A Family that Learns Together Sticks Together

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Home education should be a family affair, right? I mean you are at home, you are all together, so why should education be segregated? I am a huge proponent of a family learning as a family. By that I mean that it is so much nicer when we are all learning the same thing at the same time. I do not mean the basic 3Rs, that would be impossible, but the broad general learning should, and can, be done as a family. So follow me in discovering how to enjoy learning as a family.

How I found out that we needed a whole family style learning

To me, a big part of home education is to be able to learn AS a family. When I started on the path to home education my children were 3, 2 and 6 months, lol! My older self is just shaking her head, but it was a necessity at the time. We did not have a car, so our only outings were to the nearby park. Playdates were not really a possibility as we did not have the means to get there, so I had to find something to do with my small people that would engage them and engage me as well. I knew nothing about home education, just that it held a promise of freedom while educating my children. So I decided to launch ourselves into it anyways. I ordered a “boxed curriculum” for preschool thinking that should answer all my questions.

Boxed curriculums

I remember tearing through the huge box, very excited and looking forward to being able to finally do something with my girls. And starting we did, and as we started I discovered a lot of things. A lot of things that I did NOT like. It was just like the public school I had gone to! There was no difference except that now I was the teacher… And then the following year I had to get 2 different curriculums based on my daughters’ ages (they are exactly a year apart) and so I had twice the amount of work! First working with my youngest, preschool, and then with my oldest, kindergarten. What was I supposed to do when the toddler would start school?? Teach three different things? There were not enough hours in my day for that! And on top of it, even though the curriculums came from the same company, each child was learning something completely different from the other. That was madness!

Not my home education dream!

This was not what I had envisioned or heard about. My husband is a homeschool graduate and this was definitely not what he had told me his home education experience had been like. What was I doing wrong? I wanted something that would unite my children and I in learning, yes, even this young. Remember, even nursery rhymes were a new thing for me. I wanted a freedom in learning that I had not had growing up where everything had been dictated by a teacher. I wanted to be able to go down rabbit trails, and to learn things that interested us. And I wanted us to learn the same thing together, at the same time! So after really trying, out went the boxed curriculum…

And now what?

Somehow I had come across a couple of Catholic blogs and I was starting to see in other homes what I wanted for my own. I was following Elizaebth Foss’s blog, I was reading her book Real Learning in the Heart of My Home, and somewhere along the line I came across Five In A Row. And that seemed to be the answer to my dilemma. It was “boxed”, in the sense that I did not have to come up with everything myself. But it had freedom, lots and lots of freedom. All three of my children would enjoy it, we loved reading together already. It had activities that we could all enjoy together. This covered everything I had been looking for: a family learning style. Together and freedom. That is what I was looking for. So inspired by Five In a Row and Real Learning in the Heart of My Home, I started creating a whole home education for ourselves.

What does it look like now?

Now, 18 years after I opened that box, I have been able to narrow down a rhythm and a method of learning family style, and we love it. Boxed curriculums have been banned. There is no age segregation, except for the 3Rs. And we learn together. How? Very simple. First there is Morning Time, the very core of our home education. This is something we do as a family, per its nature, and that every age from 0 to 100 can grasp. Then comes our main study. Our main study usually fits under a main umbrella, so to speak: geography, history or science. This main study usually consists of a read aloud spine occasionally followed by a picture book and always followed by activities and applications. And this is where the age differences come into play. By using only living books the subjects are within everyone’s reach, no matter the age. Therefore reading aloud to all at once is never an issue. But with age come different abilities.

Solving the ability difference

Each day I assign an activity or an application attached to our reading based on three different groups: Littles, Middles and Bigs.
Littles are anyone who cannot read or write on their own.
Middles are my emerging readers, who still need help with spelling and are not completely independent but are getting there. 
Bigs are all students who have reached the blissful stage of independent work, usually high schoolers.
See: no age segregation! We are all learning the same thing, together but each person has a different project to accomplish based on her abilities, not her age. Because at the end of the day each child learns at her own pace and some might be independent earlier than others at the same age.

Concrete example of family style learning

Let’s say we are studying US geography. We are reading about Colorado, using the picture book C is for Centennial, a Colorado Alphabet by Louise Doak Whitney, illustrated by Helle Urban.
My Littles will be assigned to find and color the state of Colorado on their pre-printed US map, as well as draw their favorite thing about Colorado.

My Middles will be assigned to find Colorado on a pre-printed US map then to draw the state on a separate piece of paper and enter on their drawn map all of the landmarks mentioned in the book. In addition they will pick one person, place or event, of their choosing, mentioned in the book, research it and create a narration on it. 

My Bigs will also have some map work, usually based on their previous work, building up on what they did in years gone by. They will also have a choice of narration as well as some civic or historical research assigned. The expected length of their narration is also different than for the Middles.
This is what I had been looking for in the early years and was able to develop, on a lot of trial and error: family style learning.

Family style learning

Family style learning is essential when you have many different ages. Segregating by age/grade only brings chaos and is, honestly, humanly impossible. At one point I had a 17yo, 16yo, 14yo, 12yo, 8yo and a 6yo, plus a newborn! There was no way for me to use a separate curriculum for each child and give them the necessary attention. I could not have even reviewed their work as it would have been impossible to remember who was doing what. With family style learning I am able to know exactly what each person is studying, what their assignments are and I can review them in a timely manner. We learn together, then each goes her own way to complete her work while I take turns with each child from the most independent to the least independent. I will often even be able to join them in completing one of their assignments myself. Which is my favorite part of home education…

Taking turns

I take turns with each child after our readings. I usually start with the most independent, as they will require small direction and little time. Then I move on around the family, spending time with each and ending with the person in most need of my time and attention. If there is no independent work for the least independent to do while they wait for me, they usually go play, which helps them be more attentive when I sit down with them, a great plus! All completed work has to be on my desk by dinner time. I will then be able to review it and return it with feedback. This allows us to learn family style, to grow together and to retain my sanity. 
Please let me know if you have any questions about family style learning in the comments below!
Love,
Mattie