How does homeschooling work for us in Boot Camp?

I've had several people ask how we are "working" homeschooling here in OKC, so I thought I'd take a second and share. We have class Monday-Friday (and sometimes on Saturday) from 9-12. The children are divided into 2 classes. Nate, Annie, and Garrett in one and Melissa, Benji, and Laura in the other. Nate is actually going between the 2 classes now (which totally excites him!)

Everyday I send school work with the children and their teachers also prepare stuff for them. Then when we get home we have some other school time which involves reading out loud, math, etc.



My little ones work on Explode the Code, Handwriting without Tears, Math U See, and Rod & Staff while they are at class. The middles work on grammar, math drills, handwriting (from a workbook or writing letters/thank you notes), and silent reading for our curriculum (Sonlight).

I absolutely LOVE the curriculum their teachers are using during their class time. I think the children's boot camp is one of my favorite parts of Boot Camp...very unique!! My little ones have been working through a curriculum about children around the world. They've been learning about how we all have different skin color, live in different houses, eat different foods, etc. Through this they've learned so much about different countries and other cultures. They come home and run to the map to show me Nigeria, Peru, Ghana, China, etc. They've also read through the book From Akebu to Zapotec and are now reading through it a second time because my kids love it so much. Both teachers have a heart for missions and want to encourage that in our children...and also prepare them for the mission field.


The middles have been working through the same basic curriculum as we have....just more on their level. They've been learning about prayer, cross-cultural communication, love languages, personality types, evangelism, etc. It's fun to be able to come home and talk about what we've all learned in class.





As a family we are working through Sonlight Core 5 - Eastern Hemisphere. This core has an emphasis on missions and other parts of the world. We are currently learning about the Pacific Islands and Australia. The kids have books that they read silently and discuss with me, and we have books that we read aloud. We also have pages that correspond with the World Book (or finding answers on the internet) that help them learn more about the different parts of the world (people groups, language, religion, etc

Once we're home for the day the middles do their math on the computer (Teaching Textbooks!) and we do read aloud and World Book stuff for Sonlight. We also working on spelling, science (Apologia), and geography.



I'm interested in adding some sort of writing program (my friend uses IEW)...but I'm not sure I have time for that right now.








With the littles, once we get home we do reading (Reading Made Easy) and Five in a Row. I'm also working with Nate on Explode the Code and more handwriting practice.



The "fun" and "exciting" part of homeschooling this year is that every day is different. Some afternoons we're doing ministry from 1-5, some days it's home from 1-5 and ministry from 5-8:30 (makes dinner interesting), some days I'm gone 1-5 and all of us are gone 5-8:30, and some days it's Scott gone 1-3 and we join him 3-5. But, once again, I'm reminded of one of the many reasons I love homeschooling....flexibility!! Living in OKC has given Scott more opportunity to be involved in homeschooling--so that's been really good!

So I guess that's it! Feel free to ask any questions I may not have answered.