We weren't able to go to a conference this year and I think that majorly affected my mindset. There have been years I've gone to conferences and not needed it (but enjoyed it) but this was certainly a year I could have used the inspiration and encouragement. Anyways, it seemed that my destiny was to make my own way of encouragement, so I put my mind to it and tried really hard to get my brain turned around.
I began by searching around for something that would inspire me. I purchased some of the audios from the conference we usually go to, and then I signed up for a free Homeschool Planning Boot Camp and committed to completing all five days of it. While I was in the midst of completing the planning boot camp, I planned a mom's encouragement weekend for a few friends of mine. Someone once told me when you're feeling down or inside out to look for someone else to serve so that's what I did. I won't say that's foolproof - sometimes it just keeps me busy enough to not deal with my own bag of feelings - but it was an encouraging weekend and by the time my friends had arrived I had finished and implemented a lot of the planning boot camp (reminding myself why we homeschool, reviewing our vision and goals, evaluating last year, evaluating our needs, laying out our calendar), pretty well chosen our curriculums, and was ready to do my printing/binding prep work.
I had also started organizing our "homeschool hutch."
However, dings or not, I decided I needed it to be more aesthetically pleasing, especially in the open space where we keep our daily bins. Below is how we ended last year. LOL. Messy.
I thought a lot about how to make that space still useful but not so.....ahhhhhh. I measured. I talked to Mike about whether we could cut the scallops from above. I considered a lot of options. Ultimately I landed on these mesh hanging file boxes from Target and ordered enough to exactly fill the spot.
(side note - now that I'm looking at pictures I realize how beat up that poor hutch really is - she does need a face lift. maybe next year.)
That cleaned up the area so much. It remains functional but tidier and there are no papers hanging out all over.
Once the bins came in I needed to decide how to delegate them.....which meant it was time to settle on curriculum.
We ended the 2021-22 school year just kind of "hanging on." There were some things we loved a great deal (the state study we did with Notgrass 50 states), but there were some things we were doing that I realized weren't bearing any real fruit. Midway through the year I canned spelling for the oldest two. The lessons weren't making my kids better spellers and they were taking up a great deal of time. We limped to the finish line in and completed the Rod and Staff reading for the oldest 2, but after a lot of thought and consideration decided to switch to something else for them this year. I really like Rod and Staff reading through grade 4. It works through Bible history with reading lessons that my children have always found really engaging and it gives my kids such a great Biblical history background. After grade 4, though, it switches to just short stories (good ones, but they don't draw upon one another). I don't believe that we have to enjoy every task in life that we do. Some things just need completed or learned, regardless of whether they are super fun - but we were all dreading the reading lessons and I hated grading them. Natalee survived but did not thrive from her Good and Beautiful math this year. This was a switch from Teaching Textbooks and the year was better, but certainly not close to great. Or even good. So.....a lot of changes needed to be made in order to keep our focus of a peaceful, joyful home that has spirits of helpfulness and grace.
This year, Natalee and Xavier are switching to literature guides. They'll read a novel and have a guide that helps them work on everything from vocabulary words to inference and response paragraphs. Since this is new, we'll see how it goes as far as the work load. They are going to do one long guide (from Progeny Press) and one short guide (from Christian Novel Studies) each quarter. The long ones are supposed to take around 6 weeks and the short ones about 2. They got some input about their books, which was fun for them, and seem excited to start. Not all of their books are the same, so this will continue to be an independent subject.
Natalee and Xavier continue to have a few subjects together.
For Science they will work through Truth Be Told. Natalee is also going to read The Story Book of Science because she thought it seemed interesting.
For Writing and Grammar, we are going to try Writer's in Residence by Debra Bell, but I do have Winston Grammar, too, if I see that WiR isn't effective enough as a grammar component.
In History, they will do Sonlight Core G, which is World History Part 1. Sonlight also has a Bible portion that they will complete each day.
I am working on choosing an apologetics book for them to work through lightly, or us to work through together. I purchased On Guard but it's a bit too advanced for their grades (I'm reading it, though!).
Since we canned spelling but I always think the study of words is important, I'm going to have them quickly look up the "word of the day" on dictionary.com and either come to me and orally define and spell it or journal it. They can choose. This will only take a couple minutes and will hopefully be "fun."
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| Natalee's box at the top of the photo, Xavier's at the bottom. The box in the middle is shared books/subjects. |
Then they split....
Xavier will continue math on using Teaching Textbooks on the computer. He's ready to finish level 7 and then begin level 8. He seems to average about a level and a half a year and we just let him go at that pace as long as he's understanding the material. We are still searching for the right fit for math for Natalee and going to try CLE this year. She seems excited about it's direct approach and is ready to try!
Xavier has a big interest in coding and will switch from coding using scratch to coding using python. That's about the sum total of what I can tell you about that subject - his dad will be helping with it.
