I start each and every year far too ambitious. But I end each and every year realizing that we had an amazing, rewarding, eventful, FUN year of learning. One of my biggest lessons is to stop beating myself up over all the things we didn’t do and instead, take joy in the journey. Most days. For all you new Homeschooling Mamas out there, not every day will be you and your children wandering through the lanes of your freshly planted garden for Science class, playing a fun card game to reinforce your Math lesson, then snuggling on the sofa with a wonderful Read Aloud book. I mean, we all want those days, and some days ARE just like that. But don’t think yourself a failure if you spend the morning cajoling or outright bribing your child to do roughly 7 minutes of work, spend the rest of morning positive you are failing your child who will now spend her adult years living under a bridge with a grocery cart due to your inadequacies, and then pouring yourself a glass of wine at 2pm and retreating to the back porch with it so you can just read your own book and not have anyone talk to you for maybe 8 minutes. Not that this situation has EVER happened HERE.

Since this is the first of these posts I’ve written, and I dropped the ball on our Pre-K, K, 1st Grade, AND 2nd grade choices, I’ll mention also some past programs used, too. Here we go…our 3rd grade choices…

The biggest and most monumental change…we are joining a local, Classical Conversations group that is brand new to the area. A Mom in my Homeschool Meetup group is starting it, the group will be small and our daughter already knows several of the kids through our Meetup group. This should satisfy her recent desire to attend “real” school…because, as she breathlessly informed me, at “real” school, “YOU CAN EAT BREAKFAST THERE!” I have no idea why that seems like such a draw, but there is much about 7, almost 8, year old life I do not understand. Our Homeschool style is pretty eclectic…we’ll see how CC impacts that. At worst, she will refuse to do the Memorization work (for which there are no grades, only the peer pressure of the other students doing the work). At best, she spends 3 hours a week with friends she already has and learns together with them, doing art, science, singing, and gaining confidence to speak in front of a group.

LANGUAGE ARTS: We will be using, for our 3rd year in a row, The Good & The Beautiful (TGTB). My love for this LA Curriculum is astronomical. TGTB covers reading, phonics, spelling, grammar, and some Creative Writing, so it’s our all-in-one. In our beginning Homeschool Years, we used English Lessons through Literature (a strong program that was one of the wrongest fits for our Homeschool I could have ever chosen…both Nora & I were in tears most days after using it). We then switched to All About Reading. Another lovely program and one that at least didn’t end in tears, but it lacked the FUN factor I so desperately envisioned. Enter TGTB. It is exactly as the name implies. The lessons are engaging, the printed versions are beautiful, and it is gentle in method while strong in foundation. A little note on reading…if you plan to homeschool longer than just this year of “forced” homeschooling, then my best advice is to look up articles on child development and learning. Most U.S. school districts require reading by the end of Kindergarten. While some children are ready for this, far too many are not…not because they are incapable or less intelligent, but because their specific brains are NOT ready. These children are often left behind in the school system and funneled early on into remedial classes, even if they are far more capable. If you are Homeschooling and making reading a large part (even if it’s reading by YOU, aloud), your child will (unless there are true learning disabilities you need to address and which will become clear to you) become a proficient reader at his/her own pace.

LANGUAGE ARTS SUPPLEMENTS: (1) We always have a Read Aloud going. I’ve been a member of Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival for a year now. In all honesty, I don’t get the usage out of it to justify the price. That’s on me, not the program. The offerings of RAR are fabulous. There are a million and one bloggers who create Read Aloud/Book Lists, so I’m not even going to enter into that area. (2) Handwriting…once again, I use The Good & The Beautiful. They are inexpensive, and easy to fit in whenever. (3) Creative Writing: This is one of Nora’s strengths, so this year, we are adding in “Once Upon a Pancake” and will later transition to BraveWriter. (4) I keep a book of Mad Libs on hand.

MATH: Also, The Good & The Beautiful. In the past, we used Singapore. It was…fine. Not bad. Not something we especially looked forward to, as Student or Teacher. Singapore is comprehensive and solid. Nora got sooooooo tired of worksheets, every single day. As I read ahead in the program, I saw that by 3rd grade, many parents started to struggle to teach it. So at the end of 1st grade, I had Nora begin 1st grade Math all over again with TGTB. It is so much fun! There is a Math Activity Box chock full of games. The Curriculum is Open & Go, so I open the page to that day’s lesson, teach the lesson, and the lessons tell me when to play what game that is in the Activity Box. Nora now LOVES Math and constantly says it’s her favorite subject. Cons: I see how it comes across as not rigorous enough. It’s very easy at these younger ages to look at Curricula options with an adult eye and think it doesn’t cover enough. And each of us have to find the program that works for OUR personal Homeschool. What I have experienced is that while TGTB Math is very easy to teach and very easy for Nora to pickup concepts…over the time we’ve been using it, the program has fired up her brain. She now translates Math concepts into life situations that I would have never even thought to connect for her.

