In this category I will put everything that might be found in a regular school but that never used to be there 75-100 years ago or more. Things like foreign language, music, art, home economics, health, shop, etc. Here is where the rest of you can chime in with what works best for your family, materials used, etc.

We are still saving and watching for a piano. I want the children to take piano lessons. Right now they are using primer and first level books with our electronic keyboard collection (two toys and one real).

Art is more informal, with the children taking drawing "lessons" from a monthly "you can draw" series in Nature Friends magazine. I plan to get some special art supplies for Sarah, who is the most interested in art right now.

Home ec: All our children help in the kitchen; the oldest three (ages 9, 12, 14) can prepare any meal without help. Sarah (almost 10) likes to have someone else take stuff out of the oven for her, but other than that she likes to be left alone. They fix the food, set the table, and clean up the work area.

The three oldest iron their own clothes plus those of one younger sibling. They also can do all the laundry.

Sarah is learning embroidery, crochet, sewing and cross stitch. Some of the boys also crochet if they are totally bored:o)

What do the rest of you do? Have any of you done any apprenticing with your older children? I would like to do that when ours are a little older.

-- Cathy N. (homekeeper86@sympatico.ca), February 13, 2002

Answers

apprenticing is a very good idea. We have two girls, ages 5 and 6 , so I try to impress upon them the work god has given us ladies is the most important. ( ie... We never do school till all the housework is done. ). and if they are late, they have to do extra work after we are all done for the day. ( ie... we do an activity, they do extra spelling, or reading.) I have taught my girls to make their own beds, fold their own clothes, and they carry out garbage, scrub baseboards, wash dishes, sweep, mop, sort laundry, ect... All of their chores are age appropriate. We dont have specified chores YET...but that will come in a year or so. My girls also quilt, and sew. And we are big about 4-h. My youngest won 2 best of shows and 3 first place ribbons in the county fair last year.

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), February 13, 2002.

I am new to this so I hope I do this right. As and X teacher, biology, and physical education my hat is off to most of the home schoolers. You all are doing it right. We have many homeschooled children here in Portage county and from what I have seen they are great kids and are getting good education. Since the teachers are not backed any more or rarely so they hands are tied. After teaching I became a 4-H Program Assistant II . and have been for 16 years. 4-H advisor for Natural Resources for 27. Yes I still have a club. Many of our 4-H Project books are being used by the homeschooled children as they are put out by Ohio State University. They are pretty good learning tools. Keep up the good work Billie J

-- Billie J in Ohio (billie@config.com), February 15, 2002.

Art/Art Appreciation: We create mosaics, paint tile, draw, sculpt, etc. and also have lots of books on art for the children to read.

Music: R & I are both musicians, so it's been pretty easy to get hte kids involved in singing, writing music, playing guitar, harmonica, keyboard,e tc.

Home Ec, Animal Husbandry/Zoology and Botany/Gardening are a natural part of living on a homestead,and the kids have picked these up and run with them. Both the boys and girls love to cook, garden and take care of the animals- some are developing specialties, i.e. our 11yo daughter especially like to bake, our 9yo son is the breakfast chef, etc.

They all have chores to do, and in a pinch all but the two youngest (almost 2yo and 5yo) could manage to get through a day without much adult assistance, including cooking, laundry, cleaning, taking care of the animals, etc.

Sewing is woefully neglected in our house. My husband can mend when needed, but I'm pathetic at sewing- never learned to make a single decent stitch. That's one of my projects for next fall...I'll probably end up sewing my hand into something LOL

-- Kristin, in La. (sevenstonestile@earthlink.net), February 23, 2002.