A Feast For The New School Year
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There is another year ahead of us! This is my twentieth year home educating my kiddos and my smallest class in 12 years, lol! It is a little strange, a little bitter sweet, but so full of goodness. I have only my three youngest girls left in my home school spread out from first grade through ninth. Not everyone is out of the nest but they are definitely out of my schoolroom. One of my favorite things about a smaller crew is the greater freedom to tailor each girl’s curriculum. So let’s jump in, shall we?
What we do all together
Morning Time, of course! This year our Morning Time is not as rich as I would like it to be due to some family circumstance, but we are making it work.
Faith
We pray all together, followed by catechesis. This year we are using Parables and Virtus from Into The Deep. So far we have started on the Parables; it has been the perfect back to school rhythm. Light enough to be able to linger into each parable but solid enough that we are all benefitting from it no matter the age. Virtus contains a lot of art, poetry and music that will be our source for the arts this year. Daily.
A Daily Picture Book
Of course! I always prepare the booklists with my girls in mind. This is truly our favorite time of the day, even the new high schooler enjoys a great picture book. All the activities are tailored to each child’s ability. Meaning some activities might be unsuitable for the very youngest but in general they are doable from 0 to 100 years old ;). Daily.
Read Aloud
Another favorite part of our day. All of our read aloud books are chosen based on the historical cycle we are in or, as is the case for this year, on our whim! We finished Tom Sawyer, started last year and have now dived into Carry On, Mr. Bowditch! Everyone is truly enjoying it! I have to say that I should not have done Tom Sawyer with my 6yo, it has definitely raised her anxieties at bedtime, but the other girls have finished it on their own and greatly enjoyed it. Daily.
Handicrafts
I have chosen read alouds easy to find as audiobooks from the library via Hoopla or Libby. I needed to carve some handcrafting time for myself as well as for my girls. Currently drawing and knitting are in the forefront. It is so lovely to have time to pick up my handicraft alongside my girls. Daily.
Nature
We are loving the National Park Scouts podcast for our nature study this year. Each of us has a US map to log the National Park we are discovering and a Nature Journal to record what we have learned. The podcasts are usually pretty short, about 15 minutes, giving us plenty of time for Nature Journaling. I try to behave and not add too much around this study to keep it simple, but The US National Parks book is definitely sitting front and center on the coffee table. (Link to this fabulous book’s Picture Book Exploration here). We only get to this on days no one has to leave home for a reason or another.
Logic
We have The Fallacy Detective sitting on the school shelf waiting patiently for me to have enough time to crack it open and read from it, lol! My original plan was to alternate with National Park Scouts, but we are loving National Park Scouts too much to alternate, lol! But we will get to it in due time.
And now for each feast
Kindergarten/First Grade
This is all one on one time with my youngest and we both greatly enjoy it! I always forget how fun it is to teach new things to little people. They are always so amazed at what I take for granted. So refreshing!
Faith
We read daily from a chapter from her picture book Bible The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones. These are not my favorite illustrations and it seems the text goes a little too fast but it is HER Bible therefore she is very enthusiastic about reading it. We’ll fill the blanks later, especially during Advent.
Read Aloud
We are making our way through the Book House books and we are currently reading Book 6: Through Fairy Halls. The stories are getting much longer so I usually read about 10 pages at a time.
Poetry
We are using Sing-Song by Christina Rossetti. I let her choose the poem, we slowly learn it by heart (1 to 2 lines at a time). Once she knows it by heart I type it with a dot font for her so that she may copy it. I also include space for an illustration.
Language Arts
We are finishing her book from last year: Little Sprout PreK from Harbor + Sprout.We have both really enjoyed it so far and will be moving to the Kindergarten Curriculum as soon as we finish her books. I also supplement with Jot It Down from Brave Writer and I still need to decide on a handwriting curriculum, probably The Good and the Beautiful.
Mathematics
We are finishing her book from last year: Little Sprout PreK from Harbor + Sprout. I supplement this as well with ideas from Jot It Down from Brave Writer and Playful Learning by Mariah Bruel as well as Anno’s Math Games books.
Co-op
At our weekly co-op she will be taking a PE class, Dance and Movement class, Nature Study class and The Good and The Beautiful class, which is a class centered on the arts (music, poetry and visual arts). This rounds up a very full kindergarten and first grade year 🙂
7th Grade
My current 7th grader struggles with reading and spelling but excels in math so we are doing a blend of independent school work and quite a bit still with Mom.
Mathematics
Saxon Math, a very generous friend tutors both my older girls in math and it has been wonderful! And a huge relief for me.
Reading
All About Reading is our spine, so to speak. She also has to do 15 minutes of independent reading a day and 15 minutes of read aloud to me daily. Slowly but surely the progress is becoming more and more apparent! I can now do some handwork while she reads to me rather than having to follow alongside her.
Language Arts
- One project a month from Faltering Ownership (now Building Confidence) from Brave Writer. I really do love these projects. They are a wonderful launching pad for young writers.
- All About Spelling for spelling.
- EdClub for typing
Sciences
She is following Jen Mackintosh’s Simple Machine plan and she is loving it! Thanks again Jen!
History
We are working our way through the end of the Renaissance and the beginnings of American history with Genevieve Foster and The World of Captain John Smith. She has to keep a journal, timeline and map of the events she read about.
Co-op
At our weekly co-op she will be taking an art class, biology and lab class, US geography class and she will be part of the play production team.
9th Grade
My ninth grader is completely independent except for what we do together as a family. Of course I am always available to her and we review her work together daily.
Mathematics
Reading and history
We are trying something a little different this year. I could not find a curriculum that interested her (or me) sufficiently for Twentieth century history so we built our own (as one does). It is a literature based curriculum. We have selected several fiction and non-fiction novels that cover the major milestones of the twentieth century. She reads at her own pace and keeps a journal with a timeline and map as well.
Geography
She is reading the Royal Road to Romance by Richard Halliburton. This is a classic and a wonderful way to explore the world! Richard Halliburton travelled through the world, on his own in a vagabond way in the 1920s, his travel journal published in 1925 is a not to be missed geography tour! She has to maintain her own travel journals filled with maps and illustrations as well as comments on what she is discovering.
Typing
Co-op
At our weekly co-op she will be taking an art class, biology and lab class which will cover her high school science for the year, IEW US history, covering her language arts requirement and martial arts.
All in all a full year all around, filled with an appetizing feast for each.
What feast have you spread on your children’s table this year?
Love,
Mattie
