For those of you who may be asking, “So what’s a typical home school day look like? Do you stay up late? Sleep in? Do you have school everyday? ” Well, we can’t answer all of those questions for every home school home but we can give you a glimpse into what a typical day looks like for us!!

Our usual school week is Tuesday – Friday. We keep our Mondays open for Field Trips or a day to prepare for the week ahead, especially since Jeremy is off  and Mason is convinced it’s a day for play. 🙂 Our day begins around 7:30-8:00 a.m. with getting dressed, completing chores, having breakfast and by 9:30-10:00 a.m. we are ready for the learning to begin. Mariah heads upstairs for her independent learning through Virtual Community School of Ohio, while Mason and I head to the classroom for his studies in Phonics, Word Building, Math, English, Science and Social Studies. We are using the Accelerated Christian Education (A.C.E.) curriculum with Mason in which he works in PACE’s. A “PACE is similar to a unit in a textbook. Each level consists of 12 PACEs in each subject. PACEs integrate Godly character-building lessons into the academic content, and self-instructional activities are carefully designed to develop thinking skills and create mastery learning.”

Around noon we break for lunch and some well needed playtime for Mason, free time for Mariah and a time for Momma to catch up on some dishes and laundry. Around 1:00 p.m. Mariah heads back to her studies and Mason and I head back to the classroom. We complete any unfinished projects from the morning and then it’s  time for crafts, music, physical development, computer and iPhone education apps. We usually try to end our day between 2:00-2:30 p.m.

Our evenings usually consist of taking a walk to the pond or playground, riding bikes, or doing some sort of outdoor activity, weather permitting. There is free time for Mariah and Mason to do as they wish, which allows momma time for documentation and preparation for the next day, catch up on household chores, and prepare for dinner.

We also like to incorporate Discovery Modules into our days. These modules will cover an area of interest or importance. So far we’ve completed module’s on the History of 9/11, Life cycle of a Pumpkin, The Skeletal System, Money and Money Management, and Snakes. The joy of these modules help create life learning skills and allows for more of a hands on learning approach.

On September 17th we took the kids to the Scioto Trails State Park for their first home school outing . Along our 3+ mile hike we found all kinds of acorns and leaves, an inch worm, a dragonfly, a granddaddy long leg and a 5-6 foot long Black Rat Snake!! Yep, you read it right!! A long, veeerrryyyy long Black Rat Snake was lying along the path just basking in the sun. We were in awe to see such a grown adult snake in its natural habitat, and one would think that our natural instinct would have been to run the other direction but actually it was quite the opposite. We “basked” in this learning experience.

We stopped and took pictures, however at a “safe” distance. We felt at ease getting more acquainted with Mr.. Black Rat Snake since he was at a restful state enjoying his sun bathing and not coiled up ready for a strike!! However, after quietly and cautiously taking pictures of this amazing creature he began to become a little irritated and gave us a quick strike of his tongue. We then proceeded to careful back away and leave him to his basking!!   You’ll find pics of our forest friend below!! We ended our outing by having a picnic lunch at Yoctangee Park, located in downtown Chillicothe and the kids enjoyed hand-feeding the local Canadian Geese.

So there is just a little insight into a typical home school day, “Estes” style!! 🙂 Not each day runs smoothly, perfectly or right on time, believe us we tried. The first few days we tried a stringent schedule, which led to us crashing and burning!!  The military tight schedule wasn’t fun, and learning was becoming a duty not a privilege!! We are learning that sometimes we have to go with the flow, allow for some wiggle room but most of all giggle room because, “A wise teacher makes learning a joy” ~ Proverbs 15:2

*Below are some pics of our last few weeks of adventures*

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Yep, we’ve become “one of those”, we are Home schooler’s!! Believe us, no one is more surprised than we are. Homeschooling was something we never would’ve dreamed could be possible for our family. We’ve always placed homeschooling on a high pedestal, something that was completely unachievable. However, a year ago God began working in our hearts to prepare us for the homeschooling journey.

Last year we decided to home school Mason for preschool. We had initially enrolled him into preschool but he wasn’t ready to leave the comforts of home and we thought not a problem, we’ll home school!! Mason and I really began to enjoy the time together and found ourselves looking forward to it everyday. It became such a bonding time for us, too!! Also, during this time of home schooling Mason our church began a Sunday School curriculum called D6. The D6 curriculum follows the biblical principles found in Deuteronomy 6: 5-7, which reads:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

The D6 curriculum began to teach, and most importantly, direct us in how to develop a D6 home for ourselves. God began to speak to our hearts, through slight whispers and nudges into the possibility of home schooling. It’s so amazing looking back, we can see God’s guiding hand towards home schooling all along the way!!

Back in 2003 God directed me back to college into the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program. Following graduation of the OTA program I took a job being a traveling COTA and served several Preschools, Elementary, Middle and High Schools in the Piketon and Chillicothe areas. During the two years of working never would I have dreamed it was preparing the way for me to one day home school my own children.

Well, we are into our third week of home schooling and it’s going much better than we could have ever expected, but that’s not to say that we haven’t had stressful days and times of meltdowns!! We’ve had them!! But God has been there to remind us of the reason we are home schooling, it’s ultimately to bring glory to Him!!! Home schooling is also enabling us to “capture simple moments and create extraordinary memories” with our kids!! We allow ourselves to capture a simple moment, such as finding a baby snake, cicada shell, and the katydid, and creating a learning moment and an extraordinary memory. We try to live in the moment with them in order to create an environment and a love for lifelong learning.

But most importantly home schooling has led us into a deeper more intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. We lean on him daily for guidance and instruction in educating our children and we are always comforted by his reminders that we are only a vessel He is using to mold our children into the woman and man He desires them to become. For example one day as we were totally freaking out about home school, God impressed upon us to create a name for our “academy”. The name given by God is” Jeremiah Academy,” and ironically is Mason’s middle name. The name Jeremiah being interpreted means “exalted of the Lord”, and the simple meaning of exalted is “to raise in rank, power, character or dignity”. That God moment was just one of those reminders that it’s Him who is guiding the home schooling and we are only the vessels in which to accomplish His goals in the education and molding of our children.

Wow, what comfort, Uh!!! Yep, it’s a huge comfort to know that the Creator of the Universe and the Giver and Maker of all Knowledge is the One teaching our children. Trusting in that promise opens up room for us to create a more relaxed environment of learning and to fulfill God’s plan for our lives, which is to live a life of “Joyful Living” and know that He’s taking the “simple moments” and creating “extraordinary memories” that will last for all eternity.

*Click on the About Me link below to become more acquainted with me and my family *

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