The craziest and yet most organic decisions we have made so far as parents is to homeschool our kids in Redmond, Oregon! Literally we we sitting on the couch in my parent’s ADU after the girls went to bed and it hit me. I looked at my husband and said I think we should try homeschooling; I cannot stand the idea of sending Evelyn to school in the Fall. So! we turned our lives upside down; I doubled down on my efforts to build my photography business and quit my full time career. We had no idea what we are doing BUT I promise you that would be the worst reason not to try. Theres no time like the present for homeschooling! This is blog going to be an overview of my first year homeschooling; Then I’ll be doing deep dives into all the specific topics over this winter.
Its for sure not for everyone and hey, a few years from now it may not even be for us anymore; but right now its what works! BUT the amount of info out there from strangers on the internet is intense… and not always helpful. So, I decided I would start a series of blogs to help out my local Redmond, Oregon gals! I know that it was much easier for me to take advice or information from friends or ladies I knew in person; so I hope this is helpful for you!
Redmond, Oregon Homeschool resources
“aren’t you worried about their social life?” insert anyone I’ve ever talked to about homeschooling, ever. So of course when we took the leap to homeschool this was the first concern I addressed. First, my children have nine cousins all very close in age that live locally, and three that visit from out of town. So we really lucked out there! both girls have been doing play days and sleep overs on a weekly basis for years, most importantly they’ve had to share Mema and Papa’s house and affections. I understand that is not an option available to everyone so I wanted to address it up front!
Homeschool Programs
Now to resources available to everyone! Im just going to fire these off in a list: Redmond Parks and Recreation for sports and swim lessons; you can start kiddos in soccer as young as four years old and swimming as early as 6 months! My only complaint here is that due to the growth of Redmond you need to jump on it when registrations open! Second and my absolute favorite is Redmond Gymnastics Academy; Evie met her best friend there along with a whole group of homeschool girls her age. Lastly, Evelyn attends Silvies River Charter School in person once a week which has really helped that social time. Silvies is also a great option if you’d love to homeschool but wouldn’t mind a little bit of guidance! I’ll do a whole blog on our experience there once the whole school year is over.
Homeschool Daily Activities
All the local parks are amazing, there is such a variety and we always make friends for the day. The Deschutes County Library network is a good option in the winter; they have play areas at each one and preschool read aloud time. The new Redmond Library will be done Fall 2024! There are also homeschool facebook groups too that organize park days and activities. Most of the local attractions offer “homeschool” times now too (and Im working on the few that don’t!) This includes the Mountain Air Trampoline place in Bend, Oregon.
Our Homeschool Curriculum
The curriculum we lucked into this year, and will continue to use, is call the Good and the Beautiful. Its a Christian based company that offers homeschool curriculum and resources from Preschool all the way through high school. (They also offer the earliest ages FREE in PDF downloads!) My favorite thing about this curriculum; Its beautiful, like seriously beautiful with mellow colors and nothing obnoxious. It almost ZERO prep for me which is so helpful. And I find that the Language Arts and Math are PERFECTLY paced and organized. Each lesson gives Evelyn a challenge but also is doable for the level she’s at so she also gets that confidence boost!
They are all “Spiral” Method as opposed to “Mastery” which I have seen work wonders. Basically they circle back to topics a lot and often the subsequent times they touch on them they use a different approach. This way they stay interested by always seeing new topics but then circle back to ensure they comprehend them. Lastly, it combines multiple homeschool “methods”. Charlotte Mason concepts as well as traditional methods and everything in between.
Our Homeschooling in Redmond, Oregon Routines and Rhythms
I will be straight up with y’all right here; this is not my strong suit. I got the aesthetic curriculum, set up the school room beautifully… and this is where I hit a wall and it SHOWED. You can have the perfect curriculum, do all the fun activities to socialize, and still have a very tense and stressful homeschool if you don’t have some rhythms in place. You may be thinking, “but Abby, the reason i want to homeschool is to have freedom with my schedule, are you telling me thats not how it works?” nope! notice I didn’t say schedules! RHYTHMS are the key. What I have FINALLY done after almost a year in is develop some daily and weekly rhythms. Here’s a snap shot then I’ll explain the impact it has. I also created Velcro routine cards to facilitate this and they work WONDERS!
Morning Rhythm: Wake up before the girls and get some exercise and get dressed, when they wake up I try to have something they can go play with immediately while I make breakfast. We do breakfast and bible stories as close to 7:30 as we can but again the time doesn’t matter as much. After breakfast they get dressed, brush teeth, and tidy their room. We try to begin our “school” day around 9:00. We always start with Math and Language Arts since those are our chore curriculum especially in Kindergarten. Then we cycle through our additional curriculum of Health, Science, and Social Studies.
Evening Routine: we do a clean up all together sometime before dinner (most nights), eat dinner all together (most nights), then it splits, sometimes we do a family movie together and sometimes we play and rough house. All about balance, right? Then we do baths and bedtime routines.
Whewww that was a lot!
Okay okay okay, here’s the deal though. Homeschooling is a lot. Especially if you’re a mama like me that worked full time previously. Its a huge lifestyle shift! BUT I hope this information is helpful to you in discerning whether or not homeschooling is right for your family. AND if you choose that it is, I hope this blog and the many blogs to come about homeschooling can give you a bit of the tools you need to be successful right here in our local community, and avoid some of the confusion and heart ache that can come with just figuring it out!
Love, Abby
