This is my 10th year homeschooling.
That statement sounds so incredibly unreal and also amazing to me.
I never thought I'd be a homeschooling mother. But when the time came to put my oldest son into Pre-K and Kindergarten, everything within my soul told me "NO!"
There was a call to do something different, to spend more time with my child, to preserve his childhood, to be the one that was the main influence in his life, to be there learning alongside him.
In 2011, I began Pre-K with my oldest son and now here it is 2021 and I am teaching three grades.
My oldest son is in public school since he lives with his Dad full time now but the rest of my children are homeschooled.
This year I have a 4th grader, 2nd grader, a Kindergartener, and of course the twins who are our little distractions and also fun play buddies.
This is my second year teaching three grades. Last year was a big adjustment for me since I had never taught that many grades. This year I am feeling more confident in teaching three grades but have struggled with having active little twins who are into everything and on the go non stop except for their nap in the afternoon.
I am the type of person who likes structure, routine, and everything to go as I planned. Of course, with teaching three grades and having two babies this really just isn't practical. Yes, we can have a routine but for me to expect everything on my "to do" list to get done and to get done without any distractions is just unrealistic.
I used to feel very confident in sharing my homeschooling journey, advice, and such but this last year or two left me feeling quite inadequate. I spent much time comparing myself to other homeschooling mamas I follow on IG, wondering why I couldn't just be as good as them. This of course if very damaging and not something that I should have done but it's easy to fall into that trap in the world of social media.
I recently spend a month off of IG and FB and did a lot of reflecting. I also recently was talking about this on a post and sharing how difficult it's been to find a routine in homeschooling since having the twins and many of you were so encouraging and I can not express my thanks to your kind words.
I believe I am ready to let go of the extreme high expectations I have set for myself. As well as letting go of the comparison and just finding joy again in my own journey; being confident that I am capable of teaching my children well and that the way I do things is what's best for us.
Homeschooling is such an amazing thing and I am grateful for it every day. I want my children to remember their childhood as the most simply magical time. I want them to remember the simple, mundane, every day things as beautiful and joyful.
Well all that said...here is our 2021-2022 curriculum choices:
4th Grade...
Math: Horizons Level 3
Language: Abeka Level 4
Spelling: Abeka Level 4
Cursive: Bob Jones Level 2 and 3
Reading: My children read all throughout the day.
They read from their language reading books, our history and nature study books,
as well as classical books/living books. He just finished Peter Pan.
Typing: The Good And The Beautiful
Music: Liam will be starting guitar lessons soon.
Sports: Liam just finished up soccer for the fall season.
2nd Grade:
Math: Horizons Level 2
Language: Abeka Level 2
Spelling: Abeka Level 2
Cursive: The Good And The Beautiful Level 2 and Abeka Level 2
She wanted to begin cursive but also was enjoying the print workout she had, so she chose to work on both books at her own pace.
Reading: Language reading books, Little House On The Prairie, our nature study and history books, and whatever else she is interested in reading.
Typing: The Good And The Beautiful
Music: Alanna will be starting violin lessons soon
Sports: Alanna has a few things she'd like to try so we are looking into those for her.
Sewing/Gardening: I'm looking for an online sewing course for her so her and I can learn to sew together. We also will be starting a garden together in the spring.
Kindergarten:
Math: Horizons Level K
Language: Master Books Basic Phonics and then onto Abeka either Level K or Level 1.
I also use Explode The Code
Handwriting: The Good And The Beautiful
Spelling: Right now we are working on sight word recognition and don't have weekly spelling lists yet.
Reading: Bob Books, The Good And The Beautiful K5 books, and other easy readers.
Music: I will be teaching Jude piano so that I can learn with him. I have wished I could play for some time, so I am going to try to teach myself as well as Jude.
Sports: Jude will be playing baseball again in the spring.
Together Subjects:
History: My Father's World American History
My Father's World World History (after completing American History)
We are on week 24/34 in American History. I am assuming we'll finish this up in about three months. Sometimes we take more than a week if we are really enjoying something. Also, life happens and we take breaks etc. So we will probably finish up American History around the beginning of March and then begin World History with My Father's World.
Science: The Good And The Beautiful Space
I bought this some time ago and we started it, but only got a few lessons in. I'm planning on starting back at it this week though.
Nature Study: I am currently finishing up with Treehouse Schoolhouse's Autumn Nature Study and then will be going back to Exploring Nature With Children's Nature Study for the rest of the school year.
Read Alouds: We are currently reading David Livingston and The Hobbit.
We have read several other books this year and we will just continue to read through different missionary stories and Living Books. We also read books for our history and nature study curriculums. There are amazing books lists in our curriculums and I also have a huge list of great Living Books from Sally and Clay Clarksons homeschooling book Educating The Whole-Hearted Child. I pick a new book once we finish one based on what I think my children would be most interested in at that time. We are currently loving The Hobbit so much! Our last read aloud was Summer Of The Monkeys which we all just loved!
Other:
Thanksgiving: We will be taking the week of Thanksgiving to study about the first Thanksgiving by just piecing together my own things.
A Connected Christmas: This is a curriculum I purchased from Treehouse Schoolhouse last year. My children really enjoyed it and so we will be doing it again this year.
Well that is our line up for the year. We kind of homeschool year round so I don't really know when we will take our extended break in 2022 but I believe we should finish up our core subjects sometime in the middle of May. I'll probably take a few weeks off a that point and begin up again in July.
I am planning on doing another post soon on what our daily routine looks like on most days and how I'm combining teaching multiple grades.
I hope you found this helpful. If so, please feel free to share with another mama who is homeschooling or thinking of homeschooling.
xo,
Lauren
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