All About Homeschool || Orange County Family Photographer
If you’re on the fence about homeschool or you’re questioning your current school, this post is for you. Homeschool had been on my heart for a couple years but I hadn’t had the giant push I needed until 2020. In the spring of 2020 when the world shut down and my oldest was put in “virtual school” we saw there was a large disconnect to where he should be in regards to grade level and where he was. I immediately bought The Good and The Beautiful curriculum to implement as enrichment (because honestly the Zoom calls were a joke). We both fell in love right away and he begged me not to go back to regular school. Turns out this was one of the best things that has happened to our family and I am forever grateful for the extra push from 2020.
Homeschool has changed our family, it’s changed our hearts, our relationships and our minds. I am learning new things every day right along side the kids. The kids are doing so well and I can honestly say are thriving! The number one question I get asked about our choice to homeschool is “what curriculum we use?” We absolutely love The Good and The Beautiful. We use it for Language Arts, Math for Hudson, Science, History and Handwriting/Typing. It is rich in vocabulary with gorgeous drawings. It’s full of art, poetry, scriptures and meaningful stories. It’s also open and go style curriculum so there’s no lesson planning for parents. We literally open the workbooks and go. This is also wonderful for traveling! Nixon (5th grade) uses Teaching Textbooks for Math. For Spanish we lots tons of books and love ULAT, although it’s too complex for Hudson.
Our average day starts at 9am and ends by noon for Hudson (Kinder) and 1pm for Nixon (5th grade). We take lots of breaks and that includes PE. In that time, we do read aloud books, bible study, history and science together as a group, then they’ll each have age appropriate assignments from what we read. Math and LA are done individually and I sit with both of them. Each lesson takes about 30 minutes. They each do handwriting/typing and Spanish. For PE they ride bikes around our neighborhood, run laps, do YouTube videos together in the living room. All afternoon we play outside, go for hikes, go to the beach, etc. That’s minimum 4 hours of outdoor play a day. In the afternoon, I often disguise art projects I want them to do for school as play. We make bird feeders, sensory boxes, do puzzles in the grass, build STEM legos, the list goes on!
It is really important to me for our kids to be tech free during the school day so besides Nixon’s math and research projects, we don’t do any computers or iPads. Both the boys get an hour of electronics each night if they finish their school work and that’s it. That is just how we’ve always been an it works for us. We’re more relaxed on it during the weekends and school breaks but we are a big outdoor family all the time.
Poppy Lea Photography is a motherhood photographer in Orange County who specializes in maternity, newborn, baby, motherhood sessions and family photography in the Orange County area, including San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, Rancho Mission Viejo and Costa Mesa.
This will give you a glimpse into what you will receive when you commission me as your maternity, newborn, baby, motherhood or family Photographer in Orange County. If you would like to see what an entire gallery looks like, please don’t hesitate to ask. My favorites are posted here, but all of the images you receive are worthy of being in a frame or an album!
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Sessions are currently booking into 2021, so please inquire when you know you’d like a session.
I find such joy in capturing a family’s story and would be honored to help you tell yours!
xoxo- Laurel