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Mackfam
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After sharing on a thread about Nature Friend magazine:
Mackfam wrote:
St. Ann wrote:
My 12 yr old loves it! She just received her 4th magazine. The 2 younger girls love it also, but must wait their turn to read and look 
To have it sent to Germany is expensive, but it is worth it. The girls only have this one subscription. |
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Oh wow, Stephanie! I bet it IS expensive to have it sent overseas! But I have to tell you, this one magazine has become such a part of our own family homeschool culture that I too would invest in an overseas subscription! That's not necessarily some kind of super-duper-10-star-recommendation, it's just a reflection of how much a part of our family home education experience this one little magazine has become (although it is worthwhile, and I do recommend it!).
I'm sure others have a *thing* they do as part of their home education, like a magazine subscription, an annual not-to-be-missed field trip or something else that has grown to be a part of their family homeschool culture...kind of like a homeschool comfort food...and Nature Friend magazine is definitely one of ours! This sounds like it might make a neat thread - and others might enjoy reading about the different ways that different families grow into their own sort of *Homeschool Culture*. |
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....I began to wonder....
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE PART OF YOUR FAMILY HOMESCHOOL CULTURE???
I suppose this is the kind of thing that develops over time, a homeschooling family probably grows into these little cultural traditions. In reflecting on the Nature Friend magazine thread, I realized that our subscription to Nature Friend is definitely a part of our family homeschool culture. We enjoy that subscription so much, it's become an expression of our home education experience. Would you all share some of the things that have grown to be a part of your home education experience?
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As I look back over the last 10 years, I find I'm a little surprised at those things that have grown to be a part of our family homeschool culture. Here's what I've come up with for our family:
** An annual Nature Friend magazine subscription.
** An annual autumn field trip that we never miss to Tate Farms for a trip to the pumpkin patch, a lesson in growing cotton, a hayride, and lots of other fun. Each child picks out their own pumpkin which we bring home and carve, and each year we put our rotten pumpkins in the compost bin and each year we have volunteer pumpkins.
** Seasonal freshening of our learning spaces. This invigorates my children as much as it does me! I suppose it allows me to always keep considering our spaces so that they reflect our family *at that time*, and keep spaces fresh! My children always comment positively after we freshen spaces: rearranging a bit, tidying, setting out new books and things to visit with. The children are always so eager to return to work after a freshening, and the freshening makes me very happy and inspires me as well! I can't imagine homeschooling without it, and looking back, I find I always freshen spaces with a significant overhaul at least twice a year, every year: February and during our summer break as I'm putting things in place for the next year.
** Seasonal (liturgical and natural seasons) picture books. This makes me so happy.  And I suppose it makes me happy because the children love to see new picture books set out and are always so eager to read them.
** The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady as our companion through the years. I took this from my mom's homeschooling days, and it is just something we always do! The Country Diary is always set out, and there is always a lovely page chosen to leave open that reflects the current month.
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Goodness, I just feel sure there are more of these, and this is definitely a topic that is enjoyable to think about! I'm going to think on more...do share some of your family homeschool culture!!!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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Bridget
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What a nifty topic! At our house...
~always Tolkien and Shakespeare
~drawing supplies, lots of drawing
~coffee (nearly everyone, not just mom)
~story writing on the computer
~Latin (a love-hate thing)
~lately bugs and frogs (I am constantly battling to keep critters outside!)and building, lots of hammering and sawing
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Becky Parker
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This is interesting.
Oh, rats, I have to get a fussy baby. Be back later with our "culture" additions.
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Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
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Mimip
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SO short on time but LOVE this topic!
Off the top of my head 2 things stand out. Morning Basket time, thanks again Jen , and taking off all of Advent. We LIVE Advent in this house!!!
Going to think further about this and come back,.....
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Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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Servant2theKing
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Through the years our life and our home has become more and more centered around our homeschooling way of life~ it's difficult to remember what life was like in the B.H. era!!!
~Tolkien here, too, along with all things medieval, including King Arthur & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sir Nigel" and "The White Company" ~ all have stood the test of time from childhood all the way through to young adulthood! You know you're a homeschooling family when dc are thrilled with LOTR goblets from a thrift shop or they take up fencing because it's another means of expanding their horizons with a subject they love!
~gifts, family activities, choices of books, movies, etc. seem to always revolve around deeper interests in various subjects we're currently immersed in
~our home definitely reflects our homeschooling way of life ~ case in point, our most recent "decorating acquisition" is a very large round coffee table ~ it's the perfect surface for working on timeline projects, serving as a landing pad for oodles of books, creating a central location for games and prayertimes ~ the perfect "Round Table" for our favorite knights! (Years ago I would have considered such a table to be a clutter magnet or space waster; all decorating decisions are now viewed with an eye toward how such things will best suit our homeschooling life!
~all libraries are a home away from home!
~you know something is truly part of your family homeschool culture when it spills over to the homes of married children! Hurray for second generation homeschoolers!
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Mackfam
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Oh, I'm nodding my head with many of your mentions!!! Yes to ALWAYS having supplies for being creative out and available!!!!
