I haven’t posted in a while, but I plan to start back up again soon. We’ve been busy lately trying to get all the goats bred. Last year was our first year breeding goats and the spring kidding went ok. We had a loss, but other than that, it was good. However, the goats bred for fall kidding did not take. The plan was for two of our Nigerian Dwarf goats to deliver in November, but neither one of them ended up pregnant. So, now all of our goats are bred for spring kidding. I brought on a new buck this last month and am hoping he can do a good job breeding our other buck’s kids for us. Our original does should be bred by our original buck, but we will see. I have someone coming out next week to ultrasound them and see who is actually pregnant.
Winter has decided to show up here in South Dakota so we spent most of the last week prepping everyone for winter. I believe we’ve got everyone situated right now and they should all be good for the cold temps that are coming. I am, however, starting to research and think about switching out chicken breeds. Some of our chickens, especially our roosters have pretty large combs. Last week our high was seven degrees. That is simply too cold for large combed breeds. I do have a few chickens that are Swedish Flower mixes and they have a little poof on the tops of their heads. I am really curious to see how they do since their comb is small and protected, but all of my roosters are normal single combs. The coop is warm and insulated, we will put heat in it when the temps drop well below zero, but I can’t help them much when they are walking around during the day. I am leaning towards bringing on a few Wyandotte colors and having a fun breeding program going, but I am looking at all winter-hardy breeds. Feel free to let me know if you have favorites. I will add, where we live, it gets well under zero, and we have really bad wind. The wind chill frequently gets into the double-digit negatives. Everything that lives here has to be exceptionally cold-hardy.
Lastly, we are cruising along in our homeschool year. I have a freshman and a 7th grader this year and it’s been a bit of a change. I miss the days of poetry tea time and doing all our subjects together. However, this season of life is amazing as well. I am still very thankful I get to make the choice to homeschool them and it’s working out well.
Until next time, I hope you all have a wonderful day and all your farm animals are staying warm.
Here we go again! We are back in the homeschool swing and of course, we changed up a few things again. I wrote a post recently about how we were going to continue to use Acellus Academy for homeschooling, but about 4 days before our school year started I changed my mind. I changed my mind for a few different reasons, the main one being I didn’t like the idea of my kids going to their rooms and sitting on their computers for a few hours and that was the school day. We homeschool so we can do this together, not sit in front of a screen and barely interact. Acellus Academy was what I needed last year. The year was hard and there were a few extended family issues early in the year that were overwhelming, and then we moved. So, for that, I am so thankful I had that option, but I decided not to continue down that road. There were a few other considerations with the curriculum itself mainly because I was not sure how good overall the program was. Most of the programs seemed to work just fine, but we did not care for the writing portion. I had also started looking for Math options that would work better for my daughter, who struggles in math, and that led to me going a whole different route this year. Lastly, I knew that some of the curricula we had chosen and used in the past were great and I wanted to get back to those. I have state-tested my kids twice and they were pretty far ahead in most subjects. Their language skills were always top percentile, so if nothing else I know for a fact what we do for Language Arts is working. All of that together helped me choose this year’s curriculum.
(2024-2025 will be our ninth year of homeschooling and I will have an 8th grader and a 6th grader)
Homeschool Planner
I have not always been great at using my yearly planner. I have homeschooled in three different states and none of them have required that I keep records on hand. I usually keep a homeschool planner for myself, but since it’s not mandated I tend to get a little loose with that planner halfway through the year. I don’t really need it, since we typically have a curriculum where you simply do the next lesson, but I do like to have one. I have tried numerous versions of pen and paper planners over the years, but my favorite has surprisingly been an online planner. So, this year I went ahead and signed back up for the Well Planned Gal’s online homeschool planner. The Well Planned Gal has a great paper and pen planner if that is what you enjoy, but for me, it was too much stuff. I like a plain planner. The online version has a free 30-day trial of the full planner, and if you don’t want that it has a limited free version. I know I like it so I went ahead and signed up for the year subscription. My favorite thing is that I can enter all the lessons/Assignments for the week or month and then print out weekly plans for my kids. I can also print out weekly sheets that tell us everything we did and then put those in a records binder. This is what I did two years ago to make my own records. I will warn you that there is a bit of a learning curve to learn how to assign things well, but it’s worth it. You can also track grades in the program, meal plans, chore charts, and attendance. In fact, it tracks attendance for you as long as you are going in and checking off the daily assignments. For me, this has been the best and most used planner I have tried.
