How do we teach?

• Parents choose their preferred homeschooling methods and curriculum at home, and we supplement and enrich! We spend time on these subjects every day:

• Math: 

  • GAMES! We use dice, cards, bingo, manipulatives, board games, chalk number lines, and more to help students get a firm grasp on their math facts. Our number one rule with math is to keep it fun and keep kids moving. Usually we divide into two groups (addition/subtraction learners and multiplication/division learners). We also love to do math mysteries, solving clues by doing math problems! We make differentiated versions of clues for students at different math levels, but they all work together to solve the mystery. Kids love this!

• Reading (2 sessions per day - whole group and small group):

  • Whole Class: Every day, we read a chapter or two from our class novel. We like to expose students to classics (both old and new!). Reading together builds community, lets students of different ages hear each others' unique perspectives, and provides a great opportunity to build vocabulary knowledge. During read-aloud time, students listen as the teacher models fluent reading skills; they usually color a picture related to the story to keep their bodies moving and their brains engaged. Past novels have included Heidi, The Jungle Book, a collection of King Arthur legends, and The Green Ember.

  • The Younger Readers Group builds their phonological awareness by practicing decoding skills to build fluency and comprehension. We use songs, movement, clapping, tapping, art, word ladders, word games, shaving cream spelling, and more to give students confidence. We believe in the science of reading method, focusing on research of how the brain learns to read and following a systematic approach of manipulating words into pieces, then sounds. We teach general rules first, and then the exceptions later.

  • The Independent Readers Group spend a lot of time diving into literature such as mythology, poetry, or folk tales. They use these texts to understand plot structure, analyze characters' actions and motivations, examine author's word choice, make inferences, identify parts of speech, and more. They also practice creative writing, which often gets a bit silly!

• Science:

  • Experiments, experiments, experiments! We get messy! After an experiment, we do a lab report together that gets glued into their science journals. We personalize these reports to meet your child's appropriate reading and writing level. Our life science units typically revolve around the season so that we can draw connections to what's really happening outside around us.

  • Our daily nature hike provides us an opportunity to practice plant and animal identification, observe weather patterns, examine insects, and learn from nature.

  • Each morning, students take care of our farm animals and our garden, learning about best practices to care for a range of animals and plants.

• Social Studies:

  • This subject usually gets blended in naturally with our others. We might study a passage in small group reading or solve math problems that are related to a weather phenomenon or a world culture's celebration that aligns with the time of year. We also have a lot of great discussions with our read-aloud novel that incorporate social studies. 

• Physical Education:

  • We play a lot of cooperative games that get kids moving and active outside. Students love to help us lead group stretches and exercises too, gaining confidence and public speaking skills!