Saturday, September 11, 2010

Homeschooling with Dad

In our home, we have a somewhat unique situation. Both Allan and I work together from home to run our family home daycare. If you are new to my blog, you will see that most of the posts relate directly to our childcare business. I am going to *try* to get at least one post up a week that deals more about our homeschooling. (Although, in many instances, we work Dane's lessons into the daycare).



Allan has been an amazing help when it comes to homeschooling, and helping with whatever needs to be done.

He provides our "muscle" when Dane and I have BIG ideas.... Like moving lots of sand from our sandbox to make a HUGE volcano.



He's often the man behind the camera (fortunately, we have a couple of them so I can catch him in photos once and awhile!) He is great at making sure to capture great moments on film so that we can remember them and use them in later lessons. In this photo, we were visiting the butterfly house and were able to identify a number of different butterflies after our visit.

He's always right there when it comes time to explore, and to help answer as many questions as Dane can ask.

He helps keep learning fun, being silly, and lets his "inner child" out.

He definitely keeps our world going! I know that I wouldn't be able to do nearly half of what I do without him here to support me!



We certainly make a great team!

This year, Dane has decided to add Art History to his list of subjects. We believe that the world is a classroom, and we don't have a "school year." Every day offers an opportunity to learn and to grow, and everyone is both a student and a teacher. We do try to incorporate some structure to our learning experiences. These are Dane's current interests:

Mondays: Social Science- Dane wants to learn more about pirates. Allan is helping him learn about real treasure hunters, learning about geography and history at the same time. Of course, following maps, playing dress up, and learning all about boats will be part of the exploration.

Tuesdays: Science - Dane is really interested in learning more about explosions. We will be doing a lot of experiments and learning about chemistry. Making giant volcanoes and geysers have been some of our recent projects. This is more my area of expertise, but Allan will be helping out too.

Wednesdays: Danish - Allan is originally from Danmark, and every Wednesday Dane is learning more about Danmark not limited to but including: customs, traditions, cooking, language, songs, games, etc.

Thursdays: Art History- We are expanding Dane's love of art to include viewing some of the great works of art throughout history. We are following a little bit of a time-line, and being that this is a new interest have recently looked at cave paintings.

Fridays: Math- Dane loves math, and we are working on a variety of different topics. His favorite is working with money.

We read every day. Right now, Dane's favorite series are the Magic Treehouse books. Every night before bed we read a chapter or two. We take turns who reads a page. Allan has also been reading him a book in Danish every night before bed, and translating it as we go along.

This post was shared with:



This post was also shared in the L.E.N.S. Photo Challenge: Back to School at:

Home Is Where You Start From

7 comments:

Kristy... said...

I enjoyed your homeschool post!

jeannine: waddlee-ah-chaa said...

Hi from waddlee-ah-chaa, thanks for stopping in at our blog. We agree with your approach to learning "out in the world!" It is one of the biggest benefits of homeschooling. Your schedule looks wonderful. And it is perfect since it follows the interests of your son. :)

Hen Jen said...

your world looks like so much fun!! I am swooning over the idea of a giant volcano, very cool- my kids would be so into that!

Theresa said...

Great post! Sounds like so much fun! How awesome that your husband is an everyday part of your homeschool!

Thank you for linking up with Three Thinking Mothers!

Amy Dingmann said...

Followed you here from Three Thinking Mothers. Great post! I always love hearing about the Dads who are involved in homeschooling. The kids really need both perspectives!! Your husband certainly looks like a keeper. What a fun, hardworking, amazing guy! :)

Theresa said...

Just wanted to thank you for voting for me too! :-)

Susan said...

I stopped by from Three Thinking Mothers. What a great Dad :)

My friend died

 I learned a hell of a lot from Dan Hodgins.  He was mentor, a friend, and a "bone shaker" for many of us in the field of Early Ch...