Language Arts was a pretty easy call. As I mentioned my kids have scored high on their language skills so I trust the programs that we have used for years. First and foremost we will be going back to IEW. We used both their Structure and Style and their Fix-it-Grammer programs. Structure and Style is the one thing my kids were not excited about bringing back as the weekly assignments can take a bit of time, but the program is fantastic and we are keeping it. Fix-it-Grammar is also something I have been impressed with for years. They are better at grammar than most adults I know and it doesn’t take very long each day. It’s a simple but very effective program. To round out the Language Arts curriculum we will continue using Wordly Wise for vocabulary, and Spelling Power for spelling. I will be putting an emphasis on read-alouds this year as that was something we let go of for a time last school year, and they, of course, have their own daily individual reading.
Math has been a bit of a tough spot for us for a few years. For most of our homeschool time, we have used Math-U-See. It works great, I have nothing bad to say, but my daughter in particular struggles with math. Some of it is that she hates Math and therefore doesn’t try hard, but some of it is that she needs it explained in different ways. Because it’s difficult for her I have also tried a few online programs. We used Teaching Textbooks, CTC Math, and then Acellus Math. They all work about the same. My son doesn’t struggle with math as much, but he also hasn’t been thrilled with a math program yet. I happened to watch a YouTube video about a week ago talking about Dension Algebra and it sounded wonderful so I ordered it. The thing that really caught my attention is that there is a solutions binder as well as a video for each and every problem he will have. One of his biggest complaints last year was that he would be taught a concept and then have problems that didn’t necessarily line up exactly with that concept. Math is not my strong suit and there were a few times that even I couldn’t help him after watching the instruction video. So, if he gets stuck at all this year there will be a step-by-step how-to for that problem. I also prefer paper and pencil math. He would try to do the online problems in his head instead of using scratch paper and sometimes that would cause him to get a problem wrong that he shouldn’t have. Dension Algebra has instruction videos for each lesson and then solution videos for each problem. This I think is the best compromise for math. It’s still being taught by a math teacher, someone who really understands the concepts, but he has to work the problems out on paper, and if he gets stuck there are numerous help options available to us both. Denison Algebra however only starts at Pre-Algrebra or around eighth grade. Therefore, we cannot do Denison Algebra with my daughter. For her, I decided that we should try something a little different. I have always had them in the same math program but at different levels and I realized that homeschooling is about finding what works for each child. She obviously needs something different. After looking around we decided to try Math Mammoth and if needed/wanted we will add Beast Academy. I have often put a lot of pressure on myself as a homeschool mom, that my kids have to be above average in every single subject. Now, I am starting to look at this like not every child excels in every subject and we do our best to get those children where they need to be. I graduated from public school and barely passed math. I can’t get frustrated with my very artistic child when she doesn’t naturally take to math. My goal for her now is to take it slow, make sure she understands the concepts before moving on, and get her through math.
I am still struggling with both these subjects. I know what I want to do, but I have not found the curriculum. For science, I want to split my kids this year. We have always had them in the same science as a group subject, but they have such different interests and I want my son to be able to get his work done without waiting on his sister. If you haven’t guessed by now I have one child who buckles down and gets his work done, and one who can’t sit still. My son is very science-brained while my daughter is very much an artistic brain. It makes doing everything together a bit of a challenge especially as they get older.
For my son, I am looking for a space-related science program. Even some sort of astronomy unit study. The problem I am facing is that there isn’t really anything geared toward his age/understanding. There are tons of space units for younger children or ones that have basic space facts. He knows more about space than I could ever hope to. We have taken him and let him talk to scientists and they are always amazed at his understanding of space and what he talks about. So, I need something more challenging but also I don’t know that he is ready for something like a high school level course. He also wants to know things about black holes, or other topics that there simply isn’t as much information on as the planets for example. I did order him a few textbook-type books from BookOutlet and I may have him read those and report back to me. I think this is very much going to be a piece-and-go year for us and science. I will have him watch any documentary I can find, use NASA’s, and anything else that comes our way. I am still hopeful that I will find a good program for him soon, but he will learn either way.