Bridget wrote:
| ~Latin (a love-hate thing) |
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 Yes! This one here, too. While it isn't a passionate-oh-please-mom-can-we-do-Latin-now subject...it IS very much a part of our homeschool culture here! As soon as you mentioned it, Bridget, my heart warmed! And I have to tell you....I NEVER thought I'd be saying that....ABOUT LATIN!!!!
But, I just can't imagine a year of ours without some Latin in it. And over the years, my children have grown very fond of it. My older two enjoy speaking in Latin together (basic sentences) in order to speak in *code*, and it's very funny!
Mimip wrote:
| Morning Basket time, thanks again Jen , |
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You are so welcome, Mimi! I sure don't feel like it's my idea to claim though! I just stuck a few of our favorite books in a basket and read from them in the morning and called it a Morning Basket. You know...I almost mentioned this one too! Over the years I've found the Morning Basket remains workable and flexible, and I'm still just adding a few of our favorite books to it and pulling them out each morning!!!
Hey - I thought of something else that's a part of our homeschool culture:
** Prisms hanging in sunny windows. Another throwback from my mom's homeschooling days. There is something so cheery about rainbows dancing around the room. The original hat tip for this idea comes from the Disney movie of Pollyanna!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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Servant2theKing wrote:
| ~our home definitely reflects our homeschooling way of life ~ case in point, our most recent "decorating acquisition" is a very large round coffee table |
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Hey - that sounds like a great beginning of a piece of furniture as being part of your family homeschool culture, Servant! My little knights would adore that - THEIR OWN ROUND TABLE!!! There is something so very universally appealing to our young men with regard to knights, chivalry, battles...and all things that hearken to this inner desire of theirs! And, I know EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN about beginning to see things in a new light as you home educate. We see something that in times past would certainly not have qualified as practical enough or beautiful enough, but as part of the blessing of home education we get to know our children, and our children's passions and interests...and objects once looked over are now seen with fresh eyes. And we come home with a round table which fits seamlessly as part of our family's homeschool culture! Perfect example, Servant!!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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JodieLyn
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wow this is hard.. things that you're mentioning.. I don't know came about because of homeschooling..
I have a prism in the kitchen window.. it was my grammy's (my sister has one too) it would be there regardless of our schooling method.
botany.. anytime we're near any plants, on a walk, driving past.. my dh has a minor in botany and I grew up learning something about plants, plus I was the one that helped my dh and his roommate on learning all their plants (someone had to hold the flash cards).. whether we homeschooled or not, it would be natural that we'd discuss plants when seeing them.
maybe it's more that our family culture moves so seamlessly into a homeschooling culture that makes homeschooling a good fit.
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JuliaT
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Hmmm, this takes thought. But some things that pop to mind right away are:
Morning Time: I can't imagine our day without starting it off with Bible reading, Shakespeare, poetry,etc.
Read alouds: Reading out loud to my children is the best part of homeschooling, imo.
Tea time: I have to admit that we have slacked off a bit on this as my children have grown but my youngest just asked yesterday if we could start doing this again as she misses that special time as a family.
Appreciating nature: my children constantly bring my attention to an awesome sunrise, a neat looking cloud or an unusual bird. I don't think they would give these a second look if we didn't homeschool. Homeschooling has given my children an appreciation for many things, not just nature.
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kristacecilia
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Morning basket and nature walks are our only two I can think of.
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Krista
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jawgee
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kristacecilia wrote:
| Morning basket and nature walks are our only two I can think of. |
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Me too, but we are only two short months into our homeschooling adventures. I love reading the responses from everyone else.
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Monica
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kristacecilia
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jawgee wrote:
kristacecilia wrote:
| Morning basket and nature walks are our only two I can think of. |
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Me too, but we are only two short months into our homeschooling adventures. I love reading the responses from everyone else. |
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Your Marian is only 6 days younger than mine! What a coincidence. I don't know anyone else with a Marian, and they were born the same week!
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Krista
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I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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lapazfarm
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Though we've experimented with a wide variety in our methods, a few things have been fairly consistent from year to year:
Time spent with nature: going outside into the natural world is not seen as an add-on, but an essential part of our education. We will skip math, writing, history...anything really without even a single regret if an opportunity to go outdoors presents itself. Nature is our number one teacher.
Field Guides:It is a long-standing (multi-generational) part of family culture to whip out the field guides whenever something new or interesting pops up. It must be some weird innate need to name what we see. So we have a large, varied collection of field guides and even the littlest know how to use them.
Nature journals: we draw and write about what we see.We all have them and they are picked up off and on, sometimes more often that others, but always there, like an old friend.
Art,often: daily if possible. Again, no regets. If art is the only thing we get to then it is a day well spent. Art and nature, even better.
Read-alouds on the couch: I think this is as common as breathing for homeschoolers, but thought I'd mention it as it often takes up a large chunk of our day. In nice weather the couch is substituted with a sunny spot somewhere outside.
Freedom and flexibility: We embrace these finest aspects of homeschooling and feel free to drop everything on a whim and take off for...whatever, if we so desire. And we so desire regularly! 
