I learned the three R’s when I was in elementary school. Since then I haven’t heard much about the three R’s and I’m not sure if the reason is due to my own ignorance or if it’s simply out of style as a teaching philosophy. What exactly are the three R’s? They stand for Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. I truly believe that in the elementary grades, the three R’s are all one should focus or concentrate. When I talk to homeschoolers, especially newbies, many seem so paralyzed by all the subjects and curricula available at their disposal. Rather than being empowered to homeschool, they feel very inadequate simply because there is so much to do. What I’m afraid of is that instead of proceeding with confidence in homeschooling, people shrink back in fear and quit even before they start. In this post I hope to shed some light on homeschooling and encourage anyone who is interested in homeschooling to “just do it!”

Before I move on, a little background on me. I am not a veteran homeschooling mom. I’ve only been homeschooling for three years, but I have been reading and researching for the past seven years. My thoughts on homeschooling are based on books/articles I read, interaction with homeschooling moms, and my personal experience in homeschooling.

Now that homeschooling has gained popularity across the country, more and more vendors are catering to this niche. While this is good because it means we have more access to many different curricula, this can also bad because there are simply way too many choices to pick from. Now we have to weed through many curricula to find the right one for our family. Such a task can be very tiring and discouraging.

In addition to the overwhelming resources available, our discouragement may come from other homeschooling moms. In their zealousness for homeschooling, they tell of their experience of homeschooling and all the subjects, activities, field trips, and extracurricular activities they do year round. Undoubtedly we feel the pressure to be just like them. Soon enough we are burned out!!! Our vision for homeschooling is no longer as clear and inspiring.

So, what is one to do? The answer is: focus on the three R’s for grades K-3. Concentrate on reading, writing, and arithmetic. What about other subjects such as science, social studies, music, sports, and history? I’m not discouraging anyone from doing these subjects, but these subjects should be secondary to the three R’s. In our homeschool, we do history, science, and music but only when we have already tackled the three R’s. If we run out time, or life otherwise interrupts us, we simply don’t do the other subjects. With this approach our lives are much more sane and manageable.

I should also mention that before you start homeschooling, you don’t have to have all your ducks lined up, meaning you don’t need to have everything together in order to start. One of the beauties of homeschooling is learning together with your child. Just as your child is learning how to read, you are learning how to better teach and adjust to your child’s uniqueness. No curriculum out there will teach you how to study your child and his individuality.

For those who are interested in the three R’s, Ruth Beechick’s The Three R’s is a great book to get started on teaching reading, writing and arithmetic.

FlashMaster is an electronic flash card device that helps kids practice math facts, and it covers addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables.  Instead of accumulating stacks of math flash cards, FlashMaster consolidates all into one hand held device.  It’s very convenient and many kids find the device much more appealing than using traditional flash cards.  However, one drawback is the price as it is $49.95.  After using this device for about 4 months, I believe it is worth the price.

I read many reviews before purchasing this device and one comment that consistently came up was:  “My kids love this and have been asking me to use it everyday.  Math is no longer a drudgery.”  I was secretly hoping that this would be the case with my boy, but after the initial wonder of the new “toy” the novelty wore off.  We were back to, “Come on, let’s practice your math facts and let’s get to it. . . . NOW!”   I was initially disappointed by my boy’s lack of interest, however, not disappointed in the device itself.  Since I spent $50 for this device I was determined to make it work for our family.  I have finally discovered the key to making it work for us, and now I’m wondering why I haven’t thought of it sooner.  The key is to come up with a plan and a schedule to work on the math facts.  I created a spreadsheet that outlines all the different math activities my student has to perform each given day, except Sundays.  So far I have him do four different activities each day and then have him record his scores and percentage for each activity.  If he gets 90% or above for all four different activities, he gets a sticker and a choice of a small treat.  I evaluate his spreadsheet weekly and if there’s a weak area he needs to work on more, the same activity is repeated in the following week.  This plan works wonders!  My boy loves a challenge and he’s now very eager to work on his FlashMaster.

Another plus to the FlashMaster is that I can send my student with his spreadsheet to work on his own in a different room.  He knows exactly what to do so he doesn’t need my supervision.

Add me to the list of happy customers!

Matthew participated in the Barnes and Noble Summer Reader Program again this year. Today, we went together as a family to redeem his free book. We’re so proud of him for reading the eight Boxcar Children books in just two weeks. He read approximately one book a day during his daily quiet time. I just love how much he loves reading.

Brother and sisters joining Matthew in his accomplishment:

Today we made a penguin and a frog out of pony beads.

Matthew stringing the beads together:

A happy boy and his finished penguin:

Andrew and his froggie:

The boys being silly with their new toys:

When you’re working with 500+ pony beads, it is almost inevitable that someone spills the beads. The guilty shall remain anonymous. Here are the kids helping to pick them up from the floor:

Today we did a very simple experiment of mixing primary colors to produce secondary colors.

These are the colors we mixed together:

yellow + red = orange

yellow + blue = green

red + blue = purple

Here are the kids getting ready for the experiment:

Let the mixing begin:

For arts and crafts today we made homemade playdough. Here is an excellent pictorial tutorial on how to make your own playdough.

Matthew helping me to stir the dough:

Coloring the dough:

I gave each child a tray to play on the floor. This is my attempt to control the potential mess. Having a tray makes the mess more manageable.  Here’s a picture of Emmie happily playing with the dough:

Andrew chopping the dough:

Matthew kneading the dough:

It’s interesting to note that most children make animals out of the play dough, but my children seem to stick to the food theme.  Andrew rolls a dough into a ball and tells me that it’s a “meatball.”  Emmie rolls her dough flat to make “pancakes.” Matthew chops his dough into lots of tiny pieces and tells me that he’s “chopping meat” like I do with a Chinese cleaver.  The children eventually “made” popsicles, corn dogs, and ice cream.

Along the food theme, Calissa thought the play dough looked pretty enough to eat - as soon as I gave her some, she popped it in her mouth! Even though it is completely safe to ingest, it sure doesn’t taste good. She was in for a shock and cried.  After I calmed her down, she refused to touch the dough again.

The children are always excited about science lessons, though we haven’t done much for a while. Today we learned about cells and how they are the building blocks for all living organisms. To demonstrate what a cell is composed of, we made a jello model.

Here are the boys with their cell model.  We used various food products, mostly candies, to model different parts of a cell.  The big marshmallow in the middle is the nucleus. Endoplasmic reticulum is made up of fruit by the foot. Lysosomes, mitochondria, and others are made of various candies.

The boys posing for the camera next to their “cell”:

Kids adding Nerds candies to make the ribosomes:

The best part of this project is eating it: