your children? "The benefits of homeschooling my children are great. To start with the little importance's...we do not have to rush to get to a school, no worries about school shopping (clothes or otherwise), and we can learn day and night. The big importance's...I can teach and they can learn what I feel is best. No common core. I know personally what level/s my children are. When my oldest was in public school I was so confused about where and what she was learning. Math was her weakness and she wasn't getting help. I can now focus on that and she is doing great!"

What has been the most surprising part of homeschooling? "What has surprised me the most about homeschool is how easily and quick each of my children have learned. I also have been given the blessing of knowing and learning each of their personalities and interests."

Meet em' Mondays ( The Echols Family)

Welcome to another week of Meet em' Mondays! 

This week I have the pleasure of introducing to you:

Family Name: The Echols Family

Location: Flagstaff, AZ

Ages of your children: 17, 13

How long have you been homeschooling? 9 years

What state do you live in and is it a homeschool friendly state? "Arizona is very homeschool friendly.  We are blessed to educate our kids here." 

What is homeschool to you? "The ability to customize our kid’s curriculum to their learning style and to be able to go at their own pace.  For us, homeschooling is more than just a great education.  It’s about character and relationship building and discipleship. There have been times when we've had to set school aside for the day in order to work on a heart issue." 

"Public speaking has been a big part of our home school training. My wife and I speak at home school conventions and my son has had many opportunities to speak in public."

What made you initially decide to start homeschooling? "We were not happy with the direction the public school was going." 

How do you choose your curriculum? "Based on what our kid’s needs are, we stay away from curriculum that appears to have a lot of 'busy' work.  We work towards mastering a topic and then move on from there. We started with the curriculum in a box approach and over the years have moved to an eclectic approach. We utilize Math-U-See, IEW, Apologia, Explode the Code, and various other curriculum."

Do you stay with a schedule or are you more flexible? "We are very flexible, which reduces stress and allows us to speed up or slow down with a particular subject or topic. We set a start date in August and a date in May that we want to be done with for the school year.  During that time we work at a pace that is appropriate for each subject/topic. Some move faster than others and it always ends up working out.  In fact, we usually end up finishing school a week or two early." 

"We live one hour from the Grand Canyon and we love the outdoors. Our home is at 7,136 feet in elevation and we get about 100 inches of snow per year."

How do you handle the family schedule? "We use a family integrated calendar that we can all see on our devices.  This allows everyone to know what is happening that day and how to best manage their time.  Before our kids had their own devices we used a large monthly dry erase wall calendar with each day's schedule on it."  

" Prepping for a day of home school."

How do you make sure your child has regular interaction with peers? "Our kids play sports with a local charter school as well as little league. We are also involved in co-ops.  Our kids are very socialized and have close relationships with their friends who are fellow homeschoolers and public schoolers." 

In your state, how does a homeschool student go about getting a diploma? "It is up to us as parents to issue a diploma."  

What has been the most surprising part of homeschooling? " The ability for our 17 year old to be able to take college classes as a junior in high school and keep a 4.0.  He's going to be able to shave a year off of his college education. This will save a lot of time and money." 

" Homeschooling when it is cold!"

John Echols also has a blog at http://johnechols.com. You can also find his musings over at Homeschool Mosaics.

The Echols Family also runs My Home School Grades the premier planning, grading, and tracking program built with the features and tools your family needs to create a safe and secure web-based record of your educational journey. You can also find them on Facebook

Meet em' Mondays ( The Dingman Family)

Welcome to another week of Meet em' Mondays. 

This week I would like to introduce to you The Dingman Family from Oregon. 

Family Name: The Dingman Family

Ages of our children: 21,8,7 and 22 months

How long have we been homeschooling? 8 years total.

What state do you live in and is it Homeschool friendly?

We live in Oregon and it is semi homeschool friendly. We are required to register as homeschoolers and the kids have testing at the end of 3, 5, 8,and 10th grades

What is homeschooling to us? 

Homeschooling simply means freedom. Freedom to follow our kids interests, freedom to develop our own schedule or curriculum. Sometimes it's going to the art museum

(here they are at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam)

Or meeting a street performer in Germany

, or hanging out with search and rescue

, or volunteering to be a "victim" for our local CERT (community emergency response team) class

learning about Osmosis with food,

meeting some of the zoo animals face to face. 

What made you initially decide to start homeschooling?

I first learned about homeschooling in 1992 and started watching and talking to people. When my oldest (21) had issues in the public school system I pulled him out and started the deschooling process. Later when my younger children came along my husband and I decided that because our kids were already ahead of what they would be doing academically in public school that we would just continue doing what we were already doing. 

How do we choose our curriculum?

We don't! We don't use any set curriculum on a full time basis. We use a lot of free online resources and the children's interests to continue their active participation in their education. 

Do you stay with a schedule or are you more flexible? We are completely flexible, which we love! We have a general schedule (field trips on some days, or music lessons or Club activities we work around) but we love being able to decide on the spur of the moment to do something we hadn't thought about before!

How do you handle the family schedule?

We have our weekends generally set aside as family days, we have some activities that are specific days (music lessons, DIY team, 4H, swim lessons, etc.) but we also wish to remain flexible in most of our daily doings.

How do we make sure our children have regular interaction with peers?

DIY club, SciGirls club, field trips one to two times a week. Our children also have their friends that are in public school that they play with on a regular basis. One of our favorite saying is "just because it's called HOME schooling doesn't mean it has to happen at home."


If parents are considering their options between public, private or homeschooling, What advice would you give based on your own experience?