Natalee is going to work through a Home Ec course from Plain and Not So Plain (this is important for Xavier, too, but they need to do this independently for personality reasons, so we'll wait until next year for him). We have also given her the option to expand her ASL skills, if she wants, and offered to pay the lifetime membership for her to have access to SignIt! video instruction. She's going to think it over and let us know.
If you read that over and think, man, Jenn lays it on heavy for those kids, please remember we don't do everything everyday. Science is a couple days a week. Coding, home ec, apologetics, etc. are only 1 or 2 days a week. The big kids are going to take on more responsibility for their course work this year, too. So I will give them their literature guides and a completion date, and they need to work through how much to take on everyday or every week to complete it satisfactorily. They will have guidance, of course, but it won't be mom saying "do page 1 and 2 today." I know they can do it and this will give them to freedom to do more some days and take a lighter day on others.
And honestly....when you lay out a school year, you always get a few weeks in and see that something isn't working. So, realistically, all my "hopes and dreams" are usually changed by week 6 and we see what needs changed or dropped or revamped to make the year successful.
Ameliya and Zayden have more subjects together than they do separately.
They are both in level 2 of Rod and Staff reading.
They will continue Rhythm of Handwriting cursive and Draw Write Now and writing prompts for handwriting. Ameliya did ask me for a spelling curriculum and I hadn't planned to do one, so I need to think on it. She had valid reasons for asking and had thought out her request so I'm chewing on how to do it for her.
In history they are starting Sonlight Core B, which is Introduction to World History, part 1. (They are so excited.) I intentionally planned this so that they would do intro to world history when the big kids do world history. None of the books overlap but the discussions I'm hoping will! Since my history set was many years old, I checked the company's website and upgraded 2 of the books for Mia and Zayden. One of them was their Bible component book, which is a book I've seen highly recommended for a couple years now called The Ology. I'm excited to read that with them.
For Science we will do Rod and Staff level 2, Patterns of Nature. This is actually the only Rod and Staff science book I like, but I am looking forward to doing it with them.
They are separate in math levels but are both using Teaching Textbooks on the computer. (Praise for mom!!) Mia is ready for level 4 and Zayden is ecstatic to begin level 3. He's "been waiting his whole life for this!"
Mia was bummed to not get art as a co-op elective so I've been praying about and looking for an art class that isn't mom led (video based) that she can do one day a week. Nothing yet, but it's still on my mind.
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| Mia's box at the top of the photo, their 2 shared boxes in the middle, Zayden's box at the bottom. (Their history has a lot of big picture books - that's mostly what's in the middle boxes.) |
And Evie, oh Evie. Evie will just be 3. But she's thought she was a big kids since day 1. We are going to read a lot of books and do a lot of sensory play. She listens to any read aloud like she's 10. I bought her a Kumon I Can Cut book and the very beginning Rod and Staff books that focus on matching, following directions, fine motor skills, and coloring. I'm not intentionally teaching letters or sounds to her this year, but who knows what she'll demand of me? (wink) She loves to be included and I refuse to make her feel less than because she's small.
As a family we'll continue watching World Watch news everyday. We are almost finished with the Little House books; next we will go to the Birchbark House series (they are shorter!) and will get back into the routine of daily devotions together.
I don't want to have a strict schedule to our day, but liked the suggestion in the boot camp to "chunk" your day so you know what you want completed in each chunk. This is something I haven't worked through yet, but intend to. We still have up to 6 appointments each week, so I have to stay sane, manage it all, remember to feed people, and try to maintain our joy.
I really love to see other people's organization, curriculum choices, and "things" so, in case you are like that, too, here's the remainder of the school hutch.
My boxes......that aren't really organized well yet. A work in progress, if you will.
Short educational games, STEM activities, wrap-ups, manipulatives.
Fidgets, coloring for read aloud time...
The art box and clipboard cabinet. The kids don't use their art boxes as much daily as we used to but it's nice to have them ready to go for co-op or school on the go.
Community art supplies.
The left side of the hutch.....where I shove things we aren't using at the moment that should probably be stored downstairs but I like to have at the ready....
The right side of the hutch has the Sonlight IG's, a couple of read alouds "in waiting" for Ev, and some teacher's manuals.
The middle doors of the hutch....the bottom is all the read alouds or readers for history (littles on the left, bigs on the right). The top in the boxes are extra things for this year that don't need to be in the kids' boxes yet (lit guides, units 2-5 reading workbooks, etc). The top left is writing helps, brain books, etc. Things we use sometimes.
Sometimes I think I'll cover those windows from the back, but I never have. Maybe someday...
Every year I think I won't have enough space to get one more child's school curriculum in my hutch but she's never failed me yet.
Our projected school start date is August 15th. I decided that last week when the days were 100+ degrees and everyone was listless.
But....now the weather is cooling down and the days are nicer and and and....
we'll see.
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