MATH SUPPLEMENTS: (1) We’ve had a Spielgaben set since Nora was 3, and I bought the schoolbook add ons a couple of years ago. Spielgaben is EXPENSIVE. It’s only worth it if you get it when your kids are very young so that you can have years of play. It is a play-based set, ala Montessori style with hands on type learning and manipulatives, and it’s amazing. Because of the price, I instituted some pretty stringent usage rules, that in hindsight, has hampered Nora’s true enjoyment. But it’s not something like a bin of Legos that I felt like I could give her full free rein over. (2) Now that Nora is almost 8, we are doing a ton of games. Skyjo, Skipbo, Garbage, Uno, Uno Flip, Tenzi, Qwirkle, No Stress Chess, and Backgammon.

SCIENCE: I have somewhat flubbed Science in years past. We do a little of this, a little of that. Nora has never sat down and spent one entire school year following one particular Science program. That was fine for Early Elementary, those beautiful years where your Science can be Nature Walks and grow organically out of the natural curiosity questions of a young child. We started using Mystery Science Online last year, and it’s a great option. Video lessons with hands on activities and optional, extra reading. There is a good bit of it offered for free, too, but the pay option is quite reasonable at…$65/year I believe. We love hands on activities for Science, so I’ve mostly relied on things like Zoo visits, State/National parks & their Youth Programs, as well as Animal Planet or Discovery Shows (Crikey – It’s the Irwins, Coyote Peterson, Magic Schoolbus, Dr. Oakley – Yukon Vet). This year, we are doing TWO Science programs. At the end of 2nd grade, we began using Crosswired Science, a video based Curriculum with a printable Student Notebook. At an Introductory price of $19/year, I couldn’t pass it up. And the program itself is WILD. It’s a way of teaching Science that I have never encountered, and I love it. It takes ideas and creates connections across a wide ranging mash-up of presentations that eventually makes sense, but for those of us used to worksheets where you label all the parts of a flower, Crosswired is in an entirely different way of teaching and learning. I think it’s going to be pretty amazing. After doing only two full lessons so far, I already see just how much Nora learned in offhand comments and associations she makes weeks later. (Crosswired is highly faith based, so it’s not one I recommend to my non-Christian, homeschooling friends.). I have just purchased Science From the Beginning as our main Curriculum this year. It is also faith based and is an Open & Go (i.e., as the Parent/Teacher, you have to do no advance prep), AND, each lesson includes an experiment, which is something Nora has been begging for in her Science Curriculum (I went ahead and purchased the Lab Kit b/c I don’t have any inclination to go hunt down supplies last minute). I haven’t seen it in person yet, but I THINK Nora and I will really enjoy this one. It takes the Creation Days from the Bible and builds unit studies around those topics…for example, the first several lessons have to do with Light, then there are several lessons on Oceans, then several on Animals…you get the idea. The only reason I decided to add in Science From the Beginning is that Nora really loves experiments, and we are weeks away from getting into the Crosswired experiments. Also, I found that what Crosswired has as a single lesson was taking us 2-3 days to do, and I wanted to try out a Curriculum with shorter lessons.

SCIENCE SUPPLEMENTS: (1) I have used Exploring Nature for Children off and on for years. It is divided into months, so I usually print out the month, and then build a Nature Walk wit or two around that month’s recommendations. (2) This year, I’m probably going to join Our Journey Westward’s Online Nature Classes, two per month. I really want to keep Nature a big focus, and I found that I dropped that ball this last year, so I think this will keep that Nature focus a little more on track. (3) Nora has a Nature Notebook, art supplies, a magnifying glass, and a portable microscope…some days, I just send her outside for her to draw what she is observing around her. Many families have a Nature Notebook the child writes in each week with the date, weather observation, that type of thing. (4) We bought the Christian Liberty Nature Reader book set a couple of years ago and these have been wonderful, easy, quick reads – on days when I feel too worn down to keep teaching, Nora is assigned a chapter in the Nature Reader. They have really sparked her own interest in the world around her. (5) I recently bought the set of Julia Rothman’s illustrated books. Nora hasn’t seen them yet, but they are GORGEOUS! These will also be used as just little grab and go items…books on the shelf for Nora to explore on her own or for our off days from our Curriculum schedule (more on scheduling below).