For my daughter, she is very into animals, so I am looking for a Biology unit for her. She doesn’t want to do human biology, only animal biology. Again, the problem we face is that we have studied biology and she knows quite a bit. I would love to find something that dives a little deeper into things. For her, I am leaning more toward unit studies so she can study a topic in-depth and then move on to a new one. I will find something this week and print it off for next week. I am not too worried about timing since we take the first couple of weeks pretty slowly anyway.
For History, I am planning on studying American History as a group subject. I am splitting them for science but I think History is still something we can do together. I had a plan to use these great American History books we’ve had for years, but I can’t find them. We moved and I thought they moved with us, but I have no idea where they ended up. It was actually stuff we got from BookShark years ago that we haven’t used yet. If I can’t find them soon I will have to find another avenue to go down. I have looked into programs like the Tuttle Twins, Notgrass History, and what we have used in the past Story of the World but I am not sure what direction we will take yet. Again this is a subject that I wasn’t planning on adding until week two or three so I have a bit of time. We also have been homeschooling for quite a while, so we have all kinds of books and encyclopedias to get us started while we wait.
Reading
I always have a giant list of books I want everyone to read in my head. Don’t all homeschool moms? Last year I more or less let them pick the books they wanted to read and then asked them to read 20-30 mins a day. This ended up not being enough. My daughter also started a ton of books but didn’t finish very many. With everything that happened last year personally, It wasn’t something I really fought. This year however we are going to fix that. I plan on assigning them one book a month and then letting them pick one. For our first set of books I simply took the number of pages, decided if I wanted them to take one or two weeks to read it, divided the pages by the days I wanted it done in, and then assigned them the reading. I haven’t made the list for our entire year but I have quite a few picked out……….
Read Aloud– Howl’s Moving Castle, Wild Robot Series, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, The War that Saved My Life, The Trumpet of the Swan, and a few more yet to be decided.
Son– Glitch, Artemis Fowl, Green Ember, FableHaven, Northwind, Stowaway, Last Day on Mars, and others
Daughter– Stuart Little, Sweet Home Alaska, Caddie Woodlawn, The Penderwicks, Princess Academy, Aggie Morton, and others
I like to leave room to change my mind as I find new books all the time, but also have a plan for quite a few required readings for the year. There are always so many amazing books out there that it’s hard to choose a few for the school year.
Final Thoughts
As always I am very hopeful that the choices we made for the year are good ones. Other than that I know that our attitudes will be the make-or-break aspect of our entire year. I am trying to let go of the pressure to be perfect and instead enjoy this time that I have been given.
As the summer heat increases and the garden starts to grow, it’s time to move on to the next challenge of the year, planning the homeschool year. I feel like our summer break has flown by and we didn’t do any sort of school this summer at all. We didn’t even manage to get any reading done. The farm has kept us busy enough each day. However, at the beginning of the month all that will change. Due to the schedule we would like to keep we will be starting school in about two weeks. That doesn’t give me a whole lot of time to prepare, but after seven years of doing this, I don’t need a ton of time to plan. We also made some changes last year that are going to make this school pretty easy for me to get laid out.
Curriculum Options
Last year, mid-school year, we made a big change to what we were doing. My daughter was fighting me every day on Math and we could not get past it and get all of our other school work done. It really was beginning to throw our entire school year off. Not only for her, but also for my son since we do group subjects, and I was stuck trying to get her to finish her math. I was exhausted, mostly mentally, and I knew we couldn’t keep doing things the same way anymore. So, we made a big change. We switched fully to an online school option. In December of last year, we switched to Acellus Academy and its online homeschool program.
For our family and where we were last year Acellus worked very well for us with one major issue. You can start Acellus at any time during the year, but it will start you back at the beginning of the school year regardless of how far along you are. I didn’t love this, but I also knew it wouldn’t hurt my daughter to go back and get refreshed on some of her math skills. With Acellus my kids were able to do most of their school by themselves and finish within a couple of hours each day. It was significantly less frustrating than what we were doing previously. However, since they had to start over again we did not fully finish the school year, but came close. I haven’t checked because our account is currently paused, but I am assuming Acellus will have us finish up that school year before we move on to the next. This is fine with me and we should be able to get caught up without too much extra time during the school day.
