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.

As for the rest of our curriculum, most of that is staying the same as it always has. For Language Arts, we will continue to use mostly IEW https://iew.com/. We use their writing program, Fix-it-Grammar, and handwriting. Spelling and Vocabulary are covered by Spelling Power https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/002784/Spelling-Power-5th-Edition-Adams-Gordons.html?, and Wordly Wise https://www.rainbowresource.com/hSearch.jhtm?keyword=Wordly+Wise#keyword=Wordly%20Wise&mpp=24. Then I add in reading and read-alouds to round out Language Arts. For History, we will continue to use Story of the World. https://welltrainedmind.com/c/series/the-story-of-the-world/. This year we will be using the fourth book in the series and adding in other resources as needed. I have a ton of encyclopedias laying around as well as Who Was Books that are always a good add-in. That pretty much covers everything. The only thing I am still deciding on is an Art Curriculum. My daughter loves art so I am still looking for something for her to do. I think I will probably end up using Artistic Pursuits https://artisticpursuits.com/home.

Homeschool Planner

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.