A New School Year

As summer winds down and the nights start to get cooler, naturally my anxiety heightens. I’m not sure if any of you share the same back to school, winter is coming, anxiety. This year is a little different for us. We are still living in our toy hauler trailer trying to get our shop built before winter. Our new semi-permanent place to stay will be in our shop until we can build our house. With living in a small travel trailer comes the issue of NO storage. I have all the boys school stuff in one of our storage containers. So, we are constantly going in and out to grab our next subject. I have yet to go out and organize last year’s schoolwork and set up for this new year. AHHHHH! I mean I was planning on starting school next week!!

Every family, every new school year, every child has new challenges for everyone. It’s how we process, handle and move forward into our next season that matters. I basically need to just stop procrastinating! Another thing that helps my anxiety of starting a new season of trying to teach my kids to be a positive and contributing part of society is, new Curriculum. Opening up new boxes of subjects with wide eyes and dreams that this year is going to be AWESOME!

Side Note: I do always have to remind myself that this is why we decided to homeschool. To have our own schedule, to pick what I want and don’t want to teach our kids, and to have the flexibility to focus on each child’s strengths/interest and weaknesses.

A Great Year Starts with a Great Planner

I always start a new school year with a great planner. No joke! A good planner helps me realize I can do this! I have switched and am trying a new planner this year. I bit the bullet and got The Well Ordered Homeschool Planner. I say bit the bullet because this planner is expensive. I figure though, if it helps me stay organized and on task this year the money is totally worth it. I am one of those homeschool moms that definitely needs to stay organized. I tend to get distracted easily and end up too lax and then we are behind on our schoolwork before we know it. I mean I would just do story time in the hammock all day long. But with the kids no longer being early elementary ages, that doesn’t work anymore. I will give an update on this new Homeschool planner once I’ve gotten into the year a little bit. As of now I do really like the design. It’s for up to five kids, has a nice sturdy spiral bind, great monthly breakdowns and a loop schedule.

Click here to check out the planner I am using: The Well Ordered Homeschool Planner

New Year – New Curriculum

I am still using some of the same curriculum from last year but also mixing it up a little and adding some new stuff. This year I have chosen to dive deeper into bible study and relax the reigns a little on history. Also new for us this year is finishing up some of our curriculum from last year. We always get thru our set 36 weeks of curriculum before we take summer break. However, this last year, we were working on building our shop; most of our days were interrupted. Also not having a washer and dryer for a year and living at the laundry mat took one or two days off the table for schoolwork. Sometimes I would have the boys bring their schoolwork and we would work on it while waiting for the laundry to get done, but this was hard for my five-year-old. Anyways…this year I am going to have the boys finish up their math books from last year, and their history before I order new books. I figure we can’t just jump into a new book before finishing the last ones. It would cut off so much in history and that just doesn’t make any sense to jump ahead for math.

Bible Study

Here is the link: Driven by Grace

(This is a new curriculum for us. I plan on giving an update on our ups or downs with any new materials we use this year.)

Language Arts Curriculum

I am using I.E.W this year for three of my boys. I ABSOLUTELY love I.E.W! Last year was the first year I used this Language Arts for my oldest. I had actually contemplated using this curriculum a couple years in a row, however, it seemed really intense, and I got scared away. God kept pulling me back to this curriculum and like always I didn’t listen the first couple times!! But, I took a leap last year ordered it and fell in love.

Let me tell you that my 13-year-old did NOT like Language Arts. It was a battle every day to get him to write two sentences and at his age he is “supposed” to be writing essays, and thesis’s. I even had moments that got me wondering this can’t be how our homeschool is going to go for the next 6 years. Arguing over writing? Once we started I.E.W my son started enjoying Language Arts again. He no longer complains about having to do his writing and it has changed our dynamic. The writing skills they teach kids is easy, and straight forward. I believe these are skills they will actually use in real life.

My younger boys didn’t participate in the I.E.W program just Fix It Grammer. I would highly recommend Fix It Grammer for everyone starting 3-4 grade. The boys love it! I never thought I would be where my boys don’t complain about language arts but here we are! This year three of my boys are using I.E.W (Institute for Excellence in Writing).

