As I write this, I’m coming off of three days at The Great Homeschool Convention and am feeling so much gratitude for our family’s ability to homeschool, and invigorated for the year ahead. The motivational speakers we heard from during the convention offered excellent tips and ideas for homeschooling, parenting, and discipleship and delivered the refreshment I needed to dive into another school year. And beyond the speakers, it was just so encouraging to be surrounded by hundreds of like-minded families who share our convictions and who are also facing the daily struggles and triumphs of schooling at home.
It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this is my FIFTH official year as a homeschool mom. My convictions around homeschooling have deepened with each passing year, as has my confidence in choosing the methods and resources that work best for our family. This year Charleston will be in 4th grade and the twins will technically be doing PreK. I didn’t start “official” homeschool with Charleston until Kindergarten, and that was always my plan for the twins as well. However, they’ve been showing a lot of interest in beginning their own school work (beyond sitting in on Charleston’s lessons as we did last year); they won’t be five until the end of September and I don’t love the idea of starting Kindergarten before age five, so we will start off simple with a PreK program this year that should give them a head start for Kindergarten work beginning next fall.
Another huge difference this year is, of course, that I will be caring for a newborn on top of schooling my three bigger kids. Because there are so many unknowns about how all of this will go, I am holding our plans VERY loosely and trying to maintain low (but reasonable) expectations for this school year. That said, I find comfort in planning and have put a lot of thought into our curriculum choices and schedules for the coming year. A lot of what we are doing is simply a continuation of last year, but we are adding in some new things, swapping out some old ones, and tweaking areas to make them work better for our current situation. I’m excited to share those plans with you today!
My reasons for sharing are manifold: if you’re a homeschooler yourself, you are probably interested in seeing what other homeschool families are doing (I know I am!); if you’re curious about homeschooling, this may give you an idea of where to start; and if you’re not part of the homeschooling world, you can either feel free to skip this post OR accept this invitation to peek into the window of one family’s approach to an alternative form of education.
I’ll begin with an overview of the subjects we’re covering this year, the days we will be studying those subjects, and the specific materials we will be using. Then I’ll share our tentative schedule for how we plan to fit this all in. I’ll end with a list of additional resources that we find helpful for schooling at home.
THE CURRICULUM
CHARLESTON (4TH GRADE):
Language Arts (M-Th): The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts, Level 4 I love everything about the curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful. It is inexpensive, attractive, challenging, Bible-based, and entirely open-and-go. This course covers writing, spelling, reading, grammar, usage, punctuation, vocabulary, geography, and art appreciation and instruction. Beginning with Level 4, the lessons are almost entirely student-led.
Math (M-Th): The Good and the Beautiful Math, Level 4 Charleston completed the first half of this curriculum last spring and will finish up Level 4 in December. We plan to move on to Level 5 mid-year. Beginning in Level 4, this curriculum is almost entirely student-led, with daily video lessons as well as the option for parent-led follow-up lessons to solidify challenging concepts.
History (M-Th): The Mystery of History Volume II—Medieval History This is a new curriculum for us this year and appears to be more student-friendly than the BiblioPlan curriculum we used last year. Like BiblioPlan, The Mystery of History takes a chronological approach to world history, covering all of history (Creation through present day) over four courses (Ancient History, Medieval History, Renaissance History, and Modern History). We will be picking up where we left off after completing Ancient History last year. The curriculum is Bible-based and involves daily readings as well as optional quizzes, crafts, and supplemental activities.
Handwriting (T-F): The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting, Level 4 Charleston completed the first half of this workbook—which focuses on cementing cursive letter formation—last year. We will finish this in December and plan to move on to the Level 5 Handwriting Workbook mid-year.
Creative Writing (M, T, W): The Good and the Beautiful Creative Writing This open-and-go workbook covers fiction writing and poetry and teaches skills such as adding sensory descriptions, generating ideas, using gestures to show emotion, and creating engaging characters and plots. These lessons will be done independently.
Biblical World View (Lessons on Monday, Homework T, W, Th): Foundation Worldview—Studying the Bible I have been SO impressed with this curriculum, which we began last spring and will complete this year (with plans to move on to the Comparative World View curriculum once we’ve finished). Lessons teach skills for studying, interpreting, and applying Scripture. They are video-guided but designed to be done along with the parent as they are quite rigorous. Charleston is able to complete the follow-up homework assignments on his own.