Relax would be my biggest suggestion, Don't fret about the "best" curriculum, each person, each family is different and what works for one won't necessarily work for another. Also give homeschooling more than a year, The first year is notoriously hard, and it may take the whole year or more to find what really works for you as a family. 

What has been the most surprising part of homeschooling?

How much they learn without a set curriculum! Yesterday my 7.5 year old was discussing ceropods and sauropods. They "discovered" multiplication and started using it before figuring out multiple digit addition and subtraction! Letting them explore the world around them, has given them more insight and drive to learn than sitting at a table working on books did in a year. 

Feel free to check out The Dingman Family blog: http://ladybuganddragonflydreams.blogspot.com/

Meet em' Mondays ( The Howard Family)

Welcome to our 2nd Meet em' Mondays.

This Meet em' Monday family is a family friend who has been homeschooling for several years.

Family: The Howard Family

How long have you been homeschooling? 13 years

How many children do you have? 3 daughters

What are their ages? 18, 16, and 13

What made you initially decide to start homeschooling? My husband and I agreed before we got married that our kids would never go to public school. We originally thought they might go to a private Christian school (although Homeschooling was always in the back of my mind) but God gifted us with a third child.  That settled it for us - no way we could afford private school for 3 kids. 

What does homeschooling mean to you?  A chance to spend more time with the children God gifted me. The opportunity to individualize curriculum based on learning style and needs and the ability to ensure my girls are taught about God and teach them about the world in a safe environment. 

Do you think homeschooling is for everyone or child by child? I'm sure there are some people that shouldn't homeschool, but I certainly feel that is a minority. 

What resources are available if you do not understand how to teach the material you are supposed to teach? We have really appreciated Teaching Textbooks for math. We have also utilized our local co-op for science classes.

How does a homeschool student receive credit for classes in order to get into a college? My oldest is attending a 4 year college as a freshman this year. My second is taking college classes concurrently with high school classes at a local community college. 

I created a transcript modeled after one I saw online. I ordered the diploma from HSLDA.

Thank you to the Howard family for answering our questions for our Meet em' Mondays! Stay tuned for the next Meet em' Monday where I will interview another homeschooling family. 

* these answers are from the howard family and these are their views.

Meet em' Mondays

I have decided to try something new on the blog.

I am introducing Meet em' Mondays.

 Meet em' Mondays will be where I introduce other homeschooling families that I have interviewed with a few questions. I know new homeschooling families tend to look for others and have questions. I figure this will be the perfect place to introduce new families to families who have been homeschooling either a year or several years. It is always a good idea to get involved in a homeschooling community and I figure this might be a great way to do that. After all, everyone who homeschool's is part of this wonderful community already.

 For my first Meet em' Monday I would like to reintroduce myself and my family. I have several new followers and would like them to know who we are and why we choose to homeschool.

 I am Kelli. The mom, mom blogger, stay at home/homeschooling mom, and the wife. I started this blog back in 2013 as a way to document our homeschooling journey. Before that I wrote from my craft blog: Living in a Monsters World. 

 I graduated high school in 2003. Went to college for 2 1/2 years to become a teacher. I wanted to become a teacher after having an amazing Science teacher who gave me encouraging words. Although I never finished my degree to become a certified teacher ( got married and had a kid instead), I started working in childcare and really found my place there. 

 Right before Monster turned 3 I was able to start my stay at home journey with him. I am so thankful that I was able to. This is when I began to really feel like maybe I could actually homeschool my son. 

 When Monster was of age to go to Kindergarten we decided to send him to our local charter school. I have no regrets. I am glad that Monster and I both got to experience him being in a school. It also helped me decided that yes, I can do this homeschooling thing! 

 We have been homeschooling now for the last two years and loving our decision. We live in a very homeschool friendly state. Texas. I also have a very encouraging husband who I am thankful for and the fact that he trust me with our sons education. 

 This is Monster (not his real name I promise!). Monster turned 8 back in February. He is an only child (we have yet to determine if that is permanent or not). He is the oldest grandchild and can be OCD sometimes. But, we love him. 

 Monster is a very hands on learner, yet he does not like to get dirty. His favorite things to learn about are Science, Christopher Columbus ( he said so!) and watching educational movies (again his words!). Monster would be considered 2nd grade this year, however, as of right now he is done with 2nd and working on 3rd grade. One of the best things about homeschooling is moving at your childrens pace. 

 Monster enjoys being outside, playing video games, hanging out with his friends, swimming, playing piano and play Legos. He is also a huge super hero fan! Favorite today is Wolverine. 

 Monster really enjoys homeschooling. I work at his pace and his level. We also are very flexible when it comes to a schedule. Sometimes we start our day when we first get up and sometimes we wait until later in the afternoon to start. This year we began year round schooling with breaks when we feel we need them. Monster enjoys this better than being on a tight schedule. Neither of us like rushing when there is no need for it. 

 This is my husband. The thinker and hard worker. We have been married 9 years this month. 

 He works for an amazing company. They are such a family friendly company. He loves his job and the people he works for. He works hard and really enjoys it. 

 He enjoys being outside when the weather is nice, reading and cooking. 

 He really encourages me in our homeschooling. I am very thankful he does. 

 So there you have it for the first Meet em' Monday. Next week I will introduce a new family and ask them some questions. 

 If you have any questions you have been wanting to ask a homeschool parent, please feel free to either leave them in the comments or email them to me at: monstersmommy021207@gmail.com 

 Your question may be used in one of the interviews! Or if you are a homeschool family and would like to be introduced on Meet em' Mondays please email me and we can set it up!