End of the Year Homeschool Update {2019-2020}

We are done with our (bizzare!) school year!!! I wasn't entirely sure when we would finish up. We started after Labor Day, and then took a few weeks off throughout the year for holidays and family visits and such. For the last month or so (this was written toward the end of May), as we've been finishing up a subject, we're just done with it. So we were down to just doing math & language arts, and then for the last week and a half or so, just language arts which was only taking about a half hour - 45 minutes per day. As of Friday, May 22, we are finished with 1st and 2nd grade! 

This was definitely a unique and interesting year with being in quarantine, having enrichment classes cancelled, etc. I am grateful we were in the position we were in and didn't have to navigate figuring out how to homeschool on top of other huge life changing things. My 2 sons were attending half day preschool 4 days per week, but when they left for spring break March 12, they never went back since the schools closed. Having them home full time was a bit of an adjustment, and I did start working with them on preschool at home, but overall it went well and everyone did ok with it. My daughters usually go to 5 hours of enrichment classes each week, but those were also cancelled mid-March. We didn't have any more visits from our supervising teacher, all of the field trips and activities were cancelled and we were home, which is definitely different even though we were already homeschooling. Even though we had some curve balls thrown at us, the last quarter or so of school did go very well. The girls learned a ton this year. I love doing their end of the year assessments for language arts and seeing how they compare to the beginning of the year! They are much more fluent readers than they were 9 months ago. They have more knowledge, more skills and are generally just more mature. They're growing up so quickly! My oldest is halfway done with elementary grades! 
We ended up getting through the first book of the New City Catechism Curriculum, and a few questions into the second book. We did several review weeks throughout the year, to make sure my girls really had it down pat. I mentioned in my last post that we are considering using this for our family worship nights next year, so we may or may not use it for Bible in school next year. I do have my eye on something else for them that I'm excited about! 
For history, after we got bored with The Good & The Beautiful Year 1, I used some things that I already had printed out from TPT units last year, but honestly we just kind of fizzled out with social studies after about another month or so (around the time coronavirus hit). I just didn't push it. I'm still not sure what we are going to use for social studies next year. They're still young enough I just really don't want to push a bunch of historical facts that make them bored and they don't remember anyway, so I'm looking for something a little more engaging. 
Science, we did end up doing our human body unit, which I think was a great introduction to the human body. I think it will be great to go back to that topic in a few years and expand on it a lot more! We did not end up getting around to our bees unit, but I have some fun plans for that next year! Science was a lot of fun this year, and the girls really enjoyed it and I enjoyed teaching it more than years past. 
Language arts went very well this year! I don't have a whole lot else to say about that. I am SO looking forward to using the new edition of The Good & The Beautiful level 3 next year! I have been eyeing the beautiful new editions of level 1 and 2 and was bummed we couldn't use them. I am excited for a more streamlined curriculum now that they've changed a few things! This curriculum has worked very well for us the last 2 years. 
Well, math took a huge nosedive for us this year. I'm still not entirely sure why it went from working so well to....not. We were using CTC math this year (online, with me not really teaching, but helping where needed) and it was going so great until a few months ago. There were a lot of frustrations with each question that wasn't correct (because it instantly tells you whether it's right or wrong) and I think maybe one of my daughter's expectations of just going through the questions once and being done was off. If she didn't "pass" by getting enough questions right, she was really upset that she had to do more. I also think there wasn't enough review (well, none unless I did it), and maybe not enough math basics/facts taught. For example, in the multiplication unit, there was a lesson on counting by 3 and then after that one lesson, they I guess were just expected to know 3's. I personally think that takes awhile of reviewing and continuing to practice a  concept, not just seeing it once and knowing it. We have really struggled with math curriculum and just still haven't been able to find the perfect fit. I could see us using CTC again in a few years once more of those math basics and concepts are really solidly down and understood, but I am exploring another option for next year, which will be back to me teaching math, on paper, and more review and emphasis on facts each day (while still introducing new concepts). 
Handwriting & typing went well the rest of the year. Typing was really pretty sporadic throughout the year. Since they're still quite young, I just wanted them to start getting familiar with the keyboard, and they did. We'll keep using Typing Club next year. Handwriting was great this year! I will go ahead and order level 3 for them for next year (which will be mostly cursive!!!) but they'll finish up their level 2 book first! 