HISTORY: My nemesis. At this point, I’m pretty sure I have tried every history program out there. I HATE them all. Really, really, really hate them. The Classical Conversations group may be a strong contender this year for covering History, so I may throw out our other plans. If not, what I’m doing this year is my own mash-up, which I’m still creating. It’s exhausting. I much prefer Curricula that is Open & Go, ones that I don’t have to spend a million hours seeking out the library books, then making sure I have them on hand at the EXACT time I need them (especially right now, when we can only do online Holds & Requests!). Because we’ve started and stopped a dozen different History plans, Nora knows just about everything about Ancient Egypt, where most programs begin, and absolutely nothing about the Indus Valley, Ancient China, the Mayans, etc. Despite that failing, I decided that this year, we’d focus on American History. I am using a few programs, and typing up my own Curriculum that merges them (it’s taking me forever and is NOT FUN): (1) Truthquest, which is mostly just a list of books to check out from the library on various Early Explorers and American History events that followed, (2) Blossom & Root River of Voices, which gives the Native American history a focus & a voice, (3) Girls of American History, a program using American Girl books and creating many lessons around each book, (4) a new find, an online resource Under the Home, which covers all topics for all Early Elementary Grades. I have zero hopes that this is going to be anymore successful than any of the other dozen History programs we’ve tried.

HISTORY SUPPLEMENTS, PLUS GEOGRAPHY & SOCIAL STUDIES: (1) Brookdale videos – love them for supplements, (2) To go along with American History, I have pre-ordered Our 50 States from Notgrass History, (3) After finishing Notgrass, we’ll move on to Geography Through Literature from Beautiful Feet, (4) and the Tuttle Twins books for Social Studies.

ART: We’ve used Drawn to Discover for years and it continues to be a Mainstay. Nora attends a Homeschool Art Class provided by our city’s Museum of Art. I’m switching to a new Drawing program this year on Under the Home, too, and also using Under the Home for Art History. In the past, we’ve had a subscription to Art History Kids. It is EXCELLENT. I did not quite keep up with it monthly, so I now have a backlog of those lessons. To do over, I’d probably spend the money on Deep Space Sparkle. It looks like an amazing art program. But I feel like at this point, we have plenty of resources, so I don’t need to spend the big bucks adding more. We also keep several “How To Draw…[fill in the topic]” books on an Activity shelf for free play.

BIBLE & CHARACTER: Our Morning Devotion is Max Lucado’s Grace For the Moment for Kids and happens during Morning Time (see below on Scheduling). Same with that week’s Verse Memorization. In the past, we’ve used Bible Road Trip. It’s a fantastic program. It’s also a comprehensive and somewhat time consuming program. I made the decision to shelve it for Early Elementary and go back to it for the Middle Years. This past year, we used Telling God’s Story. It was…fine. Nothing that blew me away. We’ve used Ten Minute Devotions. Also a good program, but I just felt like it wasn’t ADDING to our Homeschool. This year, I’ve ordered Grapevine Studies New Testament Overview. It has a drawing aspect which I think will really appeal to Nora. I also have the book Everyday Graces, which is what we use for Character Development as a supplement – just read a story out of it a few times a week. Focus on the Family has a wonderful, free program called Kids of Integrity. I use that when there is a specific character trait which I feel needs some boosting. And finally, we use Big Life Journal. You may have seen ads for it fill your Facebook feed. I finally bought it and am so glad I did. We’ve only just started it, but I can see already that it is going to be the much needed boost to Nora’s self-confidence and self-esteem.

MUSIC & FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Nora has been using the online, piano instruction, Hoffman Academy for two years now. Because I never learned an instrument as a child, I’m a terrible music teacher. But I also don’t want to add in an extra class to which we have to drive and schedule every week. Hoffman Academy has worked well, so we’ll continue it. I’ll be giving Under the Home a try for Composer/Music Study this year, too. In the past, we’ve used Enrichment Studies – a daily email is sent with a link to a Music piece and a little information about it. It’s a wonderful program, but I’m taking a break this year. For Foreign Language, we just use the free, Duolingo app. Nora’s not going to be fluent anytime soon. It’s just a little extra that she enjoys doing.

OTHER: (1) Nora started Typing last year, using The Good & The Beautiful. She asked to do it; otherwise, I would have waited; (2) Coding – we have an Osmo which has a Coding Game that she enjoys, and we did Bitsbox this last year, which was a lot of fun. This year, I’m going to switch to Code Academy or Hour of Code; (3) During Quarantine, we gave up on a lot of extra schooling, even as Homeschoolers. We did get an App called Adventure Academy, and we’ve loved it. There are numerous Quests and in order to level up, the child must do Learning Activities in all subjects. It has enough “fun” to keep the kid engaged and enough learning to keep Mom happy! Adventure Academy is what I use on days I need to push the EASY button (4) Holiday Studies – I try to incorporate each month a small study on whatever the Holiday of that month is. (5) Kids Cook Real Food is a program I bought years and years ago. I start every year off with the plan to do at least one lesson a week. So far, we’re on Lesson 3. Not joking. Maybe this is our year. (6) When Schoolhouse Teachers had a sale a few years ago, I locked in a pretty low, annual membership that I keep as long as I keep my subscription. I keep it because there are a ton of classes in all subjects. This becomes supplemental or used when I’m unhappy with our current Curriculum, so I need something else fast.

