I can’t believe we’re already almost 3 months into our homeschool year! Now that we’ve had some time to dive into our curriculum, I figured it was time to share a homeschool update. Every year, we find that there are some things that need to be tweaked (whether that be in our rhythm or curriculum). Below, I’m going to share what what we’re still using and some fun new things we’re trying out!

Before we dive in, I wanted to note…..

I’ve been a bit more absent on this space lately. This is usually the time of year where I feel like I want to step back and be more present in my day to day. Homeschool days go by quickly, but they can also feel very long at the same time (if that makes sense). I often find myself running out of time and if I do get a free moment, I’m usually cleaning the house, baking, or reading a book. Social media has taken a back burner in my priority list, but blog posts like these provide an easy way for me to pull together all the things I want to share and it’s a way for me to document our school year!

I’m not ready to jump back into social media full time (yet… that may change), but I do plan to share these posts every month to provide an update.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dive into what’s been going on in our homeschool!

Math

Both of my boys are still loving The Good and the Beautiful Math! We’re using Level K and Level 2. I think it’s a great math program, but I have considered trying out something new in the future. Some things I love about the program are that the games are fun and I love the manipulatives. However, there is a lot of “fluff”. I’ve been back and forth with my thoughts on math this year, but my boys are both enjoying it so right now I see no reason to switch right now. We’ll explore more options when the time comes!

Language Arts

Kindergarten

For my Kindergartener, we’ve been taking it suuuppeeerrrr slow! We started off our year doing some alphabet review and we’ve been working our way through Explode the Code books A,B, and C. He has been loving Explode the Code and I plan to continue on with the books once we finish them!

After we got some review out of the way, we started All About Reading Level 1. We’re also taking this very slow. We have been doing 1 lesson a week, but breaking it apart and doing a little bit each day (for example: I introduce letters one day, review and build on the skill the next day, activity the next). I really like how gentle this program is and I can see how it is helping my Kinder build the skills he needs to read. I do think this program will take us more time to complete, because of where he’s at in his learning journey.

2nd Grade

We’ve had some BIG changes with my 2nd grader’s language arts! We started off the year with The Good and Beautiful Language Arts Level 2. This was our third year using the curriculum. While I’ve enjoyed using TGTB to teach my son how to read, I could tell he was ready to switch it up. He’s become a strong reader and the workbooks honestly felt like busy work at this point.

I knew I wanted to try out a program called Brave Writer by Julie Bogart next year, so I figured we could take a break from our current curriculum and I went ahead and purchased a single Dart literature guide to try out. We jumped in with the book Sidekicks! We fully immersed ourselves in the Brave Writer Dart process for a month and I can say it was a big learning curve for me, but my son absolutely LOVED it! I admit I had to watch lots of Youtube videos to find how people organized the guides. It’s definitely not open and go program, but sometimes the best things take a little more preparation and work. The whole method of Brave Writer is to have kids learn grammar, spelling, punctuation, and literary devices through literature. Each month, you pick a book to read with your child and you learn those skills by examining the text within the book. Each week there is copywork and discussion topics for you to have with your kids. At the end of the guide, there’s even book party ideas! I love that we were learning through real life application and that it’s not just another workbook, but I also had to wrap my head around the idea of teaching more through organic conversations and not just answering questions on a page.

My son really wants to continue on with the program, so I went ahead and bought a few more Lit singles during their sale. Our November Dart is going to be Big Foot and Little Foot by Ellen Potter. I think this is going to be a hit with my boys!

We are continuing to use The Good and the Beautiful’s Booster C Book, the games, and readers. In addition to this, I brought in some Explode the Code workbooks for him to practice phonics skills.

Writing

I wanted to try out another product from Brave Writer called Jot it Down. This program gets kids ready for writing by teaching them the skills needed to write. There’s no actual writing involved in this program, but kids get to “write” or “jot down” their thoughts through oral retellings. There’s projects like fairytale stories, making lists, art appreciation, and more. We have just begun the fairytale portion! The way we have been doing it is, we read a fairytale one week then I have them tell me their version in their own words. The second week, I have them put the final touches on their stories and illustrate. This has been fun for my boys. I feel like I skipped over a lot of these fairytales when they were younger and they have loved reading them!

