One of the marvels of having 8 children is seeing how each child is so different when it comes to learning. While my oldest son enjoys learning through books and the internet, my other children prefer a mixture of visual, audio, and hands-on learning styles. It is easy for me to want to slip back into the “easy” way out - which is to just hand every child a textbook and workbook and say “Go at it”. However, deep down inside, I know there are better ways to learn. Therefore, I try to keep our learning methods varied, for the sake of the children.

We enjoy using Charlotte Mason curriculum from Queen’s Homeschool Supplies because it brings in living stories, nature studies, copywork, and narration. (You can find these materials on our website, www.godseternalmasterpiece.com ) We absolutely love that method of learning. However, I don’t just stop there. Too much writing and copying tends to make a couple of my children bored stiff. Therefore, we incorporate other sensory-based activities into our learning as well.

When studying math, we do our math facts in sand, with paint, wrap up cards, learning palettes, educational games, etc.. Geography is much more fun when using a large map drawn out on a tablecloth so that the kids can actually jump from one country to another. We also like to draw out countries on the driveway with sidewalk chalk so that the kids can have more space to draw in details about each place. Stories from history can be mixed in with movies from that time period and audio CDs. Field trips to museums and visits with people who lived in that time period also make history come alive. Why just read about nature studies when you can actually go outside and study it? Gardening, collecting leaves, checking out trees, categorizing plants, viewing wildlife, following a trapper or hunter around, etc. are all great ways to learn about God’s creation. English is probably our hardest subject to do aside from workbooks and copywork. However, it is still possible. In the past our children have made homeschool newsletters, family history notebooks, story scrapbooks, and more. We also enjoy doing mad libs, which requires each child to put in different adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc in order for the hilarious story to be formed.

A few of my kids can race ahead in their studies while other children require longer amounts of time to finish their work. That’s OK too. I’d rather have the knowledge and wisdom engrained in their minds for life rather than having them put it into short term memory just for the moment. If that means taking a week to learn something rather than a day, then so be it! That’s the beauty of homeschooling!

Becky, God’s Eternal Masterpiece