As of right now, I do plan to continue with Acellus for the time being. I have looked into other programs such as Shoreman Math and other online math/science options, but for now, Acellus is what we will use. We were a little disappointed in the writing curriculum last year, so we will be adding IEW back in as a supplement and for a handwriting option, but that’s about it. As always the plan could change at any moment but this is our current plan.
They will also be required to read each day on top of the Acellus reading, and I would love to be able to fit read-aloud back in. That was also something that sort of got dropped last year. With Acellus the kids would get up, eat breakfast, and start school. It ended up taking away from our read-aloud time, but I am going to concentrate on getting that brought back into our day somewhere. Maybe during lunch break, or in the evening but it is something that I believe in and will be getting it going again. I am currently working on my list of books I would like to assign to each kid and add to our read-aloud list. The hardest part is there are so many great books and I can’t choose them all.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes what you picture and how things actually work out are not the same. I have always pictured a relaxed homeschool day where the kids and I hang out and learn together. We have managed to do that pretty well for the most part, but last year did not go that way. When this happens we have to adjust. Acellus has some pros, but it also has cons. Just like anything we do, no one thing is perfect, but more what you make it. Did I feel like a failure? Yes! I still sometimes catch myself comparing our homeschool to what we see online. I wasn’t that homeschool mom who was baking with their kids every day, doing endless science projects, and taking them on a million field trips. I was struggling to make it through the day. So, we let go of what we thought the year was going to look like and moved forward with what needed to happen right then. Guess what? My kids still learned. In fact, they probably learned more since Acellus allowed them to get to all their subjects every day. My daughter still hates math and struggles with it, but she loved her teacher and likes the ability to see exactly what she needs to get done. It worked when I needed something to work. Don’t be afraid to let go of your perfect ideal plans and move forward with what you need. I have high hopes this upcoming school year will be better, as each year I learn more about what they need and what I can give them. Homeschooling is hard, but it’s even harder when your curriculum isn’t working for you. Make the change and choose the pace. It’s worth it.
My last post was on our switch to Kindle e-readers and now I want to talk about audiobook options. My daughter is going through a big audiobook phase and wants to have one available at all times. I don’t love having her take my phone constantly, that’s where audible is, so I started looking for other options. One option is the Kindle. You can get audible on a Kindle but I haven’t really loved this as an actual solution. My biggest complaint is the Kindle will only work with Bluetooth headphones. It has a charger port just like my phone, that my phone will take headphones in, but the Kindle won’t. I don’t want everything we listen to to be on Bluetooth, so this ruins the Kindle for me as an audiobook option for her.
A second very simple option and one we use often is a Bluetooth speaker and my phone or computer. This works great and she can take it to her room and listen but again I am not a fan of her having my phone all the time or using it for sleep sounds and my phone dying. I have a friend who got her kids old iPods and using the library to put rented audiobooks on them, but the library is changing formats and that isn’t working for them anymore either.
So, this leads me to her Christmas present and what I hope ends up being the perfect solution for us. I ordered her a Yoto player. https://us.yotoplay.com/. It’s an audio player that has no screen and no access to the internet. You buy the books on yoto cards and they insert into the player and play the book. She wanted the larger one which also works as an alarm clock, plays kid-friendly podcasts, and sleep sounds. I also went ahead and grabbed one for my four-year-old nephew as it’s perfect for little kids as well. It even has an alarm clock mode where the light will stay red until it’s an acceptable time for them to get out of bed. That is something I wanted when my kids were smaller. The Yoto cards do get a little pricey, but they have a Yoto Club membership that will help with the expense. It’s pretty similar to what you would pay for an audible subscription. If you are going to order one go ahead and sign up for the Yoto Club because you get 10% off of your orders and free shipping.
Since this is her Christmas present we haven’t opened it yet and got to play around with it. I can’t say for sure this is going to be what we want it to be, but I am very hopeful this is going to be a good solution. I definitely think it’s worth looking into if you are looking for an internet-free and screen-free option for audiobooks for your kids. I will update here as soon as we have used it a bit.