Overwhelmed, yet? That seems like a lot, and it IS a lot. Guess what…we do NOT do ALL of that EVERY day. No way! Not even every week. We have implemented a Morning Time. Before I go into what that is, I need to clarify that for our house, a routine is what works best for all of us. For many Homeschool families, pajamas until lunchtime and at some point in the day, doing a few lessons then taking lots of breaks works great! It does not work for us. We found that out after a lot of practice. When we all just sleep until whenever, get dressed whenever, and do whatever, there were few things that are our Daily requirements weren’t finished until after 4pm, and that left all the fun extras in the NEVER pile. So…Nora has a Morning Routine. It is written out for her to use each morning, and the final thing on it is eating breakfast (otherwise, she grabs a book and spends an hour eating 10 raspberries…not complaining that she loves to read, but at some point, she has to do other things, as do I – otherwise, the two of us would both spend an hour eating 10 raspberries and reading).

OUR DAY: We’ve begun using Morning Times. This is a gentle introduction to our day that gives us a morning connection time to start the day off as it should, rather than me screeching and yelling that it’s time to start school. This year, I will play the song “Peace Be Still” by Hope Darst as Nora’s signal to come to our Homeschool Room. We will start with a Prayer, our Morning Devotion, Verse Memorization, Bible Lesson, and our Classical Conversations Memorization work. (I also have an annual membership to Pam Barnhill’s Your Morning Basket, which comes with tons of Morning Plans already worked out, Live classes each month, etc.). After Morning Time, we’ll enter into our Daily work, which is Language Arts, Math, Science, History, and Piano. In years past, I have done 2 days of Science and 2 days of History. I have not yet decided if we’ll continue that schedule or try to move those subjects into the Daily. Because I’d like Science to have a better focus this year, we’ll probably have at least something for Science daily, using a quick read Supplement from above on our off days from the formal Curriculum, for example. Next up is our Loop schedule. Everything else listed above goes into the Loop…Character Traits, Drawing, Art History, Composer Study, Handwriting, Coding…all of it. The Loop is just my one long list. If there are things that I would like to be done more often in the Loop, then that Subject gets entered twice into the list. We just work down it. If there is a day that we have errands all day or a Field Trip or a really cool, online class that pops up or we just want to spend the day watching Animal Planet shows or reading, then it’s NO BIG DEAL. We just work down the Loop. Once we reach the bottom, we start back up at the top. We get to it all in our own rhythm, and throughout our year, I adjust our Loop as needed.

We always try to have an Official, First Day of School – complete with pictures, a new pencil box or supplies, a First Day of School outfit and picture…the works. My big mistake, EVERY YEAR, is that I’m so excited to show it all to Nora, and she’s so excited to see it all, that we try to DO IT ALL. On our first day. You may guess how that goes! This year, I’ve finally learned! We’ll start with our Morning Time and MAYBE, one Daily subject. A few days later, we’ll add in another Daily Subject. And gradually build up. I will use the Supplementals until introducing the actual Subject Curriculum…i.e., on Day 1, we may start Language Arts, but then I’ll suggest Nora browse through a Julia Rothman book on Ocean Anatomy after lunch.

These are our “Best Laid Plans.” They are already awry. I’d planned for July to be our “Pool Month Mornings” followed by some very quick, transitional lessons in the afternoon to cover things I skipped this past year. With Part 2 of that Plan to begin school a little bit early in order to start with the Gentle Lineup I described above. In my head, I planned for our First Day of School to begin this week. Ha! Some unforeseen issues have kept me from doing ANY of our summer “plan.” And I was late in both planning and ordering for the upcoming year, so I’m still waiting on about half of our subjects to arrive. We’ll get there, and all will work out, and we will have a lovely, Homeschool year. Although I’m a Curriculum Junkie, I’m even more of a Field Trip and Travel junkie, so while I have intense, full, plans for each subject, I happily cast them off for a Field Trip to a Nature Center or our amazing Aviation Museum or to scramble around the ramparts of one of the THREE 19th century forts nearby…you get the picture. I make the plans, then let all the chips fall where they do while the year unfolds itself to us.