This is my 9th year of homeschooling. It sounds kind of crazy to even be saying that. It's gone by so fast. And my mindset/style of homeschooling and the expectations I have on myself and my children have shifted a lot since the beginning but especially recently.
I was homeschooled from k5-7th grade. In 7th grade I did 1/2 days of homeshooling and the other 1/2 of the day in a Christian school. In 8th grade I went to Christian school full time and then 9th-12th I was in public school. So I've done it all.
Growing up I never planned that I'd homeschool my children. I loved my homeschool experience but I never really imagined when I had kids that I would be their teacher. I just planned on sending them to school.
Fast forward to Ruy being at home with me for the first time in three years after I was able to quit working, and we began pre-k when Liam was a baby. We enjoyed it so much and I loved all the time I was having with Ruy again after several years of being away from him..
It came time to send Ruy to k-5 and when I looked at the schedule and saw he would be gone from 7:30am-4:30pm...my heart could just not handle it. I never wanted to be separated from my children all day like that ever again. Also, I was aware that k-5 doesn't take 8 hours to teach and I knew Ruy would have to give up all the creativity and exploring and free play he had now to go sit in a desk all day.
Neither my husband nor I felt comfortable with sending him to school and so it was an easy decision...we would continue to homeschool him. And that's how our homeschool journey began....
I've used a few different curriculums over the years, some I've loved and others I hated immediately and switched to something different right away.
Here is what we are using this year:
For Jude I didn't feel he was ready for the k5 program I have used with all my children so far which is the My Father's World k5 curriculum. I LOVE that curriculum so much but Jude is still four until October so I decided to go with a pre-k program.
I have heard such great things about The Peaceful Preschool and so I bought their pre-k package. It comes in a PDF. I downloaded it, printed it and had it bound at office max.
I got it and did the first week and then the twins were born. So we've only done one week but we enjoyed that week. I'm looking forward to continuing it. It's a gentle approach with lots of hands on sensory activities. It includes a supply list, book list, and full lesson plans with each week being a 4 day school week. We've always done 4 day school weeks so that works perfect for us.
Nature Study// For our nature study I got Exploring Nature With Children. Again, this is a PDF. I downloaded it, printed it at home, and then had it bound at office max.
I've only done one week of this curriculum as well but flipping through it and what we did, we really love this. It's a full years worth of content and really encourages getting out in nature with your children and learning along side of them which I love.
I'll do a more detailed post on it once we've used it more.
Math// For math we are continuing to use Horizons. I've only ever used Horizons for these grade levels except for last year when I tried the Good and The Beautiful. My kids loved the games in TGATB however, I found it extremely time consuming to do each lesson. I was spending a good 30-45 minutes per lesson with Liam and Alanna and I just couldn't maintain that. Also, I felt that the concepts weren't repeated enough for them to grasp them well. We still use the games and manipulatives that TGATB math came with, but we use Horizons for our daily lessons.
Alanna is almost done with the k5 book and Liam is almost done with the 1st grade book. Horizons is advanced. When I moved Ruy to a new curriculum in 4th grade, he went up a grade level and could probably have gone up two grade levels. The pages are colorful and concepts are repeated every day in Horizons so that my kids have all been able to retain what they have learned very well.
Language + Spelling// This year I switched from Abeka to Master Books for Language and Spelling.
I love Abekas Language curriculum however, I didn't feel Liam was ready for the 3rd grade with Abeka. Master Books is a lot simpler so I am going to do the entire 3rd grade MB with him, and then once he finishes that move on to Abeka's 3rd grade curriculum.
Masterbooks 1st grade curriculum is only a 90 day curriculum so Alanna should finish it around Thanksgiving and then I'm going to have her do Abeka's 1st grade language and spelling curriculum.
We do school year round so I don't really stress any more about what grade level the books say. I just keep progressing forward. As long as they are learning, grasping what they are learning, and enjoying it...I feel good about where we are at. I did not always used to be this way. I used to be intensely rigid and would freak out if I thought my child was "behind" where the state considered acceptable.
But after having a child being diagnosed with autism and sensory needs...my rigidness has slowly shifted to a more gentle approach to learning and finding what works for each child instead of trying to fit them into a box.
Copywork// A few times a week the kids use their notebooks to draw a picture of something we're learning about or something they are interested in, and then they write about it. Liam writes 3-5 sentences and Alanna writes one sentence.
Arts + Crafts // My kids are always crafting. They color, draw, and create for hours on end each day. Because of this, I don't feel the need to have a curriculum for art at this point. I am always looking for new ideas for inspiration for them and try to keep our school room stocked with things that they can use to create with.
History + Science// I chose Master Books for Science and History this year since I'd heard good things about it. I have always used MFW for those subjects but decided to try something different. Once we've done more than a few lessons in these books, I'll give a more detailed review on how I like it.
Bible Time// We start our school day out with Bible time. We are learning the books of the Bible, reading a bible story, and doing The 24 Family Ways by Clay and Sally Clarkson and learning a verse each week. Next week I am going to begin adding in a hymn to learn each month.
Read Alouds// After Bible we each take turns reading aloud. Alanna is using first grade readers from Abeka right now, Liam is using the third grade Bob Jones readers, and I am reading 1-2 chapters from a book of my choice. Right now we are reading The Sign Of The Beaver and after that we will read the second Little House On The Prairie.
Read aloud time is one of my favorite parts of the day. I love reading great books to my kids, stopping and asking a lot of questions, and having them narrate back to me what we are reading.
Jude sits with us for pretty much the entire school day and learns along side of us. He plays with playdoh, blocks, legos, clay, colors, etc while we are doing school and I engage with him and include him in all the lessons.
Well I think that about sums up our curriculum for this year. I'm currently trying to navigate a new season with having two babies and homeschooling three children...both new things for me. So, I will do a blog post in a few months probably just checking in with how it's going and how we're liking the books I chose this year.
*I also wanted to note that my oldest son is starting 8th grade this year however, he has been in public school since 5th grade. He will be doing school virtually for the first 9 weeks and then possibly returning to school in person after that.
I'd love to hear about what choices you went with this year or answer any questions you have.