Per usual, this year went faster than any other has before. We had a really great year, despite all the changes and craziness, and we are still loving homeschooling! 

Day In The Life During Coronavirus Isolation

I'm thinking there really isn't a better time for an updated day in the life post than during the Coronavirus isolation/quarantine that most of us are doing right now! On the one hand, our life isn't that much different since we already homeschool and are at home a lot during the day anyway, but on the other hand it really is. My husband is home working now, the boys don't have preschool in the afternoons, the girls have no activities or classes, and we don't get to just leave the house to see friends or go to a park or fun place. So it is different! I know this will be something I want to look back on one day when Covid-19 is (hopefully) but a distant memory for us all! 

Monday, March 23, 2020

9:00 I finally drag myself out of bed. Ever since time change my kids have been sleeping in, and during this whole quarantine I've found myself more tired and off schedule than usual. A few kids are already up, so I wake the last one up and get the morning going. We have breakfast (waffles & I make a green smoothie for myself and my husband) and the kids start on their morning checklists. These have been pretty casual and the kids have been wanting to stay in PJs pretty much every day, which I am really ok with. They still need to do things like feed the dog, brush their teeth, unload the dishwasher and make their beds. I get myself dressed in casual/comfy clothes and brush my teeth and then I'm pretty much ready for the day. I haven't worn makeup in over a week. 

10:00 We are finally getting started on school! We start with Bible and the kids are asked to think about what it would be like to be on death row (which also means I have to explain the death penalty first) and then they draw a picture of what they would ask for for their last meal. It leads to a good gospel conversation. I love the catechism curriculum! 

10:20ish We move on to science. We are starting a new unit on the human body and our first lesson is on muscles. We look in a bunch of our Usborne human body books and learn more about muscles, the girls start a human body flip book, they do a corresponding math activity to find out what the hardest working muscle is  and we watch a video about muscles. (Lest you think it's all nice and quiet around here, my kids run around for pretty much the whole rest of the day yelling about shaking their gluteus maximus lol!) 

11:40 Science took longer than usual today so we are getting a late start on language arts. Our language arts lesson for today is a little different. Last week we hit a lesson where we were supposed to have 3 books from this one author to read. Of course, the libraries are closed now and these are pretty old books and a lot are out of print (I hate when curriculums ask you to get books that you can't find!), but luckily I was able to find exactly 3 of his books on Amazon and we got them over the weekend. So we're coming back to that lesson. 2 of the books are more wordy so I am going to just do them as read alouds and continue on with other lessons, but for today, especially since we're running so behind, I just do that as our lesson. I give out spelling words for the week and the girls work on spelling and handwriting while I read A Lion to Guard Us.

Sometime after we get done with read aloud, the girls do their math lessons. They're learning about fractions right now. 

12:30 I've gotten our family set up with an account from Prodigies music lessons. I've been looking into this for a few months, was going to wait and see if the classes my girls go to is going to offer music next year before purchasing, and then I got an email that they, like everyone else, is doing a free trial right now, so I went ahead with it. My boys have actually been doing it more than the girls! I set them up with the first lesson on the tv today and they loved it. One of my girls joins them while the other finishes up math and I get lunch (mac and cheese) fixed. 

12:45ish We're all eating lunch. My husband comes out from his "office" (our bedroom) for awhile since he's got a break in meetings for awhile, so we catch up on our mornings while the kids eat. 

1:10 As the girls finish up eating, they work on finishing and addressing their penpal letters so we can walk down to the mailbox and get those and a few other things sent off. 