Piano (M, T, W): Simply Piano Charleston has been doing piano lessons with this app for a couple of years, and I’ve been impressed with how much progress he’s made in just ten minutes of practice each day.
PE (Thursday): Charleston will continue to attend a weekly sports program for homeschoolers. Since the program is age- (rather than grade-) based, we plan to enroll Kali and Sully when they turn five in September.
Spanish, Music, Art, & Drama (Friday): Charleston will cover these subjects at the electives program he will attend every Friday at a Classical Academy in town. This is our first year with this program and we are excited to be part of this school that many members of our church community attend.
KALINDA & SULLIVAN (PRE-K):
Language Arts (M-Th): The Good and the Beautiful Preschool Language Arts Course Set This course introduces littles to letters, sounds, and fine motor skills through interactive lessons, folder activities, songs, games, and videos. We will supplement with additional resources and activities as needed.
Math: We won’t be using any curriculum for this, as the twins already have a good number sense and have mastered counting to 100, number recognition, and basic addition and subtraction. We will continue to use manipulatives and real-world experience to practice these skills
Biblical World View (Tuesday): Foundation World View: God’s Good Design for Biblical Sexuality While we’ve done other courses from Foundation World View, this one—which builds a biblical understanding of how God designed sexuality, gender, marriage, and the family—is new for us. It is designed for kids ages 4-8 so we may skip some of the more challenging supplemental activities but will watch the video lessons and complete as many of the follow-up activities as we can. I will likely have Charleston sit in on these videos with us, as he has not seen them.
Handwriting (T-F): The Good and the Beautiful Doodles & Pre-Writing for Littles, Part 2 These adorable notebooks, designed to help pre-writers develop skills necessary for writing, focus on strokes and forms used to create letters and common shapes. We completed Part 1 last year with great success.
WHOLE FAMILY:
Scripture Memory (Introduced Monday, Practice T-Th, “Perform” Friday): Cursive Handwriting & Bible Verse Copybook We will use the verses in this book for our weekly Bible memory work, and Charleston will do the accompanying worksheets that include cursive copywork and other related activities. The twins will draw a picture of the weekly verse in their Bible notebooks.
Latin (M-F): Getting Started with Latin This workbook consists of very short lessons that introduce Latin vocabulary and concepts gradually and systematically. Latin is a new subject for all of us, and it’s something I’m really excited to get into!
Science (Wednesday): The Good and the Beautiful Science for Little Hearts and Hands, Sparks and Stars This story-based curriculum uses hands-on activities, interactive narrations, and picture books to teach kids about space, planets, electricity, gravity, and machines that move. It is designed for kids in 2nd grade or younger, so we will supplement the material for Charleston as needed.
Independent Reading (M, T, W): The kids are given free choice in their independent reading selections (though I do provide some guidance and have veto power if necessary). The twins look at magazines or picture books, while Charleston reads chapter books. I participate too! This is a set part of our school day on our Monday-Wednesday schedule, but the kids all engage in independent reading at various other points of the day (especially car time) throughout the week.
Read-Alouds (M-F): I’ve pre-selected all of our family read-alouds for the school year (see stack below). We won’t do much “work” with these beyond reading aloud and discussing, with some occasional activities thrown in. After finishing each book, the kids will give an oral book report and Charleston will add the book to his Reading Journal.
THE GAME PLAN
As I mentioned above, this year will look a LOT different with a new baby in the mix. I am sharing our ideal schedule based on what worked for us last year, but this is flexible and will likely change a great deal as the school year progresses.
MONDAY, TUESDAY, & WEDNESDAY:
6:30-6:35 ~ Gather in the living room and begin our day with prayer time and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and Apostle’s Creed.
6:35-6:45 ~ Practice our weekly Bible Verse. The verse is introduced on Monday, and the kids come up with accompanying hand motions. We practice the verse Monday-Thursday, and on Friday the kids recite the verse for a video that is sent to family members.
6:45-7:10 ~ Move to the dining table for the remainder of our school morning. The kids work on their Bible verse assignments (Monday) or Penmanship workbooks (Tuesday-Friday) while I read from our current Read-Aloud novel. After reading, we briefly discuss what we have read, tying in real-world applications and literary skills (foreshadowing, character development, plot analysis, etc.).
7:10-7:20 ~ Complete the daily Latin lesson as a family.
