First Day of Homeschool

We are officially in the full swing of homeschooling!

I love reading blogs or watching videos about what other WFH or homeschool moms are doing for the year. It's inspiring to take bits of pieces that will work for our family. I don't have any expert tips and tricks, but I wanted to share about what we are doing so it might give someone else ideas. 

The What

This section is the what we are doing for homeschool. If you only care about the how, skip over this first section.

For my 9th grader, we are homeschooling High School English 1, Church History & Theology, and Geometry. She is taking Biology and Spanish 2 from a co-op near us. She will have a web design elective taught from a dear friend that has a degree and years of experience in different aspects of design, art, and communications. And finally, she will still be training in karate to count for her P.E.

- Highschool English 1: We decided to stay with IEW for grammar, try Wordly Wise for vocab, and go throughTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

- Church History & Theology: We are using the Westminster Shorter Catechism for Study Classes by G.I. Williamson, More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell, What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? by D. James Kennedy & Jerry Nercombe, The Jesus I Never Knew by Phillip Yancey, and The Story of Christianity: 2000 Years of Faith by Michael Collins & Matthew A. Price. 

- Geometry: Saxon Geometry taught by Nicole the Math Lady online. 

- Biology: Her teacher uses the Apologia Biology textbook. They will be analyzing things under a microscope and doing all of the normal gross Biology lab things. I'm so thankful that she can take this from school, and that I don't have to teach it!

- Spanish 2: Her teacher uses the BJU Spanish 2 textbook. Additionally, she will have a zoom call with her teacher's sister who lives in Argentina to work on speaking and understanding Spanish conversationally in a group.

For my 3rd and 1st grader, they take their full curriculum from a co-op twice a week, then we work on the concepts they learned at home. For science they will both be using the Apologia Botany curriculum. Their art curriculum pairs with their science curriculum, so a lot of leaves and other things, as well as their history time periods, so they they will be focusing on Modern art this year. Their precious art teacher already prepped the parents that we probably won't be able to tell what their art is supposed to be, and that is just the nature of Modern art. Their Spanish teacher speaks mostly in Spanish for the whole class and focuses on teaching culture over vocabulary. Both kiddos will use Handwriting without Tears at different levels for practice. 

For 3rd grade English, they use BJU English 3, Abeka Reading Comprehension skill sheets, Pathway New Friends reading book and workbooks, as well as some read-aloud books starting with The Railway Children. Her math curriculum is Abeka Arithmetic 3. 

For 1st grade English, they use Abeka Letters and Sounds 1, and for Math, he will have Abeka Arithmetic 1.

The How

So that's the curriculum, but how do we do home days?

I recently found a counselor named Mika Ross who has incredible resources for home and family life. We have instituted daily and weekly chores that work for our family, as well as the Family Laws with the Habit-building cards. It has worked WONDERS for our family. Communication with the kids about being kind, obeying, taking responsibility, and honoring each other has greatly improved. 

In the morning, we do our devotional time, eat breakfast, and do morning chores (this includes getting ready for the day). On Monday morning before I start work, I homeschool the oldest in all of our homeschool subjects while the littles do their morning chores. After that, I will get one kiddo set up with an activity while I listen to another read or go over new concepts. Then we will switch, and the other will do handwriting or something independent while I work on new concepts with the other kiddo. Then I start work. For the times that I don't have conference calls, I do have a handful of things that I can do while sitting at the table with the kiddos to help them focus. However, I do have to have focused churn time to knock out projects or be present for conference calls. At some point during the day, someone is doing some sort of school. 

Honestly, every day is different. There are some days that my whole plan gets tossed out the window. Some days hold tasks that need my full brain attention and focus, some days I work from the karate school, some days I'm in conference calls back-to-back for the whole day, some days I wake up early or stay up late to get some work done - it's all different. My hope is that I can keep my eyes on Jesus, do the next thing He is asking me to do, and let the rest go.