Do you need a separate homeschool space to be a successful homeschooler? I have often been guilty of scrolling Instagram or YouTube and getting caught up in the beautiful homeschool spaces. When things get difficult and I’m struggling I tell myself that if only I could have a homeschool classroom it would make everything so much easier. It would to an extent. It would help corral all the school supplies in one room for example. I also think being able to shut the door would keep distractions like the dogs away. However, having a separate space is not even close to being essential to homeschooling well.
Currently, we are homeschooling from our third home since we started, and I have had a different set-up in each house. Most of the time we have used our dining room and table as our homeschool space. Once, I did have an actual homeschool room (still open to the living area) with a desk for the kids and a chalkboard. However, none of these different set-ups have made a bit of difference in our actual ability to do school. In fact, regardless of our set-up we almost always end up schooling from the couch and the kitchen table.
So, what do you actually need to homeschool well? The answer is pretty simple, it’s a parent who is willing to put in the effort. That’s it. There is no need for fancy classrooms, expensive curriculum, or any of the other things you see when you scroll Instagram. All the things that look good in pictures are completely unnecessary for actual schooling. You as the parent will make or break homeschooling all by yourself. Having a separate and beautiful space might be something that brings you joy, but it does not make you a better homeschooler. The attitude of the homeschooling parent is the key to a happy and well-run homeschool. Our entire house and what happens inside of it is all a result of our attitudes and commitments. Are you committed to educating your children? That is the biggest piece of the puzzle. You will make more of an impact than having the perfect home, classroom, curriculum, or anything else we think we need to be successful in educating our children.
Don’t let social media put unnecessary pressure on you or make you think you are less than because you don’t fit a certain aesthetic. The only thing your kids need in their homeschool is you and your willing attitude. A committed homeschool parent with a library card can do a better job than a parent with the best curriculum that isn’t fully engaged. Trust in yourself, you can do it!
The hot-button topic! This is one of the biggest debated aspects of homeschooling. I encourage you today to not worry about it so much. The fact is that homeschooled kids can be, and mostly are just as socialized as their public school peers. In fact, I just dropped my kids off to go hang out with their friends for the afternoon. My two homeschooled children are currently at their friend’s house having a blast.
There are numerous options when it comes to homeschooling and getting your kids introduced to other children. We have homeschooled in three very different states now, and at every one there have been co-ops, homeschool groups, and all kinds of meet-ups for our children to attend. Especially in the younger years finding a group of moms to hang out with is really very easy. If you are looking for local groups facebook is always a great place to start. Here where we are, there are at least three different groups, tons of co-ops, and other speciality groups. Each one of them has a facebook page that will help you get connected.
As my kids have gotten older finding people that we all click with has gotten to be a bit more complicated. This is usually due to lots of younger homeschoolers and not as many older ones. Sometimes, one kid connects but the other one doesn’t. This doesn’t stop anything though because we have found other options that work for us. My kids and I train jiu-jitsu. One of my best friends from the gym is also a homeschool mom. I have found over the last little while that there are multiple homeschool families in our gym and have connected with a few of them. We have park meet-ups, library days, and our kids train together multiple times a week. Finding families with the same interests as you is always a good place to start. On top of that, my daughter is on a swim team. She makes friends wherever she goes. Her best friends however live right down the street. They go to a private school here in town, so we don’t school the same, but as soon as time allows they are here or she is there. My son has a friend who lives one street behind us and another on our road.
Of course, there were times when my kids struggled with friends. Especially after this last move. It takes a while to settle into a new place and get to know people. The kids in the neighborhood weren’t outside much because we moved right before winter. But, life usually works out and once the weather was nice again they made friends in the neighborhood. Over time they got to know their training partners and become friends there. Now, my kids definitely do not suffer from a lack of friends to hang out with. In fact, often times we struggle with having too many options. Between all the local groups there is an option to do something almost every day. We have to pick and choose because at some point we actually do need to get school done.
If worry over socialization is holding you back from homeschooling your kids, I hope this encourages you to do it anyway. It is 100% possible to make mom friends while homeschooling, and to make friends for your kids. Sometimes it takes a little bit of extra effort, but it is worth it and it is possible. Your homeschooled kids can have best friends, sleepovers, and every other normal thing that kids experience. Also, homeschooling is gaining popularity every year. This means more and more options and opportunities for your kids. They will not be missing out because they are homeschooled.