1:25 We all take a family walk around the neighborhood, stopping to drop off and pick up mail. It's pretty nice out (it snowed yesterday) so it feels good to stretch our bodies out and get some fresh air, and the kids love having daddy join us in the middle of the day! We go around our circle a few times. Some of the kids pick up bikes at some point in the adventure. 

2:00 My husband has another conference call to hop on, so we get home and get everybody situated with quiet time (much later than usual, but the time outside was necessary!!) Everybody is having some quiet reading time for a bit while I get things cleaned up in the kitchen and get ready for my own quiet time. 

2:25 My boys are doing "virtual preschool" on a facebook page their teachers sent. It's not their teachers, but a page their teachers follow and this teacher is doing large group lessons every day. We don't catch them live, so I've been having the boys do them during this time. They're at that hard age where they could really use a nap but if they nap they won't go to bed well at night, and they're used to going to preschool in the afternoon. So it's been a bit tricky figuring out how to keep them quiet ish and busy during this time. A half hour of preschool time helps. 

I sit down with my Bible and Hebrews study while the boys are doing their preschool and the girls are downstairs playing quietly. 

3:00 The boys head downstairs to join the girls and they all start tv time. I am folding a bunch of laundry at this point, since I didn't do any over the weekend. After laundry I get caught up on some house things while the kids are watching their show. 

4:15 Husband is done working and we head downstairs to workout. Leg day for both of us. Most of the kids join us and one is off doing her own thing (more and more these days....I can feel a new season on the horizon with my oldest)! 

5:00 We are done working out and I head upstairs for a shower, while my husband and son cook dinner. He is grilling a pork loin and they make rolls, mashed potatoes, and veggies to go with it. It was all so yummy! We ate around 6. 

6:30 We've started a new post dinner cleanup routine. I recently realized my kids could totally be helping with the after dinner cleanup so I asked them to help me one night. One dried the pots and pans after I washed them, 2 cleaned off the table and chairs, and one vacuumed around the kitchen and dining area and wiped down the counters. It all went so smoothly and we were done in no time! So I made a checklist and now after dinner they grab the list, each chooses a job and gets after it. When they're done with their task, they go back to the list and choose another one, and do this until all the jobs are done! We're usually done in 10 minutes and my kitchen is getting cleaned up way more than ever before (I was horrible about cleaning the table or under it after meals before)! 

6:45 The kids play for a bit and my husband starts building our new bar stools. I loved our old ones so much and am sad to get rid of them, but they were breaking and after several repairs that weren't lasting, it was time. 

7:00 My friend Megan and her son Dax stop by to do a game swap! Megan always has the best ideas! We've set out Ticket to Ride Jr. and my middle made a little activity page/card for Dax on the porch, and we talk to them through the window for awhile. This is all so weird that this is how we're communicating with people now. It's the highlight of the day and we're all glad for some non-family human interaction! 

7:35ish The girls and I sit down to read Harry Potter. We are almost finished with book 2. I've never read them either so it's been fun reading them all together! My husband is finishing up bar stools and then the boys get ready for bed. 

8:00 The girls do their bedtime checklists and head off to bed around 8:15 or 8:30. 

I intended to write this blog post then, but I was really tired so once Tony was done with the barstools (I think around 9 or 9:30), we put them up, and headed off to our room to get ready for bed and then  mindlessly watch tv until bed (around 11). 

I would say the biggest differences during this quarantine are no school for the boys, husband home and around here and there throughout the day, not going places (we go out almost every day in regular life to a park, playdate, store, etc.) and less of a structured routine (hello sleeping until 9 a.m.....) But this has been a pretty typical day for us so far during the quarantine! 

Mid Year Homeschool Update {2019-2020}

We are well over halfway through our homeschool year (which is insanely hard to believe!) and I wanted to give a little update on how this year has been going.

My oldest is in 2nd and my middle is in 1st doing 2nd grade work, so essentially they're both doing 2nd grade. I feel like this has been our smoothest year yet! I remember when I was teaching and in college doing things in the classrooms, feeling like 2nd grade was such a great year because you're past the hump of learning to read and write but they're still small and sweet, and I definitely feel like that's been true this year! There's so much more we've been able to do since they have reading and writing down pat, and it's been a lot of fun. 