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Angel
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lapazfarm wrote:
Field Guides:It is a long-standing (multi-generational) part of family culture to whip out the field guides whenever something new or interesting pops up. It must be some weird innate need to name what we see. So we have a large, varied collection of field guides and even the littlest know how to use them.
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Ok, I will (hopefully) be back later to share about our homeschool culture, but I just had to because we are exactly the same way. My little guys have been known to sleep with insect guides, and this weekend on a special trip to a special bookstore about an hour away, what my 5 yo wanted most was a rock guide!!
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Angela
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SallyT
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Authors: Tolkien, Marigold Hunt, Arthur Ransome, E.Nesbit, Edward Eager, Eleanor Estes, Rosemary Sutcliff, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dickens. Reading aloud is what we do if we don't do anything else. We also listen to lots of audiobooks.
The Baldwin Project -- this year, at least, pretty much our entire reading list comes from there
Those Mead Primary Journals -- my youngers do a ton of illustrated copywork, and they've been a staple of every year
A candle on the table during morning prayers
Rotating read-alouds during lunch (rotating as in, we have a two-week schedule with a different reading every day, so that the same book only comes up every two weeks. This way we have a lot of books going on at once)
Tea. My 13yo son has the kettle going constantly. The two younger kids like tea in the afternoon. Sometimes we have stories and tea; sometimes it's just tea.
OK, going to do something one-on-one with my 7yo, as the boys are at Scouts. Since my oldest went to college this is a part of our culture, too.
Sally
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KackyK
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Hmmmm...
Our morning prayer/meeting time, without it we seem lost each day
Our homeschool group's yearly liturgical celebrations: Mary's Birthday Party, All Saints Festival, OLG celebrations, Advent and Lenten Retreats
oral narration after each reading assignment - they just come up to me and start talking, no matter where I am or what I am doing or even more confounding sometimes, no matter whether I'm talking to someone else or not
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Claire F
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I love reading everyone's thoughts on this :).
We are very new to homeschooling, so our 'homeschool culture' is still very much in development. But I can comment on some of the things that we are very much enjoying, and I can see being a part of our way of life for years to come (and most of these have probably already been mentioned, but they ring true for us as well).
Snuggled-up read alouds. I can't tell you the number of times in the last 6 weeks that I've felt a surge of happiness and contentment at our choice to homeschool while snuggled up in a chair to read. Love, love, love!
Nature. I am so excited for my kids to learn through experiencing things, rather than just being told. We're getting out and getting dirty (which we did a lot of anyway, we just do it with a little more regularity and purpose).
Beauty. We're dipping into art, music, poetry, and great literature. These are things that drew me into the CM approach from the beginning and I am so excited to be able to share these things with my kids.
I love that other people mentioned Tolkein, because he is my absolute FAVORITE. We'll be reading Tolkien and C.S. Lewis too. I love that fairy tales and classic American Tall tales adorn my shelves and we're reading things that challenge not only his academic ability, but his mind as well.
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Erin
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Books and conversations.
I was recently asked for advice re teaching a little one and as I composed my email I asked dd18 for help in remembering what our earlier years contained. She shared that her memories were full of books, nature, craft, walks and talks. Dd stressed that building relationships was the most important of all.
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Mackfam
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So true! All the rich conversations are so treasured! And so many books as friends - the authors we enjoy are too numerous to mention! I'll tag onto your *conversations* mention, Erin, and add that something that has developed for us as part of our family homeschool culture is something we affectionately refer to as *DISCUSSIONS OVER DISHES*. For some reason, doing the dishes brings out the more philosophical thoughts of my older children! After lunch especially!!
What about surprising bits of homeschool culture that may have developed within your family over the years? Anything that surprises you as you reflect on your years homeschooling? I was surprised at how much our annual trip to the pumpkin patch meant to the children, and how related it was to their home education experience. It marks a season for them, and evokes special, warm memories that are intertwined with fall books and all of home education in autumn! I had a conflict one year and mentioned that we might not get to go and my kids went crazy!!     That's when I realized that this ONE trip had become an integral part of our family homeschool culture...and we don't miss it (unless there is a tornado in the area, and then I STILL get the silent treatment!!!) Really? A trip to a pumpkin patch? Yep! 
Anything that surprises you that has become a part of your individual family homeschool culture?
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Jen Mackintosh
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JennGM
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Gosh, although I could give reflections of our days, I really think our home culture with various traits like:
::looking up words in the dictionary, looking up places on the map, looking up various items in the encyclopedia, looking up insects, birds, etc. in field/nature guides.
::music and songs for every occasion and theme
::reading on a theme (i.e., picture books); lots of reading out loud and on our own everywhere. Books, books, and books
::living our Faith daily through the Liturgy and Liturgical Year.
came naturally before homeschooling. Both dh and I always did these things. But it was these tendencies that make homeschooling a perfect fit for our family. Homeschool culture IS our family's culture.
But homeschooling allows more freedom and exapansion into these and other areas. Plus, it provides that level of comfortableness to try new things, to explore new field trips and themes, to undertake arts and crafts and nature study and science experiments that I never thought I would try.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Your family homeschool culture