7:20-7:50 ~ The twins move to the playroom for play time while Charleston and I do History. Lessons are introduced with a pre-test on Monday. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we read the lesson and Charleston writes a summary, which is added to his History binder. Some days might involve a reinforcement activity. Map work (incorporated in the curriculum) and a weekly quiz of the week’s material are completed on Thursday.
7:50-8:10 ~ Charleston and I complete the parent/child portion of the day’s Language Arts lesson and I go over his independent Language Arts and Creative Writing work for the day.
8:10-8:30 ~ Charleston and I complete the parent/child portion of the day’s Math lesson.
8:30-9:00 ~ Charleston moves to another room to complete his daily Math lesson (on video) while the twins and I complete their daily Language Arts lesson.
9:10 ~ Breakfast time! (Since we eat a late breakfast, the kids usually snack on milk and nuts during our earlier school hours.)
9:30-11:30 ~ Leave for our morning outing—either the gym, errands, library story time, or a play date. Charleston brings his independent work (Language Arts, Math, Creative Writing) to complete while we are out.
11:30–12:15 ~ On Mondays Charleston and I complete his Biblical World View lesson (on studying the Bible) together, and on Tuesdays we watch the twins’ Biblical World View video (God’s design for sexuality) as a family. On Wednesdays we complete our weekly Science lesson as a family.
12:15-1:00 ~ The kids play while I correct Charleston’s independent work and make lunch. Charleston wraps up any unfinished independent work at this time.
1:00-1:30 ~ Lunch time! We usually listen to Adventures in Odyssey while we eat.
1:30-2:00 ~ We all gather in the living room with our books for quiet family reading time.
2:00-4:00 ~ The twins go to their room for nap time or quiet play time. Charleston does his piano lesson and chores, then can play independently for the rest of the afternoon.
THURSDAY:
Schedule is a repeat of our Monday-Wednesday schedule until breakfast time, with lessons shortened slightly so that we can be out of the house by 9:00. After breakfast we attend Bible study, then drop Charleston off at Sports Day at 1:00. Charleston is home by 4:30 and completes his chores and any unfinished independent work then.
FRIDAY:
We follow our regular morning schedule for the whole-family portion of our school day (Prayer, Bible Memory, Read-Aloud, Handwriting, Latin). Breakfast is at 8:00 so that we can get Charleston to his extracurricular program by 9:00. Charleston is home by 3:30 and completes his chores and any unfinished assignments from the week.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
+ While it is not really part of our schooling, Charleston’s participation in Trail Life (weekly meetings, periodic activities, and monthly camping trips) is a huge part of his education, as is his involvement with our church’s mid-week Discipleship Program for 4th and 5th graders.
+ This is the planner I’ve used for years. It’s not fancy but suits my needs beautifully.
+ Beyond our Biblical World View curriculum, we don’t include Bible reading in our school day. This takes place before bedtime, when the twins and I read and discuss a story from a children’s Bible (we’re currently halfway through this illustrated Bible from N.T. Wright and love it) and Charleston and Luke read and discuss a chapter from Charleston’s study Bible (they’re reading straight through, Genesis to Revelation, and just finished up the book of Joshua).
+ We could never survive without our library cards! We visit the library at least once per week to pick up pictures books for the twins, chapter books and playaways for Charleston, and DVDs and board games for the whole family.
+ Our Adventures in Odyssey Club Membership continues to be the best $10 we spend every month. The kids have learned SO MUCH through the hundreds of audio dramas available on the app, and Charleston enjoys the various other features including activities, devotionals, and a weekly comic strip, plus a monthly subscription to Focus on the Family’s magazine for kids.
+ This visual timer and these sand timers have been helpful for managing independent work time and family reading time.
+ This book series has been invaluable in teaching our kids about God’s design for sex. We’ve read the first book (for ages 3-5) with all three kids and books two (for ages 5-8) and three (ages 8-12) with Charleston.
+ Art for Kids Hub continues to be our go-to resource for drawing videos. Charleston is also loving lessons from the Simply Draw app (which he used to draw the panda shown below).
And. . . that about sums it up for our school year plans! We are anticipating that the baby will be born mid-August, around the time we would usually start up our school year. To avoid an overlap, we will be starting our school year next week and working up until Baby Day. This will give us the leeway to take a few weeks off once the baby arrives, so that we can settle into life as a family of six before we enter life as a homeschooling family of six.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anything in the comments! And if you are a homeschool family, I would LOVE to hear about your school year plans. Any resources or scheduling tips to recommend? I’m all ears!