We start our school days with Bible, and we are using New City Catechism Curriculum this year. The catechism has been really great. I have loved that we're opening the Bible together, learning from it, discussing it and memorizing the catechism questions and answers. It has brought up SO many good discussions and questions from my girls which has been just awesome! My only complaint is that with the curriculum, a lot of the activities are hard to modify from a classroom setting to 2 kids (they'll have team activities, and things like that, that you just can't do with 2 kids). But the rest of it has been really good and I would highly recommend it, just knowing that at home, you'll have to modify or skip some things. 

Next up has been history and science. We've been on a rotation doing a unit of history for several weeks, then a unit of science, then back to history, so on and so forth. 

We have been using The Good & The Beautiful History year 1, and I felt like unit 1 was decent, but we were bored out of our minds during unit 2. It was just way over my girls' heads and even I was bored with it. I had hoped that the audio recordings, read aloud and book of stories would liven it up some, but I found that I was just having to over explain everything and it was taking a long time and no real information was being learned or retained. I do think it's a good program and laid out well, and I love that it's family style so all grades can do it together, but I don't think I would order it again until the kids are quite a bit older. So now we are using some units I bought and prepped last year from Teachers Pay Teachers, that we didn't finish, and are currently on Black History again. We'll finish up the year later with maps and landforms, and I think that'll be sufficient for 2nd grade! 

For science this year, we've done all units that I got on TPT and we have had SO much fun with our science units! We've done a unit on pumpkins and winter, and both were a lot of fun and the girls learned a ton. This has worked out so well, that I've already bought some units for next school year and am planning out units! We have 2 more science units this year coming up-human body and bees! Overall, science has been a favorite this year, which makes me happy because I never loved science growing up, so I'm really pleased that it's coming alive for them! 

After history/science, we move onto language arts. We are using The Good & The Beautiful language arts level 2 this year for both girls. We really enjoyed it last year and we are again this year. I was really hoping that their new edition would come out before the year started, but it just came out in January. It looks so beautiful and so much more concise, that I wish we could have used it, but what we've got has been working out well! The girls are learning a ton and their reading has progressed so well again this year. I like that level 2 has added geography in, so they are getting some work in with maps and continents, and other geography things, which has been great. I had intended to do writing on Fridays using another writing book I bought, but we haven't done much of it. My oldest is getting writing this year at her homeschool classes, and I think that the writing instruction has picked up a lot in this level of TGATB, so I'm happy with that and they've both come a long way with their writing this year. Both of the girls really enjoy language arts this year, which makes me happy. We pushed through some frustrating weeks with my oldest the last couple years, and this year it's all coming a lot easier and really clicking, which is the goal! I did do away with the TGATB method for spelling. They have your kids write out sentences each week for each of their spelling words, and after a year and a half of doing it that way and my kids not doing great with spelling (taking several weeks to pass some words), I decided to try something else. Now each day they just have some kind of spelling activity, such as write the rainbow-using one line of the rainbow and writing the word in each color on that line, or magic spelling where they write their words in white crayon, then color over it with marker to make it show up. I think that when they were doing the sentences, they were just trying to come up with a sentence, and not paying attention to the actual spelling word, and that's why they weren't remembering it, and this way they're really retaining the spelling words, so that's been a good change. My middle has gone through all the level 2 spelling words twice, so we just moved onto the level 3 words for her, which shows me that changing it up made a huge difference! One of my favorite benefits of homeschool-if it's not working, you can change it! 