Spine (Literature, History, Science, Bible, Art)

We all have been loving Playful Pioneers from The Peaceful Press! It has been the highlight of our day.

We started reading through the Little House on the Prairie series. We just finished reading our first book, Farmer Boy. My boys absolutely LOVED it! Farmer Boy is about Almanzo, Laura’s future husband, and what his childhood was like growing up in New York as a “farmer kid”. There were times where I felt like the topics may be hard for my kids to grasp, but throughout the book we had some great discussions and learned a lot! I will say, for me…the chapters felt extra long and very descriptive, but I have to remind myself of the magic of these books. Laura wanted us to see exactly what it was like growing up in this time period!

One thing I want to note is that we’ve had to make this curriculum our own. No curriculum is written perfectly for every family, so sometimes you have to adjust things! There’s A LOT packed into a week and it can be overwhelming to do it all. Some weeks, I skip readings, baking, or a craft, and some weeks we fit it all in. We make it work for our family and for our kids. I had a hard time not doing all the suggestions in the schedule at first, but now we take what we need and leave what we don’t.

So far, we’ve learned about Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Leif Erickson, Colonial Days, and Native Americans. We’ve also been learning all about what it was like to be a pioneer through the Little House series. The kids rolled ice cream, made butter, and popped popcorn just like the old days!

The one thing I love about this curriculum is that it has challenged me to try new things with the boys that I never would have. We’ve been doing things like looming, rolling candles, and felt needling. My boys have really surprised me with how much they like the crafts. I have one kid who’s been looming for a month now and he doesn’t plan to stop!

In week 7, it is suggested to make a family tree in a notebook. I had previously found a free family tree project from another homeschool mom and I knew I wanted to use that at one point in our school year, so it worked out perfectly!

The guide we ended up using is Me and My Family Tree from Little School of Smiths. This is a FREE project to download! We read Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney and created our own tree using fingerprints (you can also use handprints). Then, the kids drew each of our family members and we put them on our tree. Since my kids are younger, it did take them about a week to finish this project (it was a lot of drawing/coloring). I thought this project was so fun and we have it proudly displayed in our homeschool room!

Field Trips

We’ve taken two field trips so far this year. Our first trip was to an Apple Orchard in North Carolina. We went with a group of homeschool friends and stayed the weekend in the mountains. It was a great way to wrap up our apple study! There’s nothing better than apple donuts, apple picking, and apple cider!

Our second field trip was to the Lexington County Museum. Our museum field trip was amazing! The day was divided into two parts. The first half of the day the kids did a Native American class where they learned about Native American music, hunting, and they got to make pinch pots. The second half of the day they got to see what it was like to live in Colonial times. They did all of these classes in a house built in the 1770’s! It was such an amazing experience!

Extras

Something new we’ve been trying out this year is a drop-off art class. The kids go once a week for an hour. They are always thrilled to go! They’ve had so much fun creating art and they come home with the cutest projects. I also love that they aren’t just doing art, but their learning about the fundamentals of art.

My boys also do a science homeschool class once a month at our local swamp. We did this program last year and we all really enjoyed it. This year they’re learning about water and ecosystems. It’s a hands-on program and I love that they get to learn outside!

November + Thanksgiving Homeschool Plans

November is one of my favorite months. I love that we get to slow down and focus on gratefulness. Here’s some things we plan to use in November:

• Thankful Turkey. Every year, we do a thankful turkey! We do something similar to this from Busy Toddler. I cut out a turkey’s body and have the kids write something they are thankful for on a feather. By the end of the month, their turkey will be full of all the things they are thankful for.

• Brighter Day Press Thanksgiving Guide. We used this guide last year and loved it. It comes with reading suggestions, recipes, and activities to do for Thanksgiving week. It’s simple and that’s what I love the most. We’re looking forward to using it again this year!

• Gratefulness Character Pack. Another thing I have used in the past is the Beginner character activity packs from September and Co. The one I love using in November is…Gratefulness! There’s stories, games, and activities to teach kids about what gratefulness means. It’s a fun way to practice the trait throughout the month.

That’s a wrap on our homeschool life lately. I’ll be back to share more about our Christmas school plans soon! Stay tuned.