Every year I have high hopes for how the school year will start. This year was no different, but of course, things didn’t exactly go to plan. On the Wednesday before school started, we met our homeschool friends at the park for a hang-out day. Everything was going great, the kids were playing, I was talking to my mom friends, and then my son came running up to me holding his arm. He had been on one of those climbing nets and tried to jump down. Unfortunately, his foot caught when he jumped and he fell face-first to the ground and caught himself with his hands. He was in a lot of pain and couldn’t rotate his arm, so we loaded up in the car and headed to the closest Urgent Care. His x-ray confirmed what I already knew, his arm was broken. He had a buckle fracture to be more specific. This was the first broken bone for either of our kids. Luckily he only has to wear a wrist brace and his pain was handled very well with Tylenol and Advil for the first couple of days. Overall he did really well. As soon as he had that hard wrist brace on and his arm was supported the pain was easier to handle. He was able to sleep the first night, which was a concern, and with a little caution, he was able to go back to doing almost everything he normally does. I think he was pretty bummed that it didn’t get him out of school but by the time Monday rolled around he was pretty much back to normal.
Mom’s sick
Our first week of school went pretty well, even though we did end up having a few commitments in the middle of the day. I was pretty pleased with how the kids handled the start of school even though everyone else is still on summer break. It didn’t really change much about their schedule other than going to bed earlier. Our school days, especially the first couple of weeks, are not very long. All things considered the first week was a success. The second week of school is where we went off track again. I woke up Wednesday with a sore throat and went downhill from there. Luckily we take Fridays off now, so Wednesday and Thursday were the only days affected. However, on those two days, they did very little because it hurt to talk. I had a goal this year to make sure we did our read aloud every day, but my throat hurt too bad to get it done this week. Our other subjects like history and science, where I read to the kids, also got put on hold this week. I may have been the only one upset about that! It’s Saturday now and I still feel terrible but I am hopeful it will be better by Monday. This upcoming week will be week #3 and ideally will be more of what our full school day actually looks like. I would really like to be 100% for that. School days are much smoother when mom is healthy.
Life Happens
Sometimes I get really frustrated with the interruptions to our school day and year, but life happens in the middle of homeschooling. As a homeschool mom, I don’t have a substitute I can pull in when I’m sick, or a building to send my kids to so I have the day to get things done. Homeschooling happens right alongside life. Sometimes that’s hard, but mostly it’s wonderful. I never want to forget that what I get to do is a privilege. Not everyone wants to homeschool, but there are some who want to and can’t. We work hard to make this a reality, but I still want to remember I am very lucky to be able to do this. That doesn’t mean homeschooling is always easy. Things sometimes don’t go smoothly or the way we wanted them to and that’s ok. Life doesn’t always go the way we want it to so why would anything else. Despite all this, I am so very happy to have another year to watch my kids grow and learn. Homeschooling allows me to do life right beside them and I wouldn’t change anything about that.
It’s decision time in our home. I have been putting off a few decisions lately because I was not ready to get back to school. However, the motivation has finally kicked in and I have figured a few things out. First, we will be trying out a four-day school week this year. This is what I wanted to try, but I also asked my kids which option they wanted, and they both agreed the four-day week sounded good. Instead of having weeks off during the school year, we will have every Friday off. We will still take about a week and a half off during Christmas time but that’s about it. Because we have decided on this schedule we will have to start school sooner rather than later. My plan is to school for 45 weeks instead of 36 so that we get all our days in. That means we will be starting school on July 17th and schooling until late May. I do plan to keep track of our days so that if we do something like a field trip on a Friday we can possibly knock off a few days towards the end of the year. Once May hits I want to be done with school. Something about the sun finally coming out after a long winter makes all of us lose our minds and all we want to do is be outside. I am really hoping this schedule works for us this year. I like the idea of it, because this will give me Fridays to grocery shop, put the house back together, and do whatever other tasks get overlooked during the school week. I am sure there are moms out there who can keep it all together during the school week, but I am not one of them. Having Fridays off will give me the chance to get everything back under control.