Math usually comes last and it's been going so well this year. We are using CTC math, which is online, so I'm not really teaching math this year (*gasp*!) Of course I am there and step in often to help, but the actual lessons are taught online, they do the questions on their own and if they don't pass (85% is what I have it set to), then we look at where they're getting hung up together. My only complaint is there isn't a lot of review in this. I haven't spent a ton of time on the site figuring everything out, so maybe we could be coming back to things someway, but I just haven't seen it. So some of the trickier concepts, I'm doing problems on the board for them a couple times a week to make sure they retain it. The other thing is that I want to make sure they know how to do it on paper as well as on the website. For some things, like carrying in addition, they have a little box that pops up and prompts them to carry the number, so I want to make sure they know what to do with it without that box there. Overall, I don't have complaints about CTC. The lessons are short and to the point, and math usually takes less than 15 minutes, which is incredible. And it's not for lack of instruction-they're both on grade 2 and learning multiplication right now, with division coming up in the next unit. The short and concise lessons have really eliminated a lot of math frustration for all of us this year, and I feel like they're getting the concepts down a lot better than when it was over explained in an hour long less, so CTC has been a huge blessing and success this year and we'll definitely keep using it! 

My girls have done typing and handwriting as well this year. Typing we are sporadic about...I'm kind of just letting them do it when they want to. They're definitely getting the hang of it, but I know it'll take a few years to really solidify. I'm glad they're getting the foundation and figuring out how the keyboard works. Handwriting is going well this year, and we are using level 2 of The Good & The Beautiful handwriting. They love that there is an activity or picture to do each day to go with the handwriting practice...that makes it a little bit more exciting! I can't believe they'll be learning cursive already next year!

Overall, this year has been really great and I can't believe we're already almost in our 4th quarter! Each year homeschooling just seems to go faster and faster. I'm grateful to be able to teach my girls and that this year has been a huge year of growth for them emotionally, spiritually and academically. 

May 2019 Recap

May is always a good month around here! The weather is generally really nice, and there are so many fun things happening to wrap up the school year!

We had some really great last few days of school...

The girls had a music performance (which my pictures didn't turn out good because of the dark lighting) and an art show after the concert!

We started adventuring outdoors!

We got to go to a free baseball game, courtesy of my husband's work. The weather was PERFECT! So glad we went then, instead of in July!

My middle lost her first tooth!!!

Pre-recital rehearsals were in full force for the month!

We celebrated Mother's Day with church, a cozy day at home and a yummy dinner cooked by my husband and the kids!

We finished up our school year-Kindergarten & 1st grade in the books!

The boys had an adorable end of the year preschool program!

We had dance pictures (seriously, how adorable?!)

We took a road trip to Nebraska over Memorial Day for my niece's 6th birthday! She had a party at The Amazing Pizza Machine which is like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids (but seriously) and my kids LOVE it.

My husband spent a good chunk of the month working on putting stairs on our deck, which I have no in progress photos of, but it was a ton of work and time! He also got kind of seriously injured which I do have some gnarly pictures of, but I'll spare you ;) 

The boys finished up their 3/4 year old preschool year and their 2nd and last year in that program! Bittersweet.

We had an end of the year picnic for our homeschool classes and celebrated the retirement of the incredible woman who had been leading that program for decades!

We ate many, many meals out on the deck before it got too hot and too buggy!

And we wrapped up the month with our first fire pit date night of the season.

May was a busy, full, fun month! 

Homeschool Day in the Life

This year (2019-2020) we have made more of an effort to actually start school around the same time each day (9:00), which most days means I have to wake at least one of my kids up in order for them to get breakfast eaten and some morning "chores" done before we begin school. This is the first year I've cared what time we start (years past we have always just started when everyone was up and ready) and it has helped a lot with routine! However, this day does not reflect that. I did let some kids sleep in this day because they have had a busy few days, so we got started around 10 instead. But this is what a normal homeschool morning looks like for us this year! My girls are in 1st and 2nd grade, and my boys are 4 years old. (All of our curriculum for this year can be found in this post...I'm not going to link them all here!) 

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

9:15- Breakfast. After breakfast the kids get going on their morning checklists, which have things like unloading the dishwasher, making beds, getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc. This helps them get themselves and the house ready for the day. They can do most of this on their own (I do everyone's hair and my boys need help brushing their teeth and getting shirts down). They can generally get everything done in about 20 minutes.