Here is a link to the I.E.W website for you to check out the curriculum! Institute for Excellence in Writing

Don’t be intimidated like I was. It is the least complicated, easiest Language Arts I have found that fits our family!

Math

I wasn’t sure when I started out what math program I was going to use. However, I knew that in Washington and Idaho (I’m not sure about the rest of the states) they used common core math. Nope! Not for us! All I knew is that I wasn’t going to use common core. I stumbled across Math-U-See while researching different math curriculums. I have four boys and was sold when I saw that this program uses manipulatives. I love that there is something hands on to help them learn! All my boys are done really well with this curriculum. We do skip around a little bit. I have a few family members that tried this program and ended up switching because they didn’t understand how it works. It is very repetitive. But for good reason. The way it works is, if your child understands the lesson skip forward to the next lesson. If not, there are plenty of pages for them to continue to work on that lesson. This is where some get stuck. They don’t move on and have the kids do every page every for every lesson. So, the kids get bored or burnt out! I don’t do that. We skip around. If they get the concept we move on. No use beating a dead horse. This may not be the reason this curriculum didn’t fit for some. This is just the main complaint from fellow family members. Once I explained the way it works, and that you can skip forward it made sense to those that were fighting that roadblock.

Here is a link to Math-U-See

Math-U-See is also available through Christian Book and Sonlight.

Science

The science I chose this year is a Homesteading/Agricultural Science. We are homesteading. So, I figured why not teach a science that pertains to our daily lives?! Introduction to Homestead Science and the Little Learners Homestead Science is what I chose for this year. I haven’t used this before. I actually haven’t received it yet (I was a slacker and didn’t order it till late). I am super excited for this science. Since I don’t have the curriculum, yet I don’t have much to say. I do plan on giving an update on any new material we use this year!

Here is a link: The Homestead Education

Geography

I am also trying a new Geography curriculum for this new school year. This is the year for changing it up! I chose to use Letters From Afar. This isn’t your typical curriculum. It is a fun adventurous way to learn about areas around the world. They way it works is you sign up for how many “letters” you want to receive. I chose to do an entire twelve months. So, we will get a letter every month. The letters are in a journal format written about a place in the world that has a great historical event linked to it. Each month a new letter about a new place. What I plan on doing is learning about the location on the map, then diving into the event that took place, reading books about it, watch any educational videos, and create a journal, so to speak, with drawings and cut outs or key words about each place. I’m excited about the flexibility of using this material. We can dive into each place around the world and find out what are common foods and different cultural items, and we can spend as much or as little time we want on each location.

With this also being a new item for us this year. I will give an update also.

Here is a link: Letters From Afar

History

I haven’t chosen a history curriculum yet. I know! I can’t believe it myself. I usually have everything organized, planned out and ready to go. This year I feel a little upside down. I am trying a lot (for me) of new things. History is very important to us as a family. We have to know about our past so we can learn from it to help our future. I just feel like I haven’t found something that was easy to flow through. Some curriculums can be a little wordy and kind of slow. I might just use what we have in the past and instead of reading it word for word just take the events and dive into them on our own and create our own history timelines and folders.

I will also give an update to our History corner once I decide what we are doing!

A New Year School Year brings New Challenges!

Whatever curriculum you decide to use this year it is going to be great! To myself I have to be reminded that I chose to homeschool for a reason. So, we can have that quality time together (even if it is navigating the challenges of back talk from my new teen), so I can help the kids navigate through life lessons, getting the chance to figure out what each child is really interested in, and for me most importantly to teach my children the moral compass, the right, in a world that is consumed by wrong.

I have had moments where I thought I misunderstood God’s plan for me to homeschool. Where I was wondering “what am I doing wrong”, and why isn’t my homeschool madness going smooth like everyone else. I still do. I still pray that if this is the Lord’s plan that I don’t stray from it and also if it is not HIS plan that I can swallow my pride, step aside (a little) and have them join public school. Don’t give up. EVERYONE has dips and peaks in their homeschool journey.

I hope your house as a blessed school year.