April Homeschooling Activities

We have been homeschooling for eight years and I sometimes forget that what we do isn't the same for others. So, I decided to try adding a monthly homeschool recap to this blog to demonstrate one way (there are so many methods out there!) that homeschooling can work. 

We use an eclectic method of homeschooling that leans very heavily towards the Charlotte Mason method of teaching. Without going into too much detail about this method, it can be described as very literature-heavy. We read and discuss A LOT of books. We don't spend a lot of time on workbooks, worksheets, etc., We have gravitated toward this method over the years and found that it works very well for our learners and family lifestyle. 

The month of April was a whirlwind for our family in many ways. We utilized the flexibility of homeschooling to change things up when needed and it became a bit unconventional (even for us!). 

Here are some items that we have read, listened to or watched during the month of April:

VeggieTales DVD

The Book of Missionary Heroes by B. Matthews

The Jesus Storybook Bible*

The American Boy's Handibook by DC Beard

Tuttle Twins Podcast 

Tuttle Twins and the Little Pink House by Connor Boyack

Home Geography for Primary Grades by CC Long

Almost 12 by Kenneth Taylor

The Ultimate Guy's Body Book by Walt Larimore

Fearless Girls, Wise Women and Beloved Sisters by K. Ragan

Ten Queens by Milton Meltzer

Imperfect Union by S. Inskeep

Abraham Lincoln's World by G. Foster*

Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer*

Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula

This Country of Ours by HE Marshall*

The Age of Fable by T. Bulfinch

Kim by R. Kipling

The Jungle Book by R. Kipling

Curly and the Wild Boar by Fred Gipson

The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

The Warrior's Beads by Virginia Pilegard*

My Life and Other Unfinished Business by Dolly Parton

Ultimate Dolly Parton CD*

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien*

The Crazy Makers by Carol Simontacchi*

Christian Liberty Nature Reader, Book 5*

The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes by L. Spelman

Spiders by Valerie Bodden

Spider's Secrets by Richard Platt

Bush Craft 101 by Dave Canterbury

My Patients and Other Animals by S. Fincham-Gray*

John Greenleaf Whittier Poems

      *Books marked with an asterisk are my personal favorites and highly recommended.

Here's a list of more "formal" curriculum products that we have used during the month of April:

Beautiful Feet Books - Teaching Character Through Literature

Geography for All Seasons

Evan-Moor Daily Geography workbook

Song School Latin

Critical Learning Company - Mind Benders, Word Roots, Reading Detective, Math Detective

Horizons Math Workbook

Right Start Math

Life of Fred

Abeka Readers

New American Cursive

All About Spelling

English Lessons Through Literature

Here are online classes that we have enjoyed:

Foundations in Personal Finance for Middle Schoolers

Here are a few games/activities that we have enjoyed:

Risk

Chutes and Ladders

ABC Bingo

Ticket to Ride

Dragonwood 

Here are a few field trips/activities that we have participated in:

Our son enjoyed more horseback riding lessons from Shirley at Riding with Rhythm

Our oldest son and girls continued their soccer season with Boone County Youth Soccer. 

With our new setup of rotational grazing with the chickens and rabbits, we have been able to give the rabbits more freedom outdoors. We make it a point to separate our buck from our ladies during this time but still give them time in the pasture. They are loving it!

We discovered that in their excitement of visiting our rabbits, that the girls were not properly locking the doors to the rabbit cages. This has resulted in two incidences of our buck spending unintentional time with our does.

On April 1st, Honey Bunny gave birth to seven kits. She is a first-time mother and despite having proper bedding materials, she didn't keep them together. We were experiencing temperatures between 33F and 45F during that time period. When we discovered the kits, several had died from exposure as they were out of the nesting box and exposed to the elements. We removed the nesting box and placed it in our bathtub with a heating lamp in hopes to revive the remaining kits. We saw movement from two of them. 

After intense watching, resuscitation efforts and moving the Honey Bunny to the bathroom to be with them, we had one baby that made it through the first night. Unfortunately, I believe that Honey Bunny was simply not up to the task of motherhood (as is common with many first-time rabbit mamas) and was not nursing the baby as we had hoped. The last baby died on the second day. 

Later, we discovered that Houdini was pregnant (another incident of doors being left unlatched). She gave birth to two kits on April 25th. She proved to be a natural mama and was even aggressive towards the hubby when he attempted to check on the babies. She has doted over these little ones and they are becoming chunky little rabbits that are full of energy. One of them already has a loving home waiting for it. 

We scheduled a day to discover the gender of the baby. With the remaining Covid restrictions, some hospitals are limiting visitors for ultrasounds. We wanted the kids to be an active part of this adventure, so we scheduled an independent gender-reveal ultrasound. We discovered that we are having a baby girl! We went out to lunch to discuss names for their new little sister. It was a fun afternoon. 

We participated in the Southfork Family Easter Event where the family participated in a class discussing the real meaning of Easter followed by an egg hunt for the kids. 

Two of the kids accompanied their papaw and daddy to the Paris Stock Yards to observe the selling and purchasing of livestock. 

*Image uploaded from business website*

We hiked part of the way to Natural Bridge. We were excited to get out of the car and failed to pack any water so we didn't make it all the way to the top. We did see the bridge and enjoyed the hike, though. 

We joined a few other homeschooling families in a large cabin at Red River Gorge for fun, relaxation and learning new activities. I'm glad that we made this trip. It was so much fun!

While we were at RRG, a kind friend taught the kids how to repel down the rocks. 

The kids participated in ziplining (except the youngest because despite her large breakfast, she still didn't weigh enough to participate). 

The hubby and the kids enjoyed an underwater boat ride with friends through one of the caves in Red River Gorge. 

We enjoyed hiking with friends.

At the end of the month, we discovered some devastating news regarding the pregnancy (more on this later). This required us to truly re-evaluate all of our plans as we struggled to make important medical decisions. I stopped formal schooling for the girls and revamped my lesson plans for the boys to include a lot of independent learning in order to finish out the year.

Instead, we spent a lot of time focusing on life skills (laundry, food preparation, tending to the garden, animal husbandry, proper house cleaning techniques, etc.) to enable the kids to be more independent and helpful around the house during my absence. We played a lot of board games and watched movies for low-key family time activities as we prepared for my upcoming extended hospital stay.

This is another example of how homeschooling allows us to fit education into our lives rather than us trying to fit our lives around education. We were able to pause our formal curriculum to focus on our immediate family needs while adjusting their lessons to be completed at a time when they would be more likely to focus on it and retain the information. 

I am excited (and a little nervous) to experience all that May has in store for us! 

In case you are interested, here are some links to the places/items mentioned above:

South Fork Christian Church – Verona, KY – Changing our community, one HEART at a time.

Paris Stockyards (pariskystockyards.com)

Red River Gorge | Red River Camping

Riding With Rhythm – Riding School

Boone County Youth Soccer Assoc. > Home (boonecountysoccer.com)

Lexington Fetal Photography - Home (afetalphoto.com)

The Coolest Place in the Gorge - Gorge Underground