9:45-While the kids are finishing up their check lists, I remember that I need to get the slow cooker going for dinner because we have dance tonight, so I get that ready, then clean up the kitchen after breakfast once the dishwasher is unloaded and everyone is out of the kitchen. 

10:05- Finally starting school. We start with Bible. Today is our "lesson" day for the week which is the day where we really dig into the Bible for more insight on the answer to that week's catechism question. This week the question is "What does the law of God require?" We do the lesson, read in the Bible together, and have a short discussion answering some questions that came up as we read and talked. 

10:30- Science! We are rotating history & science this year and are currently on a science unit about pumpkins that has been a lot of fun. Today's plan is to make this "look inside a pumpkin" craft. I don't do a lot of crafts in my homeschool because I don't love them, I don't like the mess, and my kids all get crafts/art at school so I don't feel the need to. So this isn't the norm for us, but it was part of the unit and I decided it would be fun, and it would be good for me to stretch myself ;)

 During this time I am bouncing around from kid to kid helping with cutting & gluing where need be, and giving instructions. I feel like I do more than half the work (which is why I don't love crafts at this age), but the finished products are cute and the kids all learned a little more about pumpkins so it was worth it! 

11:00- Read Aloud & Handwriting. We are reading Little House in the Big Woods right now. Read aloud time is pretty short today because we need to get moving since we started late. We read about a chapter while the girls work on handwriting. My boys are playing at this point. 

11:15- Language Arts. My oldest sets a 20 minute timer for reading time, and her brother joins her, so she is reading aloud to him, which is fine with me. She'll also work on spelling independently.

 I work with my middle during this time on her spelling, sight words, phonics (takes 5-10 minutes total for all of those....just quick review) and then move onto her course book. It is a fairly short lesson today with mostly reading and she's a very fast reader so we fly through it pretty easily. 

11:40- We swap. They don't always finish up at the same time, but it's usually pretty close. So now my middle is working on her independent reading and spelling, and I'm working with my oldest on spelling, sight words, phonics & course book (same lesson). 

12:05- My oldest moves on to math while my middle is just finishing up her last bit of spelling. Math is on the computer this year, so they watch the lesson on their own, and ask if they need my help during questions. Sometimes I sit with them if I know it's a harder concept. Today, I have a phone call at 1:00 so I need to get lunch going early, so I head upstairs to fix lunch for myself and the girls (the boys eat at school). 

12:10-My middle gets done with language arts, and wants to get her math done (aka not wait for the desktop) so I let her do math upstairs on my laptop while I cook. I am making scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast. I decided that it always takes too long to fix for breakfast (we need fast & easy in the morning), so we've been having it for lunch sometimes instead. 

12:20- I'm done cooking and my oldest has just finished up math so she is playing with her brothers. I scarf my food and ask the girls if they want to eat, or wait until we get home. They both want to wait. My middle finishes up her math and then joins in on the playtime for a few minutes. 

12:30-My boys get ready to go to school. They go to the bathroom, grab their backpacks and coats, get their shoes on and load up in the van and we are off! 

12:45- We return home from dropping off the boys and the girls sit down to lunch while I prepare for my phone call. And that's our homeschool day! We skipped typing today since we were running behind, but they'll usually do that after math. We've really streamlined our schedule this year, I feel like. The girls are staying more on task, need less breaks, and we've figured out a schedule for subjects that flows better than years past, so it's working out great! Occasionally the girls are not finished up with their work by the time we need to leave to take the boys to school, and in that case they need to finish after we get home. I am usually cooking lunch at that time, so they'll bring it up to the dining room and work on whatever they're finishing (usually just math, but sometimes some reading too). That happens usually less than once per week, though. 

That's it! We spend the afternoon having some quiet time for the girls, I work on some things around the house after my phone call, and then onto dinner and dance!