A Genuine Love for Learning -- A Day in the Life of a Homeschooled 14 Year Old

It took me 3 weeks to figure out just how I was going to do this post. Our schedule with Josiah this year has literally jumped off the page and each day has unique opportunities and challenges for my 14 year old son. The blog post title is very descriptive of Josiah. He is a walking sponge and absolutely loves to listen, learn, and grow in a myriad of ways. He has always been a joy to homeschool and has made learning come alive for me in many more ways than I have for him, I'm afraid.
Josiah begins his day either with exercise (he has a set schedule I created for him which alternates weight training and aerobic exercise on our eliptical machine) or with his morning devotional time in God's Word and praying. It's important to me that my children be grounded in their faith and learn early to make this a habit in their lives. From the time that they can read, they've learned to make this a priority and are often better examples to us in their devotion than we are to them! I believe God has blessed their efforts tremendously.

After getting ready for the day, Josiah heads out to the barn to take care of the feeding, watering, and cleaning up of our mammoth purebred Golden Retriever "Kale". It's a bit ironic that Josiah has the care of Kale since we found out soon after buying him that Josiah is allergic to dogs :) I believe through this daily contact, however, that Josiah's allergies are slowly subsiding because his reactions are decreasing in intensity so much so that we hardly even think about it anymore.
After animal chores, we all work to get breakfast on the table together. Josiah is my chief breakfast helper although he's still not too comfortable with cooking (this is going to be one of the things we work on this summer!). We end our breakfast time with discussions and devotions in a range of topics, from theology to history of hymns and their writers, or exegesis of a particular book of the Bible.

For years now we've followed breakfast with our instrument practices. This has taken on a variety of forms over the years. I used to be extremely involved and observe/direct his practices. Over the years, we have slowly transitioned Josiah to practicing on his own. This year he and I have even developed a checklist which he creates on the computer based on the notes I take at his lesson. Josiah plays sensitively and beautifully for his own intrinsic enjoyment; although he has placed Superior every year that he has participated in our state music Festival, even winning a scholarship to pay his and his sister's way toward Idaho Suzuki Institute last year. In our typical homeschool schedule we have two practices in a day -- one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Our current Spring schedule however has shifted to a single practice of an hour for Josiah in the morning. This includes doing scales and rhythm with me, as well as including playing violin together with Isabelle in some of his practice time.


The first academic subject of the day for Josiah is math. He just finished Algebra I and is in his first month of Algebra II (one of the many benefits of homeschooling is being able to go at a child's particular pace -- slowing down or speeding up based on his/her needs; thus, we don't need to "wait" until next year to begin this new subject). Like Isaac, Josiah uses a computer program that involves a "teacher" teaching each day's new concept on the computer screen chalkboard. His computer lessons typically take 30 minutes to watch and participate in. Josiah then goes to his room where he works to complete that day's lesson problems. With the advent of high school level math, he can spend up to two hours completing/correcting his daily math.

After a short break (typically involving a piece of dark chocolate), Josiah moves on to a variety of subjects. As of late, these have involved anything from writing speeches, practicing speeches, researching debate topics, filling out government reports for Capstone, writing letters to government officials, or doing language arts. Although I try to vary his location, Josiah prefers to work at his own desk filled with some of his favorite treasures and books, and with birds singing outside his window.

Each week involves a variety of social opportunities this year for Josiah. This is a picture of our homeschool co-op during our opening worship/singing/praying time. I helped create this group several years ago and it has served as a mainstay in our homeschooling life. Josiah has literally grown up with these kids. They are precious friendships which are irreplaceable in our lives. "Aspire" has served not only as a social time, but an educational time as well when the kids can participate in learning situations together. Some examples have included "conversational Spanish" with our Mexican church pastor, Biblical Worldview, Nutrition, Speech Communication, P.E. (with hired teacher), and Personal Finance (being taught by one of our talented Dads this semester).

Back to the books, here I am working with Josiah on his least favorite subject -- Language Arts. Although Josiah is an excellent writer, we do some remedial work in Spelling while doing 9th grade level work in grammar and vocabulary. Next year, we are both looking forward to delving into American Literature. We will have to do some pretty serious studying prior the SAT to get him prepared for the grammar he will encounter. A typical phrase heard each day at this time is, "When will I ever need to truly know if a word is a participle??!"

Another oppportunity to share in learning with other friends and their families is our monthly Science Club. This is our 6th year teaching Science to 5 or more families. Joe does all the teaching now that we have entered into the high school subjects. We hold Science Club in our garage and are currently studying Biology. Here Josiah is doing his first dissection project -- a worm followed by a crayfish. He excels in all of the sciences without having to put much effort into it -- what a gift!

Anywhere from one to three times weekly, we have the privilege of having a Brazilian born tutor (Haline) come to our house where she tutors Josiah in Spanish. We started with her at the end of last year after advertising at a local Christian college for several months. We exercised several foreign language curriculum options prior to this choice; however, I just didn't feel that we were able to adequately cover a foreign language without getting the assistance of an "expert". Haline speaks several languages and minors in Spanish. She has been a great addition to our homeschool year. With her, Josiah has been able to work through nearly 2 years of Spanish in less than 1 year. She graduates this May :( Hiring private tutors is a great way to gain the help I need, plus it gives him experience being teachable under the direction of another person. Next year, Josiah will review his earlier years of Latin as well as begin Greek with me (I learned basic Greek while attending graduate school). He has a knack for languages and develops the accents readily. His real hope is to learn both Chinese and Arabic. I may be looking for tutors for a LONG time with those choices!

Here Josiah is re-writing an essay. Being able to write is of the utmost importance in our homeschool. It is a valuable skill that will serve my children the rest of their lives. I've found that writing flows into speaking intelligently, confidently, and persuasively -- skills that both Joe and I highly value. Up until this year, all of Josiah's writing revolved around our history studies. However, with his involvement in our Speech/Debate club as well as the two Speech classes he's taken through our co-op, he's written countless speeches this year.

Physically, Josiah excels in just about everything he tries although I wouldn't classify him as necessarily "athletic" (I can still do better pushups than he can, although I'm sure that will change with the advent of puberty!). One of the funnest additions to our year has been weekly private and group Karate classes at our local school of Karate where Josiah works under a Christian Sensei and has the privilege of taking classes not only with his brother, but also his Uncle Jason (pictured behind Josiah).

Josiah's day finishes off with work on his Biology, test taking, chores, computer work, service opportunites, playing with his siblings, taking walks with me, and any variety of activities both at home and outside the home. We are so privileged to have Josiah as our first born. Even more so, we are privileged and honored that, when making the choice of how to spend his time, he favors spending time with his family over anything else he might have opportunity to do. His days vary so much at this point, it is hard to accurately cover all that he accomplishes in a week's time. It has been a great stretching year for him as he has had to learn to manage his time, his outside activities and the assignments they require, as well as his family time. He loves learning both socially and on his own and he's an asset to our family and the various groups he participates in. We love you Josiah and are so proud of the man you're becoming!