Final Curriculum Choices
Since the start of the school year is so close now, final decisions also had to be made for curriculum. I knew from the beginning that we had a couple of things from last year that needed to change. For example our Math curriculum. We have used Math-U-See every year except one. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this program, and I love the idea behind it, but it wasn’t working for us anymore. The biggest problem is that my 10-year-old and I can’t do math together. At least not fully. She either wasn’t understanding how I was teaching it or she was being plain stubborn and refusing to even try. Math is the one subject that could derail our entire day. I did not want our homeschool year to be made hard again because of one subject. To help this I started looking for online math programs. My hope is that if someone else is explaining the concepts to her she will listen and understand a little better. I looked at a ton of options before we made a decision. I have never used this program before but I am hopeful that it will be what we need. We are going to be trying CTC Math for this school year. https://www.ctcmath.com/how-it-works/home-school. My husband and I both liked the sample video that was posted and the way the concept was explained. I am also hopeful that this will be good for my 12-year-old as he starts getting into higher math that I can’t help with as much. I was not great at Math in school and we have always known at some point there would need to be a switch to a tutor or some kind of online math program. Outside of math our days go pretty well, so I am hoping this will help our days run as smoothly as possible
The other big change is our Science curriculum. I have talked about this a few times and the fact that we haven’t found a good curriculum yet. We have tried a few different options but I have never been pleased with any of them. I had every intention of going with Noeo Science or Elemental Science this year but changed my mind last minute. I read a bunch of reviews and neither program sounded all that great. I ended up deciding to try out Berean Builders this year. We will be using Science in the Age of Reason https://bereanbuilders.com/ecomm/product-category/elementary/science-in-the-age-of-reason/. While looking for a science curriculum I stumbled upon this awesome resource and we went ahead and ordered the books and experiment supplies from Home Science Tools https://www.homesciencetools.com/. This is a website where you can order experiment kits that go with a few different curriculums, but you can also order difficult-to-find experiment supplies and even dissection kits. It’s a pretty cool resource if you have experiment-loving kids.
I have also decided to change our homeschool planner. I know I said I wasn’t going to do this because I loved the online one from Well Planned Gal, but I think it might be a little overkill. I am still struggling with this decision but I think I will skip it this year. I can always go back in and re-subscribe if needed. My thought process behind that is that the online planner is great to print out for records, but I don’t really have to keep those. My state does not require it and sometimes I think I am making more work for myself. I like having the records, but no one is ever going to look at them, so do I really need to put in the effort? I did go ahead and custom-create a printed one, also from Well Planned Gal, and then I am working on creating my own. I don’t typically like planners with a ton of extras, so making my own basic one might be a better option. https://wellplannedgal.com/. I do have a bunch of printables available in my teachers pay teachers shop if you have any interest in looking at those https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Phk-Learning, including some planner pages. This year I am trying to make things as easy as possible. There is no need to overcomplicate and make my year harder for no reason.
Final Thoughts
I have never really had a motto for the year before but this year I found one that I am hoping my daughter can use.
Attitude over Aptitude will determine your Altitude
We had quite a few struggles last year with our attitude. I really want to work with her this time to understand that a good attitude will get you further than almost anything. It will also make the school day go by faster. I am hopeful that the changes we have made will make this year run smoother and that our Friday breaks will give us something to work towards. Ready or not, school starts in about a week and a half.
It’s that time of year again. Planning for the upcoming school year is in full swing. I’ve been looking into curriculum for weeks now, but the task at hand is deciding on our schedule for the year. One of the big benefits of homeschooling is you can really make your schedule be whatever you need it to be. In years past I’ve tried the six weeks on and one week off schedule, but that hasn’t really worked for us. We inevitably get off schedule for one reason or another, and end up having to take no breaks in order to finish the school year at a decent time. I don’t like the idea of following the school system schedule either. This has never really appealed to me. I typically like to start sooner than the schools do and finish sooner than the schools do. So this year I am playing around with a few different ideas.
Required number of days
First, let’s talk about what is needed for a school year. I know each state has their own guidelines, some like you to hit a certain amount of hours, but most I have seen recommend 180 days. That is a typical length for an academic year. If you break that down the way the public school system does it equals 36 weeks, or four 9-week semesters. That really makes it easy to plan your year. Breaking down the work to be done for the year becomes pretty simple when you can see the chunks that you have to work with. It also gives you a good idea of where to stop and sort of evaluate everything to see how it’s going. I usually like to do that each semester, and if I miss that mile marker at least at the halfway point. Whatever schedule I use I have that 180-day requirement in the back of my mind. Then I look at a calendar and figure out when I would like to finish and count backward from there. This also includes time off that I would like to take and holiday breaks. We like to finish in mid-May, plus have plenty of breaks, so I typically start school much sooner than the public school system does. This is where I am stuck currently. I have a few ideas playing around in my head and I can’t quite pick which one I want to follow.
