Moving Forward with the Bicycle Approach to Homeschooling

Are you struggling to train children to work, keep a home, teach several children of different stages of development, nurture younger children and keep your sanity?

Don't give up!  Keep pedaling and you will keep moving forward!

Many new to homeschool look for a curriculum as a vehicle to move their children towards being educated. Perhaps the vehicle they need is not just a curriculum, but taking other things into account that impact children's character, work ethic, brain development, core body balance, executive function, socialization and more.
Don't worry, you won't need a real bicycle for this, nor will your children.  This is just a metaphor. The bicycle approach is a Gosepl Centered 21st century home education approach.
Handle Bars: Are Used to Direct and have the Breaks* Following the Path
* Training a Child in the Way He Should Go
* Family Work- Family Work and training in basic habits are vital, because without this spoke, most children rarely develop the work ethic to do tough work of scholarly learning. 

* Socialization, Grace and refinement begin in the home. Parents lead and teach by example in comeliness, hospitality, diplomacy, table manners, inside voices, showing gratitude, civility, kindness, compassion, repentance, forgiveness, respect, and grace.
* No Child left inside- daily Walk, Fresh Air, and Play Hard! Walk, run, climb, spin, slide, swing, brachiate, balance, and crawl. This helps build brain tissue, right and left brain integration, and a healthy central core body strength. All of this builds health, attention span, and focus.
 

The First Wheel: Foundations that Guide You 

* The Daily Gateway (about 1 hour). This is a Spiritual/Intellectual Devotional or cottage school approach. "The Children's Hour" is a Classical Gateway: 

      1) Scripture Study, with prayer, singing, scripture study and discussion.
      2) Classic Read Aloud and Discussion.
     3) Focused Learning. This expands their horizons and gives your children great ideas, food for thought. This is also a window to further independent and family learning.

The Second Wheel: Rotations that Move You to Where You Want to Go

Rotations are all happening at the same time. Each rotation session begins short and expands with attention span as they grow n attention. Begin with the youngest, giving attention and focus for whatever they need, and all the others are in independent learning for the first round. Then rotate to the next oldest and have the oldest child rotate to be with the youngest, while you meet one on one with another child, and the rest are independent learning time.

* Mentoring—is one-on-one whatever they need, such as, coaching and encouragement, discussion, perhaps a lesson in personal learning skills, help with a math concept, help with goal setting, troubleshooting challenges, listening, singing, knitting, or whatever they needed. 

* Recess- Once you have been available with the youngest, work your way up to the next oldest and rotate through doing one-on-one with each child, placing another older child with the youngest. This is recess, playing with the little ones, singing with them, building, playing, whatever they need. 

* Independent Learning- While mentoring one child, an another child is having recess with those in Core Phase (those not transitioning yet, generally under 6),  the rest are in independent learning time doing transcription, reading, memorizing, practice, projects, cub scouts, personal progress, Faith in God, working on projects of interest, etc.

Using the handlebars and these two wheels will get you a long way towards an education for a whole life!