Homeschool Update (7 weeks in)

We made it to our first break week and it is SO needed!! I am tired and ready for a mini break to regroup.

If you are new around here, we do sort of a “sabbath” schedule where we complete school for 6 weeks and then take a week off. The week off has been so beneficial for all of us, especially me! This gives me a break to get caught up on household chores, schedule appointments, run extra errands, or just relax. I also use this time to plan ahead for the next 6 weeks.

We start and end our school year with a 7 week stretch, so this is our first week off after doing school for 7 weeks. The kids are enjoying playing and a few outings this week, while I am getting some work done on my next history guide and hopefully resting too! We do still read everyday and are actually finishing up one project from our first history unit.

The most change in our school year happens in the first 6 weeks. We are figuring out our routine/rhythm, trying new curriculum and seeing what works best for everyone. Today I’m sharing a quick update of some changes we made, some things that are working well, and what we are getting ready for the next 6 weeks of homeschool.

To see all the curriculum we are using this school year, check out these posts: 6th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade, and Kindergarten.

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Language Arts

This year I decided to try a new language arts/writing curriculum for everyone and so far it is working really well! Each of my kids are using EIW (Essentials in Writing) and the lesson each day is fairly quick with 1-2 pages for review/practice. I have a more in depth post all about it HERE.

Most of the video lessons are so short it has been easier for me to just go over the instructions and explain the concepts myself and then have them do the workbook page, rather than pulling out the computer, logging in, and watching the video lesson.

The curriculum is laid out where the first half of the year you cover all the grammar and the second half of the year you cover composition/writing. I decided to go back and forth, intertwining the sections, so we are doing both grammar and writing all throughout the year. So for the first 7 weeks of our school year we have only done the first section on grammar. When we return, some of my kids will begin the first writing section, while others will continue to finish their first section on grammar (some levels stretch concepts longer than others for more practice.)

It’s working well so far, especially with multiple kids, but I’ll report back again once we have tried some of the writing sections too!

My kids have also finished their first chapter book and book reports! Each month I assign them one book to read. (You can see all the books I chose for them in the curriculum posts linked up top.) We have a quiet reading time for 30 minutes everyday after lunch and they complete a fun book report at the end of the month. My 2nd and 4th grader are doing the envelope accordion book reports. My 2nd grader fills out this free printable to put inside each envelope and I got THESE worksheets for my 4th grader to put in his envelopes that are a little more detailed.

My 6th grade daughter is completing a book journal this year after reading each book and she is having so much fun with it! You can see more details HERE and all the supplies HERE.

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Math

Our biggest curriculum change has been math for my 2nd grader. He has been through quite a few curriculums the past year and I think we finally found a great fit!

He completed The Good and the Beautiful Math Level 1 in first grade and didn’t enjoy all the lengthy stories and fluff. Since he finished the curriculum early in the year I had him work on Horizons Level 1 Book 2 (the second half of 1st grade) for additional practice to finish the school year and see if he enjoyed it. He loved it because it is very straight forward/to the point and lots of practice.

We paused the book for summer and picked it back up again at the start of the school year. Unfortunately it felt like it started to move REALLY fast. While there is lots of practice problems, it was almost too much too quick. I had started using Math With Confidence with my Kindergartener and it was working well, so I decided to give it a try for 2nd grader also.

So far Math With Confidence has been working great! It’s not my favorite curriculum, I don’t like that it isn’t as open-and-go as TGTB (more prep for me) and uses SO many manipulatives, but I do think it teaches the concepts really well and has great games for practice/review.

My son wasn’t happy about leaving Horizons to now try Math With Confidence, but I could see he was starting to struggle and it would have only gotten worse. During his 1st grade year he fell in LOVE with reading, thanks to the Dogman books that read like comics/graphic novels, so I thought he would also like to try Beast Academy.

We had done a short trial with them one summer and I wasn’t a fan of their online program, however, I thought he would love to read the physical workbooks that use comic book stories to teach math concepts. I got book 1B (to review some concepts) to start and he has been loving it as a supplement! Definitely his style and everyone is happy now 🙌🏼

So we have been using Math With Confidence 2nd Grade and Beast Academy as a supplement. We do one lesson each day (4 days per week) from Math With Confidence and 2 pages from the Beast Academy workbook. Both together has been a great mix of games, puzzles, and plenty of practice to build a strong math foundation. He is enjoying both so we will stick with it!

**This is what is working for us. You can use one or the other and don’t have to supplement if you don’t need it.

My oldest two (4th & 6th) are really loving Teaching Textbooks for math this year! They are able to do math fully independent and I receive an email each day sharing what they covered, their grade, progress, etc.

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Ancient Egypt

We wrapped up our first history unit study of the year, Ancient Egypt, and had so much fun! The kids created lots of fun art, notebook pages, and we even went to an Egyptian museum to see a real mummy! I saved the pharaoh project for the end and we are spending our break week finishing it up.

We are now taking a break from history and will work on science for the next 6 weeks.

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Field Trips & Co-op

We went on so many outings and field trips the past 7 weeks! We visited the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, the Sacramento Zoo, and a few nature trails. We’ve been doing it all as I know our outings will get fewer and far between when we get into the colder months and heavy Nutcracker rehearsals.

One of the moms from our co-op started a “Kids in the Kitchen” class once a month and it has been so fun! They learned to make apple hand pies in September and we are making pumpkin cookies next week for October. I’ll be sharing more details all about this later, but you can find lots of the supplies we are using HERE.

For our co-op that meets bi-weekly, we have been studying birds with the Bird Unit Study from The Good and the Beautiful. It has been great so far, especially for a group! I’ve moved some of the lessons around and we had a fun outdoor movie night to watch the animated movie Migration after learning about it.

You can learn all about how I started our co-op or where to find one local to you HERE and HERE.

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Extras & Favorites

We have been doing one art lesson per month with Studio Sprout Elements of Art Bundle. These have been nice and simple but a lot of fun. All of the projects will fit together into an art book at the end of the school year.

My boys have been loving these sticker books while I read aloud, am working on lessons with someone else, or while waiting at their sister’s ballet class. They have been great for some extra phonics and math practice!

October/Fall Plans

Now that October is here we like to add in a few fun things. The past two years we have completed a Pumpkin Artist Study and my kids are excited to do new ones this year! I’ll let them choose their artist this week and we will grab our pumpkins at our field trip next week. Then we will hit up the library for some books, complete the biography brochure, and paint their pumpkins. They look forward to this every year!

My daughters ballet academy/company is putting on a big production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at the end of October, so before we go see it we are going to read the story and do some fun activities from this guide from Little World Wanderers. My daughter and I are reading the story together, but there are a few great hands-on projects and activities we will all do as a family for the Halloween season.

We will be diving into our science studies with Beast Academy Science and starting new chapter books! My daughter and I are reading The Princess Bride together and also listening to this audiobook As You Wish by Cary Elwes all about the making of the movie while we do a large paint by number! My boys are reading Hotel Flamingo by Alex Milway and Painting the Game by Patricia MacLachlan.

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I hope to share a new blog post next week all about our daily rhythm/schedule and what a typical homeschool day looks like for us!

We are looking forward to new books, fun projects, and lots of science experiments in the next 6 weeks of our school year! Continue to follow me on Instagram as I share some of our daily lessons and always feel free to leave a comment below or send me a message if you have any questions!

Wishing you a fabulous fall!

– Lindsay