The idea that I am thinking about this school year is a four-day school week. Monday through Thursday with every Friday off. A couple of programs, including BookShark have schedules for a four-day week. Most of those however still consider Friday a school day, but use it as a make-up day or a “fun Friday”. Meaning you do your co-op, field trips, or fun subjects like art on Friday. We have used that schedule in the past, especially when we used BookShark curriculum, but for me, fun Fridays always ended up being nothing Fridays. I would start the school year off strong but over time we ended up needing the break and sort of let Fridays slip. So, the idea that I am playing with for this year is actually taking every Friday off completely. We wouldn’t use it as anything other than a rest day. Obviously, if we needed to use it as a make-up day we could, or take a field trip, but mostly it would just be a down day. A day during the week to sort of re-group, run errands, put the house back together, or get done anything else that we need for the week. The problem with doing this type of schedule is figuring out how to make it work best. I still need to get those 180 days of school done. In my mind, I have two options to make this work. First, is to make our school days longer. If you get five days of work done, in four days, you have to do more work each day. I don’t love this idea, because who really wants to school longer each day. Our school days are typically done by 2pm and I really like that. I don’t know how well my kids would handle adding another hour or two of school each day. I know that sounds like an early school day if you are used to public school, but homeschooling gets more done in less hours because we don’t have to switch classes, or wait on other people. So, having them school longer would actually be asking quite a bit more of them school work wise. In theory, it would be ok since they would be getting a full week-day off, but I don’t love this option. Where I am leaning is schooling for 45 weeks instead of 36. 180 days divided by 4 means 45 weeks of school. This is quite a bit longer of a school year, and would essentially put us in a year-round school schedule. I like the idea of this, so does my son, but that would mean we have to start school in the next couple of weeks. No-one likes that idea. However, being done by 2pm means they wouldn’t miss much of the summer anyway. There would still be plenty of time to hang out with friends and play outside. If we do decide on this schedule I really need to get in gear with curriculum ordering. We have enough on hand to start the school year and be fine, but I do have a few things I need to order. Typically the media shipping that curriculum uses takes a while to arrive, so I need to get that done now. Either way, whatever we decide, the school year is a lot closer than I am ready for. Like the kids, I also enjoy summer break. It gives my brain time to relax and get re-motivated for the task ahead. That’s where we are at right now. Still enjoying our time off, but getting ready for what’s ahead, whichever schedule we choose.
Thank goodness for summer break! I haven’t written in a while because, at the end of the school year, the kids and I were all so burnt out. I was finishing up some college classes, we were finishing up our school year, and we all needed this break desperately. It’s amazing what a little time off can do. I feel excited again for the upcoming school year and truly enjoy the process of researching and planning. Most of what we are doing next year will be the same as this past year but I am looking to make a few changes. I will be researching some new math options for a start. I have decided, my daughter, especially needs a program with more of a hands-off approach for me. We do very well together for every subject except math. I can’t blame her, I always hated math too. So I am in the process of finding something that will work a bit better for us this year. That is something that I love about homeschooling, especially homeschooling now. Every year more and more options become available. It’s almost overwhelming the amount of curriculum choices that are available. However your child learns best there is going to be an option for that. We just have to find it. I’m pretty excited and hopeful that I can find what we need and make this upcoming school year run even smoother than it ever has before.
On the other hand, we are sitting back and enjoying summertime. I have a real garden for the first time in my life and am just thrilled with everything growing in it. My daughter has her own little bed of flowers that are growing and I can’t wait to see them bloom. The sun is out and the weather is getting warm and it feels so good to my soul. I really thrive on sunshine and right now our days are long. I love it. So although I am in planning mode a little, I am in no hurry to get the next school year going. I do try and get our choices made early enough to order before the big school rush, but this year I feel like I may take a little extra time. I want to enjoy this break and take full advantage of the rest time. I want to walk around the garden, breathe the fresh air, and just relax.
Wattles and Combs Farm 