We are most definitely homeschooling again this year. I had some thoughts before all the craziness happened of sending a couple to school, but we are back to homeschool now. I plan to start some of our school next week and ease back into it. It’s been so hot lately so it’s time to go ahead and get started.
If you care to look back, you can see what we used in the 2015-2016 year here or in the 2016-2017 school year here. 2017-2018 can be found here. 2018-2019 can be found here. Last year 2019-2020 can be found here.
This upcoming school year, I will have an 11th/12th grader, 8th grader, 5th grader, 4th grader and a pre-K/Kindergartener. When I mention half grades, it’s because they are smack dab in the middle of the two. That is the joy of homeschooling. We can speed up or slow down as needed depending on schedules, learning styles, etc. My oldest has an early August birthday so if she were in public school, she could be either the oldest or youngest of her grade, depending on how we moved forward. I think we aim to graduate her in December of 2021 so she will be 18 at graduation.
My youngest has an early September birthday. Many pre-K things are too young for him, but some Kindergarten things are too advanced. He’s right smack in the middle. We are going to proceed forward with him but will back off as needed throughout the year.
Math:
All 3 middle kids are going to use an online program, Teaching Textbooks this year. Honestly, it’s not one of my favorite curriculums, but it’s needed this year since I will have my hands full teaching my youngest to read. This program automatically teaches math skills and grades instantly. I will be supplementing them with a program called Prodigy. They absolutely love this game. They complete math questions in order to gain items and fight evil in the imaginary world.
My youngest will probably start Horizons Math later this year depending on how school is going for him. All of my kids have started off using Horizons Math.
We are also continuing with XtraMath.org for the 4th and 5th graders. I can’t say enough great things about this website! It’s a completely free way to make sure your kids understand all of their math facts. As a mom, I can login and see how they are doing as well and what needs improvement.
For my oldest, we will continue with Math-U-See to finish Algebra 2 and then she will be moving on to Stewardship. That is a consumer math program.
Language Arts:
We are continuing Building Spelling Skills for the middle 3 to work on spelling.
My youngest will continue with Explode the Code.
My youngest will also continue Reading Kingdom about 2-3 times a week. You can get a FREE month here. We tried it out for a review and several of my other kids have completed this program in previous years.
We will be using A Reason For Handwriting (various levels) with the younger three kids as well.
Easy Grammar will be used with most of the kids to cover Grammar topics.
Bible:
As a family, we are going to be working through Who is My Neighbor? from Apologia. My middle 3 will have workbooks to go along with the program. From the website, this textbook focuses on the questions:
- Does Anyone Really Need Me?
- How Can I make a Difference?
- Who is my Neighbor?
- Why did God Make Families?
- What Can I Do for my Country?
- Why Can’t we all just Get Along?
- Who is God’s Family?
- Why Does the Church Need Me?
I felt that this year was a great year to cover loving our neighbors.
Social Studies:
We will continue to pull from Allinonehomeschool.com for the middle three and of course the vast variety of books at the library.
Science:
I will be using Apologia’s Anatomy with the middle three. I really like Apologia’s sciences! We had a lot of fun with their Zoology last year.
Electives and Extracurriculars:
My 8th grader is going to get a jump start on his high school courses by starting Apologia’s Health and Nutrition course. We used this with my oldest and we liked how it flowed.
Other than that we are going to work on some online drawing classes and develop some hobbies this year instead of doing a lot of activities outside the house. It will be a little bit crazy around here now that we will have FIVE students this year!!
Final Thoughts:
If you are new to homeschooling this year, know that it is doable! If cost is prohibitive for your family, consider Allinonehomeschool.com, which is a completely FREE homeschool curriculum! Have a great year!
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